The desire to return to the oil country took possession of him once again, and with two hundred dollars, which he borrowed of his mother, he set out, in company with McDonald, for his old haunts. In Buffalo he fell in with Joe Goss and Steve Taylor, and the four proceeded together as far as Erie, where they put up at the Reed House, spending a day or two in a jolly manner. At that point they separated, Ben and McDonald going on to Parker’s Landing.
The two pugilists made arrangements to give a series of sparring exhibitions through the oil towns, but the enterprise did not prove a success. Finally, having got rid of all his money, Hogan struck Elk City with just ten cents in his pocket. He saw that the place offered an excellent field for the sort of work to which he was most accustomed, and he therefore resolved to open a free-and-easy and variety theatre.
He endeavored to lease a lot adjoining the premises of a Mr. Spencer, but this gentleman objected to Ben as a neighbor, and the latter was therefore compelled to seek another location. He found a site directly opposite the one first proposed, and, with fifty dollars, borrowed from Mr. Lynch, he went to work to erect a building suitable for his purposes. The lumber, furniture, and other necessary articles he procured on credit, and in a short time had completed his building. This done, he made his way to Petrolia, and there once more made up with Miss Kitty. He promised her, if she would behave herself, to give her a home for life, and she professed to be glad to accept this offer.
With Kitty and music, and four women to do the honors, the Elk City House was thrown open to the public. So decided was its success, that from the very outset the profits averaged two hundred and fifty dollars a day. The chief revenue was the dance hall, where a full brass band—composed of a fiddle and an organ—made persistent, if not exquisite, music. From eighty to ninety sets occupied the floor during the twenty-four hours, each set yielding two dollars to the management.
With a view to increasing his business, Ben fitted out Kitty for a trip to Pittsburg, to secure additional people. Having perfect confidence in Miss Kitty, Ben, on this occasion, bought her a handsome outfit of costly clothing, and gave her fifty dollars wherewith to defray her expenses.
Instead of going to Pittsburg, Kitty made her way to Petrolia, and there met and married one of her old admirers. This left Ben in some distress; but it was not altogether a new thing for him to be thus deceived in women whom he had trusted.
Upon Kitty’s unexpected exit, Ben himself went to Pittsburg and secured the services of six people, among whom was E. J., known familiarly as Jennie. This latter he soon after made his housekeeper, and to the present day she occupies that position. Not only is she attractive in personal appearance, but her bearing and manners are those of a lady, while her loyalty to Ben and his interests is beyond question. It is not to be wondered at that Hogan was at once attracted toward so pretty and lady-like a person as Jennie. These observations are made to refute in part the scandalous statements that have appeared in some of the oil country newspapers respecting Ben Hogan’s present consort.
At the time Ben found Jennie, his advertisement in the Pittsburg papers was answered by scores of young girls, who were innocent of the sort of work which would be required of them in a free-and-easy. To all these Ben gave a bit of wholesome advice. He not only refused to accept of their services, but he told them in every instance to go back to their homes and to continue in a virtuous career. Not a few of these young girls were accompanied by their fathers, and had Ben been so disposed, he might have secured many innocent victims. That he did not do so, shows that even the business that he followed had not wholly blunted his ideas of honor.
Among the people whom he did take back with him were two who passed under the names of Mary and Maud. These young women, at the expiration of their first week’s service, claimed that they had been deceived in regard to the character of the house, and threatened to bring a suit against the proprietor for alleged damages.
Women who would voluntarily accept of a position in a dance-house are not the ones to whom the world is accustomed to look to for the strictest morals. The probabilities are that Mary and Maud were not so astonishingly innocent nor so amazingly ignorant as not to know the character of the place to which they went. Be that as it may, the injury to their reputation was not of such a serious nature but that it could be made good by the application of a soothing plaster in the shape of a greenback. A ten-dollar note paid to each sufficed to heal their wounded honor, and prevent them from appealing to the law for vindication. Let it be added, however, that the women hailed from Pittsburg, which may explain for their natural tendency toward blackmailing.