Max Krueger came to Texas from Germany in 1868, a penniless, delicate boy of sixteen. By the time he wrote his memoirs at the age of seventy-four, he had seen the state transformed from a harsh frontier to an industrialized society and had twice made his fortune in his adopted land.
Krueger vividly recalls the violence--the murderous "Helena duel," brutal Indian massacres, and his own narrow escape in a cattleman's war--and also the splendor and abundance of an unspoiled land, the thrill of a mustang or buffalo hunt, the danger of the stampede, and the simple pleasure of the campfire...