Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1885-08-29
BAR-TENDER'S MEMORANDA.
At Took a Pretty Good Man to Run
Il DeadWo0d Bar.
New York Sun.

New York SUM-
Bill Dunno, who has kept a saloon
in t~hirty-two different mining camps,
and in every far western State and
Territory except Oregon, is in town
renewing acquaintance and looking
W prospects. Dunno is a lively talk
er. Down at the Star last night he
said:
almost all our prominent men in
the west began life by selling whisky.
A good many Of them hate to own it
now, but it is a fact. all the same. |
a name a hundred rich and promi-
nent citizens who got their first start
behind a bar, and of course [ can re-
call a good many who got to going
the other way from that point. I was
here in the hills running a saloon be
fore they were open to settlement.
That is, we used to say they were not
open, but they were To anybody whose
scalp was tied on. / had a partner
then who was a good business man,
but lie overreacbed himself once. His
name was Belden.
"BelGen came to me one day and
said the hills were bound to be open
ed i'll the spring, and that If we would
get a big stock Of whisky into the
country before the Indians left we
would set on to both sides Of The deal
and catch EN- like the darky did the
coon, a goin' OF a comin'. He argued
that the Indians would want a big
supply when just going OCT on the
warpath, and that the miners just
coming into q new country where val
OF was essential would also have to
have a good deal. [ thought favor
ably Of his scheme, and we teamed in
ten barrels Of pretty good stuff. We
also had ten other barrels, and when
we got The liquor in here we drew off
half Of the contents Of The full bar
rels and put them into The others.
Then Belden said he wouldill up the
twenty barrels with water. l told
him this was a mighty eccrentric eli
mate, and nobody knew what minute
it might turn cold, but he said we'd
have to risk it. SO we filled the bar
rels up and waited for business. It
came sooner than we expected. About
a week later a terrible storm blew up,
and when it cleared off The thermom-
eter sank out Of sight. 1t was fright
fully cold. Along about midnight my
partner and [ were awakened by an
explosion, and we had no more than
gained our feet when there came an
other laundering crash right under
us, where our whisky was.
"'The soldiers have come, sure!'
yelled Belden; get your gun
"Just then there was another rip
and crack, and, getting down from The
loft, we found that our whisky was
flying all around the room. We could
not do anything to save it, and when
daylight came we found every barrel
but one burst, and, Of course, ruined.
My partner said:
"'We might have put a little mite
less water in the stuff, [ suppose, but
you've got to take ONO risks il every
business
We'll, as be had more money than
I did, / didn't say much, and as soon
as The weather moderated we tried it
again. We didn't go quite so strong
on The water this time, and didn't use
any until we were aboutready to ladle
the stuff out. In that way we got
rid OF a big stock AM made a good
deal of money. Belden is out IN Cali
fornia now running a National Bank,
and it would hurt his feelings to have
any one know that he had even sold
whisky"
Somebody suggested that it took a
pretty good man to stand behind a
bar in a mining town and come out
alive, and Dunno said:
That's true to a certain extent,
though I've known some mighty good
men to come out dead. You've got to
humor a certain class Of customers,
and a certain other class you've got
to shut down On hard. ] had a bar
tender once IN Leadville in the early
days who was about as good a judge
of men as I ever saw. He never made
but n mistake, and that was his last.
After he was killed I couldn't find
just the right man, and SO [ took a
whirl at the bar myself for several
days. With his fate 50 fresh in my
mind I naturally wished I knew all
that he did before he died, with the
additional lesson OF his death as well,
and I began to look around for his
accounts. [ hunted half a day, ex-