Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-08-11


Horiah cemetery in Deadwood, beside
the bones Of wild Bill" Hickok, her
friend OF long ago.
Though she had twelve husbands,
the last still living, it was one OF her
dying requests that she be allowed to
sleep by the side of the man she first
loved with the love Of wild, animal
heart. aad whose murder she aveng-
ed by lynehing twenty-feur years ago.
Though physicians said it was in
hammation Of the bowels that caused
her death, it was loneliness and re-
morse that shattered her health
loneliness for days that could never
come again and remorse that she could
about her Only within a year had
she given up her Wanderings about
the west to find the reckless life in
which alone she could find pleasure.
Somewhere in North Dakota lives
daughter, her only child, but she was
not at the bedside of her mother. 1t
was so because of the wish Of "Calam-
ity Jane who long ago sent away the
girl that she might find that culture
which she herself could not grasp. 1t
was an outcropping OF the real woman
in her that prompted her to say that
her daughter should not be hurt by
looking into the face CT her mother.
So, when friends begged her to tell
her daughters name and home, dur
ing "Calamity James" last sickness,
the broken-down border woman said
with the same firmness: Would you
hev me shame my own daughter?
Shed wish she hedn't seen this ugly
cid face. Let her be. She'll think
the more of me-.
And. indeed, there was no trace in
her eros -lined leathern features of
the prettiness which it was said be-
longed to the little Missouri girl who
went over mountains to Nevada forty
years ago. 1t was the mold Of circum-
stance that made of Martha Canary, a
proper girl of 10, Calamity Jane the
reckless. vice-nardened, generous, but
almost vicious, manWOman OF 70.
"Calamitv Jane" was but 81 years old
when she died. But in those years the
real wild west was born and died. It's
passing left her forlorn, and she was
not sorry TO go after.
Sketch of Her Life.
It was not because Of deserton by
her parents, as has been said that
Martha Canary was left a lone girl
in the new mining camp of Virginia
City. New. in 1862. Shortly after
their emigration from Princeton, Mo.
an Indian war separated child from
parents. She fell into the hands OF
an unworthy old woman. who allowed
her to select what she would from
the law-free life of the camp. 1t was
horseback riding and crack pisto
shooting that first came to the girl
and not many years after she was tt
be found astride saloon bars. regallns
rough men with songs and stories.
It was about that time that real In
dian fighting in the west began, ant
the girl was eager to display the
horsemanship and marksmanshll
which she counted her virtues. She
applied at a number Of posts, attlret
as a man, before she found one where
she was not known. General Crooi
accepted her as a scout and she VA
happy For a time She served unde
Col. William F. Cody Buffalo Bib
and that soldier her lifelong friend
recently said of Eer record as scout
Though she did not do a mans
share Of the heavy work. she has gon
in places where old frOntiersmen wer'
unwilling to trust themselves. an@ ne
courage and g0odfe,l0wship made he
popular with every man in the com
mand In her neat scouts uniform
Martha Canary made handsome pi1
ture, especially when astride goo
horse and riding like mad over tn
plains on some wild expedition. Sh'
was eccentric then. and she IS eccen
tric now. but the winsome Marth'
Canary of these days was not th'
Calamity Jane of today.
She was at the camp where she haC