Dusty Books, Frontier LibrarianR.T. Carr, Editor Note: the first part of this piece opens with a script from a Television show. Then follows a reproduction of the original title page. I have inserted an editorial note. (RTC) Part 1Excerpt from 'Exploring the West'... Dusty's Original title Page... Editor's Note... John Rawlings: Hello again and welcome to 'Exploring the West'. In this episode we are going to do a little gonzo archaeology and talk about the danger and rewards of poking about old deserted historical buildings. Out here in the desert...we're near Virginia City Nevada...you can find many an abandoned building from the gold rush era. Now this one is slated to be torn down...or more than likely torched...because it happens to be on the site of a new wind generated power plant. The Nevada power grid has allowed us to take a peek in here for historical purposes. A word about safety... don't try this at home, kids!... unless you have an adult with you... and not crazy Uncle Freddy! So let's get on with this...as usual this is completely unrehearsed and spontaneous...just me and my cameraman Phil, his video-camera, and several lights that he carries with him whenever we are going into dark places. First thing you have to watch for is the door...(Uhhh) this one is a bit sturdier than usual, which might account for the building surviving this long. (Kicks it open) Ok...now we're inside...unless you know the under part of the cabin, watch out for flooring. You can fall in something and hurt yourself. Look over there Phil...a hole in the floor...Now don't venture too close to the edge of any things like this...the edge might be fragile...after all the hole is there for a reason, right?...also in the desert you have to be aware of snakes...Phil is that a brick over there? Oh thanks...let's see what the brick does...
(Tosses Brick into hole) John Rawlings: Well I'd call that a full pit!...anyway you have to watch out for objects lying on the floor and even old siding can be loose... (Hits a section of wall...it falls down in a big chunk, barely missing Rawlings, dusting everywhere) (Hand is seen coming into filed of vision wiping the lens) John Rawlings: Well if that doesn't prove that this show is unrehearsed, nothing ever will...Sorry about that Phil! That's exactly what I was saying...we're going to have to get our dust protection from the truck...what's that Phil? You say there is something there?..This looks like it has a potential historical interest...a metal box...and it's heavy...there might be gold in it...but probably not. You remember those 2 kids that found a million $ in Georgia on the site of a Civil War Battle? Confederate money! Now since this has a definite Historical interest we have to notify the power grid...standard procedure...until we get this to the lab and check it out the construction will have to stop...this little cabin out here might be a historical monument if someone like Mark Twain lived here. So we're going to stop tape and get this back to the lab at the University of Nevada Reno. I want to open this in front of witnesses in a lab setting with a few colleagues present and of course Phil and his camera.... You won't have to lug around those lights over there...find your tripod, OK? (Camera Fades /Sound fades) (Fade up on lab setting...camera work is much more steady...camera pans to Rawlings. The box has been opened. It and it's contents are now visible on the lab bench behind .) John Rawlings: We're back at the University of Nevada...it is late afternoon of the same day we made our little discovery. Let me take you back a few hours ago when we brought the box in... (A tape is played showing what he describes as he narrates) Opening it wasn't too hard...it was soldered shut...so we just had to carefully braise the solder, but that was after we scoped the contents. This is just on case this was full of dynamite...boom! The scope showed papers and several other indistinct objects wrapped in leather. Once open I thought we'd actually hit the bonanza...no it wasn't full of gold...but there was a manuscript wrapped in Buckskin and tied with a string...well I won't keep you in suspense...no it wasn't Mark Twain's papers or a long forgotten and unpublished manuscript by him. (Tape stops.) What we found were...Well you can see the objects...I'm not allowed to pick them up...so Phil can zoom in a little closer so we can see it...Ooh, Phil that looked smooth! The Box had a monogram 'DB' on it...it is covered in zinc and might be copper or some malleable metal. It will be analyzed very soon. And they have opened the papers but they will be handled more carefully because exposure to the air might disintegrate them. They are in the vacuum sealed box still in their original container. There was also an ancient pen and a bottle of dried up ink. There is a leather pouch that seems to have a Derringer pistol in it, but we'll verify that after they figure out how to open it. That's the way it is with some of the material found in desert settings, some of it looks like it was created yesterday and is in great shape and some things that were created yesterday look like they've been out here forever. Just giving it the old eyeball this find appears to be the genuine article, and thus may be of some significance. I did get the technician, in exchange for Harrah's Show tickets... just kidding... to look at the first page of the manuscript, which is loose leaved and unbound with no numbered pages.... They will be careful to keep them in order.... This is not the first time they have found something like this. The title appears to be: Dusty Books, Frontier Librarian... (bursts out laughing) ...hysterical, huh? Once they scan these documents we'll be able to read them more carefully and I'll report on the results in another program. I'm the expert on poking about, they'll do the authentication. Ok Phil, pack it in, we're off to do a little poking about for the Lost Dutchman Mine over near Ely, Nevada... (Fade Sound and Camera) Dusty BooksMemoir of a Frontier Librarian(Edited by R.T. Carr III) Being an account of a few of the unlikely occurrences, grand adventures, people and the creation of a damn fine little frontier library from a participant in all those events. (Hand written in a fast scrawl is the following postscript) A fast mystery, an unexpected windfall, and a hasty midnight exit by the author with just the clothes on his back and his trusty pistol, being pursued by the Sheriff, well perhaps not but packing it in for certain. I'm about to solder this into my tin box and hide it in the wall of my cabin and mebbe come back fer it later! D.B. Editors Note: No judgments have been made about the authenticity of the statements herein. Since it was hand written without modern conveniences like spell check programs, there are numerous spelling and contextual errors, which I have left alone. For purposes of interpretation I took the author's advice and 'tussled with it until it looked good to me.' I have followed a tradition of the period and added to the original text in smaller type at the beginning of each 'Chapter' a summary of events. The chapters are mine, as well as the page numbers, just for proper scholarly reference. This document was received with no page numbers, and the only numbering present was stating Part 1 and Part 2. The last section done on cheaper paper in a very hurried fashion. If this fellow did exist, he led a colorful life admittedly and embellished his way into the editor's black little heart. There are no dates or page numbers, but I transcribed this in the order received and it all seems to tie in very logically, story and depth of tale depending. The dating can be determined as pre -Civil War, possibly from the early 1850's to 1875 at the end of the tale, which has been established definitely by researchers from the Nevada Historical Society. March 11th 1875 Dusty's Library was destroyed by fire. We know where it ends, but not precisely when it begins. His narrative begins with his early life and then at sea, by roughly 1851. But I think he should tell it. I'm going to have a glass of 'red eye' in Dusty's honor, and let him do the telling. It'll be much more interesting. (R.T. Carr)
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