Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1882-06-24

SATURDAY, JUNE "a, 1882.
Business Out West.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.


now?" asked a Brooklyn man Of a
stranger he had picked up and who had
been living out in the territories.
Bad" replied the frontiersman.
"Things are not what they used to be.
Why, sir, they try a man by jury now
Yes, sir! Catch a horse thief and lock
him up in a Jail and give him just as fair
a trial as they do a man who murders a
woman! Oh, the whole country is broke
up?"
"You surprise mel" replied the Brook
lyn man, who was more surprised by the
ann than the matter Of the intelli-
gence.
Fact! Where l live they've lynched
only n a in four years, and that
was for wearing a stand up collar! And
they don't shoot any more! No, sir If
two men have a row they fight with
their fists, and the sheriff sees fair play!
l tell you this beastly civilization has
ruined the frontier. They arrest even
road agents now. Think Of that! Road
agents They used to elect them school
trustees, and a stage driver is no more
account than a mayor in Brooklyn! l
tell you the frontier is deadw
"But how is business?"
Nothing doing at all. Yon see they've
got blue ribbon lodges, and that knocked
business galley west! Absolutely moth
ing doing. Merchants are starving ever
since the temperance movement COM
mcnced. ] don't know what the coun-
try is coming TOP
Don't the temperance people do any
thing for a living?"
Nothing to speak of. Oh. they have
little shops and kind of trade among
themselves to keep each other going,
but the legitimate business is busted, /
tell you! Why, sir, there hasn't over
forty barrels of whisky come into our
town in two months! That shows you
how business is. What do you think
they had there just before I left"
"I'm sure / I don't know"
"A church festival! You won't believe
it a church festival! Right in the heart
of the town! The merchants got to
gether and swore they wouldn't go, and
they stayed away. But that didn't break
il up! AS sure as l sit here, these PEG
pie went right along and had their festi-
val! That shows how things are going.
Then a friend of mine licked a deacon
one day. Fined him! Fined him cash
for it, and he had to payw
ANY gambling there o
Gambling! gambling! Well, 1 should
say not! There isn't over eighty or 8
hundred gumbling houses in the town
where it used to be the staple enter
prise Gambling! / tell you everything
is dead. Why, they've even got ten cent
pieces for change. Think Of ten CEN
pieces"
SLOW do you account for all thisw
"The newspapers did it'll They would
blow about the country and tell what 6
town they had, and now they've got IN
We were loing we'll enough, but out,
siders found out that it was a good place
and in they came with their p~uritanicaI
notions and knocked honest industry
higher'n a stack of chips / was opposed
to the papers, and said they'd make
trouble, but they let 'em go on, and
where are we nowT
do you think of going back"
whats the user There's no trade at
all. Everybody's honest, and all making
money farming. I've got a farm myself
a hundred and eighty acres, but that's no
work for me. Legitimate enterprise is
busted
want to sell Your farm? asked the
Brooklyn man, cautiously.
"Sell it I'd give it away. It's worth
fifty thousand and I'd take ten for itro
The Brooklyn man reflected a moment
and then the trade was consummated.
Later on the deed was transferred and
the Brooklyn man wen: home TO tell his
wife.
The ~frontiersman sent the following
dispatch /:
Buck Dudley, Hole in Wall, Montana