The Black Beards: The High Horse on the Rio Grande

# Museum Catalog Note

Albert W. Aiken's serial "The High Horse on the Rio Grande" follows a bustling railroad camp at El Paso in the frontier period. The narrative establishes the lawless town's character: a mushroom settlement populated by railroad workers, Mexican laborers, and transient adventurers where armed self-governance prevails and disputes often end fatally. A mysterious and beautiful blonde woman, Margaret Umberson, arrives with her dwarf assistant Old Zip Coon to operate a small refreshment shop selling bread, pies, and cakes—a surprising success despite (or because of) customers' interest in the proprietress herself. The section concludes as a mysterious stranger named Michael Daymon opens a gambling establishment called "The Royal Road to Wealth," attracting frontier speculators seeking fortune. Aiken develops tensions between Mexican and American settlers and hints at escalating conflict to come.