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| Rimrock Jones, prospector |
Leave it to Dane Coolidge (1873 – 1940) to write a love story that is 90% about greed, high finance, the stock market, and mining law.
Set in the deserts of southern Arizona, this novel pits its title character, a
hard-drinking, gun-toting miner, against a railway tycoon in a struggle for
ownership of a multi-million dollar copper mine. Between them is a deaf (we
would say hearing-impaired today) freelance typist, with her own interest in
both the mine and Rimrock Jones.
Plot. This is a
novel that requires a reader to follow the money. Rimrock has sold 49% interest
in his copper claim to W. H. Stoddard, the afore-mentioned tycoon. With cash
received, he pays off everyone who has grubstaked him. One of these is the
typist, Mary Fortune, who isn’t satisfied until she persuades him to give her a
1% share of the mine.
A little romantic attraction between them gets him
thinking that he can count on her to pool her interest with his remaining 49%,
and he’ll retain control. But true love does not run so smoothly. Possessing
better sense than Rimrock, she objects to his high-handed ways as he protects
his interest in the claim, especially as he kills a man who attempts to jump it.
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| Rimrock Jones, frontispiece |
Meanwhile the nefarious scheming of Stoddard to win control
of the mine would fill a book (which it does). He gets and keeps key employees
in his pocket and drives a wedge between Rimrock and Mary Fortune. The wedge
comes in the form of a wildcat skin-wearing adventuress from New York called
Mrs. Hattersley.
She lures Rimrock away to the Big Apple, where he takes up
residence at the Waldorf and lives the high life as profits from the mine begin
rolling in. An inveterate high-stakes gambler, he throws himself into playing
the stock market, hatching a scheme to drive Stoddard into financial ruin by
manipulating copper shares. Meanwhile, without direct supervision of his
trusted employees, he is unaware that they are doing Stoddard’s bidding back in
Arizona.
Romance. Disappointed in Rimrock, Mary Fortune takes her earnings from the mine and travels back East as well, for an unannounced operation to improve her hearing. She does not know that he has hired detectives, whose attempts to locate her have been unsuccessful. But any lingering romantic hopes she may have for him are dashed when she happens to see him at the opera with Mrs. Hattersley.
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| Mary posts a midnight claim notice |
Though his feelings for Mary continue to simmer, he cannot
understand that her affection is for the honest, decent man behind his rough
western manners. This was the man she instinctively trusted with her $400
grubstake when he was still an unmoneyed prospector. But as the daughter of a
judge, she has an abiding respect for the law, and Rimrock is unashamed in
his disrespect for it. He once lost control of a mine when a lawyer used the
law to wrest it from him.
Though he is acquitted of eventually killing the man when
he tries it again, he does so by rigging the jury with other westerners
possessing a like-minded, though rough-hewn sense of fairness. In the end, he’s
back in court again, once more attempting to bend the law to his will. This
time he has won back some of Mary’s sympathy. Having recovered her hearing, she
has overheard the plotting of Stoddard’s men in the mining company office.
But it’s all too late. Rimrock has lost everything.
Penniless once more, he faces the truth about himself, that he has been a fool.
Swallowing his pride, he once more wins the heart of Mary Fortune, aptly named
because copper prices are soaring, and she is now a well-to-do stockholder in
what was once his mine. They can make a new start together.
Wrapping up. Though
Coolidge’s first novels, Hidden Water (1910) and The Texican (1911), were about cattle ranching, Rimrock
Jones is one of several with
prospecting and mining as central themes. It needs to be added that following
the intricacies of plot in this one requires some understanding of mining law.
This includes the right to legally take possession of another claim by determining
that a vein already being mined there actually surfaces (apexes) somewhere
else.
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| Movie poster, 1918 |
Such novels seem to appeal to the get-rich-quick fever
that possessed the nation for over a half century from the California gold rush
to the Klondike. Its nearest modern-day equivalent may be the multi-million-dollar
lotteries that draw lines at mini-markets and make news of the lucky winners.
But it’s hard to imagine novel readers today with a similar romance for
prospecting.
Rimrock Jones was
adapted to film in 1918 with matinee idol Wallace Reid in the title role. It
was directed by British-born Donald Crisp, who had a prodigious Hollywood
career as a director during the Silent Era and as an actor (How Green
Was My Valley, National Velvet, Lassie Come Home).
The novel is currently available online at google books,
Internet Archive and in ebook format for kindle and the nook. For more of
Friday’s Forgotten Books, click on over to Patti Abbott’s blog.
Further reading:
BITS reviews of Dane Coolidge novels
Images:
Illustrations from the novel, George W. Gage
Movie poster, caratulan-dia.blogspot.com
Coming up: Glossary
of frontier fiction
Your review of this fine novel brought back fond memories of the period when I read several Dane Coolidge serials in THE POPULAR MAGAZINE. This novel was a 5 part serial in POPULAR commencing with the issue dated November 7, 1916. I see I made extensive comments on the stories in this issue back when I read it in 1981. Here is what I said about RIMROCK JONES:
ReplyDelete"5 part serial taking place out west in the present day(1916). Rimrock Jones is a two fisted miner who discovers copper. This is the one where the love interest is supplied by the hard of hearing steno. Not only is this an adventure but it's also a love story and a business tale. Rimrock is a throwback to the old violent gun carrying days. But the girl shares equal billing with the hero. I enjoyed this a lot and after reading it I immediately started Coolidge's SHADOW MOUNTAIN, another mining story. Coolidge did around 18 novels, mostly 4 part serials between 1910 and 1930 for POPULAR."
Dane Coolidge has been unjustly forgotten but because of your reviews Ron, he may finally get some recognition as one of the better early western writers.
I've got one of his books here but haven't read it yet. I should give it a try, and then from there see if I will likely pick up more.
ReplyDeleteThis novel draws heavily from the war of the copper kings, which played out in Butte, Montana, a few years earlier. Mr. Coolidge appears to be one of few writers who deal with Old West mining. Most others deal with ranching or law enforcement. Thanks for this fine review.
ReplyDeleteA fine post on a top writer of the period, Ron. And love that art for Mary posts a midnight claim notice.
ReplyDeleteSounds really good, actually. I think Dane Coolidge and his friend Peter B. Kyne are unjustly forgotten. I love that era of intelligent westerns. They can sometimes be a breath of fresh air today, even though they can be wordy. They really take you to the place and time.
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I understand exactly what you mean about being wordy but taking you...Peter B. Kyne was just fine and deserved his success.
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