One Dash - Horses
February 3, 1986
A review of "One Dash - Horses" by Stephen Crane.
Copyright © 1997 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher. All rights reserved.
One Dash - Horses is the story of an American whose courage - and absolute terror - caused him to face a mob of would-be assassins. Luck and fate were instrumental in preventing him from being robbed and killed by a group of drunken Mexicans. A stalemate between terrified bluffing and drunken bravado had been reached, and the outcome was questionable. The arrival of the women broke the tension of the stalemate and prevented its solution.
The American and his servant made an amazing escape from the Mexican settlement, despite the clashing of spurs and the calling of equines. They were well away from the settlement when the pursuing Mexicans came in sight, but the American's terror-based paranoia caused him to see pursuers in every dust cloud.
The American and his servant were saved when they met a squad of rurales, the law of the plains. The Mexican assassins turned tail and removed themselves from the vicinity at a great pace when faced with uniformed rurales.
The American's courage was evidenced when he faced down his attackers in the small, Mexican house in the middle of the night. His strength allowed him to bluff the fat Mexican when his own life was at stake.
The American's honest fear was apparent in his hasty dawn departure from the Mexican settlement. His terror stiffened and numbed his fingers, making it difficult for him to saddle his horse.
The American's courage and fear, and the Mexican's drunken ignorance, saved the lives of the American and his servant. Nothing, however, could have saved any of them from the rurales, had there been a conflict.
Crane's familiarity with fear, and his knowledge of the Southwest, granted this work an insight which brought the scenes into vivid relief. The American's emotions were almost tangible.
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