The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 622

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

confronted skunks in the house, fleas in her bed, and a rattlesnake in the wood-
pile, but these intruders were dispatched with good humor.
Perry noted details of her experiences, whether she was accompanying a doc-
tor making his rounds in mining camps, performing mundane household
duties, enjoying a holiday picnic, taking a two-week camping tour through
Yellowstone, or visiting family and friends. She listed details of food served on
most occasions. She recorded the names of the family's mules and horses. She
called both the coyotes' howls and the river's murmur at Yellowstone "music"
(pp. 66, 104), but lamented the swarms of mosquitoes and the bears prowling
through camps.
For contrast and to expand upon some of Perry's observations, Teichmann
includes descriptive essays from the journals of both Perry's niece, Anne Louise
Spicer (1896-1990), and Perry's Ochiltree County friend, Louisa Lucelia
Whippo Bates Teas (1856-1950). The Spicer excerpts, included in an appen-
dix, reflect similarities between the observations and writing styles of Spicer and
her aunt. Spicer's vivid descriptions of railroad camps and crews portray the
harsh racial prejudices of the era while her poetry celebrates the Panhandle sky
where "universal harmony leans close" (p. 172). The Teas entries appear in
lengthy, italicized chapter notes which complement and sometimes broaden
Perry's journal observations. For example, when she first arrived in 1888, Perry
sketched her brother's sod house and wrote a detailed description. Teas
explains in her journal the construction of her family's sod house and elaborates
on sod dwelling disadvantages. In an interesting juxtaposition, the details of
Perry's first meeting with Teas in 1888 are found in both the Perry journal and
the Texas journal. Teas observed that Perry was "sensible, friendly and full of
fun" (p. 180).
Teichmann appropriately and respectfully presents these writings "for what
they are" (p. 9) without literary or historical criticism. These journals stand on
their own merit and provide important insights from a woman's perspective into
the lives and ideas of early Texas Panhandle settlers.
Baylor College of Medzczne Archives JoAnn Pospisil
Gendered Justice in the American West: Women Prisoners in Men's Penztentianes. By
Anne M. Butler. (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Pp. xvii+
261. Abbreviations, preface, introduction, conclusion, selected bibliogra-
phy, index. ISBN 0-252-02281-5. $29,95, cloth.)
In a well-written and researched book, Anne M. Butler tackles the issues of
gender and violence in the American West. Traditionally, western studies on vio-
lence have not included the impact or role that violence plays in women's lives.
Instead writers and historians have created a romanticized image of western vio-
lence that includes only the "lone gunfighter, the reckless cowboy, [and] the
itinerant bandit," but not women (p. 6). Butler moves beyond this romanticized
image and studies the relationship between violence and gender. She argues that
women involved in violent crimes faced harsher jail sentences and difficult incar-

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