The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-11
Special to The Sunday Call.

E n item is going the rounds of
~ the newspapers to the effect that
there are more active church
members in Tombstone in pro-
portion to the population than
in any community in Arizona or
New Mexico, and also that the temper
ance sentiment is stronger there than
elsewhere in the Southwest Territory
Yes, Tombstone is a model moral
Christian community now" said ex-
Senator Harvey Williams of Benson to
the writer the other day 1T is the
most wonderful transformation in pub
lie sentiment of any town 1 ever knew
l say candidly that the very wickedest,
cussedest wild West town that l ever
knew (and l have been in all of them
except BOdie and Deadwood) was that
mining town of Tombstone seventeen
years ago this season. Whewl but that
was tough place. Dodge City, Kans,
was never so generally deprave1. Lead
vile had some horrible shooting
sCrapes, but none that ever compared
with those at Tombstone Sherman,
Tex, was also mighty tough along
about 1873, but it never touched Tomb
stone as it was seven years later. Grip
PIE NISth W dS SoilNl W nc lOuSn, Dul II
was model town by the Aide of Tomb
stone. No, there'll never be another
mining town so recklessly bad and
thoroughly lawless as Tombstone The
conditions, you know, were just right to
make Tombstone the abandoned, hard
ened community 1t was for two years. 1
believe there were twenty-five men shot
down in cold blood while l was there
from June to September"
Tom bStOne. Arizona, is now one of
the quietest and sedatest little villages
in the land. The visitor there these
da. who looks for landmarks that will
remind him Of the thrilling scenes of
sixteen or seventeen years ago finds
but a few gaunt, weather-beaten old
buildings, where bats and owls abide,
and a little graveyard among the sun
baked hills where some S. " bodies of
men and women who died tragic
deaths find their first genuine rest.
Tombstone is in the southern part of
Arizona, southeast from the old Mexi-
can pueblo of Tucson, and few miles
from the boundary between Sonora,
Mexico, and the United States. There
are now about 1900 people in Tomb
stone, and but little mining is done
there. In 1880 Tombstone and her mines
were in every ones mouth in the West.
The newspapers everywhere-EaSt and
West-published columns about the
Tombstone district, and newspaper sto-
res of the hard life in the town went
everywhere. Seven men there were
each having an income of over $1,000 a
day from the mines, and they had been
as poor as Jobs proverbial turkey a
year before. There were 10000 men and
about 300 women in the town and its
suburbs.
The reports of the extreme wealth of
the lodges at Tombstone set the whole
West crazy. The news went abroad
that the Grid and Schaeffelin crowd
were taking out 800 pounds of silver
from the rocks besides a dozen pounds
of gold every day. Could there be any
thing that would infiame more the
minds of eager, restless men? Dodge
City and Newton, Kans., the hard
towns in Texas and the depraved
camps in Colorado were dwindling
away then by the advancement of the
railroads, so when Tombstone became
the new Ell Dorado the most spontane-
Gus stampede of all the murderers. out
laws, ex-convicts, hardened frontiers
men and tough gamblers of the plains
set in, with Tombstone as the objective
point.
In two months the town gained 5000
male inha bitants. The mining district