The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-26

Reno, New, April 4.-"The last time 1
saw Jim Fair said an old-time Cali
fornia miner, speaking of the death Of
ex-senator James CT. Fair and the enorm-
9us fortune the latter made in a few
years in the Comstock mines, I'VE had
4 long visit and a good talk about old
times in the Ccmstock. Fair asked me
whatever became of handsome Belle
Brue, the famous murderess of Nevada,
and said that he had sent her a present
of LOCO by a friend upon her release
from the Nevada state penitentiary about
TWO years ago and had advised her to go
back to her old home in the eastern
states.
Baths in Champagne.
The mention of the name &c Belle Brue
brings lively train of "reminiscences to
the minds of thousands of old-timers all
over Nevada, and Utah and Central Cali
fOrnla. Twenty-Five years ago every man
who had associations with his felloWmen
anywhere between Salt Lake city and
San Francisco heard the countless stories
of the flash career of Belle Brue OF
Reno. There Were reliable stories OF
presents made her by the bonanza miners
on the Comstock of diamond necklaces
WQrth $4,000, of Bellies several baths IN
champagne at s. a quart, of her pistol
having several hundred dollars worth of
precious stones in the handle, and of her
possessing many other articles that had
been made a hundred times more valu-
able by the setting of diamonds, rubies or
sapphires therein.
Something of the career of this woman
and the crime for which she suffered i'm
prtSonment for twenty-five years Will be
given here. Belle Brue was not a good
woman AT times, however, she was
much better than persons Of her class,
but at periods she was possessed Of
devillish disposition. Then she was worse
than the worst. She came to Reno in the
year 1868, and went to the only. hotel IN
what was then the widest, WooiieSt town
in the territory of Nevada. No one ever
knew where she came from; that she kept
= secret She was a tai, magnifcentiy
proportional woman, with piercing black
eyes and a pale face Her heavy hair
was as black as jet, and her manner
dignifed, determined and resolute. She
was shown to room that night, ana be-
fore morning had given proof of her met
tie, for she came down stairs in a, decide
~ neglige costume and demanded a bet
Ter room. She was told thai the. room
given her was as good as any in the
house and that guests were never trans
ferred in the night.
Was a Case.
Have you no room that is quieter?
Queried Belle, and her smile was as
sweet as the glitter of her eyes was full
Of warning. The noise Of the gamblers
keeps me awake
Two or three men in the room started
to laugh at that. but they were frowned
down, partly because this was the first
into the town since the railroad touched
the mountains and partly because it was
noticed by the more careful that she
carried very comfortable revolver be-
aind the folds OF her gown. The night
klerk stacked up his chips, growled a lit
lie ant said he would try to find her a
couch less subject to annoyance. He did, |
Ind she did not appear again that night
1t was q pretty well understood fact |
hat Belle Brue was "a case" She was |
tnown to have nerve, and one night when |
Silly Iyarson, the widest and richest
tattIe man in the country, got drunk,