On page 53 and 54 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD Buck explained to his Mama how "THE GAME" was played in Aven (downtown Dothan in 1890): "See here, the man that does the furnishin' makes mor'n the farmer. You know that [the Bakers owned a big general store between Headland and Tumbleton] . Rent him his land, sell him his tools, seeds, guano, anything he wants. He'll owe you and he won't like you. He'll cuss you, but you'll have to take it. He may kick you, but take it. Then, by God, if he makes a crop, take it."

His mother closed her eyes and Buck could see her face stiffen.

She tried to rock, but it wasn't a rocking chair. "That ain't our way," she said, shortly.

Buck laughed, bitterly, and it was ugly even to his ears.

"Them that furnishes live a long time," he said. "The land don't break them."

page 123 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD

"Buck would try to convince himself that the storekeeper-furnisher took a chance and that big profits ought to come from big risks; then the thought would come to make him sweat, that whichever way the farmer moved, the storeman had him going and coming." https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/

from page 198: "Phew!" he said, looking back up at Buck. "I can't do worth a cuss with her. Jeff, he can sit still and look picked on and get what he wants. It looked like I kept her riled up so I came on down."

"Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves," Hearn said, suddenly, without smiling. "That's what she kept saying."

His mind suddenly was back to the first night he had spent in Aven, a night when the fear had found him alone. That fear- part of the fight between man and cotton, or man and land, or man and grass. Bermuda grass, lacing a foot deep into the richest soil, holding it against the heavy washing rains and fattening the topsoil for the day when a man would need it. Bermuda grass, friendly at first, then a part of the fight, dirt banker for the man, then making him earn it, making him go in there with a steel beam and a bull-tongue scooter and a mule that was willing to burn itself out alongside of a man. He shuddered, then looked back up at Hearn.

"Shirtsleeves," he said, softly,"in three generations."

"Papa said there ain't but three things worth fightin' over- a land line, a baseball game, or a woman. They'll cool off. Preacher's got to say somethin' an' it can't all be good. One thing sure-they wouldn't be shootin' at me if I didn't have my head up so it could be seen. I'll worry when they stop shootin'." page 199 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD

In my analysis of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, I have described three Baker brothers as models for characters in the novel. Yesterday, I learned more about another Baker brother, Robert Chester Baker (1880-1914). Robert went by the nickname "Coon" and was eleven years younger than Buck. Coon may have been one of the models for the Bannon brother who participates in the Ku Klux Klan flogging of a prostitute in Chapter 14. In 1908, Coon was arrested and acquitted by Dothan authorities for the murder of Jack Oates, a Black drayman. Oates was apparently murdered during a flogging. Three other men were also arrested and acquitted for Oates' murder. Also in 1908, a house owned by Coon near Howell School burned and in 1915 this lot became the baseball diamond for Dothan's first professional league baseball team. From 1915 until the construction of the Rec Center in the early 1950s, the Baker Lot was an important community park for tent shows and ball games. It's full name should read the COON BAKER LOT. Coon died under mysterious circumstances in August of 1914, the same month that Reverend McNeill's parsonage was burned and Buck was accused of having the fire set to burn out the preacher who had been campaigning against Buck's restricted vice district near the intersection of Range and East Burdeshaw Streets. (from the March 8, 1915 DOTHAN EAGLE)