Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-02-17
THIS KEPT ORDER
|NW|CKED TOMBSTONE
Mick" Bankstreet, Now a
Wealthy Miner, Preserved
Peace by Use of Pistol.

When TEX" Rickardd, the Goldfield
8 honnnza mine man and fight promo
Ester, breeZed into New York the OTHER
day he attracted lot of attention,
says Al writer in the Washington Star.
{ Tho smallist. sawed-off. elderly
8 man with the pale face and red hair,
n huff sombrern, who accompanied
Il Rickard to New York attracted no
1sattention ut ALL Nobody knew who
L ne was. Nobody asked who he was.
! games over there tossed the little
Ssa word or two, but he didn't get his
& picture in papers and none Of the re-
porters was asked to interview him.
And yet this unassuming friend o.
ssrTeX'sp was Il man Of good deal of
mole in his day. His name is Nicho-
sSlas NJ Bankstreet and he was day
Ssiiarshal of Tombstone when Tomb.
stone was bad. He rarely or never
sadvents to his Tombstone expert.
Fences. The sure enough game men
Esof the old camps were ever silent
mon. But Bankstreei's management
sigaf Tombstone when 1t was bad Is n
/ part Of tho history of tho Southwest.
He Is now a prosperous holder of
ii fseyeral G0ldfield properties. wears
billed shirts and removes his boots
sseyery night when he turns In But
+ these things do not in any way min
simize or offset the way he played
1.-The game when Tombstone was his
camp and he was day marshal there.
There were II lot Of gun-sooncrs in
afPombstone I'm that day but none or
Y them ever got the drop on mick"
/, Bnnkstreet. He WIS the day marshal
there when Il mans life In Tomb
Ssstone wasn't generally held to he
worth much more than brzZard ia
male or plate or frijoles. Bank
street monsooned into Tombstone
2about six months after the booom
there began. and he succeeded "Turk'
I Patrick as day marshal Of the camp
ss-Turlt" had been so minced up In
IN knife fight with couple Of half
sShreed glln eaters that he had to be
hiped UP to Manitou, Col. to win
..sback his strength.
Bankstreet was tnciturn. unns.
Stunning sawed.off in those days, as al.
ways. He had cowllcky auburn hair
sand pair Of topaz eyes, like n noun
thin cats, that seemed to grow darker
and to spit sparks when he was get
ting busy.
IN accepting the day marshal's
billet, "Nlck" Bankstreet delivered
himself In form, OF the following ex-
Spression:
II hain't calclatln' on gIttin' shot
b up none whilst holding down this
81 Sede job. shore can't see no fun in
this thing o. layin' abed with hull
q iot o. 2igZag punctures in nv cal.
K cass, l shore can't. That's why ]
s hafn't a-goin'lt let no gun-faninn ON.
brey in this .yere camp stick me IN
: an poke lead into my frame. les
sEachully like t. be swlngin' along on
tn soles o. my boots, an layin' Mcl,
Y on bunk In II dark room whilst tn
holes Is henlin' an countin' tn cent?
pedes a.workin' their way In through
tn yceilin' an sides o. tn dobe-they
sEhain't enough action in that kind O
Uork,"
The Tombstoners who heard
Nick" thus express his natural oh
lection to being plugged hoped that
he would get by With his determine
uon, but none OF them had much oil
an idea that mick" would he ablt
a to make his determination stick 70,
very long, Bankstreet had neve,
shown the camp anything in the line
of strategy, and so, OF course, there
was no way Of figuring on the line
#of stuff that he would develop.
But Just two days after he pinned
Ion his badge husky. green.eyet
chap named Flag" O'Rouke. whit
u had drifted down to Tombstone from
the Santa Anita Mountains, where
ne had grown sulEp after ycsrs O
sssInsllccessfnl prospecting. knocked of
at noon, absorbed about half
gallon of made over night mescal int,