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    Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope
    Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope
    Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope
    Ebook131 pages1 hour

    Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope

    By William Forde

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    As we enter the Third Millennium, the world faces challenges which no civilised country can ignore. The greed and material consumption by people living in the most prosperous parts of our world become more conspicuous and effectively impoverishes further, those poorer, third-world nations in want of basic necessities in order to survive.

    As long as richer nations are prepared to continue building and increasing their wealth upon the debts of poorer nations, the advancement of the rich will be made at the developmental expense of the poor.

    As long as profit matters more than people, there can be no such thing as ‘fair trade’, ‘equality of opportunity’ and ‘freedom from basic want’.

    To look beyond the immediate desires of oneself towards the needs of another person in less favourable circumstances is the most spiritually-uplifting experience one can ever have. Such action forms the basis for lasting friendship and helps to establish a climate of true understanding and mutual respect.

    Humanity and greed are incompatible. In the final analysis, a person can only serve one God. ‘Four Crude Dudes and the land of Hope’ deals with the most avaricious of human nature; mankind’s capacity for greed. This was admirably exemplified in ‘The Californian Gold Rush’ of the 19th century, when greed turned a nation of god-fearing pioneers into gold prospectors; the worse of whom abandoned home, family, god and all sense of moral code to lie, steal, bully and cheat their way to wealth.

    ‘Four Crude Dudes and the Land of Hope’ tell the story of how the lives of a thief, a bully, a cheat and a liar negatively impact upon each other during the days of the ‘Californian Gold Rush’; leaving the hero of the story, Farmer Hope, with all the wealth, despite him having never sought it.

    The story essentially shows that when greed becomes one’s god, then all goodness goes out the window. The victory of the God-fearing Farmer Hope who seeks only to look after his family and his neighbours while all around are abandoning their contented lives to seek gold and increased prosperity in the land of plenty. It is a vindication and endurance of the 'good' in mankind over that of the 'bad.'

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Forde
    Release dateMar 4, 2013
    ISBN9781301555468
    Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope
    Author

    William Forde

    William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

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      Book preview

      Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope - William Forde

      ‘Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope’

      By

      William Forde

      Illustration by Dave Bradbury

      Copyright August, 2016 by William Forde

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this e-book. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ‘Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope’

      by

      William Forde

      Contents

      Author’s Foreword

      Chapter One – ‘The California Gold Rush’

      Chapter Two – ‘The Land of Hope’

      Chapter Three – ‘The Cheat’

      Chapter Four – ‘The Thief’

      Chapter Five – ‘The Liar’

      Chapter Six – ‘The Bully’

      Chapter Seven – ‘Friday the 13th October, 1848’

      Chapter Eight – ‘The Land of Hope – The Land of Gold’

      ‘Two Crude Dames and Horace Catchpole’

      Author’s Foreword

      Chapter One – ‘Melissa and Horace: Mother and Son’

      Chapter Two – ‘Mildred and Horace: Wife and Husband’

      Chapter Three – The Honeymoon Period’

      Chapter Four – ‘Setting a Trap’

      Chapter Five – ‘Melissa, Horace and Mildred’

      Chapter Six – ‘The Worm Turns’

      Chapter Seven – ‘Melissa and Mildred’

      Author’s Background

      Other Books by this Author

      For the General Audience

      Romantic Drama Strictly for Adults

      Connect with William Forde

      ‘Four Crude Dudes and The Land of Hope’

      by

      William Forde

      In a world where materialism is king, greed becomes good and gold becomes God.

      Author’s foreword

      As we enter the Third Millennium, the world faces challenges, which no civilised country can ignore. The greed and material consumption by people living in the most prosperous parts of our world become more conspicuous and effectively impoverishes further, those poorer, third-world nations in want of basic necessities in order to survive.

      As long as richer nations are prepared to continue building and increasing their wealth upon the debts of poorer nations, the advancement of the rich will be made at expense of the poor. So long as profit matters more than people, there can be no such thing as ‘fair trade’, ‘equality of opportunity’ and ‘freedom from basic want.’

      To look beyond the immediate desires of oneself towards the needs of another person in less favourable circumstances is the most spiritually uplifting experience one can ever have. Such action forms the basis for lasting friendship and helps to establish a climate of true understanding and mutual respect.

      Humanity and greed are incompatible. In the final analysis, a person can only serve one God.

      ‘Four Crude Dudes and the Land of Hope’ tells the story of how the lives of a thief, a bully, a cheat and a liar negatively impact upon each other during the days of the ‘Californian Gold Rush’; leaving the hero of the story, Farmer Hope, with all the wealth which he never sought, from their ill-gotten gains.

      As well as providing an accurate historical background setting to ‘The Californian Gold Rush’, which turned the heads of many a foolish man away from safety of God to face uncertain prosperity in the fields of gold; ‘Four Crude Dudes and the Land of Hope’ espouses the firm belief that in the final analysis, what is right will prevail and that which is wrong shall perish.

      These stories were first published in the year 2000. The cover illustration was provided by Huddersfield artist Dave Bradbury of West Yorkshire.

      William Forde, August, 2016.

      Chapter One - ‘The Californian Gold Rush’

      In the spring of 1842, a Mexican called Francisco Lopez made the first discovery of gold in Southern California. On 24 January, 1848, James Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill, California. Although his gold find didn’t bring James Marshall the wealth he dreamt of, by 1849, California had become known as ‘the land of gold’.

      News of the gold find spread like wildfire across America. Stories reached the four corners of the land about the huge fortunes, which were being made overnight by miners in the land of gold.

      Before long, most Americans were gripped in the vice of greed and gold fever took root in the minds of the poor, the needy, the speculators and the dreamers. It was like a National Lottery, which seemed to promise every man the prospect of becoming a millionaire, simply for the price of a sifting pan and a pick and shovel.

      Before the year was out, most of America was on the move as swarms of new settlers and gold prospectors made their way to California. All of them were eager to stake their claim and strike it rich in the land of gold.

      Shopkeepers closed their premises, families sold their homes, and thousands of people gave up their jobs to travel west. They used what money they possessed to buy mining tools, tents, travelling provisions and covered wagons to carry them and their belongings out to California. They swapped the certain comfort of their homes and the established security of their communities for the speculative chance of striking it rich in the land of California.

      Their trek west to California involved travelling a thousand miles of wild prairie and crossing rugged mountains in the most savage of conditions. For the most part, they travelled in covered wagons, forming a long train of travellers across the uncertainty of this unknown and unmapped route.

      Many a wagon train never reached its destination, and those that did, often paid a heavy price for their journey. The busiest and most dangerous route travelled by the wagon trains was ‘The Oregon Trail’.

      Had the exodus of new settlers realised the hardship and dangers before them, they would have never left home. Those wagon trains, many of which were invariably dependent upon and guided by inexperienced scouts, frequently got lost on the vast prairie and became meat for the buzzards.

      Other wagon trains were unable to find fresh water holes or became marooned in sandstorms. Those wagon trains, which started the long trek too late in the year, became trapped in savage, winter weather before they had got half way there. These unfortunate travellers were never seen again with flesh upon their bones; the vultures having been amply rewarded for following the canvassed trail of wagons in hungry anticipation.

      Other dangers the wagon train pioneers encountered included poisoned water holes and diseases such as cholera and water fever. And even when the man-eating wolves didn’t kill them, the native Indians who lived on the plains did!

      However, despite the dangers faced by the travellers to California, the gold seekers kept on coming across the prairie in their tens of thousands. Like a swarm of bees in search of the golden honey pot, they pressed ahead regardless once they’d caught the smell!

      They were driven by a dream that wouldn’t be dampened whatever the dangers they faced; to reach the land of gold in time to stake their claim and strike it rich! In their stampede to be among the first to get there, they became part of the ‘Californian Gold Rush’.

      When they arrived in California, many were shocked by what they found. The West wasn’t at all like the eastern towns and cities, which they had left behind. It was still very wild in every sense. It was largely undeveloped in its systems of roads, transport, and methods of communications. It appeared uncivilised to most of the new settlers and, more often than not, lawlessness was too commonplace a practice.

      The roles of Sheriffs, Marshals and other law enforcement officers were just too dangerous, and often these posts remained vacant for long periods of time. Even when a Marshall was appointed, the territory he was supposed to cover extended from one state to the next and might cover such a large geographical land mass, that it was impossible to be policed by one Sheriff and a few Deputies.

      The towns were overcrowded and filled with saloons and gambling houses. There were few schools and often no church. To walk down the muddy Main Street often meant taking your life in your hands. If you escaped being knocked down and trampled to death by a galloping horse, you would most definitely run the risk of being shot down by the stray bullet of a drunken gun-toting cowboy!

      It was even worse nearer to the mining camps. The new settlers quickly discovered that in a land where gold is plentiful, a higher price is demanded for the more common materials. Very soon, all

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