Saratoga Trip--Bullion Again--Arrival in Tarport--Opens Dance House--A
Groundless Scandal--The Truth About the Girl Carrie.
The summer of 1877 found our hero and his friend at Saratoga, where they
spent a couple of weeks, and then journeyed to New York. There they made
the Sinclair House their headquarters, and in that very excellent hostelry
lived in a most sumptuous manner. The choice viands and superior wines for
which the Sinclair is famous were ordered in most lavish style. Meantime
the usual round of pleasures--the theatres, drives, and promenades were
indulged in to their fullest extent. This was Jennie's first visit to the
metropolis, and, indeed, the trip was undertaken with a view to showing
her the sights of the Eastern cities. The couple proceeded next to
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, making the tour one of continuous
pleasure. From the last-named city they returned to Pittsburg, and while
Jennie made her way back to Bullion, Ben attended the races at Petersburg.
These he followed up to Edinburg; and after this season of sport he also
returned to Bullion.
For the purpose of re-opening the house, Jennie was dispatched to
Pittsburg, where she procured twenty new women. Returning with these, the
house was again thrown open, and the former lively business was resumed.
Among the girls who had accompanied Jennie from Pittsburg was one who
made such a deep impression upon a highly respectable young man of Bullion
that the latter asked her to become his wife. The offer was accepted, and
the twain were married. The girl, who was not altogether guileless in some
matters, was refreshingly innocent so far as wedlock was concerned. She
was gravely informed by some of the inmates of the house that before she
could legally be married she must have a cross painted upon her back as a
symbol of her regeneration. To this and other equally absurd tricks she
submitted without a murmur, and her body was tattooed so that she might
have rivalled the famous Greek in the museum. In spite of this doubtful
treatment, however, she got her husband, and so ought to have been
satisfied.
It was Ben's policy while in the oil country to be constantly on the
lookout for new fields of operation. This was due to the fact that while a
sporting-house or free-and-easy was a novelty in any place, it did an
overwhelming business, but when the novelty wore off, the profits
dwindled. Ben was ready by the time the cream was skimmed in one place to
open up in another. He did not wait for others to make a beginning, but
pushed ahead and built a business wherever the chance offered.
Leaving Jennie in charge of the Bullion house, he visited Tarport, which
he believed to be a promising point for operations. He landed in the town
with just fifteen dollars. This sum he speedily increased to two hundred
dollars by means of a friendly game of draw poker with Captain Moner and
Pete Holmes. Thus supplied with a little ready money, he bought a house
from Mr. Keefe, paying four hundred dollars for the property, and
afterward enlarging and remodeling it at a cost of one thousand dollars.
This was the first dance-house ever opened in that section of the oil
region. It created an immediate and decided sensation. The fame of Hogan
had preceded him, and the good people of Tarport thought it a terrible
calamity that such an infamous character should take up his abode in their
midst. Their indignation, however, did not prevent them from calling
around to satisfy themselves as to the nature of the house. And Ben
satisfied them all at fifty cents admission.
The place opened with six women, and employed, after it was fairly under
way, from fifteen to eighteen. Rhodes' full string-band furnished the
music, and the redoubtable Nibbs acted as doorkeeper. This man Nibbs, who
has previously been mentioned in these pages, under the alias of Scotty,
in Tidioute, proved himself treacherous to the interests of his employer.
Knowing that Ben was accustomed to carry large sums of money about his
person, Nibbs conceived the idea of entering into a conspiracy with Jennie
to rob Hogan. The proposition was that Jennie should take Ben's clothes,
while the latter was asleep, and throw them out of a window where Nibbs
would be in waiting. With the three or four thousand dollars which this
venture would yield, the doorkeeper suggested that he and Jennie could set
out for California, and enjoy themselves to their heart's content. Or, if
it was more to her liking, they could strike out thirty or forty miles and
open a house similar to the one in Tarport.
"I ain't afraid of Ben," added the intrepid doorkeeper; "and if we once
got a place started, I wouldn't care for anything he might do!"
Jennie so far professed to fall in with this plan as to draw out Nibbs'
plot, the proposition having been made during Ben's absence from Tarport.
Immediately upon his return she laid before him the whole story, which,
of course, knocked the doorkeeper's schemes out of time. He not only
failed to get the money, but he lost his position, Ben discharging him at
once upon the discovery of his treachery. He was succeeded by Jack
McCormack, who proved a perfectly trustworthy and honest man.
While Ben was in Tarport, an indictment was found against him at Franklin
for having sold liquor in the Bullion house without a license. The fact
that he had lent the Attorney thirty dollars while at Bullion, and also
paid for a night's carousal for that official, did not save him from
having the case pressed to its utmost. Hogan was convicted of the alleged
offense, and fined three hundred and fifty dollars, which he paid. It was
the first money which he ever parted with in a case of that kind.
[Illustration: _KILLING TIME IN TARPORT._]