— :
8
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
CES and eights! Or, to be more spe-
cific, the aces and eights of spades
and clubs, the black aces and elghts—
“how many a later player holding
that sinister combination, in some
lighted, cheerful room, must have felt
a prickling of his scalp as If an icy
breeze fanned his hands, or some
dark, cold presence, suddenly in the
room, stood mocking at his shoulder.”
For more than half a century that sinister
combination has been known as the “Dead Man's
Hand." It was the hand of cards which the
famous Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he
was assassinated in Deadwood, 8. D., on August
2, 1876, and that event is a landmark in the
history of the. American frontier,
“His death marked not only the loss of a
brave and gentle man, but also the passing of
a great epic,” writes a recent blographer of
this celebrated frontiersman. “Wild Bill, the
greatest scout of the Plains, the cool and fear-
less marshal of border ‘bad towns,’ the marvel.
ous marksman, the terror of
‘bad men’ was gone. And
the most vital need
days of wild, free
Already courts and
factories were so more
eager forward move d put them and the
rich life they brought Into the place of saloon
Wild Bl,
and the period In which he lived, both had
played their part.”
The man who wrote those words was the late
and gambling-hall and dance-resort.
William Elsey Connelley, secretary of the Kan-
sas State Historical society, When he died in
1930 he left behind him the manuscript of an
unpublished biography of Hickok, based upon
42 years of research. During that time he had
an unusual opportunity to obtain, evaluate and
interpret authentic material relating to the life
and character of Hickok. Associated with him
in his work was his daughter, Mrs. Edith Con-
nelley Clift, and upon his death it fell to her
lot to edit her father's manuscript and round
out the story which he was writing. The result
was the book “Wild Bill and His Era—The Life
and Adventures of James Butler Hickok," (is-
sued last year by the Press of the Ploneers, a
New York publishing firm, directed by Rufus
lockwell Wilson, which Is doing an invaluable
work In preserving a variety of ploneer histo-
rical records) and in the opinion of those best
able to judge the result, this latest biography ls
“a sane, convincing portraiture of Wild Bill as
he was”
Like many another Wild West hero, Wild Bill
Hickok has been the central figure In many a
tall tale which was either entirely fictitious In
the first place or had only a slight basis of fact
but which, by constant repetition, has come to be
regarded as fact, Therefore, one of the values
of Connelley's book is that it dispels many of
these legends and myths which have clustered
around the name of Wild Bill and substitutes
for them statements which can be accepted wit?
the confidence that they represent the truth
about him as nearly as it is possible to learn the
truth about a man who had such a colorful and
varied career as Hickok had,
Among these legends is the story of how James
Butler Hickok came to be known as “Wild Bill”
and there have been as many variations on this
theme as there have been on most of the other
events in his life. According to Connelley, the
true story is this: In 1861 Hickok, already wide
ly noted as a skillful government scout and
guide, ~as placed In charge of a wagon train
which, escorted by 12 guards, was transporting
army supplies from Fort Leavenworth to Seda-
lia, Mo. En route a party of 50 guerrillas at-
tacked the train not far from Independence,
Mo, and the guards, outnumbered four to one,
made no attempt to defend the train, but re
treated at once,
Hickok, as master of the train, was riding on
horseback ahead of f(t. When the guerrillas
called upon him to surrender, he replied: “Come
and take me!” and spurred his horse toward
Independence, In the running fight which fol
lowed he killed several of his pursuers but
escaped without a scratch. Reporting the loss
of the train to the Union troops there, he was
told that they could not help him, but that he
would have to go on to Kansas City and report
the loss to the commander at that place,
While in Independence he went Into a saloon
owned by a friend of his and learned that the
bartender was besieged in a near-by house by a
mob of teamsters and other rowdies because he
had wounded one of their number during a
fight. Hickok immediately drew two pistols and
offered to fight the entire party but his challenge
was not taken up. Then he ordered the crowd
to disperse, saying: “If you do not, there will be
more dead men around here than the town ean
bury,” whereupon the ruffians departed hastily,
The citizens of the town gathered in the town
square after they had left to express their appre.
clation to the man who had delivered them from
their brief reign of terror and during the meet-
ing a woman cried out: “Good for you, Wild
Bill!” Who she was and why she called him
“Wild Bill” instead of “Wild Jim,” Hickok never
knew. He went on to Kansas City, secured the
ald of a detachment of soldiers and, returning
to the scene of the attack on the wagon train,
recaptured the uninjured wagons and some of
the mules. When he arrived at Sedalia he found
that the story of his encounter in Independence
had preceded him and everywhere he was halled
as “Wild Bill,” a name which stuck to him to
the day of his death,
A great many of the legends that have grown
up around the name of Wild Bill have had to
do with his almost uncanny skill with the six-
shooter, but Connelley’s patient resrarch has re.
sulted In the confirmation of most of these sto-
ries, even those which seem nearly unbelievable,
rather than In dispelling the legend,
. Like so many other stories about Wild Bil,
the “Dead
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Letter toHis Wife
the story of his death has been told
with a wide variety of conflicting
cause of its historical importance,
of the otation from Connelley's
beginning of this article, it seems worth while
as the anniversary of that event approaches, to
give the version of it which has resulted from
the Kansas historian’s research,
There was a curious Irony of fate In the man
ner of Wild | 8 dying which makes it more
than another illustration of the age-old saying
that those who live by the sword shall die by
the sword, with the substitution of the word
* Woven into
the red fabric of the narrative of Wild Bill's
last days is a white thread which seems strange
ly out of place in the chronicle of the violent
end of a life of violence. It Introduces into the
story of this cold-eyed killer of the plains the
unusual and unexpected role of a tender and de
voted husband, even though the element of ro-
mantic love may be lacking,
“six-shooter” for the word “sword.
In 1876 Hickok was living In Cheyenne, Wyo.
listening to the siren call of gold in the Black
Hills of South Dakota. But before he could
answer that call he learned that Mrs. Agnes
Thatcher Lake, the widow of a famous circus per.
former and herself one of a long line of show
people, was visiting a relative in Cheyenne. He
had first met her while he was marshal of Abi
lene, Kan, In 1871, and, in 1874, during his brief
career as an actor with “Buffalo Bill" Cody in
The Murder of “wild Bil)”
(from an Olid Wood Cut)
Ned Buntline’s “Scouts of the Plains” he had
met her again in Rochester, N, Y.
The result of their meeting in Cheyenne was
their marriage on March 5. Says Connelley:
“There is no doubt that the two, venturesome
and full of courage and life, appealed to each
other. But the question of love is a very dublous
one, The marriage was the practical. sensible
combining of forces of two people who knew
that they could be of mutual help” After the
marriage they went first to St. Louis, then to
Clincinnatl, Two weeks there found Hickok rest-
less and eager to get back to the West and go
to the Black Hills,
Accordingly he returned to St. Louls and set
about organizing a company of adventurers whom
he was to lead into the gold country. This he
did, going by way of Cheyenne where his old
friend, “Colorado Charley” Utter, joined him.
They arrived in Deadwood early in May. Con-
nected with that arrival is one of the elements
of the Irony-of-fate motif In the story of Wid
Bill's death—his premonition that he was going
to his death In Deadwood Gulch, ’
According to a well-authenticated story, as he
and Utter came to the top of Break Neck Hill
and looked down Into the gulch, Wild Bill said
to his companions: “Boys, 1 have a hunch that
I am in my last camp and will never leave this
gulch alive.” Some time later, In fact the very
evening before his death, he was leaning against
the side of the open door of the “66” saloon
when a friend noticed his downeast appearance
and asked him why he was “looking so dumpy.”
Hickok replied: “Tom, I have a presentiment
that my time is up and that I am going to be
killed.”
After arriving in the Hills, Hickok took up
several claims and began developing them, How
successful he was Is unknown, There is extant
(in the museum of the United States Playing
Card company at Cincinnati) his last letter to
his wife, written on July 17, which does not
Indicate any considerable success as a gold
hunter, His letter read:
“Dead Wood black hills, Dacota July 17th. 1876.
“My own darling wife Agnes 1 have but a
few moments left before this letter starts I
never was as well in my life but you would
laughf to see me now Just got in from Pros
pecting will go away again to morow but god
nowse when It will start my friend will take
this to Cheyenne If he lives 1 don't expect to
hear from you but it is all the same I no my
Agnes and only live to love hur never mind Pet
we will have a home yet then we will be so
happy 1 am almost shure I will do well the man
is huring me Good by Dear wife Love to Emma
“J. B. Hickok
“Wilda pm”
When Hickok arrived In Deadwood, that camp
was In the grip of the most lawless element.
Although he was there only as a peaceful pros
pector, his reputation as a marshal in Kansas,
at Hays and Abilene, was well known, Soon the
lnw-abiding element in Deadwood began talking
of making him marshal of that town and having
him “clean up the camp.” Hickok neither en-
couraged nor discouraged such talk but went
quietly about his work.
But such talk was disconcerting to the ecard.
sharps, the thieves and the killers who had
flocked to Deadwood, They knew that thelr activ.
ities were doomed If he became marshal. Not
brave enough to forestall that possibility by
“shooting it out” with him themselves, two of
the leaders of the lawless element, Tim Brady
and Johnny Varnes, resorted to assassination
iroken Nose Jack™ MceCall, a former buffalo
hunter in Kansas who had degenerated into a
drunken hanger-on around the saloons and dance.
halls of Deadwood, was hired to do the job. They
gave him $25 in gold dust and promised him
$175 more, led him up with the brand of
“chain lightning” whiskey which flowed freely In
the camp and set him to his task,
Fd
saloon with Charley Rich, Carl Mann {one of
the owners of the place) and Captain Massey, a
easy and worried. He was sitting with hie back
to the door, “a position so absolutely contrary
ful habit that all his time-trained Instincts were
change places with the others, but they refused
and teased him about his nervousness,
came Jounging through the door and moved
noiselessly up behind Hickok, Suddenly jerking
the other men in the room covered with It
threw himself into the saddle.
was loose and the saddle turned, throwing him
to the ground. Then he picked himself up and
ran into a butcher shop nearby to hide. There
he was found by the famous “Culamity Jane”
Burke, whose quick temper flamed Into a furious
rage when she heard the news of the murder of
her friend, Wild Bill. Unmindful of the fact that
MeCall was still armed, she entered the butcher
shop, seized a cleaver from a rack and, threaten.
ing him with it, forced him to surrender.
Baek in the “66” saloon, Hickok's friends has.
tily summoned Ellis A. (“Doc”) Pierce. But
Metall's one shot had been instantaneously
fatal, Beside Wild Bill on the floor lay the four
cards which he had drawn--the two black aces
and the two black eights, Who first called that
combination the “Dead Man's Hand” is unknown,
But it fs certain that that characterization of it
throughout the West dates from that day.
One other item In the irony-of-fate motif de
serves mention. After McCall's capture they
examined his revolver and discovered that every
chamber In It was loaded. But none of the other
five cartridges in it could be exploded! As “Doc”
Plerce once sald: “What would have been Me
Call's chances If he had snapped one of the
other cartridges when he sneaked up and held
his gun to Bill's head? He would now be known
as No, 37 on the file list of Mr. Hickok"
© by Western Newspaper Union,
}
WHH the
Summer t
you have on zin to take on
that sort of a * been” look which
happens in even the
tun
1
il
Every woman who aspires to an up-t
Lion comes up.
But why worry, for here's encourag-
lem. Briefly told, it's the good look-
print which are now showing in lead-
ever one may turn.
sured that an ensemble such as any
tured, will pilot you victoriously
which spans from the burning. scorch-
ing days of summer to weather bear
The beauty of these triple sheer
is that they are being given a styl
hen, too, these sheers are cool
related jacket? Everything with a
the idea is so thoroughly
I " il the vogue is moving on of
its own momentu
illustration we know
that you will agree that the jacket
i Lagurl
The crisp or-
colors of the print. The slim little
Jacket with Its voluminous and grace
ful cape sleeves conveys a message of
¥ 4
Cool and comfortable for the young
left. The bright monotone print in
triple sheer of bemberg employed for
this winsome outfit carries an ani-
mated patterning of wee gay mono-
modern he
The insistent call of the mode for
white accents on dark prints is an-
swered in the swagger jacketed dress
This model I3 a bit more
grown-up than the one just described
As a matter of
teens on. This distin
models in the picture is also made of
bemberg triple sheer. It again reminds
that the polka dot vogue Is still going
© by Western Newspaper Uslon.
And now they're wearing sailor col
lars on shoes. Already they've put
So now you
may literally be nautical from head
Your gob hat and your middy shirt.
Shoes must match your costume
nowadays not only In fabric and color,
with pearl buttons has its matching
pump, with a button instead of a
buckle.
New Fabrics and Colors
Shown in Summer Gloves
Chanut has used both new fabrics
and colors to make some of the smart.
est of summer gloves. Most of them
are designed to match a jabot or crav-
ut such as the old-time dandies used
to wear, Intended to be worn with the
same frock. Necktie silk—navy dotted
with white and brown splashed with
green—fashions jaunty gauntlet gloves
worn with ascot eravats, Black and
white and red and white checked taf.
feta gloves have matching scarfs fin.
ished with a great bow worn on one
side of the throat.
Cellophane Embroidery
Black cellophane embroidery is a
favorite trim for white organdie
dresses of romantic design,
IT'S ORGANDIE
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
According to the latest dictates of
fashion sheer prints are smartest when
they have dark backgrounds. Here Is
one of the preitiest organdie frocks
brought out this season. It is black
and white, which gives It a Paris look,
for smart-dressed French women cone
tinue steadfast In “their favor for
black-and-white, red sho
flowers supply the dash of color which
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