The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 501

Book Revzews

The major weakness of the book is Alice's failure to comment upon
some of the significant historic events that were occurring around her.
The reason for this may have been her preoccupation with the health
and education of her children, particularly with two sons who suffered
from mental ailments. Such family matters often required her to travel
to Illinois for long visits while campaigns were occurring around the
forts. Shirley Leckie's linking text, however, takes care of most of these
omissions, so that we have not only one woman's close-up view of mili-
tary life on the frontier, but also a useful addition to the history of
those bygone times and places.
Little Rock, Arkansas DEE A. BROWN
You Meet Such Interesting People. By Bess Whitehead Scott. (College Sta-
tion: Texas A&M University Press, 1989. Pp. xi+ 195. Preface, il-
lustrations, index. $18.95.)
Bess Whitehead Scott's forty-five-year career in communications pro-
vides the background for her new book, You Meet Such Interesting People.
More than an autobiography, this reminiscence serves as a vehicle for
Scott to reflect on the many different people she has known and the
varied experiences-good and bad-she has enjoyed during her
ninety-eight years. Scott was born near Blanket, Texas, in 189o. Her
father died when she was young leaving her mother to raise eight chil-
dren on the family farm. As a child, Scott's own life was threatened
after an attack of measles and two mastoid operations that left her with
a hearing impairment. Her years in college, at Baylor Female College
in Belton and Baylor University in Waco, strengthened her already
feisty character.
While describing her life as typical, Scott obviously is an extrordinary
person. She became the first woman reporter on the city side for the
Houston Post in 1915 and later rejected one marriage proposal in def-
erence to her career. She did not shy away from new challenges, in-
stead at several times left a successful job to pursue a new opportunity.
Scott downplays any aspects of discrimination that she might have en-
countered. She notes the inequity of pay but does not sound bitter.
These experiences are not what one might expect of a woman in a
male-dominated environment.
At times the text is difficult to follow because the author was selective
about the information she included. Even though her life is recreated
in a roughly chronological order, the continuing significance of some
people is not discussed. For example, her mother and her sister Eliza-
beth, who figure prominently in the early chapters, almost completely

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