They were pretty deaf in the old west
I lost count of how many times an actor said something, perfectly clearly, and someone else asked, dramatically, "what did you say?"
shareAssuming you are serious about your comment and not just being a horse's patoot, I would ask you if you've ever done much shooting. You clearly never served in the Army or Marine Corps. You can bet those frontiersmen card players have done their share of shooting. A side effect of shooting without ear protection is partial deafness, the severity of which increases with the more shooting you've done. The card players mostly looked of an age to have served in the Civil War (The Joseph Cotton character maybe the Mexican War). Plus, settling the West often involve defending one's self against Indians and bandits, as well. It doesn't strain my credulity in the least for those men to be a little hard of hearing.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae