Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-07-19
MADAME MOSTACHB, "STBM-
VINDER" And CALAMITY JANE
True Tale OF Odd Female Characters Known in the West
Thirty Years Ago, When Deadwood Was Young.


owner of the natural lithium spring
Of the old timers, having come into
the hills from Fort Robinson as early
as 1874. He was one of the pail
bearers at Calamity James funeral in
] tie summer of 1908, and has just told
the true story of Calamity's life. It's
! very different from that which has
gone the rounds of the press for the
last two decades being shorn of many
striking features, but at the same time
having added interest, because it tells
accurately the story of one of the
most famous women who ever lived in
the West.
ct was down in Cheyenne that
first knew Calamity" said George
Hoshier, "and that was in the fall of
rs. At that time Bill Nye was re-
porter on the Laramie Chronicle, and
P. P. Poulton occupied the same po-
sition on the Cheyenne Sun. They
used to change pulpits, as they ex
pressed it, frequently. Poulton was
great humorist. If he'd lived he'd
have been a much more noted man
than Nye, but he died a long time
ago. Calamity, whose real name was
Mary E. Canary (and she was a bird),
was never a scout. That story was all
wrong. She was born in Missouri in
1850. Her mother was washerwoman
and the girl didn't have very many
advantages. They came to Montana
in the early days, and when Calamity
struck Cheyenne it was about as gay
a town as there was going. She was
wild girl and considerable of
booze fighter.
''.The way she got that name was
this: She was always getting into
trouble. If she hired a team from a
livery stable she was sure to have
smash-up and have to pay the dam
4 ages when she got back Why, if
7 she'd got up on fence rail the burned
thing would go up and buck. Calam-
ity followed her everywhere, and so
4 Poulton one day dubbed her Calamity
Jane and the name stuck
Was Never Scout.
"She did come into the Hills with
q Gen. Crook and wore mems clothes
/ at the time, but she was no more of
scout than I was. They came up in
the early spring of '76. She was with
the party just for a chance Of get
L ting into the Hills, and she wore
mems clothes because it was easier
4 for her to ride and also made the trip
a little safer for her. There was an
other girl with that party, too. She
Joi, o,,1c CHI LoI
] title to be called a scout as Calamity,
! as she wore mems clothes too. They
didn't stay in the Hills long, though,
/ but came back to Cheyenne. I don't
know what became Of Franc Adair,
Calamity came back to the hills in'77.
1.-TWO Of her special friends were a
couple of women, one known as
Madam Mustache and the other as
Stem Winder. They were both deal
! ers Stem Winder was little girl
rot more than twenty, a blonde and
very pretty. She was married to
man named Bill Ford Che lives in
Denver now, and she dealt faro up
in a tent in Central, where he ran
big gambling house. never heard
how she got her name, but she was
the best woman dealer I ever saw.
The trouble with her was she had
been taught how to deal brace game,
which, you know, means crooked gam
bling. But she could deal square
game all right when she wanted to.
Madam Mustache was a woman at
that time, in TT, nearly fifty years old
She was French woman and came
by her name honestly. She was prob
ably the best known woman then in
all the West. She usually dealt "21;"
you know that was a very popular
game And she'd been in California
in the days of the early gold excite
ment, in Nevada, Montana, Colorado
and all through the West. She was
better known then than Calamity was.
She went back to California after she
left here and committed suicide. That
must have been fifteen or twenty
year sago I guess she'd gotten too
old to deal and didn't know what else
to do, and so just cashed in.
Those were all good-hearted, kind
women. Oh, of course, none Of them
would jump out like Calamity. She
was always there first. 1t didn't make
any difference what was the matter
with a person, If Calamity could help
them she would She was the girl
who went down to Elizabeth Town,
here in Deadwood, and took care of a
man. He was stranger to her and
had the smallpox. Nobody else would
go near him, and she went and took
care of him and brought him through
all right. She was fine nurse. Their !,
wasn't anything she wouldn't do for
anybody, and whenever she had any
money 1t went just the same way,
easily and for the first fellow that
asked for it,