Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-07-04
Value: the Poor Expected to Be Rich TOMORROW, an

WOOD. Another time while the judge
was lifting in a restaurant with his
daughter, the future author of "Old
Dead%0od Days. a widely known faro
dealer walked in. The judge invited
INN TO his table and introduced him
to his daughter and went on talking
with him as if he had been an asso-
clate Judge on the bench. The incident
resulted in a strange friendship be-
tween the two men. Later when the
gamblers sister and her daughter came
TO yisiU him from the East, without
knowing his occupation, the judge, at
the gamblers request, had Mrs. Ben
nett and her daughters call on them
at the hotel, Just to show them that
the brother was a member of the polite
society Of Deadwood and a mining
man. That was Deadwood comrade-
ship.
When The Stage Came In
Scores of such social incidents are
related in Miss Benefits book, re-
fleeing the free and equal standards
OF the old frontier town. The Benefits
came to Deadwood in the late 70's. 1t
was then, and continued SO until the
80's, 200 miles off the railroad, at the
end Of a long, hazardous stage coach
trail. The arrival and departure of
the stage coach were the towns great
est events and the stage drivers its
most spectacular heroes. DeadWood was
then the most important town in the
world to the stage coach. 1T was the
only one on the long stage trail" writes
Miss Bennett, who became a protege
of the drivers and learned herself to
handle the reins herself in later years,
that saw it all dressed up in its six
horses, nickel-plated trappings and
%grandioSe manners. 1t came into Dead
wood and went out dasiling, prancing,
rolling and glittering. Days that it
did not arrive were narrowing days
OF suspense in that isolated island OF
mountains in a sea of Indian reServa-
TONS
The daring and dashing stage driv-
erS, known by deeds and reputation
far and wide on the border, were the
heroes OF romance, to the young daugh-
ter Of the federal judge. She rode with
them on the box and n Of them
taught her the art of handling the
ribbons and guiding the coach around
the winding mountain roads. She
knew Johnny Slaughter, who was killed
in n in the first road agent hold-up
two miles out of Deadwood. Tradi-
tons of all the famous drivers-Big
Gene Barnett, Hank Monk, Bob Pugh.
Red Raymond, Paul Clinton, Wally
Walker, Dan Callahan, Jim Madden
Kid Walker-were cherished from hel
childhood days. But her great here
was Handsome Harry whose rea'
name was Hans Hansen. a sol of the
Vikings. He was a big nan with 9
heavy brown mustache, large, bright
blue eyes and pink cheeks. His beauty
was OF the confident, obvious type. He
was a Snowman, too, wearing his white
Stetson at a jaunty angle on his brown
curls, ard knowing how to make The
most of his six prancing white horse.
in their nickel-plated harness, of hi!
swift-sWaying coach, his swirling whiI
and his own personal beauty, on hi!
high seat with his hands full of lines
a picture that no could ever forget.
Memories of Calamity Jane
In the later years Calamity Jane
was a familiar figure in the streets o
Old Deadwood, and the daughter of TIT
federal judge often met her, drunk an(
sober, but always commanding thu
respect of the old-time Black Killers
Her virtues-and she had many-ar'
fairly and kindly set down in the book
The DeadWood code spread the au
tumn leaves of oblivion over her vices
"She was, no doubt, a woman of man,
faults" writes our sympathetic author