The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 532

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

once been "a very lively person," and because they "can never
see the prairies of America in their wild uncivilized state, or
hunt buffalo over them, nor can they pow-wow with the Red
Indians in a camp on the Platte River." Having been reared in
an elegant and aristocratic manner in western New York, the
author detested having to associate with the common people, but
she could "rough it" all day on the hunting grounds or the cattle
range and sleep on flea-infested buffalo robes as the Indians did,
without a word of complaint.
Mrs. Adair's itinerary was via Delmonico's in New York City,
a popular resort in the Berkshire hills, the Palmer House in
Chicago, the lumber-mills and iron-works along the banks of Lake
Michigan and Lake Superior, and an unpleasant boat trip from
Marquette to Duluth. From Duluth she traveled by rail to St. Paul,
by steamboat from there to Clinton, and then by train to the
buffalo range in the valley of the Platte River in Nebraska. After
visiting with the Indians and an unsuccessful hunt, Mrs. Adair
and her husband journeyed to Denver, Central City, and
Colorado Springs before returning to Ireland via Topeka, St.
Louis, and New York. Each day of the entire trip, with very few
exceptions, Mrs. Adair penned her innumerable observations and
comments with meticulous care. She described the ships and
the trains on which she rode, the hotels and tents in which she
slept, the food she ate, the manners, dress, and conversations of
the people she met, the country she saw, the weather she ex-
perienced, and the Indians she visited.
Except for a shorter time span, the diary is reminiscent of and
comparable to Frances Trollope's classic description of American
life. It will be a worthy addition to any library on American
history.
Texas Technological College ERNEST WALLACE
John Selman, Texas Gunfighter. By Leon Claire Metz. New
York (Hastings House, Publishers), 1966. Pp. 254. Illustra-
tions, notes, bibliography, index. $6.95.
John Henry Selman, the slayer of John Wesley Hardin, is de-
scribed by his present biographer as "the least-written-about

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