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 Besides this generally sensational mode of writing up the town,
Dodge City
was the theme of many lurid stories and sulphurous jokes which tended, no
less than the write-ups, to establish her position, in the public eye, as
the "Wickedest Town in America." The following letter is from the
"Washington, D. C., Evening Star," January 1st, 1878.
"Dodge City
is a wicked little town. Indeed, its character is so clearly and
egregiously bad that one might conclude, were the evidence in these later
times positive of its possibility, that it was marked for special
Providential punishment. Here those nomads in regions remote from the
restraints of moral, civil, social, and law enforcing life, the
Texas
cattle drovers, from the very tendencies of their situation the embodiment
of waywardness and wantonness, end the journey with their herds, and here
they loiter and dissipate, sometimes for months, and share the boughten
dalliances of fallen women. Truly, the more demonstrative portion of
humanity at
Dodge City
gives now no hopeful sign of moral improvement, no bright prospect of
human exaltation; but with
Dodge City
itself, it will not always be as now. The hamlet of today, like Wichita
and Newton farther east in the state, will antagonize with a nobler trait,
at some future day, its present outlandish condition. The denizen of
little
Dodge City
declares, with a great deal of confidence, that the region around about
the place is good for nothing for agricultural purposes. He says the
seasons are too dry, that the country is good for nothing but for grazing,
and that all they raise around Dodge
is cattle and hell. The desire of his heart is the father of the
statement. He is content with just what it is, and he wants that to
remain.
He wants the cattle droves and his associations and surroundings to be a
presence and a heritage forever."
Referring to this article, the
Ford
County Globe, of January 1, 1878, says:
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"We think this correspondent
had a sour stomach when he portrayed the wickedness of our city. But we
must expect it unless we ourselves try to improve the present condition of
things. There is not a more peaceful, well-regulated, and orderly
community in the western country;" and then, as the office boy entered to
say that somebody wanted to see him, he took his bowie knife between his
teeth, put a Colt's new pattern six-shooter on his desk in front of him,
and then said: "Jim, get out another coffin, a plain one this time, and
let the critter come in."
About thirty miles from
Dodge the train stopped at a
little station, and a
cowboy got on, very drunk, and fully equipped in
chaps, spurs, six-shooter, and quirt.
The conductor, John Bender, asked him his fare and destination. He
replied, "I want to go to hell!" Bender said, "All right; give me a dollar
and get off at Dodge." Thus
Dodge City's
evil reputation became established, whether deserved or undeserved. People
living at a distance and having no way of knowing where truth ended and
falsehood began, naturally gave credence to all reports they saw
published, until, in places remote, the very name of
Dodge became a synonym for all
that was wild, reckless, and violent. Strangers, approaching the town for
the first time, did so with dread, entered it with fear and trembling, or
passed through it with a sigh of relief as its last roof was left behind.
Tales of the fate of tenderfeet in the border city struck terror to the
soul of many a newcomer in the community, and the dangers apprehended by
these new arrivals on the dreaded scene, were limited only by the amount
of courage, credulity, and imagination they possessed.
To illustrate, a
young man, going west with a party of movers, wrote a card to his father
back east, just before reaching
Dodge City,
not mailing it till after passing through. Here is what he wrote while
anticipating the entrance into the dreaded town:
"In Camp Fifteen Miles from Dodge,
May 7, 1877. Dear Father: As I've a little time I'll drop you a card, so you can see we are all
well and headed west. Have laid over here to wait for a larger crowd so as
to be perfectly safe going through
Dodge. There are nine teams now and will be three more in the morning,
so we will be safe anyway. There are a good many coming back from Colorado
but that don't discourage us any. That is no sign we can't do well.
Everything goes on as nice as clock work among ourselves; not a word as
yet and no hard feelings. - Herbert."
In somewhat sarcastic comment upon this postal card, the Dodge City
Times, of May 19, 1877, says:
"The card was evidently written while awaiting reinforcements to assist in
making a charge through our city, but not mailed until they had run the
gauntlet and halted to take a breath at a safe distance on the west side.
To the father and friends who are no doubt anxiously waiting to know if
our blood-thirsty denizens exterminated the caravan, we can say that they
escaped us without a serious loss of life."
What made
Dodge City
so famous was that it was the last of the towns of the last big frontier
of the United States. When this was settled, the frontier was gone, it was
the passing of the frontier with the passing of the
buffalo, and the
Indian question was settled forever.
Here congregated people from the east, people from the south, people from
the north, and people from the west. People of all sorts, sizes,
conditions, and nationalities; people of all color, good, bad, and
indifferent, congregated here, because it was the big door to so vast a
frontier. Some came to
Dodge City
out of curiosity; others strictly for business; the stock man came because
it was a great cattle market, and here, on the Arkansas River, was the
place appointed for the cattle going north to be classed and passed on,
for bargains to be closed, and new contracts made for next year; the
cowboy came because it was his duty as well as delight, and here he drew
wages and spent them; the hunter came because it was the very heart of the
greatest game country on earth; the freighter came because it was one of
the greatest overland freight depots in the United States, and he hauled
material and supplies for nearly four hundred miles, supplying three
military posts, and all the frontier for that far south and west; last but
not least, the gambler and the bad man came because of the wealth and
excitement, for obscene birds will always gather around a carcass.
Money was plentiful and spent lavishly, and here let me say, there are
different classes of men who are producers or money-makers, and misers, up
to a certain amount. There were numbers of people, to my certain
knowledge, who would carefully save up from two hundred to five hundred
dollars, and then come to
Dodge City
and turn it loose, never letting up until every dollar was gone. There
were others whose ambition was higher.
They would save up from five hundred to two thousand dollars, come to
Dodge City
and spend it all. ' There were still others who would reach out to five
thousand dollars and upwards, come to
Dodge, and away it would all go,
and, strange to say, these men went back to their different avocations
perfectly satisfied. They had started out for a good time and had had it,
and went back contented.
Indeed, one man started with twenty thousand dollars for New York, struck
Dodge City,
spent the most of his twenty thousand, and went back to begin over again.
He said: "Oh, well, I did start to have a good time in New York, but I
tell you, you can make New York anywhere if you only have the money and
the luxuries and attractions are there." And these all could be had for
the price, in
Dodge City.
There were women, dance halls, music,
saloons and restaurants, equipped
with every luxury, while gambling in every conceivable form, and every
gambling device known at that time was in full blast.
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