The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-24
SATURDAY.

business to furnish beer and WHISTLES
to its progressive citizens
The mamie said his name was
Sam Bolger-again fell into a moody
silence Then he resumed his talk
Il was a fool for ever leaving To-
peka- 1t was in 1850, not long after
the prohibition amendment went into
effect 1 had lost my job 1 had no
money. So 1 just naturally drffted
west and for the next ten years I
roamed around California, New Mex
leo, Arizona and old Mexico. But it
was in 1890 that 1 came to Cripple
Creek. The first real strike had been
made With thousands of others l
went there and like all the others I
fell a victim to my ambition to be
rich Out of all those who went to
few remain today who have wealth.
Il just naturally had no luck l
sweated my life away in the mines
gambled and drank away my wages
a city yet that could equal it, Money
flowed like water 1 believe it was the
wickedest spot on the map.
Il was in the great Cripple Creek
fire of 1896. BY that time I was part
owner of a small saloon. The fire de-
stroyed my place and 1 was broke
again.
Town i'm a Night.
Then 1 heard rumors of Gillette.
The town became city in night
The rush of men here at that time
was heavy. Being one of the first on
the ground, 1 started a saloon in
shack and a boarding house in a tent
Then I leased the upstairs of build
ing and owned the first dance hall
here For several months Gillette was
fast becoming the center of the Grip
pie Greek region. Then the gold gave
out 1t was shallow. People left here
in a single night. Many did not take
even the precaution of shutting their
doors. Gillette started like a whirl-
i
deserted.
"Only n few of us remained. firm
in the belief that the country was
plentiful in gold. My saloon business
have it today. Gradually my friends
left Gillette but I remained and have
lived in solitary grandeur since 1908
when the last of my family moved
away.
why don't leave. you ask? Why
should L? 1 have nothing especially
to live for. 1 have formed an attach
ment to Gillette 1 will die here.
am emperor of the place. My word is
law, having no one to dispute it"
The visitors soon after this resumed
their journey to Cripple Creek. seven
miles away. An air of depression fill
ed each and every one of them. They
began to realize what Carthage looked
like after the carnage of the Romans
AS they turned off the main drag
into side street and thence to the
main road, the newspaper man look
ed back Sam Bolger, pathetic fig
ure to say the least, was still sitting
where he had been left.
Where is Sam Bolger today Does
he still hold sway over the "spooky"
village as he has for nearly two dec
AIDES? Does he still sell quarters
worth of liquor a week, waiting for
another prohibitory amendment to put
him out of business the first of next
year? Is he alive or dead? There
were three epics of his life, each
one far different from the other.
There was the Sam Bolger of Topeka.
the Sam Bolger of Cripple Creek and
the decrepit old character of Gillette.
His life has been a hard one, an in
teresting one, yet only too typical of
the man who did not reach the aim of
his desire from the rich metal that
teens the earth at Cripple Greek.