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Charles Rath & Company ordered from Long
Brothers, of Kansas City, two hundred cases of baking-powder at one
order. They went to Colonel W. F. Askew, to whom we were shipping
immense quantities of hides, and said: "These men must be crazy, or
else they mean two hundred boxes instead of cases." They said there
were not two hundred cases in the city. Askew wired us if we had not
made a mistake. We answered, "No; double the order." Askew was out a
short time after that and saw six or eight carloads of flour stacked
up in the warehouse. He said he now understood. It was to bake this
flour up into bread.
I have been to several mining camps where rich strikes had been made,
but I never saw any town to equal
Dodge. A good hunter would make
a hundred dollars a day. Everyone had money to throw at the birds.
There was no article less than a quarter --a drink was a quarter, a
shave was a quarter, a paper of pins a quarter, and needles the same.
In fact, that was the smallest change. Governor St. John was in
Dodge once, when he was notified
that a terrible cyclone had visited a little town close to the
Kansas
line, in
Nebraska. In two hours I raised one thousand dollars, which
he wired them.
Our first calaboose in
Dodge City
was a well fifteen feet deep, into which the drunkards were let down
and allowed to remain until they were sober. Sometimes there were
several in it at once. It served the purpose well for a time. Of
course everyone has heard of wicked
Dodge; but a great deal has been
said and written about it that is not true. Its good side has never
been told, and I cannot give it space here. Many reckless, bad men
came to
Dodge and many brave men. These
had to be met by officers equally brave and reckless. As the old
saying goes, "You must fight the devil with fire." The officers gave
them the south side of the railroad-track, but the north side must be
kept respectable, and it was. There never was any such thing as
shooting at plug hats. On the contrary, every stranger that came to
Dodge City
and behaved himself was treated with politeness; but woe be unto the
man who came seeking a fight. He was soon accommodated in any way,
shape, or form that he wished.
Often have I seen chivalry extended to
ladies on the streets, from these rough men that would have done
credit to the knights of old. When some man, a little drunk, and
perhaps unintentionally, would jostle a lady in a crowd, he was soon
brought to his senses by being knocked down by one of his companions,
who remarked, "Never let me see you insult a lady again."
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In fact, the chivalry of
Dodge toward the fair sex and
strangers was proverbial. Never in the history of
Dodge was a stranger mistreated;
but, on the contrary, the utmost courtesy was always and under all
circumstances extended to him, and never was there a frontier town
whose liberality exceeded that of
Dodge.
But, while women, children, and strangers were never, anywhere,
treated with more courtesy and respect; while such things as shooting
up plug hats and making strangers dance is all bosh and moonshine, and
one attempting such would have been promptly called down; let me tell
you one thing --none of
Dodge's well-known residents
would have been so rash as to dare to wear a plug hat through the
streets, or put on any "dog," such as wearing a swallow tailor evening
dress, or any such thing.
The general reputation of young
Dodge City
is well described in an article entitled, "Reminiscences of
Dodge," written in 1877, and
expressing what a stranger has to say about the town. The article runs as
follows:
"By virtue of the falling off in the cattle drive to
Kansas
for this year,
and the large number of cattle driven under contract,
Dodge City
became the principal depot for the sale of surplus stock; buyers met
drovers at this point, purchased and received purchases without
unnecessary delay, thereby greatly facilitating business and enabling
quick returns of both owners and hands. In the future, situated as it is
upon one of the best railroads traversing the country from east to west,
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, it will probably occupy an enviable
position as a cattle market. "Dodge
has many characteristics which prevent its being classed as a town of
strictly moral ideas and principles, notwithstanding it is supplied with a
church, courthouse, and jail. Other institutions counterbalance the good
works supposed to emanate from the first mentioned. Like all frontier
towns of this modern day, fast men and fast women are around by the score,
seeking whom they may devour, hunting for a soft snap, taking him in for
cash, and many is the
Texas
cowboy who can testify as to their ability to
follow up successfully the calling they have embraced in quest of money.
"Gambling ranges from a game of five-cent chuck-aluck to a thousand-dollar
poker pot. Nothing is secret, but with open doors upon the main streets,
the ball rolls on uninterruptedly. More than occasionally some dark-eyed
virago or some brazen-faced blonde, with a modern sundown, will saunter in
among the roughs of the gambling houses and
saloons, entering with
inexplicable zest into the disgusting sport, breathing the immoral
atmosphere with a gusto which I defy modern writers to explain. Dance
houses are ranged along the convenient distances and supplied with all the
trappings and paraphernalia which go to complete institutions of that
character. Here you see the greatest abandon. Men of every grade assemble
to join in the dance. Nice men with white neckties, the cattle dealer with
his good clothes, the sport with his well-turned fingers, smooth tongue,
and artistically twisted mustache, and last but not least the
cowboy,
booted and spurred as he comes from the trail, his hard earnings in his
pocket, all join in the wild revel; and yet with all this mixture of
strange human nature a remarkable degree of order is preserved. Arms are
not allowed to be worn, and any noisy whisky demonstrations are promptly
checked by incarceration in the lock-up. Even the mayor of the city
indulges in the giddy dance with the girls, and with his cigar in one
corner of his mouth and his hat tilted to one side, he makes a charming
looking officer.
"Some things occur in
Dodge that the world never knows
of. Probably it is best so. Other things occur that leak out by degrees,
notwithstanding the use of hush money. That, too, is perhaps the best. Men
learn by such means.
"Most places are satisfied with one abode of the dead. In the grave there
is no distinction. The rich are known from the poor only by their
tombstones, so the sods that are upon the grave fail to reflect the
characters buried beneath them. And yet
Dodge boasts of two burying
spots, one for the tainted whose very souls were steeped in immorality,
and who have generally died with their boots on. 'Boot Hill' is the
somewhat singular title applied to the burial place of the class just
mentioned. The other is not designated by any particular title but it is
supposed to contain the bodies of those who died with a clean sheet on
their beds-the soul in this case is a secondary consideration."
So much
for one view of
Dodge City,
but, though common, this view was not quite universal. Sometimes a writer
appeared who could recognize a few slightly better features in the border
town, and who could look beyond its existing lawlessness and see the
possibilities and beginnings of a higher state of things. In proof of this,
I'll quote an article written in 1878, a year later than the last, and
entitled, "The Beautiful, Bibulous Babylon of the Frontier":
"Standing out on the extreme border of civilization, like an oasis in the
desert, or like a light-house off a rocky coast, is 'The Beautiful,
Bibulous Babylon of the Frontier,'
Dodge City,
so termed by Lewis, editor of the 'Kinsley Graphic.'
Dodge City
is far famed, not for its virtues, but for its wickedness; the glaring
phases of its vices stand pre-eminent, and attract the attention of the
visitor; and these shadows of Babylon are reproduced in the gossip's
corner and-in the press. It is seldom the picture has fine embellishments;
but the pen artist of the 'Graphic' put the finer touches of nature to the
pen portrait of
Dodge-'she is no worse than
Chicago.'"
This, we admit, is a slight leverage in the social scale, to be
placed in the category of
Chicago's wickedness.
Continued Next Page
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