Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-01-18
THE PASSING eEANeTHER LIND MARX

The roof has been removed from the old Johnson-N ordquis
Beer Hall and the walls will soon follow suit as the wreckers pro
coed with their work.
This building was erected in the summer of 1894 by Gus
Nordquist, now a contractor in Great Falls and Bernard Johnson
deceased.
1t was framed and rapidly thrown together, being about thu
first two-story building to be erected in town. The upper floor
was unfinished, the studding and the rafters being exposed t
Here the various organizations met to transact business. Here
the carpenters union, which numbered about two hundred at that
time, met and put J. Burgher, our present city marshal out of bus
mess as a barber because his son and another boy had shingled
building that the Miners union met for a time, the Scandinavian
Brotherhood. the Maccabees, and other orders. Chief among these
instituted by Ed Lowry, who kept a saloon in the Colard building
and who was afterward deputy sheriff. Lowry appointed himself
and the inquisiton in the initiation of many sheepherder or UNI
suspecting pilgrim or drummer in the city.
1t was in this hall that the first dances were held and a num-
Der of local people were members of the first dancing club organ
the noise of revery below could be plainly heard and discourtesy
TO a lady was an undreamed of thing.
plentiful. During a wet spell a continuous stream of feet would
soon tramp a path dry through the mud and a lady coming down
the street was sure of a dry path unless she met another of the
same sex for the men would step unhesitatingy into the mud to
let her pass. A ladys escort to a dance trpped lightly through
Roger Barnum presided d. at the wheezy old organ and Cockeyed Joe
handled the guitar and mouth harp. people could not keep their
feet still and when eight sets got to swinging through an old-time
quadrlle the building swayed and cracked threatening to buckle at
any minute but the dancers were not dismayed at a little thing
like that, it remained for the proprietors of the saloon to protect
themselves by erecting trusses and braces beneath the second
Wings" carried the dancers around the floor in the smoothest of
rhythm, while every girl dressed in her other dress looked as pref
" III ner cameo, or glnXnam, or dark WOOL as any DO now In their
voiles and silk. Madame Cashier wore the only silk dress ever
seen in those days, a stiff black taffeta trimmed with jet which
was the wonder and the envy of all the feminine attendance. We
suppose there were no silk stockings because a girl of sixteen wore
her dresses to her shoe tops and there wasn't any use, even though
there was money enough in the family to buy a pair. And Heaven
help the man who backed his partner in the waltz and caused her
10 step on her dress and tear it loose from the waist band. Should
some bungler cause such a catastrophe he usually skunk away like
= sheep stealing dog. Meeting his male friends later he usually
produced many and various aibis which were received with deri-
sive jeers.
The old building is going. Among the parts they are tearing
are the old stage with its gaudy proscenium where in those
DAYS vaudeville stars of more o n less mapnitude. priZefiUht-l
crs of national renoun and singers of real ability held forth for a
few nights following pay day while the blase farodealer looked up
fr0m his layout and the croupier of the roulette table held the ball
IN his hand for a moment while he listened to the golden notes of
some well trained soprano or felt the orotund timbre of some bari
- voice.
So far as we can remember there never occurred q killing in
this building, which makes it somewhat exceptional, although it
had it's share of rough-houses. II
In later days it was run by Johnson, Johnson & West, Billy
Heikke, and others, the upstairs finished now with ceiling and
gradually gave place to newer and better buildings, the num-
Der of saloons diminished from 81 to Is to 10. Business drifted
hill from the old Anaconda addition and across the river
hOm the West side. Finally the old building was turned into an
Implement storage, boys drifted through it destroying what could
b destroyed and now being torn down by order of the state fire
means lights out for this old building which at one time
ws one Of the most pretentious structures in town. Across from
umaried old cottonwood of great diameter which was a favonte
import for inebrated on their journey home.
Next to this came the Calone building. then the Shupak sa- I
- where the Cash market now is, then another saloon. then the
Higgins home after which came n Finlander saloon dubbed by
"The Bucket OF Blood" because of the many ARRAYS staged
won. II which pocket knives played a prominent part. Another '