The Coconino sun., 1927-02-25

Glowing Through Life is the
name of a series of articles running
through Golfers from the pen of Ed
die Foy, for years Americas foremost
comedian, and for years featured in a
vaudeville act called Eddie Foy and
Eight Little Foys" Mr.. Foy is now
retired and living in New York. His
article referring to Tombstone fol-
lows:
Living Through Tombstone
On election night meager tele-
graphic reports were received from
time to time and read at our place,
but there was little sitting up to hear
the returns" in those days, because
so many states were still largely rural
that the returns came in very slowly.
Furthermore, Garfield and Hancock
divided the popular vote pretty evenly
that year, and two or three days
passed before we democrats would adj
nit that Garfield had been elected.
We left Denver early in 1881, hav-
ing received an offer from the Adelphi
Variety Theatre in San Francisco,
which indicated that our reputation
was spreading pretty widely over the
West. We were delighted at the pros
pect of a season in the gay, gilded
metropolis of the Golden State, the
city which everyone longed to see at
least once in his life. But just before
making our engagement there, we had
received call from another and n.
rather famous little town: famous
partly because of its name, which
alone was sufficient to give it grisly
reputation-Tombst Arizona. So
on leaving Denver we went down to
Tombstone and played an engagement
of four weeks before going on to San
Francisco.
Tombstone was a silver-mining
camp, and had the reputation, though
l don't know how just it was, of be-
ing one of the most wide-open towns
in the world. AS far as my opinion
is of any value, | cannot say that
found things any more free and easy
there than at Leadville in its earlier
days, or at Butte later on. 1t was a
rather wild-eyed little town, | must
admit, though so much like other min
ing camps that the things | remem-
Der best about it are its climate and
surroundings-hea desert, dust, cac-
tus, the sun always glaring from
clear. sky and in all directions those
distant, jagged blue mountains on the
horizon-rough in outline, but the only
restful, beautiful thinks in sight.
The name of the town is said to
have been suggested by a remark
made to a prospector who was just
starting for thta vicinity, and who re-
marked to friend that he believed he
would find gold-bearing ore there.
The Apaches were very active in
those parts at the time, which led the
friend to retort ssYou are more likely
find your tombstone From that
time on funeral names were much IN
favor thereabouts. The first claim
located at the spot was named the
Graveyard, and the leading newspaper
of the town at the time of our visit
was the Epitaph.
Our engagement was at concert
hall known as the Bird Cage NarIe-
ties; why they didn't call it the Cof-
fin don't know. We seemed to make
good and could have stayed longer.
It is startling to me now to think
of the friendships which /, a generally
peaceable man, acquired as an actor
among Western gun fighters, gam
blers, miners, desperate hunters and
others more or less hard-boiled, some
of them with cold steel nervces, gram
ite-hearted, ready to kill upon mo-
ment's notice or suspicion. The stage
had a glamour and fascination for
all of them. Some few of them,
think, had sort of vague idea that a
comedian was a degilish, jolly, care
free, irresponsible fellow whose pri-
vate life was as merry as his stage
antics, who meant nobody any harm,
never meant seriously anything he