The one great rule We will serve no of composition is to group or party but will hew hard to the speak the truth. truth as we find it and the right as we —THOREAU The Texas Observer see it. An Independent-Liberal Weekly Newspaper

Vol. 51 TEXAS, JUNE n, 1959 10c per copy No. 12 ROY BEDICHEK —ever penetrated. It will be der on the ground instead of hav- a great deal easier to show ing to go in the house and empty The Natural Man Roy Bedichek in the simplic- it into a mechanical contrivance. ities of naturalness than to I've heard him say that some- Nature is the complex of express him in the natural- times in the obscurity of before- all complexities. One part of ness of the highest intellec- daylight he would dig a hole in a man may be as simple and tual and emotional complexi- the ground out in the yard near serene as the cow chewing ties. "the shack"—his study—and ex- her cud in the noonday shade His going to bed with the of a tree a thousand miles chickens in summertime and not and a hundred years away too much later in the wintertime J. Frank Dobie from any milking machine ; and getting up with the morning and yet the whole of this star at all times made his friends crete into it, covering the place same man may be as com- smile. He favored several kinds with dirt like a cat. It gave him plex as the genius of Shake- of independence common to the a satisfaction .Ao fertilize the speare—that is to say, the country. It did him good, he said, ground. He liked to cook outdoors, greatest genius in the world to walk out and empty his blad- eat outdoors, sleep outdoors, look and listen outdoors, be at one with the unexplaining wind from the south, with the swing of the ere id at fectoi Great Dipper around the North n Star, and with the first bob-whit- ing at dawn. He preferred camp- ing on a hill so that he could one Itiff man watch the firmament, rather than down in a shady valley by water. The last car he bought, in 1951, Two things are inextricably mixed : Bedichek himself and was a Dodge pickup truck in Bedichek as a symbol. which he could carry enough Some of us who never spent much time with him still water to make his camp on a more or less realized ourselves in him. He was what we hill comfortable for a day or two. tried to be : Artist, scholar, and primitive all in one. He must This pickup was for camp pur- have been well aware of this. There is a letter on the table poses, but he used it to run, about from my old-time roommate and blood brother Ted Thomp- in also, his wife owning a sedan. son— He got an immense satisfaction Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither ; out of trucking in cow manure, They had been fou for weeks thegither !— also occasionally chicken manure, telling of a debate that he and Mr. Bedi were having on a for his compost pile, with which familiar theme. Ted was contending that although there was he annually fertilized his garden. a real Socrates—a stonecutter who went barefoot in the He got a satisfaction out of haul- streets of Athens and disputed philosophy with all corners ing his own wood in from the and perhaps even drank all the others under the table at country; he liked especially ce- Agathon's banquet—the Socrates of the Dialogues is Plato's dar stumps that he wouldn't have idealized image of man as the lover of wisdom. to cut for the fireplace. He had —Neal Douglass Photo But it does not really matter. Maybe Plato overidealized complete camp equipment, in- Socrates and maybe we have overidealized Mr. Bedi. Even cluding a tent-fly to go with the Bedichek in his Tomato Patch so, we shall do better for loving the myth we ourselves have truck. Part of the equipment was helped to make no less than the man himself. a field guide to the flora of the I knew Mr. Bedi for years but because of time and chance country and a field guide to the I knew him better through Ted than by being with him my- birds. He always took along self. Only once did I spend a full day with him. That hap- something to read as well as to The respect of pened when I went to Austin to write a rather trivial news- consult; above all, he took along paper story about Frank Dobie. the most richly and variously The three of us went out to a little ranch that Mr. Frank stored mind I have known. Not had in Burnet County. He had offered to bet that one of the for him the dream of retiring to intelligent men' wild cherry trees growing along the creek was at least a foot some primitive land and mating in diameter. For Dobie, the claim was astonishingly modest. with "some savage woman" to This is a special issue on Roy sion of greatness it inspires." To The three of us measured his tree and found that, it was rear his dusky race. For him Bedichek, who died May 21 at the t h e league's competitions in more than two feet in diameter. We hunted for flint chips on back to nature was not back to age of 80. sports, speech, music, and writ- the creek flat—one bunch of Indians or another left flakes the primitive, there to be saved He was born in Illinois in 1878 ing he gave most of his life. on nearly every creek flat in the whole Edwards Plateau from "poring over miserable and brought to Texas at five by Along the way he became a country—but we found only two chips of flint and one spent books." his teacher parents, who tutored naturalist, a camper, a gardener, .30-30 bullet. him until he entered the Univer- and an intellectual steeped in the We watched two birds having a fight. Mr. Frank and I IS FATHER, James Madison sity of Texas. classics. With $5,000 from the knew that one of them was a scissor-tailed flycatcher but H Bedichek, an ex-Confederate For 15 years after college he Texas Historical Society and Mr. Bedi had to explain that the other one was a cowbird soldier, quoted philosophers and bummed around the country and sanctuary at Walter Webb's Fri- and she was trying to lay an egg in the flycatcher's nest. talked philosophy at the family the world. He picked cotton in day Mountain camp in his late And I blew a dog-calling horn that was hanging on the back dining table. He proved up on a the South, peeled potatoes on. a sixties he began to write his porch of the house, just to see if it would really blow. It quarter-section of land near the river boat, picked berries in New books. In the last dozen years of would. village of Eddy, not far from Jersey, washed dishes in a Chi- his life he completed four of But the thing I remember best is watching Mr. Bedi wash Waco in central Texas. Here he nese cafe in New York City, them: Adventures with a. Texas the dishes after we ate dinner and took a nap. This is a and his wife ran what they called tramped over the English, French Naturalist (Doubleday 1947), Ka- simple act. Millions of people, mostly women, wash the the Eddy Scientific and Literary and German countrysides, as- rankaway Country (Doubleday dishes every day. But it is not often that you see an artist, a Institute, dubbed the Bedichek sisted a fake divine in Boston, 1950), Educational Competition scholar, a naturalist, and a teacher of young men wash the School by the public. Mrs. Bedi- dug coal and scouted rivers in (University of Texas 1956), and a dishes. chek boarded and roomed some West Virginia, cut off hogs' book on smells, publication pend- Knowing how to do the simple things has got to be a sort of the pupils. Roy's aptitude for heads in a Chicago slaughter- ing. of desperate, lost-soul cult with me in the past few years : books was as congenital as that house, and homesteaded a dugout About 11:30 on the Thursday How to use an axe, a shovel, and a hoe ; how to call the dogs for milk. The atmosphere of lit- in Oklahoma. morning of May 21 he asked Mrs. with blowing horn ; how to climb the tree and kick the coon erature and of thought was as Mrs. Bedichek says he had Bedichek for his lunch a . little out ; how to build a fire with one match in the middle of a natural to him as the atmosphere "lots of yella hair, and green early as he was excursioning into thunderstorm. in which a lone buzzard soars eyes with lots of spots in them." the country. "I've got some So I watched Mr. Bedi wash the dishes and I thought, over a cedar-covered hill or in With a wife and children, he corn bread almost done, you want without ever saying so : There is at least one full man left in which a coyote trots through the worked as editor of a newspaper to wait?" she asked. "0 I'll wait," the world. He writes books, he reads Plato, he can name all mesquite, sniffing for a woodrat's in Deming, New Mexico, secre- he said, sitting on a stool. "I need the birds without a gun, he loves poetry, and he loves the trail. I would not call his taste tary of the Deming chamber of Southern corn bread." woods, the prairies, the seashore ; the hawk in the wind ; the exactly austere. He took pleasure commerce, and city editor of the "Six breaths it was over," Mrs. blue, blue gentians blooming at the foot of the slope ; the in witty limericks, even though San Antonio Express. Bedichek says. "How could he Pointers and the Pole Star and Orion, that have shown the bawdy; he could talk for hours Then as the director of the die in seconds when he had been way at night for so many thousands of hunters and sea- With some cedar-chopper whose University Interscholastic League so strong?" farers ; the campfire, with its light flickering on the leaves literary vocabulary was limited of Texas he began to affect the The Texas Senate resolved that of the trees. to the printing on a bottle of lives of millions of Texas chil- he was "known and loved by "For we are lovers of the beautiful," Pericles said in the Levi Garrett's Snuff. I've heard dren. Hold before the young, he thousands of Texas children and most famous of funeral speeches, "and yet with no loss of him say a dozen times that he said, "the same great theme of had the respect of intelligent manliness." HUBERT MEWHINNEY (Continued on Page 2) superior performance and the vi- men." `His ideal of a balanced life was Greek' (Continued from Page 1) tations and allusions in his books had a theory that the deeper one and then get out. They took had the added faculty, perhaps of could no longer read American and letters would show, the im- down into the earth a plant puts the drink, and it was good. "Well, a higher order, of always being fiction because it is so pallid and mortal essence of the Greeks its roots, the richer its fruit is. let's go," said Bedi. "That drink able to draw from memory any- insipid compared to the great was in his veins. He positively gloated in dilating makes me feel like a new man," thing related to a subject brought Russian fiction rammed to the on the mineral and other virtues Steger said, and "now the new It seemed to me that the phi- up by conversation or in his own breech with vitality: Turgenev, of pecans. He loved to mix a man has to have a drink.." I losophy of Henry George had a flow of thought. Sometimes he Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. He admit- green or a fruit salad and would never did ask Bedi if he joined more determining effect upon his had to restrain himself from ted Balzac into their company. linger long and lovingly in de- the new man. clogging his writing with allu- During a long span of his life he economic views than any other tailing his recipe for such. By the time I got to know him, sions and "decisions that had read the greater part of Shake- writing. Henry George advocated a single tax and did not consider In theory he was against doc- he wasn't smoking the pipe or from the time of King William speare about once every two come down." it just that an individual owner tors; I think he wrote considera- cigar he had once smoked. He years. took real solace in a bottle of of real estate should collect the bly on a book intended to expose Early in the summer of 1953 beer along in the evening or unearned increment given to it at least several sides of the med- Jess Akin of Austin decided to HE WALT WHITMAN that he ical profession—though he be- with a Mexican meal—but vir- by population and labor. Bedi- paint the . portraits of Bedichek, T knew by heart and had ob- tually never more than one. chek believed in the single tax Walter Webb, and myself. He sorbed into his very marrow was Along about 1954 or 1955 in the but would justify buying a piece had painted mine unsatisfactorily not the sentimentalized "good `Along with Whitman, middle of a terrible drouth dev- of land by saying. "It's better to and wanted to make another at- grey poet" but the tough poet of his favorite American au- astating much of Texas, I brought run with the hounds for your tempt. If a person is being por- democracy. "He is our greatest thor was Thoreau, acid, back about a dozen cases of Carta dinner than with the hare for trayed for his significance, every exponent of Democracy among with the wild taste, a Blanca beer from Monterrey, your life." effort should be made to make the poets," Bedi wrote me in a rebel.' Mexico. I had a devil of a time that significance appear on his letter. "The reached hand, bring- Immanuel Kant's categorical getting them past the customs ig- ing up the laggards—could there countenance while he is sitting imperative was his golden rule: lieved very much in. his doctor noramuses at Laredo. I had to be a more expressive phrase of for the painter. I volunteered to Do only as you would have others daughter, Mary Virginia Carroll. prove my right to pay duty on the true inwardness of Democ- do my best to keep Bedi's fea- do; or, act only as if you would He would quote an old proverb: beer just as beer dealers pay it. racy than that?" Along with tures illuminated while he was have the act become universal "A man's either a fool or his I hadn't more than got to Austin Whitman, his favorite American being painted. I knew that he law. The categorical imperative own physician after 40." He said and got a few bottles cooled writer was Thoreau, acid, with would do more talking than I. is contrary to the ways of greed that a sick man should have as than I called up Bedi. For awhile the wild taste, a rebel. Bedichek and lust; so was Bedichek. He I shared that Carta Blanca beer for he was just naturally a better much sense as a sick cow: she talker. I illuminated him for gloried in the influence that Tho- was as unenvying and as free with other people, especially quits eating and goes off and lies four half-days. After Akin was reau's "Civil Disobedience" had from greed and jealousy as any when Bedi was around. When down. through with Bedi, he took me on Gandhi and India and is still man could be. only two cases were left, I cut having over the world. Sometimes it didn't seem at all off everybody, including myself, on, and Bedi came to brighten me. We had eight conversations natural to me that Bedi should and saved it especially for Bedi- While he was writing Adven- IN THE EARLY 1920's he suf- be practical. He was a productive chek. Occasionally there might amounting to perhaps 30 hours in tures with a Texas Naturalist, or I fered from a rash caused, he less than two weeks. I can say gardener, as his table, his deep be two or three or half a dozen maybe it was Karankaway Coun- was told, from eating too much of Bedichek as Johnson said 'of freeze, and many a mess of veg- other men; I'd offer them what try, he made a habit of reading of high proteins, especially eggs. Burke: "That man draws out all etables he gave to friends they wanted to drink, and if they pages of Plato with his pre-dawn He became for the rest of his life my powers." Neither he nor I was Showed. Yet he put a kind of rit- wanted beer they had to take coffee. Plato helped start the day what Sam Houston called "a empty or exhausted when the ualism into gardening that farm- Schlitz (Bedi's second choice) or for him on a noble plane and put damned vegetarian." He was not er folks wouldn't and couldn't something else. Then I'd bring siaings came to an end. Sitting him into a creative mood. At this too rigid, however, to enjoy lati- and talking had become a kind of bother with. When I drove with out Bedi's bottle of Carta Blanca. time he would not wilt the tude upon occasion. As a guest him in his pickup I constantly He enjoyed that sort of petting. occupation with us. Several freshest part of the day with the he ate of the meat set before wondered how he made it times I thought I would make littlenesses and banalities of a him. He took the lead many a through the streets—but he al- notes on the subjects of our talk. morning newspaper. For no man time in getting a few men friends ways made it. II I did not. Naturally, we recurred writing a book has morning ever to go out in the country for a occasionally to the same themes been, to quote a 1945 note from meal and talk. There was always He liked raw milk, believed in Talker and —but without repeating. Now I Bedichek, a time to "stoke the a steak, and Bedi always in- its virtues for himself and his cannot recall a hundredth part furnace of indignation against sisted on cooking the steak over family. He had a contempt for Storyteller of what either said; if I could numerous - manifestations of Fas- coals. Nobody could cook it bet- boiled and chemically treated recall all, a book would be re- ter, and he was no slacker in cism in this country." He never milk, something taken out and As newspaperman, chamber of quired to hold it. Little of it was learned the Greek language, but eating his part of it. Cooking something else put in. For years meat over an open fire mitigated commerce exponent, and director trivial. It interested us, and that his ideal of a balanced life, of a he milked his own cow. There of the Interscholastic League of just proportion of the elements in his mind any "protein poison" were vacant lots not far distant was sufficient. it might have; at a hotel table Texas, Bedichek had done a vast that make up a human being. from the Bedichek home on East amount of hack work. Anybody Will Burges, lawyer of El Paso, was essentially Greek. In read- I've seen him dispose of an un- 23rd Street in Austin, where a who works for a living spends John Lomax, of cowboy song ing Homer, he compared several touched steak to somebody else cow could graze. The last cow he the majority of his energies in fame, and Roy Bedichek were translations. As hundreds of quo- who could eat a double one. He had, about 1932 or 1933, was a hack work. But though he was a the pithiest and vividest rela- four-gallon milker. She was very university man, specializing in tors of anecdotes about human gentle and very much devoted to the humanities, he had never beings they had encountered that the Bedicheks, but keeping a been deflected by the Ph. D. sys- I have known. Despite his rich cow and milking her became too tem into the inferiorities of liter- stores out of books, Bedichek in 'His kindly nature' much of a burden, and Bedi sold ature. He had spent a lifetime the course of conversations with her to a man out near Deep Eddy reading the best before he turned his peers drew more often from Those of us who saw Mr. Bedi- between George Bernard Shaw on West Sixth Street. This man author with seventy just over actual experience. He could make chek often knew his opinions, in- and Mrs. Patrick Campbell; to saw the cow being milked. Bedi the hill for him. While H. Y. Ben- any character that interested dependently formed and inde- Thucydides; to getting up at told him that she wouldn't give edict was President of the Uni- him fascinating. pendently expressed, on a great three in the morning; to friends milk unless she were treated, versity of Texas, I heard him say He told few stories except to variety of subjects. The futility whose humor or gaiety he en- gently and fed well. He got up at that Bedichek should be teaching reveal character, to bring out of trying to recapture his words joyed; to the 'shallow or the pro- 2 o'clock in the morning to lead literature. "Why not put him to some point, or to complement or the curves of his extraordi- found over the range of human her to the purchaser, thus avoid- teaching it?" I asked. "Because something else. Lots of times one narily mobile mouth as he spoke intercourse. ing the traffic. The purchaser every Ph. D. professor of English merry tale would call up an- is downright humiliating. I re- He was as often called philos- hadn't had her more than two or would have a colt if I did," he other. call very few instances of which opher as naturalist. "Philosopher three days before he complained replied. That was the truth! Saw- Boswell's life of Johnson is the I can report, "Bedi said ..." of life," I think when I remem- that the cow wasn't giving the dust never yearns toward vital- greatest biography in the world It could never be judged of ber these words: "Many things milk claimed for her. He wanted ity. Mr. Bedichek that "he wrote like that are true should never be his money back. Bedi went out because it records the best talk an angel but talked like poor said." His philosophy had a there. The cow was shrunken and' We all learn with wonder of that has ever been recorded. Poll." He wrote well; he talked homely quality, as in this, re- showed abuse. While the man the feats in, memory performed Bedichek often talked as well as as well over a wide expanse of collected by Edgar Kincaid: was away for a minute, his wife by the Macaulays of history, but Johnson talked—but he had no reading, experience, and reflec- "There is hope for a nation that told Bedi that her husband had I've never known anyone else in Boswell to record more than a tion. One time he admitted us to eats corn on the cob and thereby beaten the cow. Bedi felt like the flesh who held in memory so few snatches of his talk. beating the man but he left. He a secret of his good talk. "I al- exercises its teeth." precisely so much of what he had S PRESIDENT of the Texas ways try," he said, "to turn a didn't give him his money back When Mr. Bedichek was to be read as Roy Bedichek. He could A Institute of Letters, I had no- conversation to a subject I know either. Anybody who knew him along on a picnic I always made have produced a magnificent an- tice from judges of books pub- something about." I can see now would as soon expect apples to potato salad. Always, that is, af- thology of English poetry solely (Continued on Page 3) just how he looked when he said ter the first time, when he told fall up instead of down as for out of his memory—as rich as that. Afterward it was fun to me, "All you need to do to get him to misrepresent a fact. Lord Wavell drew from his mem- THE TEXAS OBSERVER watch him turn a conversation into Heaven is to take along a ory in Other Men's Flowers. He Page 2 June 27, 1959 gently and adroitly, to a subject bowl of potato salad and then IN THE VIGOR of early man- that interested him—to bulldoz- when Saint Peter opens the gate I hood Bedi drank some whis- ing trees out of sites they had hold out a spoonful for him to key—maybe not too much—al- held for centuries; to the super- sample and promise him the though after he married any iority in appeal of wild flowers whole bowl if he lets you in." drinking was bad economically. I over cultivated ones, all except Next to the last time I saw Mr. don't think he ever loved any THE TEXAS OBSERVER roses; to the importance to health Bedichek was at the Town and man quite so much as he loved 10 of food grown with organic fer- Gown spring picnic. From down his college friend Harry Ste- Published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd. EDITORIAL and BUSINESS OFFICE: tilizer; to the martins living in a Entered as second-class matter, April 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone one of the long tables a scrap of ger, with whom he went to Eur- 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, GReenwood 7-0746. box he put up for them; to the talk drifted up to me. Someone ope and who died young. He Texas. under the Act of March 3, 1879. HOUSTON OFFICE: 1010 Dennis, Mrs. arrival and departure times of said of the caterer's potato salad, cried all day long, so Mrs. Bedi- R. D. Randolph. the swifts that fill our summer "It's very gold." "Nothing like chek has told me, after receiving We will serve no group or party but Ronnie Dugger will hew hard to the truth as we find it and skies with sound and movement; so good as Mrs. Dobie's," word of Steger's death. One of Editor and General Manager the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the advantages of a vegetable Bedichek assured her. Actually his favorite anecdotes was of Larry Goodwyn, Associate Editor to the whole truth, to human values Sarah Payne, Office Manager above all interests, to the rights of man diet; to the dull ordeal of watch- my potato salad is only "pretty meeting Steger on Congress Ave- as the foundation of democracy; we will ing home movies; to Voltaire, good." But it suited Mr. Bedi- nue in Austin one day. They both Published once a week from Austin, take orders from none but our own Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per conscience, and never will we overlook some of whose ideas he cheridhed chek, and it suited his kindly wanted a drink but before en- annum. Advertising rates available on re- or misrepresent the truth to serve the in a little Haldeman-Julius blue nature to bestow praise. tering a saloon swore to each quest. Extra copies 10c each. Quantity interests of the powerful or cater to the book; to the letters exchanged BERTHA McKEE DOBIE other that they would take only Prices available on orders. ignoble in the human spirit `The old Greeks were not ashamed of tears' (Continued from Page 2) vitaminized and otherwise bowd- whereby a higher percentage is "But the 'speaker was adding "A chiel's amang ye takin' lished during the year 1956 that lerized milk now sold in paste- charged on income made by a emphasis by reading them out in notes, Bedichek had won the Carr P. board cartons, this stuff having joint furnishing entertainment a loud voice. Up at the top were And, faith, he'll prent it." Collins $1,000 award, to be pre- driven natural (raw) milk out of with beer than from one that so many millions and billions I despair at getting into print sented at the Institute's annual the market. I knew Bedi would does not. Anyhow, a Swedish spent each year in America for the felicity and fitness with dinner in Dallas February 1, respond. woman opened up a beer tavern food, so many for clothes, so which Bedichek was forever 1957. On the evening of January in Minnesota and it was soon no- many on churches, so many on When his children were young, drawing out of his storehouse. 20, I went to his home, finding torious for the patronage it drew. education, and on through the he said, and Austin was still Many writers, perhaps most, read him alone. I had telephoned him A tax man went to inspect it. catalogue. The figures were soar- just a town, he kept two cows, in order to suck in something that I had a letter to confront ing and the speaker's voice staking them out on vacant lots "He saw the place crowded that they can feed out. During him with. He was eating a salad soared to a climax as he read out and milking them in a pen on his with men. There were other beer most of his life Bedi read to de- of tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and the billions and millions spent own premises. He "wanted the places not far away with only light and enlarge his own mind. a little mayonnaise, moistening on whiskey." children to have clean, whole- small crowds. An sold the same Now how in the devil had he it down with a glass of butter- some, natural milk." Now with beer. What was the attraction " 'And, by God, it's worth it,' come to remember those lines milk. He thought I should. take a gusto he demonstrated holding here? The inspector could see no a mighty voice rang out. It was from Burn s's "On Captain little something and spooned out his head in a cow's flank while dance girls, no entertainer of any the voice of Buttermilk Jones. Grose's Peregrinations through yogurt into a bowl and put honey he milked, so that she could kind, not even a television set. The announcement of his sense Scotland"? (He had to tell me on it. We were both honey barely kick at all and could not Then he saw the proprietoress of values came in a way that the source.) And how in the hounds, honey being the highest go to pissing without conveying a emerging from behind the coun- absolutely killed the speaker's devil could they lie down there form of sweetness—natural. I warning through muscular con- ter carrying four bottles of beer. facts and figures." in the cellar of his memory for a could n o t remember having traction. She had one in each hand and generation or two and then, just "Why," Wilson Hudson now tasted yogurt before. He told me one sitting on each breast, where as occasion arose for their appli- how monks in a Hungarian mon- asked, "did they call him But- Bedichek never was the kind they stood steady while she cation, jump to the surface like astery had cultivated the yogurt termilk Jones?" of person. to think all virtue re- moved with energy and did not an empty corked bottle released germ hundreds of years ago, touch them. Was this entertain- at the bottom of a pool? keeping it secret; how one es- sides in the past and that the "Because he never drank but- ment?" caped with the process to Can- world is going to hell. However, termilk, I guess," Bedi answered. ada, whence it came to Califor- the loss of natural things was a I keep referring to talk at Bar- "This putting a high value on III nia, where yogurt is now made frequent theme with him. He was ton Springs. One day while we whiskey makes me think of an and sold. "I get the yeast in a container every three weeks by My Friend air mail," Bedi said, "and make six quarts." He described in de- On Feb. 24. 1957, I paid Bedi a tail the sanitary processes for visit in his shack, taking with me making yogurt and its bodily vir- for him a paperbound copy of tues. "Not the same thing at all," A. E. Taylor's Socrates, the Man he said, "that you buy in grocery and His Thought. On the fly leaf stores." I found it delicious. I had written: After the yogurt, I confronted "Dear Bedi, I give you this him with the letter. He read it book because I would be as be- aloud slowly. When he came to the point—the $1000 award to reft if you went away as Crito Roy Bedichek for his book Edu- and the others were when Socra- cational Competition, he stopped, tes went. As one of them said of joy on his face. We talked a lit- him, I can say of you, my friend, tle and then he said, "Dobie, 'the wisest and justest and best you'll go away and I'll think that man that I have ever known.'- I dreamed you were here with this announcement. Dobie, 24 February 1957." "About three thousand years Two days later I received this ago a disciple of one of the Chi- letter. nese philosophers came to him one morning and said, 'Master, I Dear, dear Dobie- dreamed last night that I was a After I had been about an hour butterfly.' The philosopher at work this morning, I glanced up and saw the volume "Socra- looked at him hard and said, tes" you gave me yesterday. I re- 'Sir, are you sure now that you membered that I had seen some are not a butterfly dreaming that writing on the fly-leaf which I didn't take time to read while you are a man?' you were here. I had dismissed it momentarily as a "g o o d "That word confront you used wishes" inscription and so had over the telephone had me puz- let it escape my attention. zled," Bedi continued. "You are I reached up and got the vol- somewhat of a precisionist, and ume in my hand "just to see." I Bedichek and Dobie at an Austin Party was affected to tears, and I don't confront bears the connotation of mean metaphorical tears but a something unpleasant. I was were sunning after a dip in the incident d u r in g prohibition real secretion from the lachry- wondering what sort of black- a confirmed believer in the coun- mose glands. One got loose from cold water, Bedi remarked that days," I said. "Not long after the guard had been denouncing me try way of squatting to defecate. the inner corner of my left eye a "farm-type of woman" he had end of World War I, an English- and it felt wet and warm, so I and what you could have against The squatting position presses, up know they were real. encountered that morning re- man and a Texan were partners me." muscles to aid ejection, he held.. minded him of a wise old mare. trading in oil leases and royal- The old Greeks (bless them) were not ashamed of tears. That Thousands of words had spe- Squatting on the rim of a com- ties out in the Burkburnett field. "After an old mare has had shame was a part of the senti- cial connotations for him. About mode will not do. The rim is too Some bootleggers were making mentalism and masculine as- eight to ten coltg," he said, "she the time I carried the good, news slippery, and a squatter could more than owners of oil wells. sumption of superiority of that gets a look of wisdom hardly romanticism which assigned tears of the thousand-dollar prize, the fall and break a hip. I remarked One day a big well came in on seen in the eyes of the wisest to women. I am profoundly af- secretary of the Town and Gown on how high the seats of old- land controlled by the partners; fected, (stirred emotionally in philosopher." Club, to which we both belonged, time privies were. Yes, Bedi within fifteen minutes they that nervous plexus situated in the abdomen) by your placing sent out an announcement of a said, he had sat on them so high On August 7, 1957, after a cold, cleared a hundred thousand dol- me in a unique position in your paper to be read by Bedichek at that his feet could hardly touch cold swim In Barton Springs, we lars by selling just a fraction of affections. Truly. I have felt the ground. But he could, with- what they owned, and they de- towards you a friendship Y never the fortnightly dinner. His sub- sat down about dusk to double felt for anyone else except for ject was "Water and Soil Con- out danger of falling, squat on hotness in a Mexican restaurant cided right there to celebrate the Harry Steger, who died 44 years servation in Texas." I noticed the plank in which the holes This is one of the few uses of the occasion. ago. the use of that word "confront" were cut—and squat he did. word "Mexican" remaining ac- "The Englis:iman rustled around Bless you for recording this in a quotation from Bedi on what tive. Mexican restaurants in where I can turn to it when and found a fifth of Canadian he was going to say: I SHALL DIE REGRETTING Texas are no longer run by Mex- sometimes: "the world is dark Club whiskey for sale at $50. He and I a wanderer who has lost that I did not set down on icans but by Latin-Americans. "That which I shall write will I bought it and took it to their his way." paper a thousand passages of With Bedichek and me was our be down—I fear far down—on room. He opened it and poured Yours, Bedichek talk before they faded younger friend Wilson Hudson. the lay level. The authorities the contents over ice. Raising his from my mind. Here is a brief Bedi bristle with statistics which I glass, he said, 'Here's to whis- note I typed on the night of Sep- After much good talk, Bedi- only vaguely understand and key!—the only time in my life I February 25, 1957 tember 6, 1957. It illustrates the chek told this story: speak in a jargon that I don't ever paid what it's worth'." mobility, and homeliness too, savvy except in spots. Hence my "One time out in Amarillo they Two or three years before this, characteristic of Be d i c h e k's were having a prohibition elec- modesty may be compared to TWO EVENINGS after this—and standing in a group of friends, mind. tion. The pros imported a high- that of the Negro in the folk rime I a lot of other—talk, we three powered speaker to convert the I said to Bedi, "You are as good who was confronted with a med- "Bill Owens, writer and teach- met again, this time on a shady heathen and packed the biggest as grass." ical emergency: er in Columbia College, New lawn. I read aloud what I had gathering place in town with an York, and Bedichek's friend, written, received a few correc- "Don Quixote," he said, "once "Ah ain't no doctor nor no doc- audience. This speaker quoted came to town and this evening told Sancho Panza, 'You are as tor's son tions, and saw about three dozen after a swim we sat down under poetry and displayed all sorts of But Ah kin hol' de patient till words, sentence structures, and good as bread. Nothing but the the big elm in our back yard to diagrams showing the effects of de doctor come.' " idea combinations to work on. drink beer and talk. When I alcohol on the human organs. sexton and his spade will ever Then he unrolled a long linen Two evenings later we met One time at Conversation Rock, brought out three cans in two part us.' " chart and hung it up on the wall Fred Thompson was with us' hands, Bedi told this story, again, in a darkening, air-condi- to demonstrate the waste of Now the sexton and his spade when I set out anathematizing which, he said, came to him from tioned room, fresh again from money on alcohol. The figgers t h e pasteurized, homogenized, an income-tax man. Barton Springs with fresh thirst. have come. Something has been and letters on this chart were As we were raising our beer sheared off of me. THE TEXAS OBSERVER "In Minnesota, it seems, there box-car size so that they could cans, Bedi quoted: J. FRANK DOBIE Page 3 June 27, 1959 is some kind of income-tax law be read half a block away. 'Today is life-- THE WRITERS `This group of three the rest, nothing' THIS ISSUE about an evening fire' J. Frank Dobie is the writer My first contact with Roy Bedi- the University of Texas, Herbar- That Roy Bedichek remained cation concerning the imminence and folklorist. Hubert Mewhin- chek came in the early twenties ium. my devoted friend for more than of our demise, and I think the ney is the writer and a member when I was put on the executive We usually came back to camp less said about this the better for 60 years was always a mystery to both of us. George Santayana, the of the staff of the Houston Post. committee of the University In- in the evening in time to finish me—he a scholarly person, I hav- famous philosopher who was Bertha McKee Dobie is an Aus- terscholastic League, of which he supper and dishwashing well be- ing little contact with literature given a sad view of life on ac- tin housewife and Frank Dobie's was the director. Our common fore sunset. This gave time for count of living through two ex- except in dry law tomes and "po- patriations—one when he came to wife. Edgar Witt is chief commis- interest in the out-of-doors drew Bedi and B. C. to take lessons in litical literature"—he a poet in America at 8 years of age and sioner, Indian Claims Commis- us together; he had an omnivor- egg-blowing while assisting Ben- thinking and living, I always en- another when he returned to sion, Washington, and a former ous, insatiable appetite for any- ny in performing this messy but Italy 40 years later—tried to live grossed in material things of this with his old age reducing his lieutenant governor of Texas. B. thing natural, and I was fortun- meticulous chore. The reader may practical world. That he found comprehension of time to one C. Tharp is professor emeritus of ate enough to be able to contrib- wish to visualize this group of day. Once you get this psychol- botany, University of Texas. Wil- ute to his diet some vegetational three, seated about the evening something in my life that gave ogy, he advises, things are me his affection and interest has brighter; 'The charm I find in old liam A. Owens is a novelist, di- crumbs now and then. fire, each with a pan in which to made me think more of myself. age—for I was never happier than rector of the summer school at catch the omelet, assiduously I am now—comes of having Columbia University, and Roy There was a third—and potent blowing the contents from eggs. learned to live in the moment, We came to know each other Bedichek's 1 i ter a r y executor. —personality involved: H. Y. and thereby in eternity; and this E BEDDED DOWN for the in our late teens in the little means recovering a perpetual Rodney Kidd is director of the Benedict. After he was made W night on folding cots that town of Eddy. I attended the youth, since nothing can be University Interscholastic League president of the University of fresher than each day as it were equipped, if necessary, with public schools; Roy went to his of Texas. T. H. Shelby is dean Texas, he allowed himself no real dawns and changes.' Of course, mosquito bars. Benny, whose parents' private school. Santayana thieves this from the emeritus, division of extension, vacation, but occasionally he did professional training had been in Bible, although he was all his University of Texas. John Haller take off for a few days' trip to We went from there to Waco life an uncompromising unbe- mathematics and a s t r on o m y, liever, and infidel. He often said is an Austin writer and tree sur- the coast to indulge his hobby of in the fall of 1896 to work as would point out whatever con- 'The material world is a fiction, geon. Wilson Hudson is associate watching shore birds and collect- stenographers and study law. A stellations and galaxies were vis- and any other world is a night- professor of English, University ing their eggs. year later we decided to go to mare.' But nevertheless he swipes ible, explaining differences be- the thought of Jesus: 'Sufficient of Texas. Edgar Kincaid, the Aus- college before taking up any pro- Our camping equipment was tween them and suggesting the unto the day is the evil thereof'; tin. ornithologist, granted the Ob- simple. The only "luxury-piece" comparative magnitude, temper- fession. We both joined Phi Delta and 'take no thought of the mor- server permission to excerpt his Theta Fraternity at the Univer- row,' etc. I have tried for a long was a folding grill which, in use, ature, and density of red, white, time to do this very thing. It is article for the newsletter of stood on four legs pressed into and blue stars, the infinity of in- sity of Texas on recommendation hope, or looking forwards, and the Texas Ornithological Society. reminiscence, or looking back- the ground. Bedi was Chief Cook. terstellar space, and the incredi- of our boyhood friend, Torn Con- John Henry Faulk is the former ward, that brings on the gloomy Concerning this he brooked no ble speed with which the whole nally, who had joined the pre- days. Maundering over the 'dear CBS raconteur now living in argument—nor, after the first k n o w n Universe is hurtling vious year. We continued for a dead days gone beyond recall,' or Austin. Charles Ramsdell is a Tennyson's cry-baby stuff: 'Tears, camp, was there any effort to through the infinity of space— good portion of our college life San Antonio writer who recently Idle Tears.' give him any! He was justly and has been since the Beginning as roommates. moved to Austin. Gilbert MacAl- Better turn to Whitman, as I of- proud of his cooking prowess. —without the prospect of a fore- lister is professor of anthropol- During our college days Roy ten do, repeating to myself, Other members of the party could seeable end. In these matters 'This then is life, ogy, University of Texas. Eugene and his and my fraternity pal, gather fire wood, peel potatoes or B. C.'s knowledge was limited to Here is what has come to the George, Jr., is an assistant pro- the well known Harry Peyton surface after so many throes onions, wash dishes, or set up recognition of the Big Dipper, the fessor of architecture at the Uni- Steger, took an excursion pleas- and convulsions. cots, but Bedi bossed the cook- North Star, the Milky Way, and a How curious, how real! versity of Texas. Fred Thompson ure trip to New Orleans. When ing. f e w others, including Orion; Underfoot the divine soil, over- is an Austin writer and journal- they discovered that besides head the sun.' Bedi's, while much broader, was ist. Walter Prescott Webb is the Benny and Bedi ranged up and their return tickets they had only by no means profound. Of magni- Paul said: 'I die daily.' And the writer and historian. down the beach environs armed 50 cents between them, they in- inference is that he feels that he tude, one of the most impressive The Observer is indebted to all only with binoculars. There was vested this in a stalk of bananas has a daily resurrection. When revelations, to B. C., was the di- one comes out of sleep (tempor- these contributors, and to others never a gun in the outfit, and I and boarded their trains for Aus- ameter of Betelgeuse. The larg- ary death) and experiences a res- whom space prevented us from am quite certain neither of them tin and lived . on these bananas urrection, he should ask nothing est (dull red) star in the constel- including. Especially are we and ever shot a bird, though Benny enroute. In those days such trips of dead yesterdays or of unborn lation of Orion, it is approxi- tomorrows. Today is life—the our readers indebted to Mr. Do- robbed their nests. In this he was took much longer than now, but mately 350,000,000 miles wide— rest is nothing. bie, not only for his article but assisted on occasion by the the bananas lasted them. We almost twice the diameter of the The world will never be the for his counsel and help, and to others, but B. C. mostly engaged both earned our way through the. orbit of the earth around the sun! same to me without my lifelong Mrs. Roy Bedichek for her most in "weed-chasing." His "catch" University of Texas, Roy always From such contemplations it was friend, Roy Bedichek. gracious consent that so many of was put to dry in a plant press in as a part time secretary for but a logical step to the philo- EDGAR E. WITT Bedichek's letters be printed here. preparation for incorporation in somebody, and I by selling ad- sophical implications of the vast- vertising in publications, getting ness and the orderly arrange- roomers for boarding houses, etc. ment of the physical universe. While the facts do not lend After finishing our respective 'On top of Tallman Mountain' themselves readily to the support academic courses our lives be- of a concept of the Deity anthro- came separated for around 15 When first saw Roy whole range of human experi- moved from consciousness of the pomorphic in attributes, neither years, during which time Roy Bedichek, in January, 1941, ence. His mind never failed him foibles of people. do they support an attitude of was quite a wanderer. I think he I was reporting to him at the when he needed a quotation from HE LAST TIME I say Bedi he atheism. That was the reasoning, tramped over Europe one sum- Interscholastic League office literature or philosophy to ex- T stayed overnight at my home, at least, of Benny. With its logi- mer with Steger, and I have a on the Little Campus at the pand an idea or support an argu- which is on top -of Tallman cal soundness, Bedi was in agree- recollection of them reaching University of Texas. I had ment. For variety he turned to anecdotes about birds and ani- Mountain, the last of the Pali- ment—and so was B.C. Montreal on their return, strand- been appointed to do re- sades. This time he broadened his mals, and occasionally to Texas ITHIN RECENT years Bedi's ed, and financing trips (Roy to search in folklore and to di- audience enough to include my ballads and songs. The intensity W interest in nature included Texas, Harry to New York) by rect folk festivals. He was to two children. He kept us enter- of our discussions, the depths of plants more and more. He drawing several small drafts on supervise my work because tained all evening with talk of my feelings brought me closer learned by name all those with mutual friends in Texas, of whom of his work with the Inter- birds he had seen on walks in and closer to the day when I which he was commonly associ- I was one. scholastic League and, as I Westchester and Central Park. would drop everything, includ- ated and equipped himself to key learned later, his wide knowl- We were up at dawn for a walk When I became a member of ing my work in folklore, and en- out a great many unfamiliar edge of Texas life and lore. along the Palisades. At seventy- list as a private in the army. ones, particularly those that in- the Texas Senate in 1918, I found From where I stood I could see nine, he set a pace difficult to Roy with the University Inter- vaded his lawn and garden. Two him bent over his typewriter, in- The education never stopped. keep up with. Though it was scholastic League and with a years ago it was a brome grass tent on whatever he was putting When we were on hikes, or on April and a cold wind was blow- newcomer; this year it was a wife and two charming girl chil- down on the yellow copy paper. long trips to Interscholastic ing from the north, he stood for thistle, Silybum marianum, with dren, Sarah and Mary, to whom I When Miss Willie Thompson took League meetings, he always had an hour on a high bluff, deter- became "Uncle Edgar." From leaves 18 inches long—the last me in and announced me, he something new to bring up. mined to get a glimpse of an 1918 until the day of his passing plant, I think, to attract his at- stood up and leaned forward to Whatever we heard or saw American eagle. we remained in constant com- greet me. His old brown suit did brought forth at least a lively tention. When his friend B. C. munication. It was always a not declare the man, but his face comment, and at times a synthe- He set down the names of other was unusually (and inexcusably) "feast of soul" for me to have and manner did. So did the clut- sis that was illuminating because birds he saw, but the eagle was slow in rendering his customary conversation or correspondence ter of books, files, and memen- it was unexpected. He was a lec- uppermost in his mind. When we "consulting service" about it, with him. His mind was richly toes of an avid collector of all turer, a talker rather, who never could no longer stand the cold Bedi apparently suspected ignor- stored with literature, and his kinds of information. I felt that ran dry because of this ability we came back to the house and ance. He called our mutual memory was extraordinary, so I was being brought into the to relate. When we went through warmed ourselves with hot cof- friend, Lorraine Barnes, and im- that an "illiterate" like myself openness of his life and mind, the Carlsbad Caverns the guide fee before the livingroom fire. As plied as much. When Miss Barnes felt like he was sitting at the feet and that at the same time I was gave statistics of heights and if driven, away we went again, called B. C. and asked him how of a Socrates or a Solomon. He being tested on my right to be depths and the number of bats this time into the woods along about it, she was given the name interspersed his talk with pro- there. that lived in the caverns. Bedi the rim of the mountain, where followed by some facetious pat- fanity not only without giving He put aside the copy for the listened to his facts and, in asides I knew the eagle had nested the ter. She wrote it up in her col- offense but in a way that made issue of "Interscholastic Leaguer" to me, enriched them with rare year before. umn, but what I said (as cor- the profane words beautiful. He he was working on and together gleanings from his mind. This time we were more fortu- rectly quoted by her) didn't look held demagogues a n d stuffed we tried to define the job I had. Over the years after I left nate. Through an opening in the to me like it sounded to me when shirts in contempt but would not But talk about work kept getting Texas, in letters and in whatever branches overhead we saw a I said it. Seeing it in print gave hurt anyone with the stroke of a lost in talk about bird• lore and meetings we could arrange, the great bird soaring high against me an immediate feeling of feather. folklore and English poetry. At discussions went on. One of the the blue sky. I was sure it was an shame; when Bedi died a week one point he leaned back with rarest of these occasions for me eagle. He had to be convinced. later, the feeling mounted. Only recently, after receiving his hands clasped behind his was a trip to the Big Thicket in We observed what characterist- Fortunately, Bedi, having de- from me a letter telling him that head and recited William Mor- 1956. I went to collect historical ics we could and rushed back to cided I wasn't going to keep a neither of us would likely be ris's "Defence of Guenevere." information about the oil fields, the fireplace to study the bird promise to visit his garden and here much longer, he wrote me: IN TILE NINE MONTHS I was and learned a great deal. I learn- books. I will never forgct the make a color photograph of it, I note your dismal prognosti- I on the job, Roy Bedichek put ed much more listening to Roy pleasure he showed when he had brought a whole plant over me through an education that Bedichek and Lance Rosier talk wrote in his notebook that on to my house, and I had gotten a was superior to anything I had about the ways of birds and that day he had seen an Ameri- good color-likeness. I am calling THE TEXAS OBSERVER ever encountered, in college or snakes and alligators. For three can eagle on Tallman, Mountain. it "Bedi's Thistle." Page 4 June 27, 1959 out. The course covered the days we were completely re- WILLIAM A. OWENS B. C. THARP Our out-of-doors hotel' 'Worse... football' ing equipment, a nature library, Bedichek got up at his usual hour and other items we found essen- of four a.m. and made coffee of asking Bedichek if I might Mr. Bedichek had many friends The first time I met Roy tial for "our out-of-doors hotel." and, after he had had his first leave it in his side yard. and varied interests, from cul- Bedichek I was working on One was a five-gallon can of cup, I got up. I always waited "Of course you can!" he said. tural circles to the ranks of the the trees at Dr. Walter Pres- water, for bathing and shaving, until he had had that first cup "Going to Canada? Don't be in a skilled worker and the laborer. cott Webb's Friday Moun- and cooking; this was filled at of coffee, because until then he hurry to come back. Take your He wanted to know individuals; tain Ranch, and the first sub- the close of each working day. was not in too good a humor. One time. When I was a young man, he could and did talk to the ject we talked about was After finding the camp site, we cup started the conversation, birds. Bedichek was then I traveled all over this country farmer or the • rancher in the had a regular routine worked which lasted from about four- like a hobo, tramping and work- field, the worker in the garage, over seventy and I was not out. Mr. Bedichek gathered the thirty until daylight. The topic ing my way. Those were the best the high school coach on the dia- yet thirty, but he seemed the firewood and cooked the evening for the day could be almost any- times of all! Will they ever come mond, the school children on the younger. meal, which he liked to do. My thing: the "New Deal," Republi- At more or less regular inter- again?" campus, the academician in the job was to get out the cots, put cans, educational theories, church vals he would emerge from the The book I took with me across halls of learning. up the beds and the mosquito projects, government problems. house, stroll over to the place we Canada was Balzac's Droll Sto- In his frequent and extensive bars, and unload the car. Our At that time of year, the quail, were working, and that with us ries. When I returned to Austin travels throughout the state, he meals were good. Sleeping was if any were around, would be on about the trees and the birds. 40 days later and went by Old- always sounded out opinions of better than in an air-conditioned top of the mountains. After Being new to Austin and to ham Street to pick up my car, people on politics and national or hotel. Mr. Bedichek was a ter- breakfast Mr. Bedichek said I Texas, I knew nothing of him. Bedichek and I talked for about international issues, on stories rific snorer, a fact which forced should go to the top of the moun- No reputation intervened to dis- an hour about Balzac. "The great- that are the folklore, on the me to set up my cot some dis- tain to find the "crazy quail." "I tort my judgment, and I was left est of writers," he said. "None names the people gave certain tance from his. don't think I can make it," he free to respond to him on merit better anywhere." It turned out flowers, trees, or animals. He After the evening meal, we said. "My mountain - climbing and merit alone. At first I that he knew the Droll Stories was never without a notebook would lie on our cots and watch days are over." Our camp eleva- thought he was the caretaker; intimately. He quoted long pass- and made prodigious notes on all the birds through field glasses tion was about 5000 feet and, after we had exchanged a few ages from memory almost ver- these subjects. until dark. Then Mr. Bedidhek with exercise, breathing was a words I began to think he was a batim. "The Succubus" had im- I knew Mr. Bedichek as few would look for the evening star, little difficult. So I prepared a retired professor. As we contin- pressed him in particular. He had the opportunity to know him, and try to estimate where the small lunch, (as the trip to the ued to talk through the four or called it the world's greatest for we camped together for days morning star would be at four top would take all day,) put on five days of our work there, I short story, and I was inclined and weeks at a time over a pe- a.m. my jacket, and started the climb came to see in him the simplic- to agree with him. riod of twenty years. We camped Sounds at night are varied and to the 7000-foot-thigh plateau on the banks of the Rio Grande ity and vigor of a Cincinnatus fascinating. Often birds in sea- where Mr. Bedichek said I would NE TIME when I called on and the Sabine. We slept by and the mental acuity of a George son were taking their long flights find the birds. O him he was working in. the_ Caddo Lake, and roamed the Bernard Shaw. from north to south, from south It was a fine day, and I drifted garden with a handkerchief tied plains of West Texas. We ex- "You boys chisel away at those to north, to nest or spend a sea- along. After a slow and easy over both ears. plored the sand dunes around Big trees like woodpeckers," were his son in another part of the world. climb, I finally reached the top. Spring and the big thicket of first words. "Earache?" I asked. Bedichek would expound on I "jumped" several large mule East Texas. We travelled in the "We are after the same thing," "Worse," he said, shaking his these and how they all fit into deer, which momentarily held my Fort Davis Mountains and I replied. "Borers. Some of these fist passionately at the Univer- the beautiful pattern of life; how attention. In a few minutes up through the brush and fields of have burrowed so far into the sity. "Football." The •speakers at man often disturbed the balance jumped the "crazy quail." I Central, South and East Texas. wood that I don't believe the the stadium were going at full that Nature had provided; how watched the bird perform the an- We always preferred campsites woodpeckers could find them." blast. humanity wasted its great natu- tics from which it gets its name to hotels, streams and lakes to ral resources. Many were privil- and are partly responsible for its "You know it's remarkable "Did you ever read Schopen- bath tubs, and Dutch ovens to the eged to hear these discourses on near-extinction. It was the thrill how far into the tunnels the hauer's essay 'On Noise'?" he finest restaurants. natural resources, and I heard of a lifetime to a bird-lover. birds can penetrate. The wood- asked. "Nobody has ever stated When it was necessary for us them under ideal surroundings—. Suddenly the bird flew over pecker's tongue is hinged at the the case against it more strongly. to make an overnight business under open skies, with all the and down the mountain. front, instead of at the back like But the din then couldn't have trip to any area in the state, he things he loved about him. To Behind me, shattering the still- ours. It lies in his mouth point- been half what it is now. You knew exactly where to go, for he Bedichek, the world was a mira- ness of the mountain heights, a ing backwards and is so long know, I think I'll sit down •and had camping spots located all cle; even the rotting leaf in his voice said, "You will -never for- that its tip is kept rolled up in bring that essay up to date." And through the state. After the compost bed which, crumbling, get that demonstration, will a special cavity formed in the his lip curled with scorn as he night's camping we were always brought forth new life to his 7,ou?" Here Bedichek was on began to name off all the in- in the office of the superintend- growing tomato plants and other top of the mountain, though he trusions on his privacy: the loud- comes ent or the principal early the garden vegetables. was about seventy years old. You `Nobody around speakers, the automobiles that next morning. could never think of him as an to bother me at 3 :00 a.m. raced screaming by, the honking, It's the only way I can During the years of my asso- 2 "old man." the shouting, and the general ciation with Mr. Bedichek, we Shortly before Mr. Bedichek get any work done.' raucousness of modern life. perfected • this "catch-as-catch- retired as director of the Inter- "I go to bed at 8:00 at night and can" camping to a science—an scholastic League, we decided to bone of the head. When he wants get up at 3:00 in the morning. Every trip we 3took was an edu- outdoor ritual that became sec- make one more attempt to see to dig out a borer, he uncoils Nobody comes around to bother cational adventure. He always ond nature to both of us. We re- the "crazy_ quail" of the Davis that long tongue, shoots it out of me at 3:00 a.m. It's the only way carried his notebook for record- moved the back seat from the Mountains. We went to our usual his bill, and impales its barbed I can get any work done." car and substituted two small campspot, near Bloy's camp ing observations on nature and point in the insect, like an In- remarks people made on folklore, Bedichek'• capacity for satire mattresses. (Mr. Bedichek had meeting grounds. We followed dian throwing a lance," he said. on s o i 1 conditions, o n the was pronounced•. I think he could an air-mattress.) We had cook- our established routine; • Mr. Only a year or so later did I have been a kind of minor Swift, weather. When he was alone he learn that Bedichek was being was either writing or reading and I've always been sorry that held in benignant captivity at he did not 'devote more time to some book that was a hundred Friday Mountain Ranch by Webb years old or more. (He thought it the development of that charac- 'The desire to excel' and others of his friends so that teristic. was a waste of time to read a he might write Adventures with Bedichek distinguished himself a period of nearly fifty years. book which had not stood the a Texas Naturalist. His chats IS LEARNING was immense; test of time.) after retirement as a writer, a Literally thousands, yea hun- with us and his strolls about the H" he was very broadly read in The will to survive, the com- philosopher, and a naturalist, but dreds of thousands of young peo- place were rests from his task. the literature of all nations. He petition for living, helped shape his most important and distin- ple have profited by this insist- had a strong feeling for nature, a philosophy he carried over ATER BEDICHEK called me to guished service was as adminis- ence on honest and effective ef- a marked talent for close obser- from his observations of the nat- trator of the University Intersch- fort, motivated by the desire to L work on the trees at his home vation of her, and a gift that was lastic League. He enlarged the excel. The leaders of the state ural world to the field of educa- on Oldham Street. This time we frequently almost poetic for her tion. His philosophy formed the scale of the league contests year who have thus been discovered became better acquainted, and delineation. He had a penetrating after year with particular refer- and developed can be counted, by backbone of the Texas Interscho- as I rested between trees, he took and original way of looking at ence to the needs of the pupils in the thousands. lastic League a n d gave the me into his study and showed me life and men and books; he was the rural and small town schools, Bedichek's interest in the pro- League a meaning that extended his library. His interest at this fettered by no tradition, bound and especially in literary and ac- gram was entirely educational. beyond local "entertaining," moment was centered on a book by no conventions. His mind ademic contests. He constantly In athletic activities, as such, he "county meets," and "end-of- someone had written about the worked acutely over a broad endeavored to guarantee fair and had little or no interest, and he school" meets. This understands human digestive processes. range of subjects. He was one of honest competition. He believed seldom attended games or other ing, this belief that life was bai-: "The thesis is that meat is di- the most broadly cultured and with the ancient Greeks that contests to enjoy the spectacle. ically a matter of survival, ena- gested in one part of the intes- luminously intellectual of mod- competitive activities stimulate bled him to withstand the at- tine and vegetables and fruit in ern Texans. How shall we re- In dealing with those who one to his best effort, if they are tacks of those who opposed com- another part and that the two place him? honestly and fairly conducted. In broke rules, whether contestants petition. things should not be eaten to- JOHN HALLER an effort to meet the needs of all or school officials, Bedi never Mr. Bedichek told me he was gether. By drawing on anatomy, the pupils in the public schools, wavered in applying the rules of sure many people would be dis- physiology, and evolution, the he increased the number of con- the league. He might be sympa- appointed in his history of the author makes a good case for his 'He brooded hours' tests to more than fifty different thetic with those who received League, because they would be beliefs. Whether you agree with events, counting divisions and penalties for rule infractions, but expecting case stories about him or not, it's a good book to "Bedichek was proud of his classes. Every type of school, he was never "soft." League champions, about people read." powers of observation. Once, from the one-room rural to the who made specific rules, about Several times afterward I was while on a walking trip with His book, Educational Competi- largest city school, had a place in incidents that resulted in the called back to his house in a him in a rough area in Hays tion, The Story of the University adoption of certain regulations. professional capacity. Many other County, I spotted a rattle- the program. The public school Interscholastic League, answers "That is not what I am interested times I went by for a social visit. snake coiled on a big rock. He faculties and the faculties of col- completely the criticisms of those leges a n d universities were in," he said. "I want to write Always I found the man with the reluctantly agreed we should educators who fear competitions drawn Into the ever - growing about this basic philosophy of same vitality, the same alertness, kill it. Then he brooded for as a motivating influence in plan. learning, of achievement. I want the same wide-ranging interests, hours, and stopped speaking learning and in character devel- to show the advantage of direct- and the same progressive out- to me. Finally, that night, I The fundamental honesty of the opment. ing this competitive urge, this look. Frequently I found him in found out why. He burst out: director of the program . and his 'You! You •saw that snake be- insistence on the contestants' own The University Interscholastic impulse to win, this instinct to his garden, and • each time the League as it approaches its fifti- excel." memory of Cincinnatus at his fore I did! Incredible. I just efforts, unassisted, has shown up can't understand it.' in the results of the league over eth anniversary is indeed the Mr. Bedichek personified one plow returned to my fancy. lengthening shadow of Roy Bedi- of the things that he gloried in One summer I left Austin to —STANLEY WALKER THE TEXAS OBSERVER chek and associates. observing: he was a rare breed. tour Canada and, having no place in the N. Y. Herald-Tribune Page 5 June 27, 1959 T. H. SHELBY RODNEY J. KIDD to leave my car, took the liberty `Bedichek's Rock' "These boys are having many times, but whenever I tried drive the cold deep down into his such a devil of a good time Ito do it myself, I grazed the rocks bones. that I hate to get them out." on the way down. He would sit In the course of an afternoon These were the last words in the spring and throw a double ten, or fifteen of Mr. Bedichek's that I heard him speak. Mr. handful of water over his head, friends might come over at dif- Bedichek was watching his each time exclaiming, "Woof! ferent times for a chat. If there grandson John and a friend woof!" This "woof, woof" was a ever was such a thing as a lit- of his dive into the deep, part of the ceremony. erary salon in Austin, its loca- clear water of Bar t on During July and August from tion was Bedichek's rock. This is Springs. With his grand- 3:30 till 5:30 every day Mr. Bedi- not to say, though, that the con- father's help John was prac- chek would sit on his rock and versation was limited to literary ticing getting his head down talk to his friends. When he felt matters; it ranged far and wide, and straightening his body himself getting too hot he would for Mr. Bedichek was ready to --Bill Brammer out. It was six o'clock and interrupt the conversation for a talk to anybody about anything. Mr. Bedichek was afraid that quick dip in the bathtub. In a big He had a very large store of in- Talk on the Rock by the Spring at Barton's Mrs. Bedichek would be flood of two years ago the syca- formation on a great variety of worried ; he had told her he more tree was snapped off. Its up- topics and he was willing to ac- Darwin and Jeffrey, most of W. ATER in the same summer, would be home at about five. per branches became filled with quire more by listening. Every H. Hudson, and many others. L 1957, we planned to have a My wife and I had come out at driftwood and the force of the day Virginia Conkle would swim One of the last books that I bor- picnic down Barton Creek after about four-thirty. We had been water was too much for it. Mr. up to Bedichek's rock and sit rowed from him, which I still our swim. We went below the much surprised to see Mr. Bedi- Bedichek had hopes that the tree there awhile. Fred Thompson have, is a copy of Gorky's Rem- bridge not very far from where chek sitting on the concrete would grow out again, and it has would always come out too, iniscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, the creek runs into the Colorado across the creek. It was too early sent out new shoots. He thought though he was sometimes rather Andreyev, and Blok. We were in and there we built a fire on the in the season for him—May 20— that if all the shoots but one late. One summer Mary Lass- the habit of lending each other clay bank (later washed away and he was not in. his usual place. were trimmed away, the tree well was on hand every day. It books. Mr. Bedichek did not con- by the same flood that took Mr. Once he had begun coming out in might make a comeback. would not be possible for me to fine himself to established clas- Bedichek's tree). Walter Pres- July, he would be at Barton's Once I said to him, "Mr. Bedi- name all those who counted on a sics but regularly read a na- cott Webb and Mody Boatright every day until the first norther chek, when you and I are dead visit with Mr. Bedichek at Bar- tional newspaper, a news maga- joined us. While Mr. Bedichek had struck. He was in the habit and gone, this rock will still be ton's, because I do not know all zine, and several scientific peri- mixed a huge bowl of salad and of sitting on a rock down by the thought of as Bedichek's rock." of them. Judge James Hart and odicals, so that whoever talked I broiled a steak, the other three big spring that comes out of the Everyone seemed to regard the his wife, old friends of Mr. Bedi- to him about current affairs had sat on a tarpaulin and began to fissure in the limestone. Just be- rock as his, and only a stranger chek's who were in the Univer- to be sure of his facts. talk. At first they spoke of Tom hind this rock was a small syca- would take his place while he sity when he was, had a habit of Lea's book on the King Ranch, was cooling in the bathtub. swimming every day too. Mrs. more tree that had managed to ANY are the conversations which was about to appear, and In King Lear there is an allu- Hart liked to cool off in the get a start and hold on by thrust- ' that I have heard between then they began to talk about sion to an old rhyme, "Pillicock bathtub; I have heard her say M ing its roots between the layers Mr. Bedichek and Mr. Dobie at other things. sat on Pillicock hill." Taking a jokingly, "I wish Mr. Bedichek of stone. Mr. Bedichek did not Barton Springs. With acute, After supper Mr. Bedichek told hint from this, I made up a coup- would get out of the bathtub so sit under the tree for shade. It truth-seeking minds, they would a very fine story about how he let for Mr. Bedichek's amuse- that I could use it." On his vis- was the sun that he wanted, and throw themselves whole-heart- had helped one of his daughters, ment. its from Houston George Fuer- he got plenty of it directly as it edly into whatever was being then studying anatomy in the slanted to the west and indirectly mann always knew where to University, find a tomcat for dis- find Mr. Bedichek and Mr. Do- discussed at the moment. For the as its rays were reflected from Bedichek sat on Bedichek's most part they agreed with each section. One afternoon he and bie. the water. When he had had rock, other, but when a difference his daughter had struck out in enough he had to take but a few Almost every afternoon some- arose they would make no effort the direction of Bastrop for a steps in shallow water to enter The water was cold but Bedi was hot. one was sure to ask Mr. Bedi- to turn aside. They were the best leisurely ride and had wandered what he called the "bathtub," a chek a question about birds. "I of friends, but sometimes idea around on the back roads and spot about two feet deep just saw a bird the other day that would clash with idea or attitude through the post oaks until they NE OF THE MOST where the cold water rushes out regular vis- I've never seen before. It was with attitude. Once Mr. Dobie happened on a shack in a clear- through the fault. He had a spe- O itors to Bedichek's rock was smaller than a redbird and remarked that when traveling in ing. When they caught sight of cial way of getting into the bath- Mr. Dobie. He did not alternate larger than a wren. It was gray the back country of Mexico he some cats around the place they tub, which is overhung by the between the rock and the bath- all over and had a topknot. What liked to have a mozo sleeping at decided to stop and see what slanting fault face on one side tub; he had his own way of cool- was it?" Then Mr. Bedichek the door. This offended Mr. Bed- they could do. A man in faded and bounded on the other by ing off. He would swim around would consider all the possibili- ichek. who immediately took Mr. blue overalls was sitting on the sharp rocks just under the water. in the deep water until he felt ties and arrive at what he Dobie up and accused him of re- front porch. After passing the He would stand with the over- chilled; then he would go up on thought the best answer. "The ducing a human being to the sta- time of day with him Mr. Bedi- hang on his right and then let the hot cement and lie down. He only small gray-backed bird. tus of a watchdog. Mr. Dobie chek began to work towards his himself fall backwards into the said the heat of the sun above with a crest is a titmouse. Yes, tried to explain that it was la object. He said something like spring. I have seen him do this and of the cement below would it must have been a titmouse." costumbre del pals and that the this, "I see you've got some very So he told me on that last after- relation between a mozo and the fine cats around here. I need a noon. I am only beginning to man he served could be a very cat and I'd like to get one from try to learn something about fine one, but Mr. Bedichek was you." The farmer at once began 'Look ye also birds. Fred Thompson, T. P. Har- not to be convinced. Sometimes to praise his cats for their mar- rison, Mary Anne McClendon, the deadlock could be broken velous rat- and mouse-catching and Virginia Conkle—they are all only by Mr. Bedichek's dipping abilities. Mr. Bedichek heard him swimmers who compared notes himself in the bathtub or Mr. out and at last indicated that he while life lasts' about birds with Mr. Bedichek. Dobie's toasting himself on the wanted a particularly large tom- concrete; but in a few minutes cat sleeping under a bush. The Mr. Bedichek did not favor the ing them." But to anyone who R, BEDICHEK surprised me the two would be back together farmer said, "Yes, sir, that's a present fashionable practice of just wanted to enjoy these beau- M again and again by how talking about something else. very fine cat. One of the best on birding in large groups, because tiful birds alive, he would say: much poetry he knew by heart. the place. He really will keep such thundering herds trample "I'll be happy to show you some. He quoted freely from the nine- Sometimes the talk would, be your place cleaned out of rats down wild flowers and scare When can you go?" teenth century English poets and so good that they couldn't let the and mice." Mr. Bedichek then asked how it would be possible birds away. Usually his maxi- Mr. Bedichek showed me my also from Shakespeare. Brown- sinking of the sun bring it to an to get the cat back to Austin. The mum number of hiking compan- first Golden-cheeks. He took me ing was one of his favorites; end. One evening I remember in farmer said he could get a tow ions was two. Nevertheless, he out to a cedar brake that was when he first learned that my particular. After the sun had be- sack and put the cat in it. He took so many bird walks that by alive with them. Thin clouds wife was a student of Browning, gun to weaken, the three of us caught the cat, put him,- in the 1940 virtually every • interested raced by that early morning, so he quoted from the middle of went to a Mexican restaurant on sack, and tied up the mouth. person in Texas and many from that the sun seemed a great ball "Sordello," an early poem of East First Street, drank ice cold When he handed Mr. Bedichek other states had been in the field rolling along just above the ho- Browning's remembered today beer, and continued the conver- the sack, he said, "Now just with him. rizon. In memory it seems that mostly because of the quips sation. We told stories, mostly shut him up in the barn and let Mr. Bedichek believed in. iden- almost every other cedar was about its obscurity. Mr. Bedi- true ones, each suggesting an- him get at those rats and mice. tifying all the birds without a crowned by a singing male, each chek had been a great reader of other in unbroken rotation. Such gun. In a letter to a professor the Russian novelists, and he an evening of perfect conversa- Keep him there three or four with his brilliant black, white, days before you let him. out, and Brandis, now of North Carolina, and golden plumage in the per- knew Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky tion doesn't come along very of- he wrote: very well. He said they opened ten; that night I was aware of a I'll guarantee you he never will fection of early morning and ear- run off from your place." Then So, it's a 4-page job to disting- ly spring. his mind and led him on as no feeling of joyousness even as I uish these two species (House English novelists had ever done. slept, and this feeling stayed Mr. Bedichek asked the farmer and Purple Finches), whereas It seems incredible that his fel- He thought that only Thomas with me all the next day. A week how much he wanted for the cat. with a gun it's no job at all. The The farmer said he reckoned four gunman doesn't get the very low naturalists will no longer Mann among the German's was later Mr. Dobie said to us when flower of nature experiences, hear Mr. Bedichek relating his comparable to the Russians; I it was time to leave Barton's, bits would be about right. Not that is, dealing with natural ob- experiences with Whooping have heard him say that The "Boys, come home with me and having expected to buy a cat, Mr. jects in their proper environment Bedichek had come off with only with life in them, but with the Cranes, Attwater's Prairie Chick- Magic Mountain is one of the have a cold beer. I've got some- husks and leavings of life. I much ens, Golden Eagles, Vermilion greatest modern novels. What he thing I want to show you." We a little change in his pocket. He prefer the 4-page method. Flycatchers, Golden - cheeked liked about it was its philosophi- had no idea of what to expect, told the farmer that he would give him all he had, thirty-five He had a way with known or Warblers, cedars, cedar cutters, cal cast and its ironic playful- for he would tell us nothing cents, and bring the rest the next suspected specimen collectors. To Mexican Primroses, Cenizas after ness in the realm of ideas. Once more. In his back yard he read time he was down that way. The those who came to Austin look- a rain, water, soil, Rusty Lizards, we talked what must have been us our conversation at the res- farmer agreed, evidently think- ing for the Golden-cheeked War- frogs, and almost every other an hour about the great debate taurant as transcribed from ing that he had been bargained bler, whose world nesting range natural thing under the Texas betv:reen Settembrini and Naphta. memory. He later published this out of fifteen• cents but glad. to is confined to the eastern Ed- sun. He practiced the inscription There was hardly a subject transcription in the Sunday pa- get thirty-five. Mr. Bedichek and wards Plateau, he would say: placed beside the fireplace of an- that Mr. Bedichek did not touch per, but it was so bowdlerized his daughter took the cat back to "Well, I'll tell you. There used other naturalist, Olaus Murie: upon, and it was always evident that the point of almost every Austin, where he yielded up his to be lots of Golden-cheeks that he possessed both informa- story was spoiled. Whoever read The wonder of the world, the it must have thought that we (Continued on Page 7) around here, bid the collectors beauty and the power, the shapes tion and insight. On the shelves and cedar cutters have pretty of things, their colOrs, lights, and of his study at home he had a did not know how to tell -astory well cleaned them out. I don't shades; these I saw. Look ye also fine collection of scientific and or that we were foolish enough to THE TEXAS OBSERVES while life lasts. Page 6 June 27, 1959 think you'll have much luck find- EDGAR KINCAID literary books including all of laugh at nothing at all. Such an evening of perfect conversation' (Continued from Page 6) you lend me your copy?" He was personal God. In Einstein's view country, Cherry Springs this apple is picked the limb moves life to the cause of science. working on Karankaway Coun- such a conflict need not exist. time, not Barton Springs. At first just a little farther from the There was more to the story. try at the time and he wanted to Mr. Bedichek asked to borrow Mr. Bedichek was not willin.g ground until it is out of reach. Later Mr. Bedichek happened to review Mutual Aid, which he this book; he liked the essay so to grant that the imputation had It ought to stay down until all be down in the same neck of the had read years before and which well that he read the whole book any element of truth in it, but af- fruit is picked!" This was not the woods, and he though he would he thought a valuable contribu- and kept it by him to look into ter a while he said, "But there end of the discussion; it contin-

stop and pay the farmer the fif- tion to biological and ethical from time to time. Two years ' is purpose!" I tried to argue that ued for some time, but Mr. Bedi- teen cents that was owing to him. theory. He kept my book for a later he came to my office to re- after a form of animal life has chek remained firm in his con- The farmer recognized Mr. Bedi- year and then returned it. He turn it. Not finding me in, he adapted itself to an existing en- viction that purpose does exist, chek and immediately began to was always very careful about wrote a note and slipped the vironment it seems to have been though Mr. Dobie sided with me. suspect that something was returning the books that he had book in my letter drop: "Dear made purposely for that environ- wrong. He said, "If you're look- borrowed, and he wanted his Wilson—Credit me with return- ment, but Mr. Bedichek held that I DID NOT GO to Barton's for a ing for that big tomcat, he ain't own books returned too, though ing this book. Sorry you are not though this was true it did not week after Mr. Bedichek's come back here. You must not he didn't care how long I kept in. Am in a jawing mood. Bedi." rule out purpose. Then I cited passing. When I did go, I swam have kept him locked up in the them. an explanation given by a French over to Bedichek's rock and barn like I told you to." Mr. IN THESE TWO YEARS we had writer in the eighteenth century stood in the water before it. How One afternoon while we were Bedichek said he had no cause at of why the limbs of fruit trees many hours had he sat there sitting on Bedichek's rock I I of course spoken many times all for complaint but had simply bend towards the earth when the over the years with his friends, spoke of an essay by Einstein on about anthropomorphism. Once stopped to pay the fifteen cents. fruit is ripe; the reason for this, talking about birds, quoting po- science and religion. He was im- I asked him whether, in his own The farmer's mouth dropped said the Frenchman, Bernardin de etry, telling anecdotes, recalling pressed by the clarity of Ein- mind, he did not personify na- open and then he said, "I shore Saint-Pierre, is that it was all passages in his life, analyzing stein's demarcation between the ture and think about nature as thank you. If you need any more planned so in the beginning for politics, and speculating on the spheres of science and religion an all-wise, all-beneficent power cats like that 'un, you know the convenience o f mankind questions of existence! Let Bedil- and his statement of what he con- that had planned all forms of be- where to come. Yes, sir, I've got when he comes to pick the fruit. chek's rock remain, unaltered in one of the finest breeds of rat- sidered to be the chief present ing, both animate and inanimate, "That is all foolishness!" Mr. any way, unmarked by a bronze catchers in Bastrop County." course of conflict between relig- with a purpose. We were with Bedichek replied. "That is silly! inscription. ion and science, the concept of a Mr. Dobie at his place in the It doesn't explain why as each WILSON M. HUDSON Of course I have not done jus- tice to Mr. Bedichek's story. He spent about fifteen minutes in the telling. This is only one of of the defendants or any person Given under my hand and the of divorce dissolving the bonds LEGALS having an interest therein, to re- seal of said court at office in of matrimony heretofore and several stories that he told that NOTICE OF SALE deem the said property, or their Austin, Texas, this the 22nd day now existing between said par- night, and I have heard him tell THE STATE OF TEXAS interest, therein, at any time of June, A.D. 1959. ties; Plaintiff alleges that de- many others on Bedichek's rock COUNTY OF TRAVIS a sufficient portion thereof to EMILIE LIMBERG fendant left the bed and board BY VIRTUE OF AN ORDER satisfy said judgment, interest, Clerk of the County Court, of Plaintiff voluntarily, with no or at picnics — always where OF SALE dated and issued pur- within two years from the date Travis County, Texas intentions of returning, on or there was no electricity for a suant to a judgment decree of the of sale in the manner provided By M. EPHRAIM, Deputy about January 15, 1955. There by law and subject to any other tape recorder. Once I tried to get 53rd Judicial District Court of were no children born of this Travis County, Texas, by the and further rights to which the marriage, and there is no com- him on tape indoors; I got his Clerk of said Court on said date defendants or anyone having an CITATION BY PUBLICATION munity property: Plaintiff fur- voice and his marvelous laugh at in a certain suit, No. 109,387, interest therein may be entitled, THE STATE OF TEXAS ther prays for relief, general and under the provisions of law. Said TO Jose Bracamontes Defend- someone else's story, but he styled Gibb Jett, et al and to me ant, in the hereinafter styled special; directed and delivered as Sheriff sale to be made by me to satisfy All of which more fully ap- wouldn't tell a story of his own. of said County, I have on May 25, the judgment rendered in the and numbered cause: You (and each of you) are pears from Plaintiff's Original 1959, seized, levied upon, and will, above s t y l e d and numbered Petition on file in this Office, On another afternoon we ad- on the First Tuesday in July, cause, together with interest, pen- hereby commanded to appear be- fore the 126th DistrIct Court of and which reference is here made journed from Barton Springs to 1959, the same being the 7th day alties and costs of suit, and the for all intents and purposes; of said month, at the Courthouse proceeds of said sale to be ap- Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county If this citation is not served my house, where we sat in an door of said County, in the City plied to the satisfaction thereof,. within 90 days after date of its air-conditioned room and had of Austin between the hours of and the remainder, if any, to be in the City of Au, ;tin, Travis applied as the law directs. County, Texas, at cr before 10 issuance, it shall be returned un- our beer. We talked and talked; 10 o'clock A.M. and 4 o'clock P.M. served. on said day, proceed to sell for Dated at Austin, Texas, this the o'clock A.M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN, JR., it grew dark but no one thought cash to the highest bidder all 28th day of May, 1959. Clerk of the District Courts of the right, title and interest of the T. 0. LANG, Sheriff, from the date of issuance hereof: of turning on the lights. Mr. Do- that is to say, at or before, 10 Travis County, Texas. bie said, "Bedi, why in the world defendants in such suit in and to Travis County, Texas Issued and given under my the following described real es- by HENRY KLUGE, Deputy o'clock A.M. of Monday the 3rd hand and the seal of said Court don't you write your autobiogra- day of August,, 1959, and answer tate levied upon as the property NOTICE OF INTENTION TO the petition of plaintiff in Cause at office in the City of Austin, phy? You've known a lot of peo- of said defendants, the same ly- INCORPORATE WITHOUT Number 114,364, in which Fran- this the 1st day of June, 1959. ple, you've done a great many ing and being situated in the 0. T. MARTIN, JR. County of Travis and the State of CHANGE OF NAME ces Z. Bracamontes is Plaintiff Clerk of the District Courts, different things, you've thought Texas, to wit: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: and Jose Bracamontes is defend- Travis County, Texas. Notice is hereby given that ant, filed in said Court on the By A. E. Jones, Deputy. many thoughts, you know hoW to Tract No. 1 All that certain George J. Christy, doing business 15th day of June, 1959, and the tell a good story, and you have lot, tract or parcel of land lying under the name of SOUTHERN nature of which said suit is as copies of all the letters you have and being situated in the County ENGINEERING & CONSTRUC- follows: CITATION BY PUBLICATION of Travis, State of Texas, known TION COMPANY, at Houston, Being an action and prayer for THE STATE OF TEXAS written." Mr. Bedichek said he and described as follows: Being a Texas, will qualify a corporation judgment in favor of Plaintiff TO Jerlean Hattie Lee Banks didn't want to sit down and be- tract of land Seventy-five (75) and continue to do business as and against Defendant for de- McCloud Defendant, in the here- gin with his boyhood and go feet by One hundred Forty-five a corporation under the name of cree of divorce dissolving the inafter styled and numbered (145) feet off of the West end Southern - Engineering & Con- bonds of matrimony heretofore cause: through the whole history of his of the South one-half of Block struction Company, and in com- and now existing between said You are hereby commanded to life; besides, at the moment he Thirteen (13), in the subdivision pliance with Article 1307, Revised parties: Plaintiff alleges that de- appear before the 126th Judicial was more interested in the prob- of Outlot Fifty-seven (57), Divi- Civil Statutes of the State of fendant, shortly after marriage, District Court of Travis County, sion "B" of the government out- Texas, will post this notice one began a course of unkind, harsh, Texas, to be held at the court- lem of water conservation, and lots of the City of Austin accord- day each week for four (4) con- and cruel treatment toward the house of said county in the City he thought the public at large ing to the map or plat of said secutive weeks in a newspaper plaintiff that continued until they of Austin, Travis County, Texas, subdivision recorded in Volume in Austin, Texas, and in a news- separated in February, 1958. at or before 10 o'clock A. M. of would receive more benefit if he 1, page 3 of the Plat Records of paper in Harris County, Texas. Plaintiff's petition alleges that the first Monday after the ex- published a book on this prob- Travis County, Texas, such tract GEORGE J. CHRISTY, dba plaintiff was not guilty of any piration of 42 days from the date lem rather than on himself. being enclosed within the follow- Southern Engineering & act bringing about or causing of issuance hereof; that is to say, ing metes and bounds: Beginning Construction Company. herein described acts, omissions, at or before, 10 o'clock A.M. of Then he turned the tables on Mr. at the Southwest corner of said and conditions of defendant's Monday the 20th day of July, Dobie, urging him to write the Block Thirteen (13). Thence in a THE STATE OF TEXAS part. There were no children 1959, and answer the petition of story of his own life. Eventu- Northerly direction with the To any Sheriff or any Constable born of this marriage, and there Plaintiff in Cause Number 114,- West line of said Block Thirteen within the State of Texas— .. is no community property in is- 216, in which Cornelius McCloud ally he put aside the water prob- (13) One hundred Forty-five GREETING: sue. Plaintiff prays that her mai- is Plaintiff and Jerlean Hattie lem and began to write about (145) feet to a Twenty (20) foot You are hereby commanded to den name, Mosqueda Zapata, be Lee Banks McCloud is defendant, alley; Thenc e easterly with cause to be published, ONCE, restored to her; filed in said Court on the 1st day another subject that he had often the South line of said alley Sev- not less than ten .days before the All of which more fully ap- of June, 1959, and the nature of held forth on at Barton Springs, enty-five (75) feet; Thence South- return day thereof, exclusive of pears from Plaintiff's Original which said suit is as follows: smells and the sense of smell in erly One hundred Forty-Five the date of publication, in a Petition of file in this office, and Being an action and prayer for (145) feet to the North line of newspaper printed in Travis to which reference is here made judgment in favor of Plaintiff both human beings and animals. New York Avenue. Thence West- County, Texas, the accompany- for all intents and purposes; and against Defendant for decree About two months ago he showed erly Seventy-five (75) feet along ing citation, of which the herein If this citation is not served of divorce dissolving the bonds me the completed manuscript for the North line of New York Ave- below following is a true copy— within 90 days after date of its of matrimony heretofore and nue to the place of beginning, to- (but if there be no newspaper so issuance, it shall be returned un- now existing between said par- a full-length book, which he was gether with all improvements printed in said county, then that served. WITNESS, 0. T. MAR- ties. Plaintiff alleges abandon- tentatively calling Speaking of thereon situated. you cause the said citation to be TIN, JR., Clerk of the District ment by defendant of him for a Noses. Second Tract: All that certain posted for at least TEN days be- Courts of Travis County, Texas. period of more than three years, lot, tract or parcel of land lying fore the return term thereof as Issued and given under my with the intention on the part of and being situated in the County required by law.) hand and the seal of said Court Defendant of making such aban- ANY of the conversations on of Travis, State of Texas, known CITATION BY PUBLICATION at office in the City of Austin, donment p e r m a n ent. Plaintiff and described as follows: Being THE STATE OF TEXAS this the 15th day of June, 1959. further alleges M Bedichek's . rock had to do the West Sixty (60) feet of Lot TO all person interested in the 0. T. MARTIN, JR. that two children were born as with scientific and philosophic Eight (8), Block Twelve (12) in estate of E. May Johnston, De- • Clerk of the District Courts, issue of said marriage, to-wit: Cornelius McCloud, Jr., age 18, problems. Once when we were the subdivision of Outlot Fifty- ceased. No. 19,639, County Court, Travis County, Texas. seven (57) in Division "B" of the Travis County, Texas. Arthur L. By A. E. JONES, Deputy. and Virginia Ruth McCloud, age talking about the kind of ethics government outlots adjoining the Johnston, Executor in the above 16 and that plaintiff has had cus- founded on the Darwinian con- original City of Austin, according numbered and entitled estate, tody of the said Cornelius Mc- CITATION BY PUBLICATION Cloud, Jr., and the defendant has cept of the struggle for exist- to the map or plat of said subdi- filed on the 18th day of June, THE STATE OF TEXAS vision recorded in Plat Book 1, 1959 his verified account for final had custody of Virginia Ruth Mc- ence and the 'survival of the fit- TO Betty Valmai Pettit, De- Cloud since the date of separa- page 3 of the Plat Records of settlement of said estate and re- fendant, in the hereinafter styled test, I happened to mention Kro- Travis County, Texas, together quests that said estate be set- tion. Plaintiff asks that custody with all improvements thereon tled and closed, and said appli- and numbered cause: of Cornelius McCloud, Jr., be potkin's attempt to combat this situated. cant be discharged from his trust. You (and each of you) are awarded to him and that custody ethical theory by attacking its hereby commanded to appear be- of Virginia Ruth McCloud be Third Tract: All that certain Said application will be heard fore the 126th District Court of biological foundation. I said that lot, tract or parcel of land lying and acted on by said Court at awarded to defendant. No com- and being situated in Austin, 10 o'clock A.M. on the first Mon- Travis County, Texas, to be held munity property was accumu- Kropotkin has written Mutual Travis County, Texas known and day next after the expiration of at the courthouse of said county lated during said marriage. AM to establish the thesis that described as follows: Being the ten days from date of publica- in the City of Austtin, Travis Plaintiff prays for costs of suit County, Texas, at or before 10 and relief, general and special; the chief factor in the progres- West Thirty-five (35) feet of Lot tion of this citation, the same Seven (7) and the East Five (5) being the 13th day of July, 1959, o'clock A. M. of the first Monday all of which more fully appears sive evolution of both animals and feet of Lot Eight (8), Block at the County Courthouse in after expiration of 42 days from from Plaintiff's original petition men is mutual aid rather than Twelve (12) in the subdivision of Austin, Texas. the date of issuance hereof; that on file in this office, and to Outlot Fifty-seven (57) in Divi- All persons interested in said its to say, at or before 10 o'clock which reference is here made. the struggle for existence and the "B" of the government out- estate are hereby cited to appear A. M. of Monday the 20th day of If this citation is not served sion July, 1959, and answer the peti- date of its survival of the fittest. Do you lots adjoining the original City before said Honorable Court at within 90 days after of Austin, according to the map said above mentioned time and tion of plaintiff in Cause Num- issuance, it shall be returned un- have a copy of Mutual Aid?" or plat of said subdivision re- place by filing a written answer ber 113,065, in which Rowland served. corded in Plat Book 1, page 3 con t es ting such application Pettit is Plaintiff and Betty Val- Witness, 0. T. Martin, Jr., asked Mr. Bedichek. "The library of the Plat Records of Travis should they desire to do so. mai Pettit is defendant, filed in Clerk of the District Courts, said Court on the 6th day c t Travis County, Texas does not have a copy of this in County, Texas, together with all The officer executing this writ the nature improvements thereon situated. shall promptly serve the same February, 1959, and By ELI GREER, Deputy. book form; I am having to read or upon the written request of according to requirements of law of Which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for THE TEXAS OBSERVER Mutual Aid as it was originally said defendants or their attorney, and the mandates hereof, and make due return as the law di- judgment in favor of Plaintiff June 27, 1959 penalties and costs, subject, how- against Defendant for decree Page 7 published in a magazine. Would ever, to the right of redemption, rects. and 'Authentic tidings of invisible things' he hardly let me finish and said of camp talk, he unanswerably trees across the ravine, and then knocked me flat on my back. laughing: "Don't admit it—blame reproached the clocks, traffic, into the sycamore over my head, Be d i c h e k was solicitously Those who have much to it on the printer! All printers are agendas, vibrating appliances, as we lay still in the shade, the alarmed, and I confessed a pain remember about Roy Bedi- liars anyway. Whenever I made fancy fishing lures, expensive only sounds the whirring of on my forehead. When, the next chek are more fortunate than a mistake on my paper in New boats—all the assorted urgencies their wings. I had never been morning as we walked toward I, who am like a fool youth Mexico, it was always a typo- of work and rest by which we happier than lying there, a the camp from our cots, the same who might have feasted his graphical error." He knew that mostly live. stone's flip from an Indians' bar smote Bedi and he fell to his tension about mistakes meant campsite, and a life from the back as violently as had I, he mind on the talk of Socrates As the night became firm tension about life. Once he wrote world as I had thought it had to cursed, laughed, and did not con- but spent his time instead in around us and the stars appeared to deem]: me against my self- be. fess a pain. zealous plotting for a better we settled into steady talk across Athens. Still, intermittently criticism for neglecting, in part by failing to publish, a gifted. but the fire. Women; the struggle for A drizzle set in and all night the last four years of his existence; psychiatry, in which I I I life I was one of the younger eccentric Austin writer: "I have and the next day soaked us un- more cause for conscience con- he had a deliberately naive curi- From our talks on this trip en- obtrusively. We were obliged to men whose intrusions Bedi- osity; public men; the contamin- chek humored. He took cering this man than you have, sued an active correspondence of hug the fire, toasting towels and but I don't let my derelictions, ation of vegetables by sprays in a month and a half. I sent him, wrapping them around our heads, pleasure in youth, perhaps the fields and on the supermar- because we illuminated his real or fancied, dog me around." on a point we had discussed, a structuring the wood against the ket counters; literature; his early remark by Thoreau in a letter in morning wind, • making the best memories, and meant to him days—his subjects mostly. Some- life that would go on after 1848: "In what concerns you of life under the unfriendly grey I I time before we went to bed we much do not think that you have sky. What we lost in nature- him, shaped by his ways ; for walked out into the clearing and companions: know that you are he was an emulable man. The last summer of the drouth study we gained in what Bedi- he took me into the hills and he named many of the stars. I alOne in the world." He replied chek has called "animal enjoy- remember us, an old man and a I have tried to emulate the way taught me how to camp. I still on October 20, 1956: ment," the smell and warmth of he timed his work and rest to have my notes on his instruc- young man, standing together on the fire, the comradeship against that balded clearing, looking at Set the Thoreau quotation be- "the rhythm of the natural day." tions (I knew nothing, and he the inhospitable weather, and the the full heavens and wondering side the verses I quoted to you Rising at three or four, he began had to start at the beginning): from the Persian poet: 'Do as steady alternation of talk and with an hour or two of reading on the vanities and illusions of thy manhood bids thee do,' etc. hot food. "Camp List mortal life. You see both indicate the isola- "while slowly sipping a cup of tion of the person who means to I shall always remember the weak coffee." Then he stepped "Coffee Pot; Plates (tin); Pots In the morning we began a amount to something in the world. Your man, Donne said 'no large pot of celery and potato out of his house and trundling (for water boiling); Pans (for routine we repeated the two or man is an island'—quite so—ev- soup he made that night, for it down the alley to his private cooking) ; Skillet; Tin cups (dill. three days we were there. He ery man has and must have con- kept us warm and full deli- place took counsel with the stars. colors) ; Long handled Grill; took me around a stone field tacts, but there are some areas, there are sacred places; 'in what ciously, which is all a soup can Flashlight; Spotlight; Refrigera- wall, past some kitchen middens "My hideout," his workshed, concerns you much' you are do. I still have his recipe: "Chip tor; Binoculars; 2 Pans-1 Dishes, (grown over since the scientists alone. was a room and garage half a 1 hands; Water Buckets; Deter- potatoes, slice up the onion, slice had been there), to a ravine The Persian's verses he had block down the alley from the gent; Paper Towels; Bathing up the celery, cook thoroughly. quoted from memory, and then house. At once on cold mornings Towels; Knives, forks, & spoons; Thicken with a little flower and repeated that I might set them he started his wood fire in the Butcher knife, big spoon; Chuck `Every man has and milk. Drop in a little oleo—then down: pot-bellied iron stove in the wagon with essentials; Beer, Sar- must have contacts, but I remove from heat when boiling center of the room. He sat in a dines, & Lettuce; Axe; Pick there are some areas, Do as thy manhood bids thee and put in two beaten eggs. hard-back wood. chair at his ta- (point & blade) ; 2 Camp Chairs; there are sacred places ; do, from none but self ex- S&P." Serving it up, he said, ble; his guest took the rocker "in what concerns you pect applause, "Well, boy, if you don't like this Card Table (with brown paper He noblest lives and noblest beside the stove. On his aged covers) ; Cots; Blankets; Pillows; much" you are alone.' dies who makes and keeps mess, you can at least know it's typewriter the keys looped up Sheets; Tarpaulins (2 at least; his selfmade laws. perfectly good for you." All other life is living death, and landed on the cylinder like waterproof; stakes) ; Charcoal for where a spring rose. He had a realm % where none but The oak, mesquite, and cedar overhand haymakers. The walls Steaks; Chuck box; Back pack; phantoms dwell— brought us here because of this we were burning were pungent were books, from the floor to the Fishing Equipment; Look for de- A mind, a breath, a sign, a spring, the only fresh water for voice, a tinkling of a cam- in the fresh washed air, and he ceiling. I did not keep notes on sirable plants—Grubbing hoe and many miles around, and there- el's bell. said, "I love these smokes. That's the gifts he gave me there those spade—Get all root & dirt—Put fore an attraction for birds and a choice smoke." All night and few mornings — recitations of in Stiff Pasteboard Boxes (Re- In a postscript Nov. 10, 1956, he animals as well as us. The wrote: "The star that chased the next day the wind agitated verse, ideas from the past, his plant box) ; Against Rain; Rope rancher who owned the land had Venus up the sky & finally the windmill, and her soft creak- ideas, his enrichment of my ideas (for tarp between trees); List: built a small water tank, about passed her is her dad, Jupiter." ing and whining kept our minds —but had there been nothing but Breadboard; Compass; Books on eight feet across and chest-high, stirred. We shared our enthusi- his telling me, "The most im- Stars, Birds, Plants; Insect Repel- And Nov. 29 (after quoting Goe- in which to capture the flow. the on Beranger as "a nature asms for the Russian novelists. portant thing a young man who lant; Wind Break; Burn big log Bedichek said the spring had most happily endowed, firmly He instructed me in Matthew needs solitude must do is get a if rains; Rattlesnake Kit (Stay once been strong, and the ravine grounded in himself") Bedichek Arnold and demanded I read place physically apart from his Calm, Tourniquet heart/bite)." family, a place altogether his a flowing creek, but our visit, added, in another postscript: George Meredith's The Egoist. at the end of the drouth, there With the same skeptical naivete own. If only I had realized that We camped in a small grove of was only a timid run of water The eastern heaven has been, he felt for psychiatry he pressed sooner!", still he would have oak trees on a broken meadow. (during the past week 5:30 to from an inset in the bank, some out of me my limited understand- strengthened my life. Across a clearing there was an sunup,) the scene of fantastic of it trickling over ground it tricks since the dying moon has ings of existentialism. He spoke abandoned one-room log cabin, One morning we greeted on blackened and disappeared in, entered the marathon with Ve- sympathetically of all living 50 or 60 years old, with whose nus and Jupiter up the sky. the southwest corner of the Uni- the rest replacing the evapora- things: he said of animals, "We former inhabitants we commis- Sometime ago Jupiter passed Ve- versity of Texas campus. The tion from the tank. He showed nus and has been gaining every are associates in this brief ad- erated; beyond, down an incline, grass in the sun was bright green; me the tracks of deer and squir- morning until now (apparently) venture of life, and we should were mysteries Bedichek re- he is quarter way up- the hea- we sat beneath a venerable oak, rels in the mud from the night vens ahead. The dying moon ap- feel for them, as we do our kind." on a cement bench there, and served for the morning. He dug before, and then stationed us be- peared side by side with Jupiter talked first of style among writ- a trench in the ground a foot hind brush and trees across the earlier (a week ago) in the morn- For lunch in the drizzle we wide and several long and built ing and gradually fell behind un- had celery soup, dry barbecued ers, toward which I, reluctantly ravine. We waited, the birds til she was midway between the aware that I had none, was vig- therein a strong fire. After we came, we looked at them through two planets. Venus kept (appar- beef, toast, and beer. He said to orously venting my contempt. set up the bedding he began me- binoculars. Taking a tree census ently) gaining until this morn- the fire, to me, to the place we thodically preparing supper (he ing about 6 Jupiter was still far were: "0 life is so wonderful "Style," I enunciated, "is the this trip for the rancher, he in the lead, and the lean cres- man." He warmly agreed, and a said he liked to linger over "scar- showed me hoW to tell the cent of the moon, out of breath, if you just look at it right. How little later in the conversation he ing up a good meal of vittles"). walnut from the pecan before the (she is old and can't climb steps) wonderful to be able to sit out in This was my introduction to sar- shone side by side with Venus, the open and eat a wholesome advised me who had said so first. nuts appear, and some of the blazing undaunted in the accus- (Memory accomodating ego, I dines on lettuce with a cold beer, species of oak, and the like. We tomed glory of her eternal youth. meal." With sureness and lyric have forgotten who it was.) to his celery soup, and to pota- went down the ravine to a dry feeling he recited: toes and apples wrapped in wet pebbled creekbed and, walking IV I asked him his opinion on brown paper, then in wet tinfoil, up one side, down the other, a "Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup something I was doing that was "As to camping, Ronnie," ran dipped in the water, and steamed lizard or two scurrying under- that clears the note from him the Christmas troubling me. When I came in the coals. He washed the fruit foot, we looked at every living Today of past Regrets and fu- season of 1957, "I have selected across words I liked the sound of first, and he completely soaked thing. Spots of color I would ture Fears- but either did not know or did a summit with a positively Pis- the paper before wrapping it have passed as weed-flowers, To-morrow?—Why, To-morrow I gah lookout from which with not have, I was writing them around; he put the brown paper bloomless plants with dramatic may be night closing in and the stars down for going back to. Bedichek on. first because he believed tin- futures, Bedichek named and Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n bobbing up over the horizon we at once warned me that words foil might impart 'harmful chemi- noted. When a plant stumped him, Thousand Years. might gain authentic tidings of consciously learned pop up later cals to the food in the baking. In he tested its characteristics invisible things." Like a youth when they're not appropriate and just such details as these, and against his key-books and usually "Lo, some we loved, the loveli- summoned by Socrates I pre- tempt you to twist your mean- with patience as natural as the figured out what it was but not est and the best pared at once to go. He was 78 ing to fit them in. I defended alternating sounds and silences always. During these forays I That Time and Fate of all their myself, though uneasily, by tell- then, and I was 27. was overwhelmed by my ignor- Vintage prest, ing him about an image I had ance of nature, but at least my "Mount Pisgah" was a gradu- Have drunk their Cup a Round read of Dylan Thomas gathering resulting silence spared him its ally rising hill, plateau'ed at the or two before in words new to him like a but- 'A valuable part full catalogue. top, from which we could survey And one by one crept silently terfly collector, and by describ- of Texas literature' the hills and valleys of the re- to Rest. ing my standards for accepting The heat rising, we would re- gion, which was about 20 miles or rejecting words. In my notes William A. Owens, Bedi- turn about noon to the pond, southwest of Austin. We camped "And we, that now make merry I find an injunction, "Don't use strip, and dip ourselves into the chek's literary executor, sug- down the hill, at a place where in the Room a word for its own sake." Mr. cold, leafy water. Again we gests that persons who hold it splayed out onto a level area. They left, and Summer dresses Bedichek had the last but kindly would talk: of Sam Houston, an- Our fire was enclosed (but not in new Bloom, laugh when, in a review of his Bedichek letters deposit them, cient Greece, sources of art, the closely) by oak mottos on two Ourselves must we beneath the Educational Competition, I dis- or copies of them, in. the ar- question of beauty—all the mar- sides, Bedichek's Dodge pickup Couch of Earth astrously misused a butterfly- chives library of the Univer- vels, and women. I remember on a third, and on the fourth, a Descend, ourselves to make a word I had collected. He wrote his old naked body, and his wet sity of Texas. "They are a distance off, a windmill and Couch—for whom?" me a. two-page letter appreciat- white mane. We would lie out to valuable part of Texas litera- water tank. ing the review, never mentioning dry on the cement rim of the RONNIE DUGC;ER the mistake (which came to my ture and should not be lost," tank, an elm one side, a young The first afternoon a steel bar attention in a nightmare I had); he states. sycamore the other, shading us. which . extended forehead-high THE TEXAS OBSERVER when I went over to apologize, Once some birds came into the from the tank malignantly Page 8 June 27, 1959 The one great mole We will serve no of composition is to group or party but `NATURE PURGES will hew hard to the rpeak the truth. -truth as we find it and the right as we —Tamt.E.Au The Texas Observer see it. LIKE GREAT DRAMA An Independent-Liberal Weekly Newspaper Vol. 51 `Better garden and read Gandhi, dine on. vege- TEXAS, JUNE 27, 1959 10c per copy No. 12 tables, sup on yogurt an d black bread, and sleep anights.' Mr. Bedichek's unusual mind might have it back again. Jays `Freedom from pretense' had as many sparkling facets as assault my- fig trees, ruining half a dozen figs at each visit of one, When the subject is Roy Bedi- a well-cut diamond. And there for they peck a bite out of one shivering conceptions." is one thing sure, nothing very and then another, too impatient chek, there is a temptation to 'He seemed to me to be And then, there is the chapter comprehensive can be said about to sit down and eat one fig clear write about the man rather than a star of the first magni- on the mockingbird's song, which up. The devils do me a lot of tude.' him in a few pages. I attempt no damage, but I wouldn't kill one. his wor,$. Even for me, who can is also a chapter on the appre- more than a few impressions I would sorely miss him if he not claim to have been a close ciation of Walt Whitman, "the were gone. He is the most color- friend (although my father was DVENTURES with a Texas from conversations with him and ful permanent resident on my most contemptible old hog that letters from him. little hill of Post Oaks, and while his close friend), the temptation la Naturalist, written when Bed- ever rooted in the mire of his There was a near-mysticism his scream is raucous, his love- is strong. I had hoped to know ichek was 70, is a work of art, if own imagination,"—so the pro- note I find quite musical. So far him better. I last saw him when about his devotion to Nature. He as his own species is concerned, there ever was one. It is• also fessors dismissed him when Bedi- wrote to me ten years ago, he is a very generous bird. If he he stopped the light truck he was what I would call "a classic of chek was a boy. Bedichek formed finds something good to eat, he driving near his home, seeing me Texas literature," if such a tired his own opinion. Only Nature is normal, no calls in all his fellows at once. afoot (I was going only a few and tarnished word as "classic" And there is the last chapter, matter how eloquently Oscar With the species Homo Sapiens Wilde and his aesthetes argue the paces); he put out his hand, gave did not seem more incongruous which deals with the theme of Mr. Bedichek took greatest de- contrary. The aseptic sea clean- me a hearty clasp, said he was than usual when applied to writ- time, in much the same manner ses all the filth the land dumps light, and, at times, found sever- into it from ten thousand gorged glad I had moved to Austin. That ing as fresh and unstilted as Bed- that Johann Sebastian Bach deals est fault. His enlightened, search- and retching rivers. Nature does was like him: no questions; no ichek's. Teachers of English, who, with a theme, taking it through the same for those souls who un- ing mind had roamed freely "why had I moved; what did I of course, do not generally know modulations and changes of pace, derstand and practice the occult through history, and he had rite of immersion in. her. But no propose to do." He was simply good English when they see it, coming back to it at the end. We achieved a position of wisdom Methodist sprinkling will do. It glad. A little later I passed by should prescribe the Adventures start with the shadow an an. an- must be a thorough-going Bap- and insight from which to ob- his house and saw how green his tist immersion. It purges, in the to all young people with ambi- cient oak; we come to the ancient Aristotleian sense, like great serve the behavior of his own garden was, with a row of tall tion to write. There are not many cedar-chopper on the hillside; drama. species. On matters political and corn in it. And I commenced to books in which the language is suddenly we are in ancient Rome social he had firm and liberal When I went to live in New spin a scheme. "He must work treated so lovingly, and yet with and on islandsback the Pacific; convictions, but when friends of York City after World War II, certain hours in his garden," I respect. then we are back in the Texas his, men he had known in his nearly every letter that he wrote thought. "I could ask him to let Karankaway Country is an- hills with the cedar - chopper younger years, became opposed to me contained a warning me come then: I would not be other book of the same kind, but again. to him in their opinions, he main- against what he called "the city's encroaching on his time and en- perhaps a little less profound, tained a warm affection for I HAVE PASSED BY the garden, fetid atmosphere" and an admon- being, as I remember, largely them. Politicians and public ser- and it is withered and ition never to accept its values. concerned with the problem of vants who betrayed the faith of streaked with yellow, a sad re- Then, while he was visiting with water conservation. (I do not the people most infuriated him. minder of mortality and of us a couple of years ago in New own a copy, having given mine He once wrote me that he was schemes that come to nothing. York, I remarked to him that I to a friend in a fit of missionary preparing a paper comparing I console myself by remember- had been having a series of zeal, and the Austin Public Li- Homo Sapiens with Rhattus Nor- ing the word's that we have, that dreams involving sights a n d brary does not own a copy!) It veingus — mankind with the are the essence of a rich life, sounds of my youth in Travis is a damning indictment of "cul- brown rat, 'the most imperialistic and think of the vermillion fly- County; swimming naked up on ture" •on Fifth Avenue that a of his species." In 1951 he wrote, catcher: "Poised high in the crys- Barton Creek, roosters crowing, New York publisher should have tal-clear air that morning, he whip-poor-wills calling in the Don't get too discouraged over had the stupidity to put both the seemed to me to be a star of the woods. He , nodded eagerly and the state of the nation and of the Adventures a n d Karankaway world. We are launching out on first magnitude which the van- psychoanalyzed. me on the spot. an imperialist policy ... that is Country on the out-of-print shelf, ishing darkness had failed to "Why those dreams are simple, the state of the public mind, or when customers are crying for rather the public's passion. To take with it from the daylight Johnny. It is' nothing more than them at bookstores in Texas. And reason' with it at present would sky." your body and soul crying out be like petting a mad dog. it is no credit to culture in Texas CHARLES RAMSDELL against the unnatural environ- And further on in the letter he that nothing has been done to put ment of this terrible city. Your commented, them back in print. body is an animal's body, my Educational Competition, the Men, my boy, are demons in history of the Interscholastic boy, and your organs, every fiber disguise ... ay, and women, too `No affectation, in you, must have contact with . more so, and more demon- League, in whose development Nature. Your skin needs the nat- iacal than men. 0 u r breed, Bedichek spent the major part of among all the animals in the his life, is full of wit and wis- ural heat of summer, the natural world, is most cursed ... and no defense ...' cold of winter; your ears need to still, I would not, if I could, do -By Ward Lockwood dom, despite its specialized in- —Courtesy, • Mrs. Roy Bedichek hear the natural sounds of the as Whitman wanted to do—`go terest. And then, there is a work Among Bedichek's many ad- and live with the animals; they mirable characteristics I remem- earth; your eyes must behold the are .so placid and uncontained.' in manuscript, just finished at natural beauty of the land; your These terrible contradictions in A Woodcut his death. ber primarily his unpretentious- the soul of a decent man will run ness, his humility, his unaffect- soul must have exposure to the From Bedichek's First Book ETURNING to the Adventures, him crazy if he dwells too much edness. eternal drama of the changing upon them. Better garden and R let us dwell for a moment on seasons." Then followed a re- read Gandhi, dine on vegetables, I recall a visit last summer sup on yogurt and black bread, ergy. He loves to talk, and this the theme of Bedichek as Artist. sounding denunciation of air-con- and sleep anights. way he could talk without the The difficulty here will be to re- when he was over at my house ditioning and central heating as interruptions that are always frain from quoting. checking data pertaining to phys- Of a politician who had sacri- ical anthropology for his new creators of unnatural environ- forthcoming in a group of peo- Bedichek's style is a reflection ment that would have panicked ficed principle for political expe- book. While showing him around diency, and who, in Mr. Bedi- ple." of his character, in that there is our appliance manufacturers. In an. absolute freedom from pre- the yard before he left, I thought chek's opinion, was power-drunk, The scheme was never more the garage study where he spent tense. There is not a pompous or of the cristate rainbow cactus my he wrote me: "Did you ever no- than half spun. I console myself so much time, Mr. Bedichek had a parroted phrase in all his work. wife and I had found on a hike tice that Homo Son.uvabichicus is with the reflection that Bedichek only a wood stove for heat in the There is an easy naturalness, the earlier in the spring. To my sur- one species that can never dis- did, after all, succeed in convey- winter (fueled by w o o d he bouyancy of an open but positive prise these monstrous forms were guise itself?" Last year he wrote ing his rich and spacious mind on fetched in from pastures and mind, that enabled him to pass new to him. to me: "My wife and I simply the printed page, where it is sawed himself) and shaded win- without self-consciousness from "And you pass yourself off as choke up when we get to talking more eloquent than it could ever dows for coolness in the summer. the most glowing descriptive a naturalist," I said, "and have about the inarticulate inbecilities have been in talk. For he was It was a comfortable place any color to the thin grey abstraction. never heard of these? Texas nat- of Eisenhower." not merely (among other things) season. Like one of his beloved birds, uralist? You don't even know a minute observer -and a large R. BEDICHEK'S gray hairs he could look very close at the cactus." E DELIGHTED thinker, he was, I think, the fin- in observing M were testament to his many life about him, savoring every "Listen," he said, "hear that est artist in prose that has writ- H all the flora and fauna of' the days here on earth. In spite of bit of it, caressing the texture, call? It's a cuckoo. You see, I ten in Texas, about Texas. earth, though the behavior of this, the atmosphere of youth or he could soar far above it and know birds." By the restriction "in Texas, some of Nature's creatures and hovered about him always, even generalize. "Then call yourself an orni- plants distressed him. Not long thologist and not a naturalist. to the moment he came to 'shuf- about Texas" I mean to limit the In the chapters on "Fields and ago he acted out, with grimaces Texas naturalist! I believe you're fle off this cortal coil.' This phe- field so as to exclude a very few Fences" he gives U.S the feel of and hostile gestures, the aggres- a fake." nomenon is best expressed in a stylists who, like Katherine Anne the Texas hill country, something sive nature of a certain thistle, ex- Seriously and very quietly he letter he wrote me a few years Porter, have not been especially more than just a picture, without plaining how the species choked said. "Don't tell anybody. I've got ago: concerned with the region. Miss ever resorting to the deadly out and destroyed all plant life by for a long time and few know Porter said, in a recent inter- method commonly known as de- in its vicinity. Some years ago, I go to Barton's every after- I'm a fraud." noon and have a delightful cool- view in Austin (Observer, Oct. scription. Elsewhere, by subtle in answer to a letter that I had Whereupon we both had a good ing off'. What a poem that place 31, 1958), that she is the only suggestion, he contrives to give written him observing that the is! Do you not sometimes dream laugh. "serious" writer to come out of us the feel of the egret's courting bluejay was the bully-boy of the of its great towering pecan trees over 'sparkling waters? The Apa- Texas. What she should have dance. And here we must insist This is so typical of his sense bird world, he wrote, ches knew a good thing. Did you of humor, his delight in teasing. know that the whole south. bank said, I believe, is that she is the on a quotation, for this is the Yes, the jay is really a ter- of Barton, Creek from springs to only serious writer of imagina- substance of the whole Bedichek With all of his tremendous rible bird. He is an Ishmaelite, mouth is one solid kitchen-mid- tive works to come out of Texas. philosophy, of his Yea to life: knowledge there was no affecta- his bill is against every bird. The den built up through ages of oc- tion, no defense of this ignorance, other morning I started across cupation by Apaches and their There could be no cavil against "I come to the conviction that the back yard and a headless predecessors? I used to get relics that statement. some eighteen-million centuries if it could be called that. Imme- Inca dove fell at my feet, the by digging almost anywhere a- after the nebula cohered into an diately his mind became alert. dove that really summarizes all long the bank. In a former incar- Why do these forms get this the gentleness and peace-loving- nation I was an Apache, living orb, something new entered, not ness attributed in our folklore to found many flowers and forgot way? Is their genetic mechanism on pecans and deer meat, work- all about the little vixen. I know at all controlled but destined the species. Following the head- ing the excellent flint that pro- eventually to dominate physical changed; does it go haywire? less dove and reaching the trudes here and there from the all this must have happened or I ground almost at the same time limestone ledges, and chasing my wouldn't have such a longing to laws or at 1:ast to adapt and use How commonly do they occur? was a ravenous bluejay. I had to get back into living in the wild. And a dozen other questions I fleet-footed love over cliffs and My next incarnation is impend- them for its own purpos6. Un- kick him off his prey. But after I down creek-beds. Her voice was couldn't answer. had identified the specimen, I ventriloquial and often led me ing, and I'm hoping. der this seaside spell I repudiate put it up in, the tree so that he like an echo far astray where I JOHN HENRY FAULK mechanism and all its thin and GILBERT Ma cALLISTER . . for each individual, it is a lonely world' (Selections f r o m Bedichek's Russia of 1917 was full of opti- something •there that is worth re- Western Mourning Dove—sev- Austin 5, Texas letters to architecture professor mism. So was our own American peating. "One problem in this eral April 14, 1959 Eugene George, Jr.—Ed.) Revolution. The 18th century was world is to try to keep manmade Mockingbird Dear Eugene: a wonderful century, more won- ugliness from spreading." That Myrtle Warbler Remembering (s e e m s years derful, in. my opinion, than the has widespread application. Ad- Flicker ago) your professional interest in, 19th, which Alfred Russell Wal- vertising, of which America is Black Vulture as well as your aesthetic enjoy- lace calls "The Wonderful Cen- so proud, would be something ment of, patterns in Nature, I Dear Mr. George: tury." The human spirit really really to be proud of if it were amateur want to call your attention to a .... I am still a widower, an went forward and up in those held within the limits your state- design and the wondrous har- independence I don't especially hundred years. Only in 500-400 ment so admirably sets. As I lis- Dear Gene: monious coloration of a strange care for. My wife is having such b.c. in Athens did man come ten to radio, glance through Yesterday I got what you say thistle which has made its ap- a fine time in New York that she nearer become man than in the newspapers and magazine s, I deserve for living a long and pearance this spring on the va- will probably stay another 18th century. Condorcet's life glimpse ghastly billboards as I virtuous life—viz., a pair of B&L cant lot just north of the old ga- month. Meantime, I am garden- span lay inside it. He witnessed motor along highways—indeed, 9x35's. Ever since taking this rage in which I have my "study," ing and having, also, a hell of a the ascent but did not live to ex- nearly every waking moment magic contrivance into my hands so-called. 'fine time. I'm even preserving perience the fall. Naturally, he that I am not shut up in my yesterday about noon, my heart some of my garden-truck in a was optimistic. Living my whole study with my nose in a good has warmly nursed a secret joy. I first noticed this growth on deep freeze I purchased the other life side by side with Voltaire book or hammering this type- And besides, I'm about ready to day. Also some cocktail parties account of its ravenous demand would have been enough to make writer—nearly every waking mo- take off to the mountains! for space. From the root-crown it at which I drink only fruit me optimistic. Diderot and Rous- ment I am subjected to the Hit- Yours, punch, but find quite enjoyable, sent out menacing leaves all seau would have helped me, too. lerian repetitions of advertising Roy 'round the compass until a cir- even though a friend or so gets Alas! mechanization was just tak- perhaps 75 percent of which May 22, 1952 a little loud now and then. I cular area about a yard in diam- ing command in good earnest the spreads ugliness either of ma- eter was preempted. Every spring sympathize with and greatly ad- year I was born. In 1878 the terial things corrupting taste or, Dear Gene: mire the French poet, who, re- (sprig?—Ed.) of rival vegetation "mechanization of murder" in far worse, disseminating and I hail the good news as only in this circle was promptly proached for not participating in the meat industry was just com- lodging in the minds of millions cheering item in my news-budget a drinking bout, and asked how smothered. Having thus assured ing into its evil flower. ugly thoughts and emotions,— in some time, except birth of an- he could get the inspiration to itself of lebensraum, the stalk My generation is daubed with more's the pity in the souls of the other granddaughter, which gives write poetry without stimulants, rose about an inch above the blood. young. The old and even the me (undeserving oaf that I am) root-crown and threw out a sec- replied, "A bowl of soup intoxi- But let's talk it over. middle-aged are already cor- five beautiful girls and five cates me sufficiently." That is, ond tier of magnificent, threat- Bedichek. rupted. splendid boys—ten in all. ening, long-spear shaped leaves to live is to be sufficiently stim- Sept. 20, 1951 The best end to attack the Big ulated. Am just returned from two in every direction. As if aware Thicket is near Liberty, that is that something very precious was Don't fail to give me a ring' months camping. Not a night in a the south end. That is about 5 soon to appear at its center, a whenever you happen to be in house nor a meal in a commercial hours away, as you drive, about third round of terrific leaves was Austin, and maybe we can ar- eating house the whole time. six as I drive. The next place is projected from the slowly grow- range another little stroll in the Don't you envy me, you bug, nos- north and near Livingston, about ing central stalk; not as the woods. ing around under chips' you call the same driving - time away. others in the plane of the ground, Yours truly, houses? Next, the heart of it at or near this tier was tilted up a bit. Roy Bedichek Expecting you, I am Sincerely, Silsbee. Here I have a standing Then another higher tier, also May 30, 1951 R.B. invitation to occupy a comforta- July 29, 1952 up-tilted came out, so that the P.S.—Likely the bird that looks ble camp-house with all equip- plant now presents from above like a scissor tail but without the ment which might be just what such a phalanx of needle-like tail is really a scissortail without one would like in dead of win- daggers that hardly an insect can a tail—Young birds are now corn- , ter. It is on railroad right-of- 1954 thread the mazes of its leaves. ing off, and don't get their tails way, an old section-house. No tough-lipped goat or other for some little time after leaving Perhaps the most educative Dear Eugene— browser could manage a nip or' a the nest. Walden is one of the period would be early spring, If indeed you do go up Cim- nibble from it without severe great books of the world, "driv- when birds are busy mating and moron Canyon, over the divide punishment, and certainly no ing life into a corner" as it pro- —University Studio nesting, flowers are blooming, at Eagle Nest's Lake and on down bird could alight among its bar- poses to do, and does do. Did you Bedichek and the swamp-creatures are into the Red River Valley, I barous thorns and prickles. Pin.- ever read Thoreau's "The Duty awakening to new life. I can want you and your chosen one to of Civil Disobedience?" R. B. do me a favor. Select some morn- rettlifl--ef—lea*es—aiw_ar-eti. No, Dear Gene: imagine a fine outing in any one ing, bright and early to visit Cos- I've already counted this one. .... The rage for wholesale of these locations for two ob- (In a letter to Eugene George tillo Canyon and there look for Truly, this plant must have slaughter of all life, including servant and appreciative individ- June 29, 1951, Bedichek said that and find the water ouzel. If Co•- evolved in a habitat simply our own, possesses like a demon uals with about a week to spare. a letter from George had moved tillo is closed, any other canyon swarming with deadly enemies; this generation. It is an age of Maybe we'd better let this idea him to write a paragraph into a around there with running and for, armed cap-a-pie, there's not devastation, senseless devasta- incubate .... speech on the "non-fiction book." plunging water will do as well. a loose or neglected point or tion in which we live, and this (Not signed) Bedichek then quoted from this But before you make this excur- joint anywhere. terrible possession will finally writing of his, including this por- sion read "The Water Ouzel" in give our age its name in history, December 12, 1951 tion.) John Muir's The Mountains of Having completed these elabor- if, indeed, any language on earth Dear Gene:. "In a certain sense, the publi- California, for it is the most glor- ate preparations, swelling buds as can supply a sufficiently sinis- I am working fairly well but cation of a book is the grain ious biography of a bird in the big as guinea-eggs appear in the ter word or phrase. The gentle am lonesome for the woods. Got leaving the sower's hand—seed English language. I see a volume top of the defensive cone, care- gardener poisons his soil to kill another nature book from News scattered to the four winds, on a of Muir is coming out edited by fully nested in a forest of pill bugs and in so doing anni- to review—more than I bargained venture. And, like in the sacred Edwin Way Teale on September thorns, while the buds them- hilates great numbers of benefi- for, but guess I'll do it, as it parable, the great reward comes 21, copy of which I mean to give selves, as if mistrusting the forti- cent creatures, including the seems to be a pretty good book from that which falls into good you and the lady as a wedding fications so 'thoughtfully' pre- lowly and lovely earthworm. An by Edwin Way Teale. He gave ground and brings forth the di- gift, but not in time to take with pared for them, have armed airplane spreads the deadly DDT me quite a boost in New York vine fruit of sympathy and good you. The Mountains of California themselves each with three tiers over a square mile of cotton field Herald-Tribune and one good will and appreciative under- turn deserves another; but, if I is in. the Library. Please read the of the most fearsome prickles of to kill worms or weevils and in standing, 'some an hundredfold, chapter on the WO before you them all. Three mornings ago I so doing kills honey-bees which find I have to say anything some sixty fold, some thirty- leave. discovered that the central bud fertilize the cotton, and birds harsh, I'll return book to News fold.' .. • to get another reviewer for it. R. B. had opened a little, but it has which have been attracted there "This surely is not to belittle . Much hypocrisy about reviewing September 5, 1954 proceeded so cautiously that even to feed on these very pests .... monetary rewards, but to point books and I don't like it a bit. now it shows a spot of glorious A month ago a leaf-eater at- out the source of inspiration Yours, reddish purple no bigger than a tacked my lima beans, the most bean. which is responsible for nine- Bedichek luxuriant growth of them I ever tenths of all creative writing; /956 From the first I knew that this and, for that matter, for nine- saw. They were cutting the leaf- surface into lacework and my Dear Eugene: plant was something new in this- tenths of all worthwhile artistic tles for this area, so I called my neighbors were urging me to I have run on to an excellent endeavor. From this source comes 1952 friend, Tharp, who is supposed spray. The vines hadn't until that key to the flora of the country the comforting assurance that the to know the vegetation of Texas time produced a single bean-pod January 6, 1952—Head of Bull east of here but it is a key based strange world lying beyond one's better than anyone else. It the whole summer. They sup- Cheek, Travis County. on internal characters. So I have everyday associations is not an stumped him and he said he ported leaves and blooms aid a project for us to start on—that unfriendly world. The same Observers: B. G. Bedichek, Eu- would have to wait until the nothing more. Shortly after this is the insides of flowers. You be- Greek word stands for stranger gene George, Jr., Roy Bedi- bloom came before the plant insect had trimmed the vines of ing an architect will be inter- and for enemy. Other human be- chek could be identified. I am going their excess foliage, the beans ested in structure and stresses ings are traveling the same paths to call him over as soon as the began to put on, and now they're Weather: still, cold (35 de- and strains which nature devises, though out of sight .... bloom is unfolded. (See Dr. loaded. It may have been the grees) sunny and I being curious about the "The world is full of people, Tharp's piece, page 4, for more cool weather that started them to ways of God will take much often massed and driven together comment on the intruder.—Ed.) by the requirements of institu- fruiting, and it may have been Robins—thousands delight in unravelling the ingen- Cardinal—several tional and social order, but for that they were getting thru an uity of these devices. We shall Meantime I am telling you that Bluebird—hundreds each individual, it is a lonely extravagant leaf-surface a daily need magnifiers and I have it in there is awaiting your inspection Lark Sparrow—few world. We are all lonely, with a overdose of sunlight. I don't mind to buy a microscope but a perfectly ravishing pattern of Slate-colored junco—dozens loneliness which mere physical know. Anyway I refused to maybe we can get along with leaves; broken lines of dingy Arctic towhee—several proximity does not satisfy. We spray, the insects continued to less high-powered and high- white on a background of ashy Phoebe yearn for that deeper, more fun- devour the leaves, and now I priced equipment: We shall see green. I believe you would like to Carolina wren—four damental association with our have more beans than we can R. B. House finch—several see the coloration, the defensive own species. Our souls are gre- eat .... March 19, 1956 Chipping sparrow devices, and most of all, perhaps, garious, like seeking like, for- Yours, Bedichek Arkansas Goldfinch—several the leaf-pattern, so complicated ever and alWays ...." Roy Bedichek October 26, 1951 Turkey Vulture and yet so seemingly simple that 801 East 23rd St. Dear Gene: Ruby-crowned kinglet I get lost in trying to trace it. .... Do you suppose Condorcet November 6, 1951 Golden-crowned kinglet Selah. would have been so optimistic Dear Gene: Thanks for your Cactus Woodpecker TIlE TEXAS OBSERVER had he lived ten years longer? paragraph on the chair. You say Chickadee—several Page 10 June 27, 1959 Bedichek `Whitman constantly `The days of dizzy exposed his soul' raptures gone' (When a teacher sent Bedichek a few faint hints and indirec- her paper on Walt Whitman, tions." (Bedichek wrote his friends J. `Fortunately, we have but finally we must take to Bedichek was moved to write her Frank Dobie and Clara Lewis on poetry for childhood, and prose. Even Browning succumbed a letter on Whitman. He also What he stood for, however, in old age.—Ed.) poetry a little more real- to this truth when he admitted gave a copy of the letter to Do- the great world of thought, how istic for youth, still nearer into "By the Fireside," "Not bie.—Ed.) he reaoted emotionally and intel- the truth for middle age, verse now, only prose," as evi- lectually to the art, music, poli- but finally we must take dence that all the days of dizzy tics, morals, social organization, September 27, 1951 Box H, University Station Dear Dobie: to prose.' raptures were really and finally Austin, Texas economics, events and contacts of gone. the stirring times in which he Yes, in comparison with the December 4, 1945 All this should not repress the lived are all set down with great microscopic lapse of time taken swering from memory the other aspiration to be happy in old age. Dear Miss Hildebrand: clarity in his poems and elabor- up by one's adult years, man's day, I forgot all about the qua- Witness that heroic spirit whose ated in his prose. 'progress' or 'retrogression' can train stuck down in the lower Your letter and the Whitman funeral we are attending today.* only be framed in geologic time. lefthand corner. paper have interested a n d I gathered great strength from I have never myself accepted as I have just learned from read- As a general policy Age should pleased me very much. I think occasional associations with her, valid the European interpreta- ing a scholarly and immensely let Youth have its illusions. May- you did a good job with the Whit- of which the last at your home tions of Calamus. In my opinion documented history of furniture be you should be permitted to man material, and I thank you was to me the most inspiring of he speaks there of pure brotherly that from about 400 a.d. to about believe that Moore is right, and sincerely for letting me see the all. Dobie and I, both doubters, affection, the Damon-and-Pythias 1500 a.d. the chair was com- that, in the darkening years, finished product. rarely felicitate each other, but relationship, comradeship, "man- pletely lost. The easy, relaxed Memory will serve as their com- I note that you make consider- we did this very thing right after ly" love, which he called curi- postures we see seated on Greek forter if not their delight. I be- able use of Holloway, and quite that memorable dinner. Bless her ously "athletic love," a term ap- vases of, say, Persephone & Pala- lieved this until I got old. I be- properly, since no one can deny dear heart, there she sat smiling, parently of his own coining, since medes, with the figure of the lieved, also, the opening lines of that his is a scholarly work. I dominating completely her terri- it cannot be found anywhere else Goddess molded into the chair "Rabbi Ben Ezra." never met him although he was ble physical infirmities. It is hard in literature. I am familiar with completely reposed, serene and here at the University for several But Moore and Browning were for me to believe that she ever the passages hard to reconcile tranquil, is general throughout years. I get the impression from indulging in wishful thinking. surrendered, even "in the dead, with this view; but, on the other the Greek and Roman empires reading his book that he is a The last of life is by no means unhappy night," to the sick fan- hand, there are ten times as for at least a thousand years. prude and I am therefore puzzled the best of life. Memory does not cies I have (under a most mys- many passages which cannot be Then man literally forgets how that he was interested in Whit- half renew our pleasures. On the terious compulsion) been sharing reconciled with any other view. to sit down, and it is a thousand man at all. His two- or three-page other hand, Memory makes us with you. Did she ever indulge years before he discovers a gen- disquisition on the poet's New more miserable by presenting "tears, idle tears?" I doubt it. But The companion piece, Children uine chair and how to make one. Orleans love-affair resolves itself former joys in contrast with the if she did, she was in her con- of Adam, dealing with love be- From the Fall of Rome to the into a sort of apology, setting aches and pains of a worn-out tacts with us, always and indis- tween the sexes, represents a re- Discovery of America man had forth that if the woman was a physical machine, and, on the putably captain of her soul. volt against the really ridiculous not where to rest his buttocks, prostitute she was not of the emotional plain, with the mere Well, I'm afraid it will take reticences of the Victorians, and and then it took him nearly three lowest order of prostitutes; and ghosts or shadows of pleasures another compost-party to dissi- is certainly quite beyond any- hundred years• to fashion a piece that if she was dark, she was not once experienced with an over- pate the gloom. into which this thing in English in giving unin- in which the relaxed sitting pos- so very dark. This is what one whelming sense of their reality. correspondence has fallen. Until hibited but, nevertheless, ideal- ture of the human body was pos- may call a hair-line, color-line Tennyson comes nearer my ex- them, I am ized expression to this phase of sible. defense, and an appeal for clem- perience: "a sorrow's crown of Yours as cheerfully as possible, human, experience. We feel here So, if it takes a millenium or so ency on the grounds of degrees sorrows is remembering happier Bedi that Nature speaks "without —no one knows how long, to of prostitution, neither of which, check and with original energy." things .... *Mrs. Morgan Smith I think, Whitman himself would make a simple piece of furniture "Drug thy memory lest thou have undertaken to plead in any I am returning your excellent one can sit on—and then after learn it, lest thy heart be put court of morals to which he paper herewith, and thanks very forgetting how another millen- III to proof might have been 'summoned. much for dispensing my regards ium (we) only re-learn by acci- Dear Dobie: dental survival of representations, In the dead, unhappy night Whitman constantly exposed around the college. I believe that you and I think how the more complicated when the rain is on the roof." reached our conclusion concern- his soul, while carefully conceal- Yours truly, things of civilization, not only ing and even lying about the or- (italics supplied) ing helpless old age independ- Roy Bedichek mechanical but 'ways of life' (the dinary details of his life with ently of each other and perhaps genuine essences of civilization) which the biographer has to do. Miss Oneita Hildebrand, And, again, he is so mortally independently of our reading, or —consider how much is lost in Where he went and when; how No. 1205 West Mulberry, right in that immortal unrhymed 'of our listening to the wise. Any- the monstrous churnings about many trips he made and in what Denton, Texas lyric, finest in the language, way, it takes a Greek to put it of wars and migrations to which directions; what women he loved "Tears, Idle Tears." Repetition of into words that seem to me to our species is subjected. Truly leave nothing unsaid: and where, and whether black, P.S. Since you are an English it renews even now the flow of "we little note nor long remem- white, or chocolate-colored or to teacher, I shall have to •apologize tears from my dried-up, drouthy ber." Only the base will long for what degrees of prostitution they for the typing of this letter. Since eyes. This occurs to me in the con- length of life that never turns were severally addicted; how none of our stenographic force text of your 'geologic time' re- Once in the beginning of my another way from evil. many, if any, children he had (he is inured to the language of lit- mark the other afternoon, and old age, I drove alone down the What joy is there in day that once boasted of having five) ;- erary criticism, and since help is tends to confirm your 'suggestion. beautiful Bosque Valley in the follows day, now swift, now all are disputed points and no too scarce to risk any resigna- It is also in line with the 'no- fall of the year. I began repeating slow, and death the only goal. cne has yet dug up authentic rec- tions, I have had to do this letter progress' theory I mentioned. I that poem looking out upon "the I count as nothing him who ords in any way conclusive con- with my own fair hands on my think it must have been some happy autumn fields" and think- feels within the glow of empty cerning them. As to his private 30-year-old old Oliver typewriter. such staggering discovery as ing of the days in that very val- hopes. life he has given us, indeed, "only R.B. mine of the chair that caused our ley when it was the scene, years Yours for a long life as long as most robust of optimists, Walt previously, of one of the great it is a merry one, or as you say, Whitman, to rub his eyes and. ex- emotional experiences of my life. as long as one can stay "lit up claim, "I know the amplitude of Tears blinded me and I drove with life." `One day at the Springs' time." How much more philo- off on the side of the road until R.B. Every now and then he would on this subject for about eight sophic is that remark than Ten- I regained my vision. October 10, 1957 say he was egotistical and anti- years. nyson's "I the heir to all the ages Fortunately, we have poetry social. But Roy Bedichek simply in the foremost files of Time." Is for childhood, and poetry a little couldn't put on the act. Bedichek had a way of making he the heir to all the ages? Not more realistic for youth, still THE TEXAS OBSERVER people want to confide in him. by a damnsite. He inherits only nearer the truth for middle age, Page 11 June 27, 1959 Af course, he was a paradox— Soon he knew all about my prob- a microscopic fraction, and that as who is not? But he was of the lems as a professional writer and little will be wiped out and for- chosen few who merit evaluation. editor. He didn't believe that gotten in the World Hurricane in writing for a living soiled the which we shall shortly be en- Several years ago Rev. Ed- `As I begin my devotional' soul. gulfed. mund Heinsohn, sitting on the 801 East 23rd Street edge of its peanut-butter glass. Yours, Bedi. rocks at Barton Springs, said Austin 5, Texas So, for my small trouble in One afternoon at the Springs I P.S. An old barber who has cut that Bedichek "has so much to August 31, 1956 extending ever so briefly this, told him I was disgusted with an my hair for forty years confided give." The other day at the ser- little flower's little lease on onerous writing job I had under- to my right ear as he was trim- Dear Clara (Lewis): vices he concluded by saying life, I am rewarded by being taken and was going to ditch it. ming the hairs out of it yesterday From long habit I never that the spirit that was in Bedi- reminded of you, your gra- He advised against it. "Give that afternoon that 'he can no longer throw away an unfaded rose, chek has "survival value." ciousness, of your considera- man the best that's in you," he sit down camp-style out in the but stick it in a little water, tion for others, of your zest in said. open—he can no longer naturally not from any • sentimental as- There are many revealing life, your vivacity and cease- answer Nature's .eall, but must sociation it may happen to "Bedi" stories, but mostly they In like manner I have heard less activity all richly sea- seek a rest of some sort. R.B. have with an event or person- should be told by those in the him smooth out the thinking of soned with what Wordsworth P.P.S. One of the real tragedies ality, but simply because in intimate circle. Two will suffice disturbed insurance salesmen, nominates "that best portion of Old Age lies in its decreasing my religion a trash can is no here: university professors, tailor s, of a good man's life, his little ability to squat. place for a rose with any life lawyers, barbers, and assorted nameless unremembered acts He invited criticism of his ccEugene George, Jr. left in it. Doctors of Philosophy—all kinds of kindness and of love." works. One day at the Springs I Hence, the little rose you of people who happened to get in This is a young man And even yet in this dawn took him up on that. I had found with whom I sometimes have pinned on my lapel the other conversation with him on the nearly a week later, this one of his sentences objectiona- philosophic discussions. R.B. night was thus bestowed as I creek bank. flower still faces me over the ble for a purely technical reason. was disrobing for bed, and it edge of the glass, performing He made a calm reply which I Whenever Bedichek started is still there in its berth as untaught its self-imposed task have forgotten, and I thought the telling me how self-centered and fresh as when it was ravished of reminding. matter ended. Far from it. Two anti-social he was, I would re- 801 E 23 from its bush. Each morning And thus reminded I am days later I received a well- mind him of this. Austin 5, Texas since as I begin my devo- March 13, 1955 tional, which consists of mere- and must remain documented letter stating that he He would again try to put on Dear Clara: ly reading a good book, I see Always Sincerely yours was right and I was wrong. the act. And fail. Finally, I found your note of it across the table above the Roy Bedichek We fired letters back and forth FRED THOMPSON March 3 and note that in an- Dear Bedi:

`You left my life richer as I am sure you did the lives of many others.'

Dear Bedi: Saint Helena Canyon, camped in Ronnie Dugger asked me to a sandbed with a one-armed real send him something to include in silk stocking salesman who was trying to get away from civiliza- his special edition of The Ob- tion and had darn near done it. server, which I understand he is We cleaned up his camp, fed him making into a sort of Bedichek good food, and paid him $3.00 for symposium to commemorate your showing us the canyon which departure on. a long journey. was right there for all to see. He was a salesman. It was from him Those of us who knew you would that you learned about a special just as soon have had you post- breed of rabbits, which he called pone it, though we all know that knee rabbits, found only, accord- such a journey is inevitable. ing to our informant, in the Rio Grande Valley. I'll never forget You will be interested, and the expression on your face perhaps amused, to learn that when, in response to your ques- you took a good deal of the sting tion, our host told you the origin —Neal Douglass Photo out of your going by the manner of knee rabbits. Coming back of it. Those of us who had lis- from the Big Bend we decided UT Press Director Frank Wardlaw, Bedichek, Dobie, and Webb tened to your vociferous com- that what we had done was fool- A Texas Naturalist Tells a Story to Some Friends in an Austin Evening ments on this subject know that ish and that we liked it; we en- you went exactly the way you tered into an agreement to do at wanted, as if you had designed least one foolish thing each year. it with the skill and determina- I think I have lived up to that tion you used in designing your `I hear "Time's winged chariot" ' agreement, but I am not sure that own life. Few people are able to you did. Your innate paution (At the suggestion of the editor ing the cubby-holes of deposits Mighty sorry! No poet of any call their own shots as you did, seemed to get in the way. Dr. Webb extracted. from his file jumbled and overlaid with dust tunefulness would use it, but I right up to the end. of Bedichek letters the one that I uncovered the title of a knew the comparison was right. In 1942 I did what turned out After the service by Dr. Hein- follows. It shows how Bedichek's poem, Then since the last couplet of the to be a wise thing. I bought the sohn, which I thought very ap- mind worked, how a literary "Lines to a Dying Ath- poem first dug up mentions Old Johnson Institute in the hills propriate for you, three of us suggestion nagged him, and may- lete" but nothing came of it for "dust" another comparison of southwest of Austin and changed went out for lunch where we be something of his sardonic a day or two, and then while I fame to dust must be next, and it its name to Friday Mountain had a pretty good time retelling view of fame.—Ed.) was taking a bath and thinking came without much trouble: Ranch because a hill there is the delightful stories which our of what a mess of a winter-gar- named . Friday Mountain and I "A giddy whirlwind's fickle total association of not less than Dear Webb: den I have, this couplet popped liked the name. You used the old 100 years had provided us. The lines you quote are im- up uncalled: gust stone building as a hideout to That lifts a pinch of mortal (Frank Dobie and I knew you pressive: write your first book, Adventures "Silence sounds no worse than dust." for forty years, and Glen Evans "But at my back I always hear with a Texas Naturalist. You cheers must have known you for twenty Time's winged chariot hurry- spent a year and a day there, but After the earth has stopped his So I think I have it, that is the or more, and that makes the 100 ing near." you came out with the finished ears." concluding three couplets. There years.) I know you would have manuscript. Your picture hangs Your comment is deeply philo- been pleased to be the subject of Do you notice that the rime of is leading up to these three coup- in the room upstairs where you sophic. Instead of being an his- such animated conversation, and this is almost identical with the lets a short life history of Bill did your writing, sleeping and torian, you should have been a the center of so many good sto- rime of your couplet. What eating. You cooked your own philosopher. You have genuine and one of Joe. One a "pensive ries. We were particularly de- strange alchemy goes on in the food in the open fireplace or on a philosophic insight, but not a memory! scholar" and the other a hail fel- lighted that you had finished professionally cultivated one. But hot plate; occasionally you in- Still I knew this was a wrong low well-met who takes life and your fourth book, all of them sisted on my eating things you maybe the professional philoso- written after you were seventy, scent—true it is in the same vein, life's joys and sorrows in his had cooked in the ashes. The po- phers would have sealed up the and that you had got but I knew that it didn't answer, healthy stride. your pub- tatoes and. eggs were all right, outlets of your intuitive wisdom. lisher's signature on the line, and except by indirection, the query, but I drew the line on brussel I have always contended that you maybe even a nice advance, only "Ah, pensive scholar, what is Ah, pensive scholar, what is sprouts and spinach, which I are somewhat of a psychic. a week earlier. A couplet you quote started me fame?" fame? don't care for when cooked pro- per. There was not even running digging into my capacious mem- Then I decided to give it up A slender tongue of leaping The first time I remember see- water in the house, but you made ory for a couplet or two from a and write to the "memory" col- flame, ing you was during the impeach- out. We still have the big round poem by some early American umn of the NY Times' and get A giddy whirlwind's fickle ment trial of a Texas governor table you used, one that Captain rhymster, maybe Bret Harte, the answer. But I was busy and when I as a student was in the gust Ernest Best of the Texas Rangers Maybe John Hay, maybe some- put off writing. It kept ding- gallery of the House of Represen- That lifts a pinch of mortal took out of a gambling house. one else—no matter. My digging, donging in my memory: "what is tatives and you as a reporter for as usual, exhumed only the con- the rime for fame?" Finally dus t— the San Antonio Express were on Another thing you did was to cluding lines which run "flame" came. It must be flame, A few swift years and who can the floor. You were supposed to suggest that Rodney Kidd and I "A few swift years and who but get the line, I could not, so I show be making impartial reports, but should set up a boys' camp at can show decided to build up a line of my I suspect you may have slanted Which dust was Bill and which Friday Mountain. In response to Which dust was Bill and which own, but with the figure the poet them just a little in the direction was Joe. your suggestion we met one was Joe." used clearly before me, that is of your sentiment, which is ex- rainy day and set up Friday a comparison of "fame" to You can see what a burden and actly what I would have done A few more days of digging Mountain Boys' Camp, now in its "flame." "A sudden lift of leap- what superhuman exertion your had I been in your place. Inci- and the digger brought up an- thirteenth year. You had a chap- ing flame" and I repeated it suggestion put upon me that we dentally that trial is the most other fragment, ter in your book entitled "The aloud with dissatisfaction: are no longer friendly in the dramatic event I have ever wit- "... Ah, pensive scholar, what Tree and the Rock." It was the mails, or even neighborly, be- nessed. Later you became an edi- is fame?" Ah, pensive scholar, what is tor on the Express and held this story of how a hackberry tree This, you see, is a query and cause fame? position when I decided to quit found root in a giant rock, broke must have an answer. So search- A sudden lift of leaping flame. Always at our backs we hear teaching in the San Antonio the rock into several pieces and "Time's winged chariot hurry- schools because I had had a row became a big tree. You were ex- plaining how soil is made. The ing near." with the superintendent. I ap- `A sense of the flow of time' plied to you for a job as a re- tree died during the drought, porter. You not only turned me only the stump and the broken Whether or not this book is any much chatter falls from the com- I am afraid Toynbee is too down, but you gave me a lengthy rocks are left. It is possible that much for me. I have read your good, I am already compensated posite mouth of Texas as from and not wholly convincing lec- you have conferred immortality review in the Dallas News. by having regained a sense of the that of any other state, excluding It ture as to why Ishould not take on Friday Mountain and that in flow of time. There are now few only those of disproportionate makes a stimulating introduction this step. I didn't take it because the future 'students and curious moments mutilated with flurried metropolitan populations. Out- to the great man's work, but I nobody would give me a job. tourists in search of culture will haste. The incubus of some neg- door living not only softens hear "Time's winged chariot." I make pilgrimages there to see lected task has loosened its hold, speech but slows its tempo, re- must stick to my humble knit- My memory is not very clear where the Texas Naturalist wrote and I feel no longer the internal flecting quieter nerves and men- ting, and try to understand sim- as to when or how our friendship his first book. disquietude of something hang- tal reactions surer if somewhat pler things than the reasons for developed at the University of ing fire which it was my duty to slower on the trigger. the fall, rise, endurances and dis- Texas. I spent a five-year stretch Ah well, Bedi, this could go eases of twenty-five or thirty on your Interscholastic League straighten out a week or two ago. on for a long time if I recounted Rhythm comes of timing the It is because Nature herself is civilizations since they began re- Council and was struck by the all the memories of a long asso- items of one's routine to conform deliberate. Ninety-nine per cent cording themselves in enduring savage intensity with which you to those of the natural day. of her performance is gradual. and legible form. What does enforced the rules made (by you, ciation. Perhaps I can sum it up Whence comes the deliberation To take a single instance out of Toynbee say of the Minoan civi- I suspect) in an effort to pre- by saying that you made my life and aplomb of out-of-door people those hundreds ready at hand: lization whose record recently serve some morality in school richer as I am sure you did the what a large percentage of ur- athletics. the world over, savage as well as discovered has not yet been deci- lives of many others. You left banized populations miss begin- phered? civilized? The American Indian. We really got acquainted, I Texas a better place than you is recorded as grave, slow, meas- ning the day under the spell of Don't give yourself any more think, when we went to the Big ured in speech and manner. The the silent, pervasive, leisurely found it and no Texan should concern over my arrogance. It is Bend during the Christmas holi- frontier Texan figures in fiction preparations of the heavens to re- wish for more. ceive the sun! definitely on its way out. days and camped at the mouth of and in factual descriptions with a Yours, "drawl" and as a man of few Roy Bedichek As ever, affectionately words. Of course, now, with a in the Introduction to Adven- Bedi. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Walter Prescott Webb generation of urbanization, as tures with a Texas Naturalist December 6, 1954. Page 12 June 27, 1959 Mr. Roy Bedichek