The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-01
HE WAS A BAD MAN.
Ben Hogan, Who has Become an
Evangelist.
HIS CAREER IN THE OIL REGIONS.
His Famous FLOATING Palace on the Allie
ghany River His Adventures in Pithole
in 1865-Wicled Little Babylon.

Ben Hogan is in the Pennsylvania oil coun-
try. Ben Hogan, old time gambler, craftsman,
confidence man, bounty jumper, dive keeper
and pugilist, who left the oil country eleven
years ago with the reputation of being the
wickedest man in the world, is back again
after his long absence, going from town to
town, visiting his old haunts, greeting his old
friends, and-preaching to them the gospel of
Jesus Christ! Packed houses greet him every
where, and although crude, ungrammatical
and with a vocabulary not at all extensive,
he holds the interested attention of ignorant
and cultivated alike with the forceful and
rudely eloquent recital Of his past adventures
and the story of his marvellous conversion.
As he looks across the footlights he can see
the faces of many of his old patrons-the
man who drank his liquor at Pithole, the
habitue of his dance house at Babylon, the
ex-oil prince who spent his 800 a night on
board the famous, or rather infamous, float
ing palace" at Parker's Landing, and the
driller who patronized his place at Tarport,
near Bradford, Pa. They all come to hear
Ben preach the gospel. For how many men
does the whirligig of time work such wonders
as it has for Ben Hogan, evangelist!
HOGAN IN PITHOLR.
Dell hGlb " L 4bllOlc al 4OODJ SDOu al LtI lIlb
first oil was struck, and at time when the
town was the toughest place in America.
Probably a more heterogeneous population
was never before contained in one town.
The gambler, the craftsman, the sneak thief,
the murderer, the pugilist, the all round
sport, the woman of the town, the extrava-
CANT oil prince, the spendthrift driller, the
adveuturer and adventures, in Short hun
dreds of Americas toughest citizens fioCked
there from the four ends of the earth attract
ed thence by visions of wealth and thirst for
excitement. Oil was 50 per barrel, money
was plenty, easily gotten and as easily squan-
dered. Ben Hogan was one of the motley
crew that swarmed to Pithole, and like the
most of his companions he came ''brOke.n
He was then quite proficient with his fists and
gave spaITing lessons and exhibitions of
strength at DiefenbachS variety hall. When
not on the stage he acted as dOorkeeper. The
hall was frequented by the very toughest cit
iZens and their favorite method Of paying
the entrance fee was by presenting cooked
revolver in the dOorkeeper'S face, with the
remark, do Ipassm Ben says they usually did.
A short time after his appearance in Pithole,
he fought Jack Holiday for a purse Of 5000
and defeated him in seven rounds AbOutfour
hundred tough men and tougher women were
present. A large number Of them were
armed, and Hogan was assured several times
before the fight that he would be killed if he
whipped his opponent Ben was shot at by
Marsh Elliott during the fight, but escaped
unhurt. Ben met Elliott soon thereafter, and
knocked him out in four brief rounds, break
ing his nose and using him up generally.
About this time Ben fell in with French
Kate, ex-Confederate spy and companion of
J. Wilkes Booth, and opened palatial sport
ing house, the receipts of which often reached
81 900 a day. Bens next adventure of i'm
portance was with one 'Stonehouse Jack"
This Desperate and his gang had a grudge
against Hogan and concocted a scheme to kill
him. Jack was to arrange a fight with Ben,
during which Hogan was to be killed by the
crowd, but Ben went to the appointed place,
covered the crowd with a revolver and
blocked their little game. He then got the
burgess sanction to kill 'Stonehouse," who
was an unusually dangerous character, on
sight. Shortly thereafter Ben saw his enemy
coming out of a dance house and blazed
away at him, but without effect, except that
the fusillade scared ''Stonehouse" away from