Cover Art Description:
Despite Nancy Russell’s obvious distaste for her husband’s longtime drinking buddy, William H. Rance, owner of the Silver Dollar Saloon in Great Falls, received dozens of illustrated letters and drawings from Charlie Russell. Perhaps more than in any of his other works, Russell let his sense of humor have full reign in his drawings for Rance. The cover image, I Rode Him (no date, watercolor and ink, 14” x 10-3/8”, Great Falls Elks Club Collection, MHS Museum, Helena), is a good-natured jab at fraternal orders’ initiation ceremonies, in which, some suspected, initiates practiced such rituals as riding the goat, a creature that had symbolized the Devil since the Dark Ages. The goat’s rump, with an elk brand from Russell, bears the stamp of the artist’s lighthearted humor.
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