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Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Summary

July finds Dodge City full of whores, gamblers and saloons, and no Elmira. Writing to Peach from the post office breaks him twice into tears; the letter reports three deaths and tells the town to hire another sheriff. The old clerk knows Elmira, and knows more: Dee Boot never died of smallpox — he is his own nephew, alive in Ogallala with a string of whores. Directed to Elmira's old friend Jennie, July waits in a saloon, drinks whiskey for the first time in his life, and pours out everything: that he never killed a man, that he left Roscoe and the others to die, that he no longer wants to be a sheriff. Jennie tells him Ellie is hunting Dee and that catching her will do no good. He vomits over a stair landing until sundown, understands at last that he is a man who fell in love with a whore, and rides out of town into the dark.

Analysis

July finally hears the truth about his marriage, and it comes from a whore who liked Elmira. Jennie's frank account — Ellie leaves places, catching her won't help — is the most accurate diagnosis in the book. July's self-recognition is the chapter's real event, not the drinking.

Plates

July Johnson rides down the main street of Dodge City and finds a town of whores, gamblers and saloons, and no Elmira in any of it.
00 July Johnson rides down the main street of Dodge City and finds a town of whores, gamblers and saloons, and no Elmira in any of it.
July steps straight back out of the post office door and stands in the dusty street wiping tears off with his shirtsleeve while one or two men watch him.
01 July steps straight back out of the post office door and stands in the dusty street wiping tears off with his shirtsleeve while one or two men watch him.
July writes the letter to Peach at the post office window with the clerk's borrowed pencil — three dead and no wife found, and the town can hire another sheriff.
02 July writes the letter to Peach at the post office window with the clerk's borrowed pencil — three dead and no wife found, and the town can hire another sheriff.
The clerk, shaking his head, tells July that Dee Boot never died of the smallpox — he is his own nephew, alive in Ogallala with five or six whores in his string.
03 The clerk, shaking his head, tells July that Dee Boot never died of the smallpox — he is his own nephew, alive in Ogallala with five or six whores in his string.
July sits his new horse Pete and watches a sold herd being forced up the narrow chute into the boxcars, the longhorns' horns tangling, a cowboy roping a running steer by the horns and tripping it into the dust.
04 July sits his new horse Pete and watches a sold herd being forced up the narrow chute into the boxcars, the longhorns' horns tangling, a cowboy roping a running steer by the horns and tripping it into the dust.
July waits for Jennie at a saloon table and drinks whiskey for the first time in his life, taking on weight in a hurry while the bartender keeps the glass filled.
05 July waits for Jennie at a saloon table and drinks whiskey for the first time in his life, taking on weight in a hurry while the bartender keeps the glass filled.
Jennie sits down across from July with the whiskey and tells him Ellie is hunting Dee Boot, that Dee is alive in Ogallala, and that even if he catches her it won't do him any good.
06 Jennie sits down across from July with the whiskey and tells him Ellie is hunting Dee Boot, that Dee is alive in Ogallala, and that even if he catches her it won't do him any good.
July lies flat on the outside stair landing vomiting over the edge while cowboys ride past below and one of them looks up and laughs.
07 July lies flat on the outside stair landing vomiting over the edge while cowboys ride past below and one of them looks up and laughs.
At the head of the stairs in the last of the light Jennie says goodbye — keep the blue dress, go home, catching Ellie won't do any good — and July understands that he is a man who fell in love with a whore.
08 At the head of the stairs in the last of the light Jennie says goodbye — keep the blue dress, go home, catching Ellie won't do any good — and July understands that he is a man who fell in love with a whore.
July saddles Pete at the livery, pays the old man with the jug between his legs, and rides out of Dodge into the dark country under a white moon.
09 July saddles Pete at the livery, pays the old man with the jug between his legs, and rides out of Dodge into the dark country under a white moon.