The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-02
TIE DUKE or TOMBSTONE.
lie Took Three Ia tas "A Day when
water Cost Five CeHss a Gallon.
From Id ChlcaEo- Ilnes-HeTaId-

From the Chicago TFnes-Herald.
He used 10 be ca'led THE Duke OF
Tombstone" when an Ar iona settlement
marvelled al the recklessness Of a man
who bathed three times a day and water
cents a gallon at thate Edwin Fields in
those days changed his white flannel suit
whenever the smallest bI emish in the way
Of dust was noticeable. and rode behind
pair OF horses that we re a sensation in
a community where burr os were the high
est type Of draft amin ais. Now he is
poor old Ed. Fields" nd when he gets
out Of the county no sph al. where a Har-
rison street police ult uiance took him
last night, he viii be ulken to the moor
house at Dunning to spend his few re-
naming years in conS emplation of the
time when he owned .. large part of the
city Of Tombstone and a mine worth more
than half a million.
Too poor to ask for help. vet sorelv in
need of il; too proud to ask for money
yet having a brother whose fortune is
vast he was taken from a lodging house
at s. Thirteenth street. against his will
on the strength of a e. srttioate obtained
from DR.. A. W. Cowleyt who had found
that his mind was fall ng. and that he
needed comforts he once would have
scorned.
Dr. Joseph H. Greer Of :07 oakley ave.
nue.. knew Fields in Ari 20 ma and has as
sisted him from time to time during the
past three years in Chici Lgo-
Il went to Tombston :. Ariz., in 1873"
fore me, although the to Hvn contained but
seventy-five people at Il tat time He was
squatting on some mimi * property which
was not supposed to b z of much value.
But the town grew to 15 600, and he owned
two-thirds Of the town site, so that his.
rents increased until they gave him an
income of over $4,000 month. The mine
which he owned was called The Gilded
Age, and proved to be- a rich property.
Fields title to IL was "a little shaky but
he was backed by Bost ON and New York
capital, and in the end. secured a perfect
tue. He sold the min in 1881 or 1882 for
100000 in cash, every cent of which went
to him. After the TOW IN grew and Fields
amassed his wealth he assumed a mode
OF life that made him the most conspicu-
Gus character in the W est. He was known
everywhere as the Duke of Tombstone
on account of the gorgeous manner In
which. he carried oil his establishment
lie rode behind ha ndsome pair of bays
and kept negro vsdet. He dressed dur
ing the summer in white flannel and
changed suits three times a day. When
water was selling in Tombstone at cents
a gallon, he took three baths day and
broke a bottle of Florida. water in every
bath. he stagted as a nine days wonder
and was the most talked-of man in the
country.
Il left Toonlbstone and settled in Chi
cago. One day during the worlds fair
period a seedy looking individual stepped
into my office and ] recognized Edwin
Fields. I asked him what ne was doing
ana ne told me with a mournful smile,
that he was S tore man at the Southern
Motel. His salary, he said. was S14
month. Where had his money gomez Well,
l asked him that one day, for ! could not
understand how man that never drank,
never played cards or gambled to my
knowledge, could have squandered a cool
million of dollars, which amount he GER
tainly possessed at one time. He told me
that he had lost most of his property in
speculation on the board of trade, and
had then taken to the bucket shops,
where the rest of his money had taken
wings. He was at that time, even with
his pittance of a salary, drifting daily to
the bucket shops in the vain endeavor to
retrieve his lost fortune. He lost the most
of his money in St Louis, but carried on
his. speculations both in that city and in
Chicago.
II do not know his birthplace, but he
was an eastern man and was we'll con-
nected He has a sister living at Steuben-
vile, o.. brother at Farleys, N. NJ,
who owns a big sheep ranch, and another
brother who owns an immense cocoanut
plantation in the Samoan Islands, such
has been his pride or his perverseness, that
he never would seek aid from them He
has roomed at the house of Mrs. Fitch,
6S Thirteenth street. whenever he was
without employment. / fear he will not
live long, as he is suffering from a compli-
cation of diseases and is now an old man.