Rusty Williams discusses a darkly humorous look at turn-of-the-twentieth-century city life when he speaks about Dallas, Texas, Spring of 1904.
A runaway team of horses critically injures three pedestrians attempting to cross Akard Street. The mayor orders a roundup of unlicensed dogs due to a city-wide rabies outbreak. A falling elevator crushes the head of a young man as he retrieves a half-dollar he had dropped down the shaft. An inexperienced automobile driver jumps the curb and drives into the lobby of the St. George Hotel. Embers from a wood cooking stove transform a sleeping house into a funeral pyre.
Just another deadly day in Dallas. Dynamite. Diphtheria. Plummeting airships. Rampaging livestock. Dallas was a dangerous place in its formative years. These stories will put the put the quarantine and pandemic into perspective.
Rusty is also the author of The Red River Bridge War, winner of the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award.