The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-31
LIKE DAVID AND JONATHAN.
Love of Two Women That Passeth Un-
Il 5ury


Outstanding.
This is the story of the affection of
feminine David and Jonathan. Long
before the Southern Pacific railroad
had it's track laid acros the continent,
before Nevada became state, Hannah
Clapp came to Carson City with friends
who went to Nevada as to wild, bar
rem wilderness, where there was money
to be made and privations to be en-
dured.
Through a mutual friend she heard
of Elizabeth Babcock, a girl from
Maine, then living in Oakland. In a
short correspondence between the
strangers a partnership was agreed up
on. The Maine girl came to Carson
and she and the young pioneer who had
been before her started the Sierra
seminary long before there was a
public school in the state.
But in these days of higher educa-
airy would be accredited. But there
isn't school in the world that holds
such a record as this poor little pioneer
seminary.
For, you see, it was conducted on
such unbusinesslike lines. The teachers
seemed to think it their affair to com
fort and strengthen and uphold and
love, as well as to teach. You can't be-
gin to name the prominent men and
cultured women Of Nevada and Cali
fornia who learned what books and
these two women had to teach.
1T was a home" said an important
alumni. They took us into their very
hearts. We weren't pupils We We're
their own children"
If you can imagine, SAID an ex-
Nevadan, how it would feel to come
clear across the plain, fresh from col
,iY,tr fpJN ft11f
in the West If you can imagine how
ones peculiarities and ones little ef-
forts at civilized living were ridiculed
If you can imagine how sensitive ana
resentful one is when he is young ana
how easy it is to get into q light IN
young Nevada, then you can Under
stand how felt when found myself
in iail after shooting scrape, and
Miss Clapp came to me, like the man
she is. and took me home to nurse my
wounds"
eff YOU were a man." said another
man, who is a grandfather now, and
drink had taken such hold on you
that there was no resisting, and if a
woman, plucky, strong, self-rel1aat.
hauled YOU up out Of the gutter and
took you into her spotless old maid $
home and kept you there until you
were fit to live as man, you, q reallze
how we, who did not get to schoo! at
Berkeley itself can teach"
Nature intended Miss Babcock for
typical creature Of the gentler sex
Yet, SO strong was her faith, SO IN
limited her confidence in the executive,
energetic head of the family, that she
seconded every plan, no matter how
unconventional that ripened in the
head of this woman, who was new
woman before the term was invented.
Witness the building Of the fence
around the state capitol at Carson
New, that enduring monument to the
business capacity of Miss Babcock's
husband"
It was during Governor Bradley's
term that Nevada decided that she
could afford to put high iron fence,
mounted on a stone coping, around the
capitol. Plans and specifications were
drawn up and bids were advertised for.
The foremost and the richest firms in
Nevada and California put in bids,
naturally, for the state is a generous
employer. When the time came TO
open the bids there was one signed n:
K. Clapp. It was the lowest bid ana
| it was awarded the contract.
IT never had built a fence, an iron
one,s chuckled Miss Clapp. when tell
ing the story, though since then !
have put up wooden ones with my own
hands. But 1 had recently come into
possession of information about the
great contractors would expect to make
81. 900 or 5000 at least out of the con-
tract. A thousand would SATISFY me
If I could make that out of it.
She did She hired men and put
them to work. In the morning after
she had MIXED half a dozen cows and
helped her mate and co-worker to put
The house in order, the two devoted
themselves to their professional work
teaching. After school was over Miss
Babcock turned her attention TO 90
nestle affairs. After school MISS
donned. warm, long ulster, pulleo
down over her eyes a small, soft WOOL
en- round hat and went off to work
For two or three hours daily Carson
ties could see this woman contractor
who had never before (and VINO mas
not since) undertaken contract
standing about the capitol in all softs
of weather overseeing her men.
When darkness came and work Tor
the day was over Contractor Clapp
trudged sturdily horneward.
II think she would say, muslngly
in talking over her labors with her
wifely confidant, II think that'll be a
pretty good fence
And it was 1t is, in fact; for the
personal, conscientious supervision OF
Builder and Contractor Clapp is to be
discovered in that celebrated fence al
ter a. lapse OL oo years. ..,a-
There was one time when MISS
CLAMPS answering individuality
brought her into prominence, not alto
gether pleasantly. For the protection
of these two women, living alone in an
almost unsettled mining town, a most
savage animal, half bulldog, half blood
hound, had been bought. Miss Clapps
Brutus was the wonder and the terror
of the town. He was uncompromising-
" fierce, vicious. All day he was
chained. At night he was loosened, his
hoarse, deep below warned shudder-
ing Carsonites for blocks around that
Brutus was on guard.
In view of the delight of Carson In
the Corbett-Fitzsimmons contest it Will
not surprise you to learn that dog
fights in the old silvered days of Neva-
da were much in vogue. When a new
dog came to town, respectfully herald
ed by human advance agents, bout
was expected. One particular new DOG
- ,or,,ior Iaffriec of a dog. had made