AtDtDA23: It Had Rained in the Night

[Dave Monroe]

"It had rained in the night ..."  (AtD, Pt. III, p. 650)


"ocotillo fences"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocotillo
http://www.desertusa.com/nov96/du_ocotillo.html


"'Every time he stood by me ...'"

Cortez, Colorado

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortez%2C_Colorado

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Ebbert (?)


Leadville, Colorado

In 1874, gold miners at Oro City discovered that the heavy sand that
impeded their gold recovery was the lead mineral cerussite, that
carried a high content of silver. Prospectors followed the cerussite
to its source, and by 1876, had discovered several lode silver-lead
deposits. The city of Leadville was founded near to the new silver
deposits in 1877, setting off the Colorado Silver Boom. By 1880,
Leadville was one of the world's largest silver camps, with a
population of over 40,000.

In 1882, the Tabor Opera House hosted Oscar Wilde on his lecture tour
of the West, one of many celebrities who graced the city. Mayor David
H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the Matchless silver mine and open
their new lode: "The Oscar." Wilde later recounted a visit to a local
saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have
ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice - 'Please do not
shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'"

In its early years, Leadville was the site of some famous mining
swindles. When the Little Pittsburg mine exhausted its rich ore body,
the managers sold off their shares while hiding the real condition of
the mine from other stockholders. "Chicken Bill" Lovell dumped a
wheelbarrow of rich silver ore into a barren pit on his Chrysolite
mining claim in order to sell the claim to Horace Tabor for a large
price; but Tabor had the last laugh when his miners dug down a few
feet farther and discovered a rich ore body....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadville,_Colorado

Leadville Area Time Line

http://www.leadville.com/history/timeline.htm

The courthouse in Leadville today still shows the arrests of the
infamous gunfighter and gambler, Doc Holliday in its jail records ...

http://www.leadville.com/history/holliday.htm


Rock Springs, Wyoming

On September 2, 1885, 150 white miners attacked their Chinese
coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more
out of town. The event is known as the Rock Springs Massacre and is
one of the worst race riots in American history....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs,_Wyoming

Rock Springs Massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_massacre

Rock Springs is a highly regarded collection of 10 short stories by
Pulitzer prize winning author Richard Ford, published in 1987 dealing
with dysfunctional mothers and fathers and their effect on a young
male narrator. Several of Ford's leading characters can be viewed as
losers or con artists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_%28book%29


Ladies' Friend
a small pistol that could be concealed in a lady's clothing.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677#Page_650


Creede, Colorado

Creede was the last silver boom town in Colorado in the 1800s....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creede

Along with the prospectors and miners came gamblers, saloonkeepers and
ladies of the evening. Bob Ford, reputed slayer of Jesse James, opened
a dance hall and saloon. Soapy Smith, owner of the Orleans Club, soon
declared himself boss of Creede. Bat Masterson, of Dodge City-Wyatt
Earp fame, operated another saloon for a Denver firm. Poker Lulu
Swain, the Mormon Queen, and Timberline plied their trade in "the
House." Although the Creede Candle lamented: "Creede is unfortunate in
getting more of the flotsam of the state than usually falls to the lot
of a mining camp," its editor, Cy Warman, also caught the spirit and
hopes of the lively community with his famous lines: "It's day all day
in the day time, And there is no night in Creede."

http://www.creede.com/creede.htm


"where there was still some mercy to the light"

Cf. ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/mirror.html
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/interface.html
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/i.html#inside


artemisia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_(plant)

Artemisia absinthium (Absinth Wormwood) was used to repel fleas and
moths, and in brewing (wormwood beer, wormwood wine). The aperitif
vermouth (derived from the German word Wermut, "wormwood") is a wine
flavored with aromatic herbs, but originally with wormwood. The highly
potent spirit absinthe, also contains wormwood. Wormwood has been used
medicinally as a tonic, stomachic, febrifuge and anthelmintic.

[...]

The beliefs surrounding this genus are founded upon the strong
association between the herbs of the genus Artemisia and the moon
goddess Artemis, who is believed to hold these powers. She is known
also by Diana, Selene, and Phoebe. In Hellenistic culture, Artemis was
a goddess of the hunt, and protector of the forest and children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_(plant)#Cultivation_and_uses

Wormwood (Apsinthos in the Greek text) is the "name of the star" in
the Book of Revelation (8:11) (kai to onoma tou asteros legetai ho
Apsinthos) that John the Evangelist envisions as cast by the angel and
falling into the waters, making them undrinkably bitter. Outside the
Book of Revelation, there are up to eight further references in the
Bible showing that wormwood was a common herb of the area and its
awful taste was known, as a drinkable preparation applied for specific
reasons.

The word Chernobyl properly refers to Artemisia vulgaris (Mugwort).
Some authors claim the Chernobyl Disaster relates to the above sense
of "Apsinthos", which is probably A. absinthum (Absinth Wormwood; see
Chernobyl: Name origin).

[...]

In Russian culture, the fact that Artemisia species are commonly used
in medicine, and their bitter taste is associated with medicinal
effects, has caused wormwood to be seen as a symbol for a "bitter
truth" that must be accepted by a deluded (often self-deluded) person.
This symbol has acquired a particular poignancy in modern Russian
poetry, which often deals with the loss of illusory beliefs in various
ideologies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_(plant)#Trivia


"Dixies and Fans and Mignonettes"

???

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677#Page_651

"WHILE THE EVIL DAYS COME NOT"

THE RHYME OF MIGNONETTE

When dandelions fleck the green,
  And plum-blooms scent the evening breeze,
  And robin's songs throb through the trees;
And when the year is raw thirteen,
  And Spring's a gawky hoyden yet,
The season mirrors in its mien
  And in its tom-boy etiquette,
  Maid Mignonette, my Mignonette.

When bare-feet lisp along the path,
  And boys and jays go whistling by,
  And girls and thrushes coyly cry
Their fine joys through the aftermath—
  Then laid ghosts know their amulet
Which fickle siren mem'ry hath;
  So laughing comes that sad coquette,
  Comes Mignonette,—my Mignonette.

The wild rose is a conjurer,
  It charms the heavy years away,
  Unshoes my feet and bids them stray
O'er playgrounds where our temples were.
  To some pale star I owe a debt
For harboring the soul of her
  With whom I learned love's alphabet—
  With Mignonette, my Mignonette.


"While the Evil Days come not"

We duck through the court, reminded a
bit by our feelings of our first love, who hadn't
the cleanest of faces, or the nicest of manners;
but she takes her station in our memory because
we were boys then, and the golden halo
of youth is upon her.—George Meredith.

What little things turn great events! Tragedies swing on such
inconsequential hinges. It is so exasperating to look back over the
path of a calamity and see how easily it might have been averted! ...

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12377

William Allen White, The Court of Boyville (1910)

http://books.google.com/books?id=BkriQequg1kC
http://books.google.com/books?id=lRorAAAAMAAJ


"her own sad story, her dream, recurring, bad, broken, never come true" ...