"Life in the Far West" * is written in the form of a thinly veiled romance; but the actors were real, the incidents were real, and they were strung together in a connected plot simply because that was the most effective way to show character in action. The story is not history, of course, but neither is it fable. Nearly every page gives convincing evidence of the author's intimate personal knowledge of the scenes and characters portrayed. He had scoured the continent from Canada to Mexico, from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. He had associated with many redoubtable characters of the old West--with men like Kit Carson, Bill Williams, the Bents, the Sublettes, Joe Meek, St. Vrain, Fitzpatrick, Killbuck, and La Bonté. He was equally at home among Americans, Canadians, Creoles, Mexicans, Spanish Californians, and Indians. Each of these picturesque types he has shown to the life. No narrative or formal history of that time has described the pioneers of the Far West with such actual truth and fidelity. * Here published as "In the Old West." The wildness of the adventures related by Ruxton led many readers to suspect that they were mere romance. The author replied, in a letter to his publishers:-- "I think it would be well to correct a misapprehension as to the truth or fiction of the paper. It is _no fiction_. There is no incident in it which has not actually occurred, nor one character who is not well known in the Rocky Mountains, with the exception of two whose names are changed." Fully half of the names of Americans mentioned in his book can be identified today with the men who bore them. Again he wrote:-- "I have brought out a few more softening traits in the characters of the mountaineers--but not at the sacrifice of truth--for some of them have their good points; which, as they are rarely allowed to rise to the surface, must be laid hold of at once before they sink again. Killbuck--that 'old hoss' _par exemple_, was really pretty much of a gentleman, as was La Bonté. Bill Williams, another 'hard case,' and Rube Herring, were 'some' too. "The scene where La Bonté joins the Chase family is so far true, that he did make a sudden appearance; but, in reality, a day before the Indian attack. The Chases (and I wish I had not given the proper name *) did start for the Platte alone, and were stampeded upon the waters of the Platte. "The Mexican fandango _is true to the letter_. It does seem difficult to understand how they contrived to keep their knives out of the hump-ribs of the mountaineers; but how can you account for the fact, that, the other day, 4000 Mexicans, with 13 pieces of artillery, behind strong intrenchments and two lines of parapets, were routed by 900 raw Missourians; 300 killed, as many more wounded, all their artillery captured, as well as several hundred prisoners; and that not one American was killed in the affair? _This is positive fact_.