Credits
Penciller(s):
?
Inker(s):
?
Colorist(s):
?
Letterer(s):
typeset
Subject Matter
Genres:
western
Character(s):
Lone Ranger (masked man); Tonto (Indian companion); Mark Tanwick (homesteader); Billy (Mark's horse, a buckskin cow-pony); Cal Berman (cattleman); Bertha (Mark's bride-to-be); Berman's red-roan gelding; The sheriff
First Line:
The wide-shouldered young homesteader flung an arm about his horse's neck, hugged him, and stepped back.
Synopsis:
Homesteader Mark Tanwick almost kills beloved horse Billy to keep him from covetous cattleman Cal Berman's clutches. Lone Ranger and Tonto's timely arrival spares him. He unburdens to the new friends: Mark's crop was by Cal's cattle despoiled, the mortgage bought by Cal, who's foreclosing today. The $1000, to be brought by bride-to-be Bertha, must've hit a snag. LR&T buy Billy for the amount needed, then reveal Bertha is with them, having been rescued from a stage holdup that left a man dead. Cal comes with the sheriff, LR's sleuthing identifies Cal as the murderer; Bertha corroborates.
Reprinting
Reprint Notes:
Miscellaneous
Pages:
1
Notes:
Inside front cover "(continued on back cover)"; black on white, with red halftone printing. Text story with six illustrations.
This two-page text story, published August 3, 1945 on non-consecutive pages as "The Lone Ranger Pays a Call" is the same (we believe) as what was written by Gaylord Du Bois as "The Lone Ranger Calls the Turn."
Writer identification concluded by David Porta per:
1) Page 44, Gaylord Du Bois's Account Books Sorted by Title compiled from the original account books by Randall W. Scott (Michigan State University Libraries 1985) 203 leaves ; 28 cm. -- Photocopy of computer printout. -- Call no.: PN6727.D77 A2S35 1985.
The Account Books entry reads:
"The Lone Ranger Calls the Turn. text for ? Sent May 21, 1945."
2) And considerations enumerated in these notes*.
The story begins with an animal hook (rancher Mark Tanwick about to kill his beloved horse, Billy). Animals are a primary Du Bois identifier. Most of his stories contain or are about animals, personalizing the reality-based animals in appropriate fashion, as here (naming Mark's cow pony, and presenting him as beloved). Language is another Du Bois identifier. This ties in with the didactics of his writing: He uses words that specify, e.g. buckskin; roan; gelding; rolling grassland. So, "rolling grassland" (as opposed to flat grassland) means grassland that covers undulating foothills or bluffs, such as may be seen in Nebraska and South Dakota, and in Colorado and Wyoming on the plains side of the Rockies. Mark's horse, Billy, is described by Lone Ranger as "a buckskin cow-pony." (A buckskin is a horse of a grayish-yellow color.) Nature is another Du Bois identifier. Nature is present in the story. "Two riders had come up silently behind him, out of a dip in the rolling grass-land." Du Bois uses a description of the land by way of explaining the silent nature of the Lone Ranger and Tonto's arrival. Language, Nature: "dip" ... If an area of land dips, it goes down quite suddenly to a lower level. They came up out of a dip. Friendship: the theme of Friendship is a primary Du Bois identifier. It is strongly present in this story. In his first words spoken to Mark (they're strangers to him) the Lone Ranger calls him "neighbor," which identifies himself as a friend (a rope thrown on Mark's rifle by either the Lone Ranger or Tonto was what saved Mark from shooting Billy). "Neighbor" and friendship exemplify Du Bois's didacticism, a reflection of the worldview of Du Bois the fundamentalist lay preacher. ("Which one was his neighbor," asked Jesus. "The one who showed him mercy," replied the Pharisees. "Go thou and do likewise," Jesus told him.) The Holy Bible taught Du Bois that friendship extends beyond expressions of good will, to concrete acts. He lived his life accordingly, and the stories he wrote likewise reflected that teaching. The Lone Ranger's next gesture of friendship: "He swung out of his saddle and offered his hand."
(*These Notes continue in the Notes of segment 3, for the inside back cover.)