P a g e 7 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r dise to a fault, and the boys would order candy which Mr. Davey kept behind a glass case. When he plunked the sack on the counter, the boys would snatch it away, put down rocks instead of money, and run away. Mr. Davey threatened to tell their parents. Once the boys found a three-piece suit like Mr. Davey always wore, stuffed it with straw, and hung the effigy on the hotel’s Flagpole. The ultimate insult was that Mr. Davey also owned the hotel.17 Smoking has universal appeal to children, and most experiment with it at one time or another. Mining camp children, boys and girls, were no different. Six-year-old Eileen Yeager and her sister Mary made up a creative game called “Bill and Bob.” They collected chewed up cigar stubs from behind the livery. Each child had a cigar box which she filled with the old stogies. They had made a sidewalk of scrap wood in the backyard and, beginning at opposite ends, they sauntered toward each other dressed in their dad’s old hats. They met in the middle, and took turns. Eileen would say, “Hello Bill.” Mary answered, “Hello, Bob.” They had a set dialogue, and after a bit, Eileen would say: “Would you like a cigar?” With that, she opened her cigar box and each took a stogie, lit it up, and sauntered down the sidewalk puffing away. Then they would switch roles and do it again. One day, however, Mary forgot and inhaled. She keeled over, and Eileen ran into the house and announced dramatically: “Mama, Mary is dead!” Their mother rushed out to find Mary violently ill. She called the doctor who immediately asked Eileen: “What have you been smoking?” Eileen produced the box of damp, chewed cigar butts. This time her mother keeled over. Eileen didn’t understand why her mother had fainted, but the spankings had a lasting influence. Neither girl ever took up smoking again.18 Butte, the mining camp that became a corporate-controlled, urban industrial center and cultural melting pot in the middle of remote Montana, was as unique for its children as it was an anomaly in other respects. Copper king William A. Clark’s gi ft to the community was Columbia Gardens, an amusement park which boasted one of the nation’s first Ferris wheels and a spectacular roller coaster. Children especially loved it. Young A sea of miners surrounds one little girl at the Bluebird Mine in Jefferson County, Montana, circa 1900. (Lot 26 Box 2 F4, Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena.) Please share this newsletter with a friend! If you aren’t already on our mailing list, you can join by sending an email with MAILING LIST in the subject line to ghosttownsofmontana@gmail.com You’ll receive this monthly digital newsletter and our quarterly digital magazine for FREE!
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