Chronicles of the Old West
If I was to write a book about the Wild West the cover would look something like this and it would contain all kinds of stories from the sublime to the ridiculous. There’s many a tall tale that originated there that seem perhaps a little too tall, but, it turns out that some of the best stories are entirely true.
Take Poker Alice who was originally from England but ended up moving to the US. By all accounts she always carried a gun and smoked a cigar and was known as something of a card sharp who dressed well, looked good and would as soon as take all your money off you as look at you. You know you’ve got it made when you’re christened with a nickname like ‘Poker Alice’.
Or, even better, the story of Elfego Baca who supposedly defended a small hut in which he’d taken refuge from between 40 – 80 men (the number is somewhat under dispute). ‘The Frisco shootout’ as it became known went down in legend as Elfego successfully defended the shack against the men for over 33 hours. The attackers fired between 1000 – 4000 shots at the hut and didn’t hit Elfego once. Although he managed to kill 4 attackers and wound 8 others he was eventually persuaded to surrender. The door from the hut was used as evidence in his trial – and it had over 400 bullet holes in it!
I could go on but we’ll leave it at that for now. You’ll have to wait until I actually get round to writing the accompanying book to find out any more…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Chronicles of the Old West
Materials: Paint pen, watercolour, spray paint, acrylic, pencil, pastel and charcoal
Size: A4
thisisidiom.wordpress.com 