Valentine Sheriff's Office, 1899
Did you uh, ever want to know every little thing that's in the Valentine Sheriff's Office in 1899? No? Well have I got a surprise for you
Listen, once I got a certain distance into noting these things down I thought I may as well share them in case somebody else wants to. Write a single scene in the Valentine Sheriff's Office in which the exact titles on the books in Malloy's office are not even remotely relevant um. Maybe. You would like. To know. Dear reader, I got you
As you enter the sheriff's office, the bounty board is immediately on the right, before the jail cells. Above it is a poster for "the world famous D.D. Packenbush double-action revolver, the pistol choice of professional shooters. Safe, quick, accurate."
Immediately visible as you enter the room is the sheriff's desk, which is large and sturdy-looking, but weathered. There's some kind of gouge in the top surface. On it is a stamp and some kind of roller with a silver handle. Also an oil lantern and a white notebook with a contrasting off white spine. As you sit at the desk there is a scallopped section to allow you to sit closer to your work. On the left side of the desk is a full-height cupboard door and on the right three desk-drawers. Interestingly, on the front (as in, opposite where one would sit at the desk) there is a handhold on one of the corners to fit your fingers in when moving the piece of furniture around. Wild. Underneath the desktop in front of where the legs would go is two shelves, upon which sit a couple books, what looks like an in-tray sort of thing to sort loose pieces of paper. On the bottom shelf is some kind of press? It looks maybe like it's iron but I can't get in there because of the chair, a crumpled piece of paper and some kind of reddish... wallet? The iron thing looks like one of those morse code beepy tappy things. The chair looks very weathered, dark stain with worn-light patches like it's made of a cheap, light wood like pine. It's got high armrests and a high back.
To the left of the entry is a double window (double-hung frames likely with a counterweight and a simple metal lock in the centre of the sash), a sideboard(or is it called a buffet?) topped with law books. It's stained a lightish timber colour.
Legal Books: On their side, bottom of stack "Legal Procedural", blue, spine on text faded. Grey, "Appeal report: Law journal &(?)appeals 1887". After the pink volume, there are some books with nothing on the spines and then more "Appeals reports", from 1886 and 1887.
"Magner's Bound Litigator's Digest" Volumes 1A, 1B, 1A again. "Finch Law Encyclopaedia volumes I and II", black, gold-embossed filigree with a red square for the title. "Consolidated Statutes 1892, Pink, with slight art nouveau embellishments. Thin spines, hard to read "Appeal reports" in faded blue and a bright navy that might be a thin "Legal procedure".
After this a bright blue volume is "legal procedure, Cheetham's annotated st(?)(?)(n?)TE/C(?)S", spine is damaged. More appeals reports. More magners 1A & 1B. Consolidated statutes again, same pink volume from 1892. Magner's 1A again, Finch Law Encyclopaedia Vol 1 and 2 again.
Above. portrait photogrpahy of former sheriffs , both with a similar moustache to Malloy. Former sheriffs, or family members? Between the portraits a map of New Hanover, "New Hanover and Neighbouring states"
A cabinet with that barred ventilated door style I've seen around in a dark wood. Atop it, a stuffed or sculpted ring-necked pheasant. A window with a pull-down blind. A coat stand. A coal-burning space heater? Radiator? Unsure of the right term. It's cylindrical with an ornate silver-coloured top. At the bottom there is a hatch for coal to be added and the chimney carries the smoke out.
Another window.
A poster of a mounted rider holding a pistol. It's an advertisement for "Hutton & Baird pistols & revolvers manufacturers". Beneath it a bedside tail with oil lamp
Next to that is a purple curtain which can be drawn around a single bed with a blue bedspread with a repeating geometric pattern kind of remniscient of an emerald cut. The beadstead is of brass, and slightly copper-coloured. Another double window above the bed, with pull-down shutters. There's an electric lamp on the back wall on an adjustable arm, so it can be positioned slightly. A chest at the foot of the bed. Two timber beams supporting the roof (also supporting the rail for the purple curtain), and a yellow door which leads outside.
The walls are finished with plaster on the top half and the bottom has wainscoting in a yellowish timber. The floor is a timber parquet floor with a herringbone pattern which repeats in tiles of about 80cm (31") square (scaled by eye based on the usual depth of a chair seat at around 40cm). The floor is very weathered and covered in sand, scuff marks, dirt and what might be blood. There's a grey-and-white rug on the floor with a geometric pattern of diamonds and triangular designs that a very brief google suggests is inspired by Navajo textile designs? It's under a worn little chair and table. The table has a single candle in a holder to catch the wax etc
There's also a bull or bison (I don't know, it's got broad horns, I don't think it's a bison. It makes me think of a water buffalo) mounted on the wall between the door and the double window on the front/entry wall.
The ceiling is typical for the period in that it has exposed beams (the beam runs the length of the room from entry door to back door) with others visible at the two edges of the room. There's naother beam running parallell to the street that comes across the ceiling about where the stove/heater/radiator is. The rest is joists and the floor panels of the storey above
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Hopefully someone finds this useful. I certainly do not need. This level of detail. lol
