Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-11-16


carry themselves
with a swagger and figuratively 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 q
town or camp, and Fairplay, Colorado,
is today a thriving law-abiding place,
but, like all western towns, it had TO
pass through all the stages of social
evolution from the absolute 5arbarity
Of its beginning to the high civiliza
ton 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
tSas composed of three rooms, one
canvas, one log and the other I'M
planed boards. Though this establish
.ment claimed to furnish 'accommoda
fions 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 sugar
less coffee. The extras" were com
posed wholly of bad cigars, strong
chewing tobacco and whisky OF a kind
so much viler than the ordinary fluid
that one drink of 1t has been known to
produce all the effects Of delirium
tremens on man accustomed to it.
and it always produced homicidal
mania in those who INDUCED in it as
often as once a 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 a sugar hogshead in July.
For the accommodation of the latter
class, with whom he was in full sym
pathy, and with an eye to his own
gain-he had only one eye-the land
lord OF the Great Western had fitted
up place for playing faro, and a num-
Der OF pine tables on which those so
inclined-and it was surprising how
many were so inclined-could play
that aNuring but most uncertain game
called poker.
At this time there were only two
women in Fairplay, viz. Mrs. Cham
herlain. the wife of the principal mine
superintendent, and Lizzy Chamber
lain, her daughter.
Ladies were certainly at premium,
and Lizzie was very popular and q
standing toast wi 4 the hundreds of
men working in or near the camp
But as she was very charming. mod
est girl she would have been popular
had the sexes been more evenly bal
anced.
Some men, with wives and daugh-
tiers at home in the states, rather
blamed Mr.. Chamberlain for subject
ing his family to the hardship insep-
arabic from such life. but had they
known that the devoted wife and
daughter insist, on accompanying
him and sharing his trials, they would
not have been so hard in their judg-
ment.
AIluul Ly OiS, q uHc lcllON OI IOuI
and twenty, was Mr.. Chamber, 7in's as
sistant, and as he boarded with his mo
ployer, it was pretty generally con-
coded that he had the inside track"
so far as LiZzy was concerned, and
that their marriage was only a Ques-
ton of time.
There was, however, in Fairplay
one man who emphatically refused to
believe that Lizzy Chamberlain looked
kindly on Arthur Lyons, and this man
was known as Red" Snively. the first
name being given to designate his com
plexion and the sanguine color OF his
bushy hair.
Red Snively wished to be known as
1.-THE Mountain Terror" and he tried
hard to have the name attached to
himself. but as the majority of the
miners looked upon him as a nuisance
rather than terror, the name did not
stick to any great extent
Red Snively was a staggering. ever
armed braggart. He was supposed to
be a silent partner in the Great West
ern hotel, and it was a matter Of
notoriety that all the gambling fea-
lures of the establishment. were under
his immediate charge.
He always had money; he always
drank, yet he was the one man who
did not appear to be affected by the
vile whisky-indeed. it would be nearly
impossible for any liquor to make him
more brutal and boodthirsty than he
was when in his natural condition.
He claimed Missouri as his home
and when he became confidential
which was always the case when the
game was going against him-he
would hint that he was forced to come
west "owin' to little cuttin' scrape"
he had over a game OF cards.
With the brazen efrontery OF his
class, Red Snkely made himself very
Objectionable to Lizzy Chamberlain by
his disgusting attentions, so much so,
indeed, that she dreaded to venture out
unless accompanied by her father or
Arthur Lyons.
On one occasion the latter told Red
Snively very emphatically that his