Hello there, buckaroos. This is Ken Maynard at the Diamond Cay about to spin another yarn of the old west.
And that was Tarzan,
poking his head in the tack room to say hello. You know folks, it seems
I'm always being asked how it is that there's so much gold buried around everywhere.
It just doesn't seem to them that there's that much to bury.
One thing you've got to remember, buckaroos, and that is that times are very different from
what they used to be.
We've got banks and safe places to keep our money now,
those who have any of it to keep. But back in the old days, that is way back,
there were no such things. Why time was when a cow and a calf were legal tender for
ten dollars,
and folks didn't have to use money then as they do now either. It was more of a
barter system.
Of course the big range of owners needed money for buying cattle and things, but
they never liked having any more around than needed.
For carting around all that gold and silver was a heavy proposition sometimes.
Why a thousand dollars in silver weighed sixty two and a half pounds,
you can see buckaroos why the invention of the check saved people a lot of round
shoulders and baggy pants.
That's why in the old days those who had the money got in the habit of
burying it,
so it would be safe. As long as they were the only ones
that knew where it was, it was safe. And in a sense just like being in the bank,
a private bank of their own. Now of course losing the combination of a safe is bad
enough,
but losing track of where you buried your money is worse.
And that's what my story is about. I'll tell you more in just a moment.
From the tack room of Ken Maynard's Diamond Cay Ranch we're bringing you
stories of adventure,
stories of circus life, fascinating transcribed tales of the old west where
cowboys still follow the cattle trails,
stories of rodeos and parades, colorful legends of the red man,
hidden gold and buried treasure. The exciting tales from the Diamond Cay are
told by Hollywood's champion of western stars,
internationally famous Ken Maynard. Now while Ken's getting ready to spin his
newest Wild West yarn,
here's something to think about, buckaroos. Do you know what every
cowboy's favorite pastime is?
Well after the chores are done, whether it's watering the horses or pitching hay
or rounding up the cattle,
the boys just kind of drift together to chat a bit. And the
first thing you know one of them is telling a story.
Cowboys just love a good story and that's why we think you'll get a big kick
out of having a set of real western stories to hear
anytime you have your chores done. I'm talking about the exciting
record album of Ken Maynard Wild West stories.
It's a beautiful album all in color with two of Ken's favorite stories inside
on two big eight inch unbreakable records
with pictures of Ken and Tarzan right on the records.
And best of all these records are personalized.
They're made just for you and with a personal message from Ken to you
right on the record. Why when you put the needle down on the record you'll hear
Ken say, hello there Tom this is Ken Maynard with a
story just for you. Yes Ken will call you by name whatever
your name is and he'll tell you two complete exciting stories. Why you'll
be the talk of the neighborhood buckaroos.
And do you know how you can get this Diamond K record album?
Just send your name and address with a dollar to records and care of this
station. Now these records are standard 78 rpm
speed for the regular kind of record player that everybody's been using for
years. And say you'll play your records over
and over again. So send right away. Now here's Ken.
Down in south Texas was an old codger by the name of Talbert.
He was a stingy as they come if we're to believe all they say about him.
They used to say if old Talbert was out in the rain starving and was to run
across the stray he bram the maverick instead of cutting it up for a beef steak.
And he was just as tough on his ranch hands as he was on himself.
Folks could always tell Talbert men they were so thin.
Now sugar molasses were mighty cheap in those days but old Talbert never bought
any. He used to feed himself and his men on
the slimmest pickings you ever heard of. And he used to save fire any cook who
didn't harden up the bread before feeding to the boys so they wouldn't eat so
much. While there were more broken teeth among
Talbert's men than well that's another way you could tell them. By their missing
molars that is. Being stingy I suppose is one way of saving
money but it's sure not much fun huh Tarzan?
And it's a funny thing these fellows who spend all their lives making and saving
money generally leave it to someone else to have a good time with.
Well Talbert made money all right how much no one rightly knew
but when he died there wasn't a cent to be found. Folks knew the money had to be
somewhere because if it had been stolen old
Talbert would have worked his way out of his grave to take after the gilly critter
and get his money back. Talbert was that kind of a man but the
general feeling was that he had buried it somewhere.
You remember me telling you about there not being any banks available in those
days? One of the most popular places to bury
money was in post holes. They were easy to get at and there was
always a natural marker there to tell you where the goal was.
That is if you could remember the right post hole. I can remember hearing about
one fellow who did just that. Buried his money one night then couldn't
remember which post he buried it under. He dug up every large post on the
range and of course he found the money under the last one.
And with all those posts dug up and the money he'd recovered
not being enough to replace them he just went out of the cattle business.
But I'll get on with the story of old Talbert in just a minute. First I want
you to hear a word about something I've become mightily interested in. Well
folks you'll just have to excuse me for my story for a minute
because I want to sit back and get comfortable and tell you about another
favorite subject of mine. Speaking of comfort you know if a man
doesn't feel comfortable he just can't do his best at work or
play. And just for your information I feel my
best when I'm dressed comfortably. And you know my favorite outfit whether
I'm working or just loafing around is my K-shirt and a pair of jeans.
You'd be surprised how many buckaroos are agreeing with me. Kids all across the
country are writing in asking me for a K-shirt like mine.
I've told you about it before. It's a comfortable cotton shirt made like a T-shirt
in the color of desert sand with my own Diamond K-branding bright
red on the front and targing on me looking right at you.
If you want to join the fellas and girls that are wearing my own private K-shirt
all you've got to do is send me your name and address. Tell me what size you
wear. Size is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12.
And then close a one dollar bill for the fellow that makes them. Pretty fancy shirt
for just a dollar. You'll get a lot of wear out of your
K-shirt too. Cause it's fine quality cotton and the blazing colors are put on by
special hand screen process. So send a date. Be sure to send your
name and address and your size to K-shirt in care of this station and slip in that
one dollar bill. Your shirt will be sent postage prepaid
from Hollywood. Now back to the story. You remember me
telling you about that old skinned flint Talbert dying and neglecting very
important item telling where his fortune was buried?
Well the next fellow to get hold of the ranch was a man named Barry.
He was an easygoing fella just the opposite of Talbert.
He fed his men well and liked to laugh and joke with him and folks used to say
that the Barry men were as fat as Talbert's were lean.
Well Barry didn't get out of the range much himself. He liked to hang around the
ranch house giving orders and supervising small jobs.
He had a bunch of Mexicans working for him and used to keep them mighty busy.
He set one of them to replacing all the old posts near the ranch house.
Well it was a hot day, a mighty hot one, when the Mexicans started the job.
Now post hole digging is no easy pickings. The ground around the ranch gets pounded
down pretty hard and most of the time that Mexican was slaving away with a
crowbar breaking up the hard dirt and loosening up the rocks.
As I said it was a hot day and the sweat was just pouring down his leathery old
face and the work was slowing up considerable.
First post hole wasn't so bad but the second one almost killed him.
When he started the third he really began to think of siesta time
which incidentally wasn't too far off. Maybe that gave him a little extra
strength because he replunged that crowbar down into the ground with a
mighty thrust but it bounced right back and almost made him look like one of
Talbert's hired hands with a broken tooth that is. Well that
crowbar was pretty hefty. When it did the same thing again
he was through for the day. Boss Manberry happened by just about that time and
when the Mexican explained what had happened
he didn't seem to mind too much. Told the Mexican he'd quit the job if he liked
and sent him out rounding up the remutative, the horses that is.
Now it seemed very strange to the Mexicans seeing that they just got through
rounding up the horses, had picked out the ones they wanted and
set the others loose again. But Berry hustled him off anyway and then
the boss man waited until all the others hanging around the ranch house were deep
in their respective siestas. Then Berry slipped off his spurs which
was a rather strange thing to do. They made a right cheery sound and then
he went back to the third post hole. Instead of working on the hole itself he
began to dig around it making the hole much bigger than you'd ever need for a
post. And when he got down about the depth of the crowbar
he struck something that didn't seem to surprise him but it surely made him smile.
Then he started to dig with his hands and the first thing he came up with was a
stack of gold pieces, 18 high, held together by something that had
mostly rusted away. But after that he ran in spongy dirt and
gave up when he didn't find any more gold. Of course he was happy to get the money
but it certainly didn't pay him for all the work he'd done.
You remember it was a hot day. Well Berry had plenty to say about old Hallbert
as he went back to the ranch house because as you've guessed Berry thought
he was going to find all the money old Hallbert was supposed to have buried
somewhere. Well for days Berry was the bad temper and
everybody gave him a wide berth. They didn't know what had happened down at
that post hole. Now Buckaroo from Berry was more like
himself again and got to thinking about it the more important those 18 pieces of
gold became. Especially they're being rusted together
like that. It wasn't like anybody to bury money that way.
Sure it might be in a sack or a pot or a box but not the way he found it.
And then he began puzzling about the spongy dirt that had stopped him and
right then and there he decided to have another look.
Of course by that time the Mexican had the hole all filled in again and Berry
had to start from scratch. When he got down to that spongy soil
again he kept going and this time it paid off.
For his spade ran into the most delightful jingle an old treasure hunter
would ever want to hear. You see Buckaroos the combined diggings
of the Mexican and Berry had caused the original chest that
Talbert had buried to break away from the place it was wedged and to sink out of
sight in the spongy soil. Leaving those 18 pieces behind is a
sort of a teaser. The chest itself had mostly rusted away
and that's what held those 18 coins together.
Well Berry banked the $75,000 he found. Yes he put it in a much safer place maybe
than where he found it but you can feel certain that he was happy they didn't
have places like safes in the early days otherwise he never would have had the
legal right to break into Talbert's bank. Gosh Ken that was really an exciting
story and you know when you finish a story I
just keep wishing there was more because I really go for a good western story
especially one about buried gold and I'll bet you young buckaroos listening
feel a lot like I do. You never get enough of hearing good
stories that's why I think if you haven't already ordered your Diamond K
record album of exciting Ken Maynard stories
you're losing time you could be enjoying them. You know this
beautiful colored album contains two stories two complete big eight inch
pure vinylite absolutely unbreakable records
of regular 78 rpm standard speed and don't forget these records are made
just for you with a personal message from Ken Maynard
Hollywood's champion of western stars why just wait till you hear Ken call you
by name he'll say hello Harry this is Ken Maynard
with a story just for you yes sir Ken will call you by name no
matter what your name is right on the record they're personalized
just for you why it's the biggest value I know of for
just a dollar two records in an album two complete
Wild West stories pictures of Ken and Tarzan inside and out for just a dollar
simply send your name and address and a dollar bill to records in care of this
station your album will be mail postage prepaid
right from Hollywood but be sure your name is in the letter so Ken can say
hello to you now don't wait any longer to get in on all
this fun now here's Ken to tell you about his next exciting story
well buckaroos I guess it's time for Tarzan and I to be mosing along
ready to go Tarzan
okay boy say so long to the folks
and that goes for me too so we'll be looking for all of you again right soon
we'll have no difficulty recognizing you in your k-shirt
that right Tarzan
and I'm not fooling buckaroos every time Tarzan sees one of them k-shirts he just
goes right up and gives it a friendly nibble
this is Ken Maynard closing up the tack room at the Diamond Cave for today
so long you've been listening to tales from the Diamond Cave stories of
adventure told by Ken Maynard in the nationally famous cowboy
stunt writer and Hollywood's champion of western stars
tales from the Diamond Cave was produced and transcribed
in Hollywood