Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-05
LIFE IN TOMBSTONE.
Domestic Experience in an Arizona City
-HOuse-Huntins Under Pecu-
liar Circumstances.
Queer ROOkery-The Stores and Their
Keepers-The Everlasting Ped
dlers-Indians.

Although my experience IN frontier towns
has hitherto been very limited, l am never
theless convinced that Tombstone Is the most
amazing and amusing that ever straggler
from civilization accepted as a dwelling
place. Your first engagement, If you are OF
domestic turn of mind, Is with the real
estate agent, who, with the utmost suayity
offers you charming furnished suites, cot
tages, ETC., all temptingly arrsyed ION paper,
at prices from SS5 per month upward, ac-
cording 10 locality. This accomplished, you
ruthlessly sent forth, list in hand. Num-
Der one, to which your especial attention
was called, the rent was every reason
able" proves to be q suburban, and
built after the manner of a "leau-to" sug-
Costing great possibilities, TO be sure, but
little immediate comfort, If you "must
have room and breathing space" After ex-
hausting the entire resources OF the real es-
tate man, we finally accept, with many mis-
givings, little cottage, which can be easily
found, as it is the only one on the street
which boasts coat Of paint and shutters.
To be sure, it Is set on stllts, and plainly
discernible under the house are all the
empty whisky and beer bottles of the last
tenant, which seems rather compromise to
ones dignity and sobriety. But are
gradually grasping the idea that language
and types are relative, not absolute. Ones
grounds are rather vaguely defined, and the
butcher, the barber and the candlestick
maker" drive back and forth on all sides of
ones house with the most shocking in
formality and in sheer defiance of the front
fence, which consists OF four posts and three
rails.
Rather an artistic rockery at one side OF
the house mildly excited my curiosity, as in
the center was post which might serve as a
support for a waterpipe, or merely for some
clinging vines which had persisted with the
summer. But closer inspection revealed, be-
=. l.. Il
legend, wildcat Mining Claim, Center
Monument" Probably every square inch Of
ground within ten miles of Tombstone is
taken up some to be developed with the I'M
bounded faith of a Colonel Sellers, but the
majority to be held in reserve for the COM
ing "tenderfoot." Housekeeping being at
least an established fact, or at any rate the
house, which is the starting point, we look
around for supplies. The markets abound
in meat and game of all Arizona varieties,
az we'll as poultry-in fact, tempting
array-and now and then we find
Sonora trout in stone, which are very
insipid, and after having gratiied our
curiosity once we pass them by. Veg
etables come to tolerably fresh, being
raised in part in the valley of the ella, and
the price is by no means exorbitant. Butter,
eggs, ETC., are all shipped chiefly from Cali
fornia, and milk at this season OF the year il,
if attainable at all, to be ranked among the
Injuries of life. The wood bill is no insig
nifcant item in the family expenses, prices
running as high as S21 per cord. Little
loads are brought to town on burros by the
Mexicans and sold for 81 and S. per load.
The fruit stands furnish a tempting array,
and the oranges, which are mostly brought
from the neighboring State oil Sonora, are
not more expensive than in San Francisco
markets. They are as rule more delicious
than Los Angeles oranges, and occasionally
we find them of exquisite favor. So much
for the cuisine.
Tie dry goods, hardware, furniture and
other stores carry good stocks, and takirg
rent, freight and the fact that everybody
comes here to get rich in the most hasty
manner into consideration, the prices are
very reasonable, although not in direct COM
petition with New York and disastrous TO
San Francisco, as you are unblushingly
assured, But for genuine pluck and CO.
aheaditiveness the frontier merchant is a
study Given a very limited emount of
money, and without the slightest previous
experience, he launches into whatever line
of business he seems to fancy, and, ten to
one, the bigger Ounce, to all outward appear
ance at least, the more rapidly does the coin
fill his Golfers. As an instance of this, /
visited one of the mere pretentious of sew
eral well-stocked furniture stores, and with
out the slightest suspicion of being in
gets. "Druggets. druggets. l reckon yer
mean drugs. No, We haint got any jest now,
but call again next week" And loo well |
pleased to offer any explanation l left him |
with look of amszement on my countenance
plainly tinged with misgiving lest his stock |
in trade might be incomplete after all. An
other instance is my grocer boy with the |
flannel shirt, the jumper and the impenetra- |
bic towhead. l usually find him deep in the |
mysteries of an account book, that from my
stand of vision closely resembles transcript |
ton of the Rosetta Stone. AT the desk stands |
one OF the proprietors, not strikingly dissimi-
lar in general appearance, and yet this firm
have made hundreds of thousands since |
Tombstone first existed.
On the streets OF Tombstone one sees the |
oldest kaleidoscope OF humanity imagina- |
ble-miners, gamblers, cowboys, Mexicans, |
Indians, dogs and professions of mules at
tached to mysterious wagons, some half |
mile behind the foremost mules. All these !
vie in blocking the way. OF course there are |
a great many fine-looking men mixed up in |
the melee, but it is not safe to discriminate, |
for masculine wisdom is very apt to locate |
your hero in a faro establishment, and under
mine thus your conceit as a reader Of human |
nature.
You are not wholly foreign to San Fran |
cisco sights and sounds, however, for here is |
the ubiquitous "soap man" at street cor
ner, and at your home you receive calls |
from innumerable peddlers.
There is a new device for these, however.
They look around suspiciously for lurking |
custOmhouse officials, and then tell you very |
eonfdentislly, and with knowing nod,
that you can have a bargain by keeping very
quiet about it, at the same time producing, |
doubtless, piece of shopworn goods at an
advance even on Tombstone prices.
Other vendors, equally persistent and willy,
make informal calls at my back door. Open
ing it casually on the day of my arrival, /
started back in amazement at group of
bronze statutes posed at the very threshold,
Medusa-like, The face of each, from the wrin-
killed. grained mother down to the already
shriveled child. After running over in my
mind the various characteristics of the Ari-
iona tribes, as set forth in Bancroft's History
Of the Ndtiue Races, l queried APACHE" to
which the grandma stolidly rejoined Papa
CO." 1 echoed "go," terror gaining the as
tendency, and took shelter within, but the
day they all returned, unlike the
other seven, refusing to be cast out, this time
each ludicrously surmouuted by an ola of
the precise shade of the tawn sister beneath, |
and graduated in size according to the age |
and muscular development of the wearer.