TEXAS

A retired member of the fourth estate drops Texas names and anecdotes by the hundreds into a large (but of course) reflective pool. Stanley Walker left New York twenty years ago and went home. He settled on his own place in his favorite of the 200-odd counties, Gillespie. No oil (this is something of a relief), ""...but sausages and decent bread, honey and leather, beer and beef, mohair and peaches"". A peaceable, fond and firmly capitalistic meander through the fortunes, quirks and characters of our biggest state. Sidelights: the capricious weather (""nothing between me and the North Pole but a string of barbed wire""); the local vernacular (he probably ""bob wire"", Mr. Walker); mediocre food in the ""cafes"" (partially due to a deplorable lack of Italians, he claims), transportation, (""Texans never walk""); liquor; religion, ""the wanted, enthusiastic slaughter of wild game""; barbecues at the great ranches, the slaggering financial statistics (the oil industry alone has a state tax bill of 210 million dollars. The book should be a must down there, though- Mr. Walker claims TV has had a effect on all cultural life. This is of interest too for those who cherish their ancestors westward trekking, for reporters, for politicians, for tourists, for meteorologists, to mention only a few.