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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2995248" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Sixty-two, “The Cattleman’s Association Meeting”, Wednesday, May 31st, 1882, 7:00 P.M.Tempel Morand and Katherine Kale head over to the meeting. Forest Morand is greeting everybody at the door as they enter. She sees Emery Shaw inside chatting with Calvin Oldfield and Anse King. Ashley King is also present but his mother Rebecca is not.  Tempel Morand takes Kate around the room and introduces her to an older half-elf who she saw at the morning's meeting as Ricardo Perez and his Elvan daughter-in-law Francesca. Ricardo shakes her hand and says, “Ah yes, I've heard of you. You did the same thing I did over one-hundred years ago, made friends with the Apache instead of fighting them and then started up a ranch near their lands.” “It's always better to be a good neighbor and make a friend than to make an enemy. I was a bit surprised to learn that they keep a friendly eye on our ranch, but I am grateful. The opportunity came quite by accident, we were investigating a crime and followed the trail of some cattle rustlers onto their land. Lucky for us one of our companions was already known to the Apache. Their friendship has been invaluable.” Sonoma and Flint arrive. Forest Morand says, “Okay, it looks like we're all here. We might as well get started, there will be time for socializing afterwards. Everybody have a seat.”  He heads up to the front of the room and says, “I will act as Chair for today's meeting. We'll then alternate who is meeting Chair in descending order of ranch size. I'm figuring we should meet every three or four days until this election is resolved and then probably once or twice a month after that. The main purpose of the Sulfur Spring Valley Cattleman's Association is for us to come together as a unified force to impact life here in the valley for the better-meant of horse and cattle ranchers. During the next month that focus will be here in Promise City, but as time goes on I expect us to also have impact on the communities of Dos Cabezas, Tombstone, Galeyville, Willcox and Webb. In addition to being a political and economic force we will also work together for mutual protection of each other's lands and herds as well as to support one another with farm infrastructure projects including new fencing and barns where they are needed.  Some of you have asked about dues. We've come up with a dues structure that should be fair and reasonable to everybody as it is based upon the size of each herd, so that the larger ranchers will carry the brunt of the expenses. Essentially you'll be asked to contribute ten-cents a month for each horse or cow that you have after the first fifty. So for example, if you have one-hundred animals you would toss in a dime for the second fifty for a total of $ 5.00 a month. Each ranch will have one vote on all matters. Are there any questions?” Sonoma waits to be recognized “this Dues money, what will it be used for? the meeting space but what other things? Are we looking to use the association to improve breeding stock, focus our breeding lines, share information on feeding watering new ideas or is this just going to be a political group? I see the advantages in power by numbers but what kind of power are we looking for and where does the association stop and the individual begin? Forest Morand says, “This Association will be a democracy not a dictatorship. What the money will go for are whatever projects the majority of us support. We have seven ranches as individual voting members, so if four or more of us wish for something to be done then that is what will be done. My suggestion is that our efforts for this next month should be in continuing what began this morning, promoting a slate of candidates other than those who organized a lynch mob last Saturday and killed poor Mr. Hoover. Some of you dislike the Vigilance Committee, but I see working with them as our best opportunity to keep the cattle rustlers out of office, otherwise we'll split the vote of the decent folks in town. I know that they were originally going to put forth their entire Committee as candidates for office but due to the events of this morning I for one no longer see that as a viable ticket. By attempting to strike Manny Escobar I think that Bill Watkins would now be impossible to have voted into any office and I'm not sure what his relationship with Frank Condon will be going forward. But that's just speculation on my part. Anse, your wife works with that group, could you give us an update on where they stand?” Anse King stands and says, “Things got heated, that's for sure. Rebecca agrees that Watkins should no longer run for Mayor like he planned but they still wants to put him on the ticket for Councilman. They are thinking right now that Frank Condon would be the best candidate for Mayor.”  Morand says, “That has possibilities, the way that he walked from the room with Escobar should win him a lot of non-human votes. On the subject of Escobar, I suggest that we should encourage the Vigilance Committee to have him for a councilman position. He's worked for me for fifteen years and you saw earlier today how close he and Condon are.” King replies, “Watkins and Eaton will both object, but if that is the Cattleman's recommendation they might listen and it might fly. Frank would certainly go for it and having one non-human candidate on the slate would help dispel the perception that the Committee is anti-human. As for other candidates, my son Ashley here wants to be the Town Marshall. He just moved to town and has the enthusiasm for the job.” Calvin Oldfield speaks up and says, “The problem with that is those unfounded rumors surrounding the death of Ashley's wife.” Ashley stands up red faced and exclaims, “Lies! My dear wife died of sickness, Marshall Hollister investigated and proved that.” Oldfield says, “I said those were unfounded rumors, but Hollister is no longer around to reiterate that and we both know that Fisk will spread those rumors against the ticket.” Forest Morand says, “But we ranchers should have at least one candidate of our own. Emery Shaw has talked about turning the Lazy-S over to his children and moving to town. I think he's make an excellent Mayor.” King says, “They want Condon.” Morand says, “They also want our financial support and votes, we can at least propose Emery if that is our majority opinion. As for Marshall, I propose that Deputy Marshall Chester Martin be our candidate for that.” Anse King says, “Condon won't. He thinks Martin is a thief.” Emery Shaw says, “Cow Manure, Martin is an honest man and has done more to rid this county of the Cowboy Gang than anybody save for Wyatt Earp, and Martin has managed to do it within the law. Most people don't know anything about those detail yet, but I believe that Mrs. Kale can better enlighten our group.” Kate swallowed, suddenly struck with a bit of rare stage fright. Still her voice was clear and steady as she spoke. “Most of you already know that Deputy Martin led the posse that took down Johnny Ringo. I was with that posse and have first hand knowledge of the event. It was the early hours of the day the Sunday of the festival when we all set out. A tracker set by the posse had followed his men out of town Saturday night and we followed the trail. There were several Cowboys in the caves we tracked them to, and none escaped. What many of you may not know is that by the time he was killed Johnny Ringo had become a priest of Ares, as well as a practitioner of other magics. Deputy Martin was calm and cool under pressure, and despite Ringo's advantages with good tactics and leadership we were able to prevail. Another incident occurred at a ranch house quite a way from here. After the mistaken reports of Miss West's death, Deputy Martin and our friend Nanuet headed to Tombstone to stop Mr. Chumbley from printing the erroneous story. On the way they found the Cowboy ranch house, and Cowboys who were laying in wait for travelers along the road with a Gattling gun. The next day we raided the house, and no Cowboy survived to tell the tale. Mr. Shaw met us on the road on the way home and can confirm that it was not the Earps who cleaned out that nest. We allowed the Earps the credit of it since it enhanced the reputation of the lawmen as well as kept our names out of it and hopefully off the Gang's minds. The Shaws and the Kings both recovered cattle that day from the herd we removed from the burning farmstead.” Emery Shaw interjects “That's all true, except she left out the third battle. Me and my men didn't just meet up with them on the road, we also ran into another group of Cowboys led by Billy Claibourne. They were Hades-bent on revenge for what we did at their farmhouse but we prevailed. My daughter Trisha rode alongside Martin and they were the ones who shot and killed Claibourne.” Kate says, “That was a long day, but the Cowboys ended it a few men short. There have been numerous other times when Deputy Martin has stood up for our protection. Remember the day he took down Pony Deal? That's the act that earned him the Deputy job in the first place. Since he accepted that job he's taken it very seriously. You couldn't ask for someone more dedicated to the job.” Forest Morand says, “Alright then, we can propose to the Vigilance Committee Emery Shaw for Mayor, Chester Martin for Marshall and Manuel Escobar for Councilman. We'll also suggest that from among their number they do not have Bill Watkins on the ticket for council. Are there any other suggestions?” Anse King says, “Look, if you won't recommend my boy Ashley here for Marshall you have to at least support him for Councilman. He's moved to town and will be taking Avery's place on the Committee as soon as they can. If you don't support that my Becky will never go along with the other recommendations.” Emery Shaw interjects, “He has a point. Fisk will still use the rumor mill against the boy but it won't have the same impact as the position of the town's lawman. And that'll serve as a good bridge between the committees.” Flint Greymountain says, “Okay, so who will that leave on the ticket for the other three Council positions?” Forest says, “By default the other three Committee Members, Frank Condon, Zeb Cook and Doc Eaton.” Flint says, “Eaton? Who will vote for somebody as dour and cantankerous as him?”  Ricardo Perez laughs and says, “Eaton must really be at an extreme when a dwarf accuses him of being dour and cantankerous, given how most of them are.”  An uncomfortable silence fills the room until Flint laughs and slaps Perez on the back, exclaiming “Yeah, but we dwarves at least know how to drink and celebrate, I doubt Eaton does!” “Is there anyone the Vigilance Committee would accept beside Doctor Eaton? My concern is this. When the measles were going through last week he refused to treat the non-human children, and that's his right. However, when you leave anyone untreated you leave the door open for further infections. By leaving the non-human children without treatment he risked spreading the disease further to other humans whom he did wish to protect. I worry that he will end up not considering the best interests of the town in trying to stick to his deep-seated beliefs.” Ashley King stands and says, “How do you know that he wasn't serving the best interest of the town by doing that? Eaton knew that Father Valdez was here and would see to the needs of the Elvan children. Those kids would have been far more comfortable with Valdez, who they knew, than a human doctor with a poor bedside manner who they didn't know. And cooperative patients lead to a much better result. If Eaton had been the ONLY healer in town I have no doubt that he would have treated everyone.” Kate says, “It's quite possible that you are absolutely right, and I certainly agree the Elvan children were probably more comfortable with Mr. Valdez. But I do not know if you're right. All I can know is what I have observed for myself.  I won't make a large issue out of the Doctor being on the ticket, I just don't feel he's going to give it any kind of boost. Overcoming negative first impressions is a difficult thing, and that poor bedside manner Mr. King mentioned has made plenty of them. It just seemed to me there must be someone acceptable with a nature more suited to politics.” Ashley is about to respond further but is stopped by his father. Anse King turns to Kate and says, “Jim Eaton is a good man and is probably the best surgeon west of the Mississippi River. He learned his trade in the military where being friendly with the patients wasn't the priority, saving lives was.  He believes in law and order, and yet last Saturday he was up all night long spending close to nine hours on his feet operating on four of those idiots who refused to listen to the lawmen and he saved them all. Two of those fools should have had limbs amputated due to the damage but Jim spent hour-after-hour using all of his skills to prevent that, to save people whose views and actions he detested. He also saved the life of the Archbishop from Philadelphia back during the festival. That Mrs. Kale is the man who WILL get the good people in the town to vote for him.” Forest Morand says, “Katherine, we're not recommending that Eaton be on the ticket, that's the Vigilance Committee's decision to make. We're probably already overstepping our boundaries in suggesting that Bill Watkins be off the ticket. We can justify that since Watkins made a jackass out of himself in front of the town, Eaton has not.” Francesca Perez stands and says, “I disagree. The Priestess publicly declared that Jim Eaton was a blasphemer, voters will remember that.” Emery Shaw says, “Okay everybody, calm down. We need to decide exactly what it is we want to recommend and then vote on that.”   Kate says, “I apologize, I didn't mean to start a ruckus. If we are going to help present a slate of candidates I want it to succeed. I have never heard anything but good about the Doctor's surgical abilities, nor his dedication to the patients he treats. My concern was that he might not be the best candidate; my example was poorly chosen.  I do not know the Doctor because he does not wish to know me. I must gather what I know from others. Today I must gather it from the Misters King and trust that their knowledge is greater than mine. I am comfortable with the recommendations that we've already discussed.” The recommendation it put to a vote and passes. Forest Morand spends another half-hour going over proposed rules for how meetings can be conducted, most along the line of Robert Burn's 'Roberts Rules of Order', although he suggests that they can be less formal given the smaller more intimate group of participants. The topic of food and beverages comes up. Anse King states that he wishes for the meetings to be 'dry', in that alcoholic beverages will not be served. Emery Shaw says, “Fair enough, I find that business is best conducted by those who are sober. But once the meeting is over I will take whoever in this meeting wishes to join me over to the Lucky Lady where I will buy the first two rounds of drinks.”  With that the business is quickly concluded. Ashley and Anse King decline to take Shaw up on his offer but the others assembled decide that drinks are in order. Meanwhile, Minerva strolls over to the town hall and finds Nakomo covered in paint and hard at work. She waits for him to finish and the two go home and Nakomo prepares the evening meal. Once the meal is finished Nakomo insists on cleaning up and they return to the town hall for the professor's lecture. The Town Hall has around sixty people in it already when they arrive. Frederick Seagram goes to the podium and first introduces himself as the father of Katherine Kale who runs the Niles Hoover Memorial School. He then introduces his friend from Harvard. Professor Pickering takes to the podium and begins “Tomorrow at approximately 11:45 in the morning we will be privileged to see a truly remarkable sight, a Solar Eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun and obscures it totally or partially. This configuration can only occur at New Moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction, as seen here from Earth. A total solar eclipse is considered by many to be the most spectacular natural phenomenon that one can observe.”  He continues on, differentiating between a total eclipse, annular eclipse, hybrid eclipse and partial eclipse emphasizing that what they will witness is a total eclipse, the rarest of all these events.  He explains that the total eclipse is a result of one of the most remarkable coincidences in nature, the Sun lies about 400 times as far from Earth as does the Moon and the Sun is also about 400 times the diameter of the Moon. As seen from Earth, therefore, the Sun and the Moon appear to be about the same size in the sky. Because the Moon's orbit around Earth is an ellipse rather than a circle, however, at some times during the month the Moon is further away, and at other times it is closer to Earth, than average. The lecture continues for around a half-hour at which point he then asks for questions. Minerva listens to the lecture and when the Professor asks for questions she politely raises her hand and waits to be recognized. When she is called upon she stands and addresses the Professor. “Gracias Professor, Your lecture is very informative. It is quite wonderful that the gods have arranged the universe in such an orderly fashion for us is it not?” She smiles. “They have given us the seasons so that we know when to plant and harvest. They move the stars across the heavens to mark time and guide our journey and they have given us the night and the day so that we can order our lives accordingly, working and resting in turn. But It is indeed a rare gift when day and night are joined together as one and the Goddess of night steps forward and overshadows Apollo’s dazzling demeanor. His vanity does not often allow the gentler gods to take the stage before him dimming the light of his beautiful blond hair.“ She looks around the room and continues to smile gently. “Our crops shall surely flourish when the Goddess Diana is able to survey the hard work of the farmers in the light of His day. When she clearly sees how we honor her with our labors she shall surely bless us all with a bountiful harvest. But it is also important that the people understand that Apollo will not allow Diana to have the limelight for very long and when he pushes her aside those who are caught openly gazing upon her may be punished when he sees the adoration for Her in their eyes. He has been known to remove the sight of those who dare look directly upon a god of Olympus, misconstruing it as ego. But it not meant to be disrespectful. It is our human nature that compels us to witness such a miraculous event and so we shall despite the risks. Do you have a suggestion as to how the people can bear witness to the gods glory without risking their mortal sight, Professor?” she says and sits back down, folding her hands in her lap. He replies, “Indeed I do, I have some refractive viewers that will permit the person to see the phenomena from a sideways angle, similar to looking in a mirror. It should cause no harm to the eye. I brought a hundred or so of those viewers with me. I plan to distribute them to the children who I will be lecturing to tomorrow morning, whatever are left can be distributed to whoever is interested.”</blockquote>

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