This article comes from The Laramie Daily Sentinel dated March 13th 1878. It is transcribed below. As a frame of reference, the Gem Variety Theater was opened in April of 1877 by Al Swearengen. Also a fire on September 26, 1879, destroyed the town. According to HBO, the last season of "Deadwood" ended in the middle of 1877.
The social atmosphere of Deadwood and suburban camps has experienced a great change during the last six months. Deadwood is not the town of a year ago. It's gambling halls, dance halls, house of ill fame and disorderly characters have dwindled in numbers, and their business has decreased so greatly that a comparison with a town in the interior of the Empire State would not be malapropism. If there has been a period in the history of the people when a revolver was considered a necessary article of personal appendage, or that the necessity for its use was likely to arise at any moment, that time has passed, and now a person may walk the streets of Deadwood at any hour of the day or night and enjoy as great immunity from molestation as though perambulating the streets of New York. Society is large and highly respectable. Merchants, professional men and miners have bought out their families, until now the exceptional man is he who is here alone. Churches has sprung into existence in every camp on the Hills - Deadwood having two - and services are largely attended. Schoolhouses have been erected and are well supplied with tutors. Two daily papers and five weeklies publish the news from all parts of the world as brought in by telegraph, and the sheets will favorably compare with any published elsewhere in cities of equal size to Deadwood. Three daily stage lines afford ample means of egress and ingress, and bring mails only four days from Chicago. Well organized fire and police departments, very efficient county and United States Courts, as well as a full compliment of efficient county officers are among the other benevolent provisions of the people.
Other Deadwood posts:
- The 1879 DEADWOOD DAKOTA FIRE newspaper report
- 1876 Street photograph of Deadwood SD
- 1877 Deadwood advertisement with Seth Bullock and Sol Star
- Calamity Jane in a Mormon camp?
0 comments:
Post a Comment