Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-01-22

Butte again makes @copy." Two
magazines that went on sale the
past week contain articles about
the town that's a mile high and a
mile deep. A third refers TO Butte.
An incident in the life of q farmer
highwayman who tells his own
story in Cosmopolitan Is related.
The incident" is the hOIdup Of a
gambling hall, possibly 40 or so
years ago.
The two other magazines that adj
vertise the city are Globe, which has
highly interesting description Of the
city in its January issue, and Official
Detective, which relates the story of
how Butte woman was duped out Of
$4,000 by gypsy about three years
ago. The writer in Official Detective
refers to the assistant chief of police
as Larry Dugan." Jack Duggan is
the assistant chief.
What q Camp
In the article in Globe, the writer
says in part:
Butte may be nothing but a mining
camp to you, but what a campl To the
traveller it is usually an interesting
If crazy-conection of mine shafts,
shackS, places, people and road houses
that swarm around the richest hill on
earth. But to Montanans it's more. It's
a fighting word out there.
For either you like it or you do not
Frequently you do not. Delicate ladies
from the east have been known to
shrek and Swoon upon their first
glimpse of the place. It tempts poets
and scholars to air llirid hits from
Dante'S Inferno, and indeed it is a
Dantesque spot-itS looming noun
careless tumble of Stag, churches, der
ricks, dumps, shafts and houses. Even
the hardy souls who live elsewhere in
Montana wonder how anyone can be
induced to live there and are forever
protesting to visiting relatives that
Butte is not really, you know, typical
of Montana.
Roaring Town
The rest Of the state seems to re-
sent this rough, staggering, roaring
town. They seem to think that it mars
the quiet grandeur of Yellowstone and
Glacier parks. They maintain that it
does not harmonic with dude ranches,
cowboys, mountain scenery and other
natural attractions. But they all go
there on their day off"
The story in Official Detective re-
peatS, in large measure, what was told
in the Montana Standard a few years
ago when an oily-fingered gypsy
mulcted Butte woman out Of $4,000
"a nestegg which she had put away,
in a bank vault several years before
planning to have it for her old age.
The gypsieS-there were several of
them-opened a fortune-telling place
on North Main street. Chief Jere
as "Jere the Wise
was alive then. He knew his gypSies
The minute he heard there were some
in town he had them "jugged." But
this bunch hired a lawyer and fought
the case. A police judge dismissed the
charge and the gypsies stayed right
in Butte, but moved to new location
on West Broadway.
FiIched Out of $4,000
How the Butte woman entered the
place and how a dark-skinned maiden
learned that she had $4,000
In choice securities, left to her by a
former husband, and how she told
The woman that her money was cursed
how she could not only remove the |
curse but could double it by her magic |
and how the woman eventually fell |
for the story and lost it all-is told |
The story carries pictures Of AS
;istant Chief Duggan and Joe Williams, |
former fingerprint expert at poles
headquarters.
For the benefit of those who may
have forgotten names and dates, the |
lame that got the money went by the |
name of Anna Stone. Officer Williams |
,railed the outfit back and forth over
he continent, but was always just a |
lay or two late. The bunco artists |
Knew their trail was hot and generally /
Kept moving. They are still at large.