The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-07-19
REACHED ST. PAUL.
The Notorious Calamity jane Tells
a Few Yarns to Reporters.

- A4srlu-. EA=faN H.shE5t.@ f--t
1t will interest and amuse Montana
people for several weeks to read what
the eastern papers have to say about
Calamity Jane, the notorious Mon
tana character, who has been taken
east by Mrs. Josephine Winfield
Brake, a newspaper writer in search
of a sensation, who came to Montana
recently at the expense of an eastern
yellow" journal and induced "Calam-
ity" to accompany her east with the
object Of writing up her western ca
reer and making a sensation out Of a
woman who has few of the instincts
of the finer sex and whose departure
from the state will not cause anything
like an aching void in the communities
in which she has lived Mrs. Brake
and her strange companion were at
the Ryan hotel in st. Paul for a day.
The Industrious reporters on the
Twin Cities papers, aided by the art
lists, gave the couple a good send-off
during their stay in the Sanity city.
1t would seem more reasonable that
she would take up her residence in
some we'll located dime museum, says
the st. Paul Dispatch. AS a side show
she would prove a drawing attraction.
Mrs. Brake registered for both, and
her handwriting shows plainly that
she was mor or less agitated and
nervous. She evidently had her hands
full on the trip from Montana, by the
time she reached st. Paul.
James associations and her ways
have been enough to make her a
rather trying person for a travelling
companion.
She gets her name of Calamity"
Jane from a faculty she has had Of
producing a ruction at any time and
place and on short notice.
Jane has one recommendation, and
that counts for considerable. She is
perfectly willing to be what she seems
to be and seem what she is. Mrs.
Brake calls that characteristic by a
more complimentary name, and told
THE Dispatch that Jane was honesty
personified.
She has been obedient, also. She
never takes a drink of whiskey with
out asking Mrs. Brakes permission
first. She is no stranger to corn juice
and about four times a day she i'm
bibes, after giving notice of her in
tention. So Is to have everything
handy, she keeps a big black bottle
with her belongings.
She smokes, too, and long, black
cigars at that. When seen at the
Ryan last evening she was out OF
cigars, as Mrs. Brake happened to
mention. The scribe at once handed
her a long, shady-looking Pittsburg
stogie, but she did not smoke it at
once. She hid it in her shirtwaist,
evidently a little ashamed of her fond
ness for such an infeminine article.
She is not strictly feminine in other
ways, for she wores buckskin trousers
too much of the time to be acquainted
with up-to-date feminine apparel. So
when Mrs. Brake fitted her out with
a dozen ready-made shirtwaists, she
chose a time when she was alone to
array herself in her new-found splen.
dor. A box of face powder was near
at the time, and she s%prinkled that
around in promiscuous fashion on her
bright blue shirtwaist, black skirt,
face and hair. She was a sight to be.
hold when Mrs. Brake opened the
door and surveyed her.
Jane has a horror of reporters, and
showed a hand satchel, with tie end
all battered up. She had used it on a
Montana newspaper man who pub
lished some statements about he- not
strictly true.
"He didn't see me, and I got 4 good
crack at him. His head was cut con.
siderable" said she.
Jane told about her experiences in
the early days in the west. Her par.
rents took he rto Montana, and both
died Dol afterwards. She fell into
the hands of an old woman from
whom she ran away, attaching herself
to an army post. AS she grew older
she took up the life of a soldier. She
killed Indians, and they nearly killed
her half a dozen times. She saved the
life of Captain Egan- and fought with
Custer, Bill Cody and nearly all the
old Indian fighters.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE LECTURE