In the Mexican Quarter

 

"In the Mexican Quarter," by Tom Gill, was published in the June 1930 issue of Cosmopolitan. Normally, I don't jump from the pulp magazines to the more elite "slicks" for my 1930s fiction fix, but there was a time when the slicks occasionally published some worthwhile  fiction.

How did I end up searching out this particular story? I started watching a 1937 film called Border Cafe on the TCM app. The opening credits said it was based on this story, which I was able to locate online. Immediately, my innate genius grasped the possibilities. I could review the original prose story this week, then take a look at the movie next week. That is, if the story is worth reviewing.

Well, it is. It's narrated by an unnamed rancher who lives in Verde, TX, near the Mexican border. He meets a young man named Billy Whitney. Billy is from back East, the son of a senator and the scion of an influencial family that has churned out soldiers and statesmen for generations.

Well, Billy didn't want to be an important person. "I object to being forced into molds that don't fit," he explains. So he's come to Verde to essentially waste his life away.

But, though Billy may be a little resentful of his family, he still loves them. He writes back home, telling his parents that he's gone partners on a big ranch and that things are going well. He doesn't want them to worry. 

This comes back to bite him, though, when his parents write that they are coming for a visit. The narrator agrees to help Billy pretend that they are partners. But this plan goes partially awry when Billy's former girlfriend Claire arrives with Billy's parents. She's not fooled for a minute, though she goes along with it for the parents' sake. 

To a large extent, the story is predictable, up to the ending where Billy single-handedly chases after rustlers, proving his manhood and winning Claire's love. Pretty much as soon as Billy goes to work at the ranch as part of the con his running on his parents, we can predict that the hard work involved will be good for him and that redemption is right around the corner. 

But the prose reads very smoothly and the author presents the emotions involved effectively. Billy is shown to us in a way that causes us to empathize with him, even as we also realize he needs to buckle down and man up. Though his character arc is predictable, it is also engaging.

Next week, we'll see if the movie version manages to capture the same emotions. In the meantime, you can read the story online HERE.