Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1877-02-22
LIVELY DEADWOOD.
Men, Manners and Things in the Black
Hills.

tfltr.
The Virginia City Chronicle gives a
report of an interview with a gentleman
Just returned from Deadwood, as fol-
lows
Tell us all about Deadwood, Mr..
Williams 20
"Deadwood may be considered
pretty lively town; that is, lively for
town of 1000 inhabitants. OF course,
it's the central camp, where all the GAM
bling, fighting and business is done.
Everything goes on grand rush night
and day. There is no regularity about
anything. A man opens place of busi-
ness and makes lots of money, then he
gets the prospecting fever, starts for the
gulches, and shuts up his shebang.
When place is closed up it means that
the owner is out digging, has been killed
in fight, or is off on a spree. We have
no municipal government at all. Every
man thinks he's Mayor of the town
Every once in a while the boys call
mass meeting, draw up resolutions, etc,
and decide to incorporate the town, and
haye Board of Aldermen; but at the
end of the week nobody knows what has
become of the resolutions or the Alder
men. We start a new city government
every two weeks and bust one every
week-if there is any,"
How about the theaterl"
Yes, we've got little theater there,
not nearly as well fitted up as your cock
pit The orchestra chairs are made of
stakes driven into the ground, with a
round piece of board about the size of
l.I A Z
81. 90; reserved seats 50. They run
sort of variety show, and sling in the
jokes and stage business as broad as pos
sible. The can-can was danced for some
time until the boys got tired of it, and
they said: Give us some singin', or
we'll clean out the place. We want
something elevatin',' and the manager
had to import a female sentimental vo-
calist, at big expense, to appease the
patrons. She sung Sweet Spirit Hear
my Prayer Consider the Lilies, Il
Know That My Redeemer Liveth, and
other high-toned music, and thought
that the boys wonld go crazy with de-
light. But they got tired of it in about
a week Fanny Garrison was the
singer. l believe she used to be here"
Many saloons there?"
"Saloons all over the place, and whis-
ky four bits drink. They put two bar
rels up on end, nail board across for
bar, and deal it out. A miner who
wants to treat pours some gold dust ON
the barrel-head and says, Set 'em up
They never weigh the dust. Sometimes
man won't put down enough dust, but
they never say word and if he's little
tight and pours out ten or fifteen dollars
worth, they never mention it. They
have three faro banks running all the
while. They don't use checks for the
boys; when they won a pile of checks
they threw 'em all over the place. and
some were too drunk to handle 'em. SO
the checks got played out. Now man
puts little gold dust in a dollar green
back and it goes for two dollars Ten
dollars worth of dust in ten dollar
greenback goes for $40, and so on. They
never weigh dust at all, but guess the
Have you daily baperf"
'tYes, sometimes it's daily, and then
when the compositors get drunk it don't
come out for several days. If man
wants gun wadding he goes and pays four I,
bits for paper Whenever they start
new city government they print lot of
ordinances; then there's a grand rush
for the paper. Sometimes it come ont |
twice week and sometimes twice
day."
Much shooting? ?"
oh, yes the boys are all on the !
shoot. Every man carries about fourteen
pounds of firearms hitched to his belt. |
and they never pass any worls. The fel- !
low that gets his gun out first is the best |
man, and they lug off the other fellows
body. Our graveyard is a big institution,
and growing one. Sometimes, however,
the place is right quiet I've known |
times when a man wasn't killed for
twenty-four hours. Then perhaps they'd |
lay out five or six day. When man |
gets too handy with his shootin' irons
and kills five or six, they think he isn't |
safe, and pop him over to rid the place of |
him. They don't kill him for what he /
has done, but for what he's liable TO do. /
| suppose that the average deaths amount
to about 100 n month but the Indians
kill some"