CHAPTER XXV.
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.