Love, technology and lead type tell the story of yesterday. Leadville, Colorado is ten thousand feet up in the Rocky Mountains. In 1878-1880, men, women and children crossed vast frontiers to get its silver. Gold, silver, knives, guns and liquor fueled the story of a town with few rules. Buckskin Joe, Barney Devlin, glass plate negatives, snake oil, card cheats, fallen doves, mud, work and pioneer spirit come alive in a novel of historical fiction. Life was hard at the bottom, easy at the top. ----------------- "Are you calling me a liar or telling me to shut up?" --------------- They toiled in back breaking, dark filthy, dangerous pain for nearly every waking hour. ------------- Sweetwater Sally ran her hands up and down the bark of one of the pine trees growing in the theatre. ---------------- "Why The Rat Bastard Gazette is one of the finest newspapers west of the Mississippi." The editor drank straight from the bottle. Inkslinger Charlie carried his pistol high up on the inside of his right arm. ---------- Shotgun Susy said, "Can't bury him here, Father." --------- The winner of the first dog fight escaped from its cage back stage and tore the hoop jumping poodle into high pitched shreds. Next, a man recited Moliere.
About the Author: Roy Berger lives in the legendary artists colony of Ottawa, Ontario where the palm trees bloom in the winter and a cool breeze blows in the summer. Roy Berger was born in 1956 Galt, Ontario during the Hungarian revolution and has lived and worked in London, San Diego, Montreal, Windsor, Brantford, Mississauga the Trans-Canada highway, the 401, Cornwall, plus twenty minutes in Mexico and including two days in Moosejaw. He has worked as a waiter, dishwasher, janitor, bike mechanic, student, shipper, receiver, electro-mechanic, used and rare book store owner, typist, bowling ball machine mechanic, short-order cook, secretary, receptionist, salesman, linotype operator, assembly line worker and meat packer. He has traveled North America by bus, bicycle, car, truck, plane and foot. He has been sleeping in hostels, tents, hotels, apartments, houses, stairwells, out in the open and on someone's couch. Roy has published in Monitoring Times, Writers Block Magazine, hundreds of letters to the Editor across Canada since 1970 and published articles and stories in Canadapa, Cannabis Culture Magazine, Rude Magazine, Brick, Media-Five, London Free Press, Faux-Pas, Satellite, Cornwall Free News, The Montreal Review, Powderburnflash and Fogel's Underground Price & Grading Guide 2015-2016 and not withstanding; one minute in the movie documentary, Citizen Marc. Roy uses a Grundig Satellit 800 shortwave radio to travel the world without a passport and orchestrates important national affairs from his home in Ottawa.