Character Analysis
Burned Beans
Xavier Wanz is such an incidental character, he wouldn't get much of a mention, but what happens at the end of the book with him is crucial.
Wanz is one man among many who loves Lorena, and after she leaves with Jake, he thinks, "[N]ow Jake Spoon had spoiled it all" (15.29).
Wanz is a sad man who wears a black shoestring as a bowtie.
"Since the shoestring was limp, and not stiff like a bow tie should be, it merely added to the melancholy of Xavier's appearance, which would have been melancholy enough without it." (4.7)
He's so sad that he can't get over Lorena leaving. He offers to marry her, and he says he'll burn his tavern, the Dry Bean, down if she leaves.
Shockingly, he does just that. When Call returns to Lonesome Dove in the final chapter, the Dry Bean is gone, which makes the town an even lonelier place. As someone tells Call:
"They say he missed that whore." (102.108)
Lorena just has that power over men.