The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-09-30

"A FRONTIER DUEL. :
BY MAI, ALFRED R. CALHOUN.

THE plaques of the mining camps
in the far west were the bullies
and desperadoes who, ignoring honest
industry, lived by gambling or even
worse
These fellows always 60 armed, carry
themselves with a swagger and figura-
lively drag their coat tails on the
ground at all times in the hope that
some one will give them an excuse to
shoot.
Fairplay is a very good name for
town or camp, and Fairplay, Col. is to-
day thriving, lawabiding place, but,
like all western towns, it had to pass
through all the stages of social evolu-
ton from the absolute barbarity of its
beginning to the high civilization of the
present.
There are many men not yet beyond
middle life who distinctly remember
the first hut erected in Fairplay, and
who retain a vivid recollection of the
first hotel, the Great Western, which
was composed of three rooms, one can
vas. one log and the other unplaned
boards Though this establishment
claimed to furnish accommodation
for man and beast" it had no stable
for horses, and all its dodgers had to
sleep in hunks in one room, while bread
and bacon constituted the bill of fare,
with now and then sugarless coffee.
The extras were composed wholly cf
bad cigars, strong chewing tobacco and
whisky of a kind so much vi!er than the
ordinary fluid that one drink of it has
been known to produce all the effects
OF delirium trcmens on man unac-
cnstomed to it, and it always produced
homcidal mania in those who in
dulged in it as often as once week.
The bar of the Great Western was
the rendezvous. the headquarters, for
all the miners and teamsters in the
vicinity, and you may be sure that it
was constant resort for the gamblers
and desperadoes who always swarm
about new mining town like flies
about sugar hogshead in July.
for the accommodation of the latter
class, with whom he was in full svm-
pathy, and with an eye to his own gain
he had only one eye-the landlord of
Inc Treat Western had fitted up place
Ior playing faro, and number of pine
laoies on which those so inclined-and
II was surprising how many were so
inellned-could play that alIuring but
most uncertain game called poker.
AT this time there were only two
women in Fairplay, viz, Mrs. Chamber
iain' the wife of the principal mine
superintendent, and Lizzy Chamberlain,
her daughter.
Laaies were certainly at premium,
ana Llzzie was very popular and Il
s'diaihg toast with the hundreds of
men working in or near the camp. But
ss sne was a very charming, modest
s,ii she would have been popular had
VIC sexes been more evenly balanced.
oome men, with wives and daughters
a. nome in the states, rather blamed
nr'ohamberlain vi for subjecting his fam
:! 10 the hardships inseparable from
such a life, but, had they known that
.ue oesoted wife and daughter insisted
~ accompanying him and sharing his
uais' they would not have been so hard
IN their judgment.
arthur Lyons, fine young fellow of
.0uf ana twenty, was Mr.. Cha amberlajp's
s'an', and as he boarded with his
asa! pio!es 1t was pretty generally con-
..aea that he had "the inside track" SO
-. aS Llzzy was concerned. and that
,is asi marriage was only a question of
man a', was however, in Fairplay, one
n aah who emphatically refused to be-
s n;,s mat Lizzy Chamberlain looked
na. u,y on Arthur Lyons, and this man
Ahown as Red snively, the first
a, ame oelrg given to designate his COM
hair. sang uihe color OF MS
4ra neo snively wished to be known as
a as Mountain Terror" and he tried
,ss. 70 nave the name attach to him
loa,.. Jul as the majority of the miners
.SoAeo ~ upon him as a nuisance rather
4 terror the name did not stick
% any great extent, '~"
.,mss sa saiSely was staggering, ever
Mso oraggart. He was supposed to he
hosa. ,ent partner in the Great Western
~. ana 1t was matter of notorietv
.s.a, ~, al the gambling features of the
ste charge. '9 'in-''e0'
- Always had money; he always