Little Falls transcript., 1886-07-02
4 VERY I e i<ED CITY.
55A Montana Town That Has Distances
III EEonpetitors.S

YER ckED CITY.
A A1IontanaT Town That Has Distances
All Comp etitors.
Butte City, Montana, is conceded now
to be the ckedest city in the world.
writes Eli Perkins in b The New Fork
World. J 1T SO far surpasses Dodge City,
Cheyenne and Leadville in pure and
unalloyed Wickedness that it is a shame
to mention them in connection with
Butte City. Butte acknowledges no
rival but Miles City cow-town over.
the mountains on the Northern Pacific.
Miles City tries hard to be the wicked
est city, but, being simple cow-towa,
it can not compete with Butte City,
which has both mines and cattle
ranches. Helena, Montana situated be-
tween Butte and Miles, is proud Of its
wickedness, too. It has its myriad Of
gambling saloons, where Cinnamon
and cowboys buck the tiger at the same
table. 1t has its concert saloons, its
French densi-nso,sde quarter, its Afri-
can denas-neo'ade street, and its Chinese
bad houses, with their burning candles
in front, but Helena has to acknow-
ledge-sadly ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS sup
remacy of wickedness to Butte.
= I have seen the wickedest city move
west many times. have seen Abilene,
Kan, with its cowboy dance-houses and
gambling palaces move up to Cheyenne.
Cheyenne was proud, in 1874, to be
called the wicked city, but good people
came in there and the 7. NJ. @. A.
hr0 l-a T -, ~.
had woman suffrage there in 1875, and
ninety wicked women came out in
body, took the polls, and elected the
barkeepers and gamblers to the high
est offices. But alas! Cheyenne degen-
Grated into an ordinary Christian town.
Wickedness then went over to Dodge
City. Dodge City then had but one
long street, every house saloon.
Bullets whistled down it and dead men
were hauled out of it from morning till
night. She flung the DEVILS red flag at
all Kansas. She defed the Y. M. C. A.
and the prohibitionists, but finally the
dreadful Y NJ. G. A. came up and
camped on her bloody street. her devil
destroying prohibitionist cleaned out
her saloons, and her gamblers and
demi-monde left for Butte City. Poor
Dodge City!
The mines about Butte are very rich.
The Anaconda mines have no rival.
Money is cheap and flies like chaff in
the wind. The bootblack will not look
at your boots for less than 25 cents, and
the newsboy sells the one-sheet Miner
for 10 cents. Mr.. Zngerfest, the editor
OF The Miner, admitted to me that he
was a Christian and a member of the
Methodist church in Oberlin, o., but
"Oh,' he said, ''don't mention it in
Butte. If you do no one will read my
paper. 1t was a case where an editor
had to pray secretly in his closet and
then 60 out and play roulette to gain
the respect of his subscribers A sad,
sad case.
At night Butte assumes its most scar
let hue. The town is red all the time,
but at night electric lights reflect
through stained glass thousand cardi-
nal and amethyst rays. The houses of
the demi-monde are now all open. In
and out surge the people chatting the
low-necked, short-sleeyed, scantily-
dressed denizens. Whole streets are
given up to these parlors of the sirens,
who sit at the windows dressed in draw
ing-room deco1lete. When you come to
the gambling saloons the fronts seem to
be removed and the dozens of roulette
tables seem to be even with the street,
There they sit, women, Cinnamon,
cowboys, miners, and Christians in dis
guise. The clergyman does not play,
but he comes in to show his democracy
to the boys and receive donation from
the man who breaks the bank, and sud-
denly becomes generous.
The Butte concert-saloons are. usu-
ally underground. The saloon is square,
with TOW of private boxes all around
the top The orchestra is occupied by
cowboys and miners, who guzzle beer
at 25 cents per glass with tlabby bar
maids The boxes are occupied by bank
presidents, mLrchants and wealthy cit
izens, who sit behind lace curtains and
drink Missouri cidcr-chan1pagne at SIS
a bottle with sprightly girls in gauze
dresses or tights. The gamblin g-tables
and the broken-voiced singers make
panaemonium of the place.. The weird
electric lights make the room like
hades illuminated. At IL o'clock the
singing is now and then disturbed by
pistol-shots from the cowboys, who
shoot down into the ground, unless
they have special dislike to the singer;
then the ball whisps through the cur
tain. Sometimes the cowboys ehaff the
merchants behind the curtains in the
boxes, and make them order whisky
for the orchestra. Everybody calls
everybody else by his. first name, and
there is perfect democracy throughout
of wickedness; but each one does all he
can to make the concert-saloon the
wickedest place in the wickedest city
in the world. The next morning every
thing is forgotten, and the merchants
are in their stores, the miners in their
mines, and the pistoling cowboy punch
ing his cattle ten miles away.