In the first paragraph of the story's second part, the narrator uses visual imagery and alliteration to set the scene of Yellow Sky, gradually zooming out from the initial setting of the Weary Gentleman saloon, to the street outside, and finally to the broader Texan landscape.
For the time being, the main details offered about the saloon are the people in it. Six men sit at the bar: a talkative drummer, three silent Texans, and two silent Mexican sheepherders. A drowsy dog lies just outside the front door. The description then passes fluidly out into the street, which contributes to the sleepy atmosphere already indicated in the details given about the saloon.
Across the sandy street were some vivid green grass-plots, so wonderful in appearance, amid the sands that burned near them in a blazing sun, that they caused a doubt in the mind. They exactly resembled the grass mats used to represent lawns on the stage.
In the first part of the sentence, Crane's use of alliteration offers a soothing, rhythmic quality that undergirds the sleepy yet radiant visual imagery. The overall feeling of emptiness and silence is countered by the burning sands and blazing sun, which stand in juxtaposition to the vivid green grass-plots that look so good they seem artificial.
Immediately after this description of the street, the narrator zooms out further, describing both the infrastructure and natural landscape more broadly.
At the cooler end of the railway station, a man without a coat sat in a tilted chair and smoked his pipe. The fresh-cut bank of the Rio Grande circled near the town, and there could be seen beyond it a great plum-colored plain of mesquite.
The man without a coat is the first person mentioned in the scenery outside the saloon. His stillness adds to the overall atmosphere, while the smoke emitting from his pipe contributes another texture to the multilayered Yellow Sky surroundings. At first, it is tempting to picture the water of the Rio Grande circling near the town, like the smoke circling in the sky from the man's pipe, but the narrator doesn't actually say anything about the river itself. The only element of the Rio Grande that is mentioned is its bank. The greenness suggested by this bank is complemented by the plain of plum-colored mesquite trees in the distance.
Overall, the imagery in the beginning of the second part paints a rich picture of Yellow Sky and its surroundings. On the one hand, the stillness and silence in the descriptions fulfill the reader's expectations of a small town in western Texas. On the other hand, the town is not simply dusty or barren. It contains unexpected colors and textures that connote life. These sentences are the first part of the story to take place off the train, and the reader builds mixed expectations of Yellow Sky and how the story will unfold there.
