Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-07-04

by face and name to everybody. we
saw them in the stores, on the street.
at the theater on the rare occasions
when there was a play at Nyes opera
House or Keimer hall. And then, TWO
or three years later, we saw these same
girls, pallid and shabby, with dlngy ola
fascinators over their heads, Shipping
furtively down an alley in quest OF a
drink or a shot Of dope. In a paine
tically little while they would dlsap-
pear"
Charities of DeadwOOd's Quality
The strange social contiguities n
visual familiarities were productive OF
unusual codes of ethics and courtesles,
Charities overleaped all barriers OF
class or distinctions of station and the
"humanities" of DeadWood were bot
toned on the primitive creed OF the
Nazarene who talked with the woman
of Samaria and once wrote some potent
words in the sand in aid OF a woman
found in sin. "We were all children
of the present or the future" writes
our gentle chronicler. mo n was
ever curious in old DeadWOOd. NO one
ever asked a man what his name was
back in the states" And distress was
relieved and help given without inqulr-
ing whether the beneficiary was sinner
or saint. Such a state of society begot,
of course, many curious contacts. There
was one woman of Ingleside, the quail
ity' district, who regularly visited the
"badlands' to talk with the followers
of the oldest trade in the world" No
body ever questioned her right or her
motives in doing SO.
This woman writes Miss Bennett,
was SO much the a%ristOcrat and SO
venerable, with her gray hairs and long,
heavy, black veil worn since the death
of her husband, that she could do as
she pleased and go where she liked
The use she made Of her privileges
made me regret my own sheltered
youth, for she made friends with the
ladies OF the 'badlands. She visited
them in their parlors where they raised
the curtains just a little to let IN a
bit Of afternoon sun IN her honor,
She never intimated in conversation
that she recognized any difference be-
tween their way Of life and her own,
and she said she found them gay and
companionable. But three times during
the years she rved in Deaowood, girls
whom she knew in this way came TIC
her house on Ingleside and asked hel
to help them get away into something
different. She did this as blithely and
casually as she had paid her visits. ]
heard her tell my mother, sitting in
our quiet front parlor, that OF course
that was the reason she had gone there
and the help that she had been able
to give them now and then more than
repaid her for any trouble, if it had
been a trouble, which she said it haC
not"
And that was part Of the code Of ole
Deadwood. Dignified and stately as the
federal judge himself was-and he wa
a scholar, a fundamental Christian anC
a real gentleman of the old school
he never forgot the small courtesies
whether the objects of them were
gamblers or badlanders, saloon keepers
or sky pilots. Once when he was walk
ing down the street with a newly ar
rived capitalist, he met one of the most
notorious women of the town. Of went
the judges soft black Stetson, with
courteous, Good morning, Miss Grace.
His companion, who knew the woman
looked straight ahead. do you speak
to such women?" he asked, not credit
ing the evidence Of his own eyes anC
ears. YES" the judge answered calm
ly. II can afford to-" He himself wa:
above reproach and the woman was {
woman-that was the code Of Dead