Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-05-09

light streaked the night sky and on
chaperonS suggested we should ge
some rest. So mattresses and blanket
were spread all over the front room
while the boys bunked in the kitchen
But sleeping seemed sheer waste o
time to us when we might be dancing
Someone began twanging a banjo an
promptly the blankets piled into q cor
ner and we were at 1t again. pauSins
now and then to drink hot coffee anc
eat slices of fried buffalo steak"
Word came that their train was de-
layed indefinitely and so all that day
and the next night the young folks
danced. Early the third morning news
came that the belated train might be
in some time that forenoon and the
young folks bundled into wagons and
drove to the station. There they
heard that there was to be still another
hour OF SO Of waiting. One of u e'ys
shouted: Who'll dancer" Mrs. DIX r
who was pretty, vivacious Josephine
Miner then, said: Il will" And soon
the rough station floor was alive with
dancing feet. That was the time of
zestful youth in the early days Of our
west
Mrs. Decker recalls how earnestly the
young people went to work raising
money to build a church. Until 1888
cC1FACCG WElE 14EAA 0fCA ~ y.
GrahamiS grocery store. They gave so
Gals, dances, amateur theatricals, cha
rades and succeeded in raising suf-
ficient funds TO build the little Episco-
palian RectOry on Palmer street, and
later the first Episcopalian church
Among the active participants Ia this
enterprise we're Billy Courtney, Harry
A. @. Logan and Mrs. Whit
ney, wife OF DR.. Whitney, who died
last summer.
The Miner place, says Mrs. Decker
was the show place Of Miles
City, a lovely mecca of verdure in that
barren, hot, dusty town. Her father
planted trees and pulled water from
the well with a bucket to keep them
alive. Today those trees so laboriously
tended are one of the beautiful proves
Of the city. And Mrs. Miner. although
assured her that fl@Wers would
took visitors to view the only flower
garden in town.
Mingled with the gayety, the balls.
horseback rides, skating parties and
church socials, there were periods of
hectic excitement. Those we're the days
when, further west, centering about
Virginia City, the Vigilantes had sue
ceeded In Kidding the country of Its
worst criminals. A few StragglerS, eS-
AA00N~7
City, headquartering on small island
where the Tongue river forked from
he Missouri, and becoming so ohnox-
Gus that they afforded q real menace
% the safety of tile town and vicinity. |
Horse thieving was a too common oc-
,urrence. Buildings were mysteriously
burned down. Women were not safe /
N the streets at night. The very lives
# citizens were threatened. Finally x. |
3eidler, United States marshal for
dontana Territory, was summoned to
lelp Quell the uprising and the BUSH
less men formed Vigilante orgsnjza-
ion. They lynched Rigney who had
'roken into one of the private homes,
nd, in retaliation, the gangsters set
ire to the Cosmopolitan. The flames
pread rapidly through that town of
limsy buildings and canvass cabins,
urning several stores and threatening
II of Miles City There was no fire
department. in town, only volunteer
Ducket brigade. AIRS. Decker renen-
,erS standing on the roof of tbeirt