The Historica l Notes are exactly that, bits of western violence lifted fro m the day-by-day lives of western people. It was not, a s many have surmised, a lawless time. The duel was, i n many quarters of the world, still the accepted method o f settling disputes. However, at the time of the gun battle s related here the days of the Code Duello were at an end. Often I have been asked if such gunfights actually too k place, for there are those who believe such stories are th e stuff of fiction, or invented by makers of motion pictures. Several writers have attempted to list the gunfighters an d the gunfights, and one author has listed 587 gun battles , and has done it wel l , but there were at least four time s that many in the period from 1850 to 1910. None of th e gun battles in my historical notes, for example, are include d in that book. To list them all is difficult, i f not impossible , yet we do have the files of o l d newspapers, court records , coroners' reports, and diaries, which are helpful.
