Saw this, looked at what I thought was an oar, and then got the First Reader’s attention. “What the H*ll is that thing?” He knew, and it’s an interesting concept, a stocked pistol, which gave the carrier a repeater which wasn’t an option for a rifle at the time. He was telling me Ned Buntline gave a set of them, had them made, for five lawmakers who’d helped him with his stories. Buntline was a dime novelist. Pretty nice thank-you gift.

Photo by Old NFO at the Texas Ranger Museum
Photo by Old NFO at the Texas Ranger Museum

I’d really love to go to the Texas Ranger museum some day. You can click on the picture to go to the Old NFO’s blog, where I snagged it from.

And on a whole different note, although I suppose it could be considered a frontier of sorts, there’s this: “As I go through boxes from the Hevelin Collection filled mainly so far with pulps I’m tracking a number of subjects, writers, and editorial moves designed to shape readers into fans.  But, sometimes I simply come across an issue of Weird Tales, Astounding, Amazing, Startling Stories, Argosy, etc. that strikes me as interesting in its entirety for the window it provides to the development of science fiction at a particular moment and in particular circumstances.”

amazing stories

 

I don’t know what the girl is wearing, but she’s able to shoot around corners, it looks like.

Superb detail in this illustration.
Superb detail in this illustration.
This one evokes Hieronymous Bosch...
This one evokes Hieronymous Bosch…