Review: "On Texas Street" by Ernest Haycox

 

“On Texas Street”
by Ernest Haycox
Little, Brown & Co., 1942

 

Originally appearing in the Dec. 1932 issue of Collier’s, “On Texas Street” is an appealing literary Western about Lee Bowie. Bowie is a cow-puncher with Texas’ Star Cross Ranch. After delivering 1,800 cattle to Abilene, Kansas, Bowie is stumbling his way to a decision about the man he is, a trail drover, and what he may want to be: a driftless family man.
     Haycox stirs a little action into the narrative, even a shooting—although it is off-page—along with the real-life Abilene lawman, Tom Smith. What makes “On Texas Street” shine are its emotional sense, its real-world low-key drama, and its small but colorful cast of characters.
     Which is to say, “On Texas Street” is far from a traditional shoot-’em-up Western, but it is a fine story with enough plot to keep most readers hooked. 

“On Texas Street” appeared in the story collection, Murder on the Frontier, along with eight more of Haycox’s tales published by Collier’s in the 1930s and early-1940s.