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Elmira
Roscoe Brown is July Johnson’s deputy sheriff in Fort Smith, Arkansas. A somewhat slow-witted man, the citizens of Fort Smith consider him ineffective for any job bigger than arresting the local drunkard, who’s nearly 80. Roscoe has never married, and he lives in the jailhouse. He hates travel and hates work, but when Peach dispatches him to find and tell July that Elmira has run off, he reluctantly rides into Texas. Along the way, he meets Louisa Brooks, rescues Janey from Old Sam, and is in turn rescued by July from bandits named Hutto and Jim. Subsequently, Roscoe agrees to help July find Elmira, but before they make it to Kansas they run into Blue Duck’s territory. Blue Duck kills Roscoe and mutilates his corpse.
Roscoe Brown Quotes in Lonesome Dove
The Lonesome Dove quotes below are all either spoken by Roscoe Brown or refer to Roscoe Brown. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 37
Quotes
He began to feel more and more of a grievance against more and more people. […] It seemed to him that a chain of thoughtless actions, on the part of many people he knew, had resulted in his being stuck in a cabin in the wilderness with a difficult widow woman. Jake should have kept his pistol handier, and not resorted to a buffalo gun. Benny Johnson should have been paying attention to his dentistry and not walking around in the street in the middle of the day. July shouldn’t have married Elmira if she was going to run off, and of course Elmira certainly had no business getting on the whiskey boat.
In all of it no one had given much consideration to him, least of all the townspeople of Fort Smith. Peach Johnson and Charlie Barnes, in particular, had done their best to see that he had to leave.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 58
Quotes
July didn’t want to see it. He knew he had to, but he didn’t want to.
He felt a terrible need to turn things back, all the way back to the time when he and Roscoe and Joe and Elmira had all been in Arkansas. He knew it could never be. Something had happened which he would never be free of. He had even lost the chance to stay and die with his people, though Captain McCrae had offered him that chance. “I’d feel better in my mind if you’d stay with your part,” he had said.
He had not stayed, but when he had gone, he hadn’t fought, either. He had done nothing but ride twice over the same stretch of prairie, while death had come to both camps.
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Roscoe Brown Quotes in Lonesome Dove
The Lonesome Dove quotes below are all either spoken by Roscoe Brown or refer to Roscoe Brown. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 37
Quotes
He began to feel more and more of a grievance against more and more people. […] It seemed to him that a chain of thoughtless actions, on the part of many people he knew, had resulted in his being stuck in a cabin in the wilderness with a difficult widow woman. Jake should have kept his pistol handier, and not resorted to a buffalo gun. Benny Johnson should have been paying attention to his dentistry and not walking around in the street in the middle of the day. July shouldn’t have married Elmira if she was going to run off, and of course Elmira certainly had no business getting on the whiskey boat.
In all of it no one had given much consideration to him, least of all the townspeople of Fort Smith. Peach Johnson and Charlie Barnes, in particular, had done their best to see that he had to leave.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 58
Quotes
July didn’t want to see it. He knew he had to, but he didn’t want to.
He felt a terrible need to turn things back, all the way back to the time when he and Roscoe and Joe and Elmira had all been in Arkansas. He knew it could never be. Something had happened which he would never be free of. He had even lost the chance to stay and die with his people, though Captain McCrae had offered him that chance. “I’d feel better in my mind if you’d stay with your part,” he had said.
He had not stayed, but when he had gone, he hadn’t fought, either. He had done nothing but ride twice over the same stretch of prairie, while death had come to both camps.
