Story summary
Samenvatting van Woestijnstof
- 8 min. leestijd
- 11 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A sick young New Yorker follows a blue-eyed stranger to Benton, a boom town of tents at the end of the track.
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Woestijnstof in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 4 h 40 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 35 min slow
- Lengte
- 66.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1921by Edwin L. Sabin
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Woestijnstof in short
Desert Dust follows one young man's education in the American West in 1868. Frank Beeson leaves Albany for his health, meets a beautiful stranger in Omaha, and arrives in Benton, a boom town built of canvas and bluster. Within a day he is robbed, cheated and humbled, and a plain teamster offers him honest work.
What Woestijnstof is about
What happens when a sick young man from Albany buys a ticket to the end of the track and meets a pair of blue eyes on the way? Frank Beeson is twenty-five, and his doctors have told him to go West and find somewhere high and dry. In the summer of 1868 he boards the Union Pacific at Omaha, bound for Benton, a tent city in Wyoming Territory that did not exist a month before.
Desert Dust is a frontier romance by Edwin L. Sabin, told by Frank himself. It follows him through a boom town of canvas fronts and card tricks, then out across the Red Desert with a freight caravan. You get a close, funny picture of the building of the railroad.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who love Western adventures, railroad history and lively boom towns will enjoy this novel. It offers a young narrator, a mysterious heroine, gunfighters and dry humor.
The story in 11 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A pilgrim boards the Union Pacific
The story opens on a train crossing the plains in 1868. The ticket agent sells him a place to Benton, the newest end of passenger service.
In the ticket line Frank notices a small blonde woman in black, with deep blue eyes and a jet pendant at her ear. She buys a ticket to the same place, and a coin slips from her fingers. Frank darts after it, and she tells him she knows Benton very well.
On the train a woman who runs an eating house warns him that Benton will rob him blind. Frank brushes her off. When a drunk named Jim insults the lady, she shows a tiny derringer, and Frank knocks the man down with one punch.
She tells him to meet her at the Big Tent that night, and he is too pleased to ask what kind of place that is. A man who stops asking questions is easy to lead.
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Benton greets him with dust and prices
Benton arrives all at once as a cloud of fine white dust and a crowd of runners shouting the names of hotels.
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Two apparent friends are actually touts
The Colonel and Bill steer Frank down the main street at dusk, past a wild show of gambling.
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The Big Tent and the bent card
The hotel clerk refuses all blame, pointing to a sign that says guests leave valuables at their own risk.
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A plain man offers honest work
The teamster takes Frank to a quiet table and gives him whiskey and some plain talk.
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A bull train full of saints and Gentiles
The Adams train is a circle of white-topped wagons by a willow-lined river, with women and children, fires and breakfast smoke.
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A woman in trousers and a gambler on horseback
She asks Jenks for passage to Salt Lake and says she will cook and pay.
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Lessons in shooting and a quarrel closing in
A note asks if he will let her walk with him on the trail.
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Appearances and the truth behind them
Almost everything in Benton is a front.
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Honor, fear, and what a man must prove
The second great theme is honor, which means something different to every person on the page.
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A young man tells his own tale with a smile
Frank Beeson tells the story himself, years later, and his voice colors everything.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Frank Beeson A twenty-five-year-old Albany gentleman sent West for his lungs, who wants health and adventure and keeps learning the hard way.
- The Lady of the Blue Eyes (Edna) A golden-haired woman in black who knows every town on the line, carries a derringer, and wants to be free of a life she cannot leave.
- Pedro Montoyo A cold, gray-eyed monte dealer who runs the table at the Big Tent and treats the lady as his property.
- George Jenks A bearded freighter with a dry wit who rescues Frank from ruin and hires him to drive mules to Salt Lake.
- Captain Hyrum Adams The scripture-quoting Mormon boss of the wagon train, who feeds every stranger and expects obedience from all of them.
- Daniel Adams The Captain's rawboned son, who calls himself Bonnie Bravo, boasts of his fast draw, and wants to prove himself a man.
- Rachael The Captain's young English wife, gentle and sincere, who shelters the stranger and tries to keep the peace.
- Colonel Sunderson A florid tout in a dusty frock coat who claims to be from Albany and wants to steer new arrivals to the gaming tables.
How it ends (spoiler)
Frank and the lady are driven off the trail and into the open desert, where they face a Sioux war party with only a few cartridges left. They agree to die rather than be taken, but a cavalry patrol sent by Captain Adams arrives just in time. They learn that Daniel survived and that Montoyo was hanged by vigilantes. Six weeks later they ride back to Benton and find only ruins and chimneys, then turn together toward Fort Steele under the stars.
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Vragen over Woestijnstof
What is Desert Dust about?
It tells of Frank Beeson, a sick young New Yorker who goes to Benton, Wyoming Territory, in 1868, meets a mysterious woman, and loses his money. He then joins a wagon train bound for Salt Lake.
Is Benton, Wyoming a real place?
Benton was a real, short-lived railroad boom town in 1868, set up where the Union Pacific stopped for a time. It faded once the track moved west, much as the book describes.
What does high and dry mean in the story?
Frank's doctors want him in high, dry air for his lungs. Every stranger repeats the phrase with a wink, since Benton is dry in water and full of ways to lose money.
Is Desert Dust easy to read?
It is told in a lively first-person voice with short chapters, quick dialogue, and plenty of action. The humor and clear scenes make it easy to follow.
What is the Big Tent?
It is the big amusement hall of Benton, with a bar, a dance floor, and gambling games everywhere. The lady in black makes it the meeting place, and it is where Frank loses his money.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Sabin, Edwin L. Desert Dust. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/desert-dust.
Sabin, E. L. (2026). Desert dust. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/desert-dust (Original work published 1921)
Sabin, Edwin L. Desert Dust. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/desert-dust.
@book{sabin2026desert,
author = {Sabin, Edwin L.},
title = {Desert Dust},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/desert-dust},
note = {First published 1921}
}
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