The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 105

Book Reviews

Fork and its south bank to be the true northern boundary of Texas below
the i ooth meridian. His writing generally lacks interpretation and is not
exciting reading, but the book is well written and documented. A serious
defect is the omission of a bibliography and an index. Nevertheless, Welborn
rightly concludes that the dispute over that portion of the boundary along
the i ooth meridian and the Red River "became one of the most noted boun-
dary disputes in the history of the United States" (p. 107), and he per-
forms a service to students of the subject and the region in tracing the
various episodes of the controversy as they unfolded.
Sul Ross State University EARL H. ELAM
Josephine Clardy Fox: Traveler, Opera-Goer, Collector of Art, Benefactor.
By Ruby Burns. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1973. Pp. xvi+I43.
Illustrations, index. $ o.)
This is an unhappy book-not in quality, for it is well written and attrac-
tively designed by Carl Hertzog. It is unhappy because it portrays a lonely
person. Josephine Clardy Fox was born in Liberty Township, Missouri, in
the summer of 1881. Her parents moved to El Paso about a year later,
where her father purchased a great deal of property. In many ways Jose-
phine Clardy developed into the ideal American woman by turn-of-the-
century standards. She grew up in affluence, happy and protected by indul-
gent parents. She graduated from a St. Louis finishing school, where she
deepened her love for music and drama and blossomed into a real beauty.
Life for her had an almost dreamlike quality, consisting mainly of fittings
at the dressmaker's, shopping excursions, selecting pretty hats and things,
and gay social occasions. She studied voice in California and New York
and spent a Henry James-like year abroad with her mother. She loved the
world of opera, theater, fine restaurants, and luxurious hotels and was sur-
rounded by a throng of handsome admirers.
At thirty-five she married railroad executive Eugene Fox, after an eleven-
year courtship, although she remained more attached to her mother. Eugene
traveled much during their life together, while Josephine's mother lived
with them and was her constant companion, helping her daughter fill their
El Paso home with art treasures, going with her each summer to the West
Coast to escape the Texas heat. Although the Clardy-Fox fortune had its
ups and downs, for the most part Josephine enjoyed a life of luxury, pam-
pered by servants, looked after by her mother and husband. In the process
she was given little room to mature and came increasingly to lapse into
fantasy, substituting the material for love and intimacy. She had neither

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