The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950 Page: 92

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Texas tough towns, to the Big Bend area and to the roughest of
border areas. For a period he was chief of police in El Paso.
John Wesley Hardin, Bronco Bill Walters and lesser bad men
were met without discredit. Milton's activities, however, extended
further. For example, in 1904 he was assigned to the task of help-
ing stem the illegal entry of Chinese into this country via Mexico,
and in 1919 he was assigned to guard Emma Goldman and a
group of alien radicals deported by the government.
Rich in anecdotal material, well-written and documented, the
new Haley book casts further light on early western turbulence.
Enhancing the appeal of Jeff Milton: A Good Man With A Gun
are photographs of the subject taken at various stages of his career,
illustrations by Harold D. Bugbee, and the customary fine print-
ing job done by the issuing press.
CLAY BAILEY
Dallas Times Herald
No Man's Land. By Carl Coke Rister. Norman (The University
of Oklahoma Press), 1948. Pp. xi+2io. Map, illustrations,
and bibliography. $3.oo.
Regional history usually furnishes tedious reading. The per-
sonalities who wander in and out of the pages of such a study
are frequently obscure and their achievements are insignificant
when measured in the scales of national happenings. The reader
knows too little of them in advance to condition his interest-
he must keep whipping his mind to recall the well-nigh anony-
mous "John Smiths" introduced as men of importance on the
limited stage. Only as the village-Hampdens and mute, inglorious
Miltons serve as prototypes and symbols does their chronicle take
on more than local cogency.
But once this general objection is accepted, it is a joy to say
that Carl Rister's No Man's Land is almost a model study in
regional history. Adequate research and deft literary craftsman-
ship have been combined to produce a fine account of the set-
tlement of the area today called the Oklahoma Panhandle. By
not choosing to claim more for the activities of his people than
they deserved, the author has maintained a perspective which
may well serve as a guide for other historians.