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Lot Essay
The present work has been assigned number CR.PC.28 by the Charles M. Russell Catalogue Raisonné Committee.
The present work was published as an illustration for Stewart Edward White's Arizona Nights in the January 1906 issue of McClure's Magazine, accompanying Part I entitled "Uncle Jim's Yarn: The Indian Story."
In Arizona Nights, Uncle Jim recounts his closest call ever with the Apache tribes, who raided the Galiuro Mountain region of Arizona in the days of the famed leader Geronimo. Jim was working the Ole Virginia mine one day, laying down dynamite before climbing out of the shaft for the afternoon, when he spotted a dozen Indians resting at the nearby watering hole. When the sputtering of sparks attracted their attention to him, Jim was stuck between a fuse about to blow and a dangerous band of Indians out for blood. Jumping out of the mine hole, he was out of luck until one of the dynamite sticks blew off up the shaft. Jim recalled, "'Boom!' say she, plenty big; and a slather of rocks and stones come out of the mouth and began to dump down promiscuous on the scenery. I got one little one in the shoulder-blade, and found time to wish my ore dump had a roof. But those renegades caught it square in the thick of trouble. One got knocked out entirely for a minute by a nice piece of country rock in the head." (S.E. White, "Arizona Nights," McClure’s Magazine, vol. 26, no. 3, January 1906, p. 295) Driven off by the flurry of debris falling on their heads, the Apaches rode away in a hurry, leaving Jim safe for the time being. However, the Indians' new knowledge of the Ole Virginia mine would cause trouble for him the next day.
The present work was published as an illustration for Stewart Edward White's Arizona Nights in the January 1906 issue of McClure's Magazine, accompanying Part I entitled "Uncle Jim's Yarn: The Indian Story."
In Arizona Nights, Uncle Jim recounts his closest call ever with the Apache tribes, who raided the Galiuro Mountain region of Arizona in the days of the famed leader Geronimo. Jim was working the Ole Virginia mine one day, laying down dynamite before climbing out of the shaft for the afternoon, when he spotted a dozen Indians resting at the nearby watering hole. When the sputtering of sparks attracted their attention to him, Jim was stuck between a fuse about to blow and a dangerous band of Indians out for blood. Jumping out of the mine hole, he was out of luck until one of the dynamite sticks blew off up the shaft. Jim recalled, "'Boom!' say she, plenty big; and a slather of rocks and stones come out of the mouth and began to dump down promiscuous on the scenery. I got one little one in the shoulder-blade, and found time to wish my ore dump had a roof. But those renegades caught it square in the thick of trouble. One got knocked out entirely for a minute by a nice piece of country rock in the head." (S.E. White, "Arizona Nights," McClure’s Magazine, vol. 26, no. 3, January 1906, p. 295) Driven off by the flurry of debris falling on their heads, the Apaches rode away in a hurry, leaving Jim safe for the time being. However, the Indians' new knowledge of the Ole Virginia mine would cause trouble for him the next day.