Doc Holliday
Page 12
Another tale, collected by Dr. Frank Dunn, the first dental historian to become interested in Holliday, recalled a time when Doc arrived in the Alhambra Saloon appearing more the derelict than the dandy. Amused by him, a group of cowboys invited him to have a drink. When he refused, one of the cowboys poured him a tumbler full of whiskey, pointed a pistol at him, and insisted that he drink it. Doc made awful faces as he downed the liquor, and the cowboys laughed, insisting that he have yet another. Filling a third, Doc downed it, and as he drained the fourth, the cowboys realized that it was they who had been had.13
A third anecdote was told by Charles Lowther, who claimed that when he was a child he had arrived in Dodge City with his minister father, only to be denied lodging at Dodge House. When his father protested, the hotel clerk explained that he was afraid to give him a room because Doc Holliday, “a gambler and general all around badman,” was on a bender and might want the room. Later, the Lowthers were told more about Doc: “Nobody crossed him, lest they get him started shooting. In Dodge City he held dominion. It was because the night clerk had sought to favor him by holding several rooms vacant for Doc Holliday that we had to occupy the parlor from about three o’clock till breakfast time.”14
These stories, all of which seem unlikely, did foster an enigmatic view of Holliday’s character. In them, he was a charmer, a con man, a drunk, and a hellion. They do not fit easily into the chronology of Doc’s sojourn in Dodge City, but they were consistent with the image of his complex personality. He made an impression on Dodge City’s folklore if not its historical record. In fact, the images were symptomatic of the moodiness and moral ambiguity that had come to mark John Henry Holliday’s life. Cynical, bitter, and morose, especially when drinking, he still had the capacity to play the gentleman and amuse others with his humor, which made him seem both dangerous and charming and explained the contradictory perceptions of him.
Bat Masterson, who first met Doc in Dodge, provided perhaps the most familiar portrait of Doc in his 1907 Human Life series: “He was slim of build and sallow of complexion, standing almost five feet ten inches, and weighing no more than 130 pounds. His eyes were of a pale blue and his mustache was thin and of a sandy hue.”15
Although later in life he claimed never to have liked Doc, Masterson provided a more complex view of him in his description of Doc’s Dodge City days, noting that “[d]uring his year’s stay in Dodge at that time, he did not have a quarrel with anyone, and, although regarded as a sort of grouch, he was not disliked by those with whom he had become acquainted.” While in Dodge, “he showed no disposition to quarrel or shoot,” Bat said. Doc’s behavior convinced many that “much of the trouble he had had been forced on him,” but Bat believed “that it was pretty much all of his own seeking.” What he did confirm, though, was that Doc moved with ease in Dodge and was accepted by the fraternity there.16
Dodge City had an easygoing, tolerant feel to it. Things were quiet for a time, with the Times bragging in late June about the light court docket.17 Of course, there were incidents, and the papers did complain about “gaslight robberies,” nighttime muggings of citizens and visitors, and one critic suggested “that the police officers be compelled to patrol the streets of the city during the night, instead of hanging around the dance halls as much as they are in the habit of doing.”18 The Ford County Globe opined that “[i]f less protection was given to the pimp, the bawdy house loafer and the robber, and more protection given to visitors and others engaged in legitimate business, it would be much better for the community.”19 And this only days after the Globe had said, “Wyatt Earp is doing his duty as Ass’t Marshal in a very creditable manner.—Adding new laurels to his splendid record every day.”20
Tensions would mount in July and force changes. Early on the morning of July 13, a “low skulking vagabond” called “Limping Tom,” who was being teased and harassed by saloon patrons at the Long Branch, became “terribly incensed at the bickerings of the party, suddenly sprang to the bar where H. T. McCarty was standing, and grasped McCarty’s pistol from the latter’s side, flourishing it for half a moment, and then fired one shot, which took effect in the right groin [of McCarty] severing the femoral artery.” McCarty, a recently appointed deputy U.S. marshal, was not involved in the harassment. Limping Tom, a Texan whose name was Thomas O’Herron (alias Thomas Roach) and who was the camp cook for the Shiner brothers outfit, was shot by one of the bystanders. McCarty died within the hour. Limping Tom survived and would later be sentenced to twelve years and three months for his crime.21
Wyatt Earp (seated) and Bat Masterson, 1876. Earp was assistant city marshal and Masterson was sheriff when Doc arrived in Dodge City in 1878.
The killing of another lawman so soon after the murder of Ed Masterson sobered Dodge and caused the police force to tighten controls on the drovers and to be less tolerant of cowboy high jinks. The day following the shooting of McCarty, Wyatt Earp intervened in an altercation between C. C. Pepperd, a prominent and troublesome rancher from Comanche County, southwest of Dodge, and the prostitute Anna Slater. Robert M. Wright later wrote, “Pepperd was one whom the officers disliked to see come to Dodge. Invariably rows began then, and he was in all of them.” Doc Holliday may even have known him, for he reportedly had killed a man at Fort Griffin.22
In this instance, Pepperd pleaded guilty and was fined. His arrest stayed out of the papers, but it seems to have raised tensions in the town still further, especially against Wyatt Earp. Thereafter, Dodge’s police force saw a flurry of activity; they arrested drovers, whores, and gamblers as if to gain a tighter grip on the town. The drovers, resentful of the clampdown, tested the limits. On July 25, Earp arrested Charles Reid for “unlawfully discharging a pistol.” The same day, James Masterson arrested K. M. May for a similar offense.23
Matters came to a head at three o’clock on the morning of July 26 when a small party of drovers from the crew of Tobe Driskill, most likely including George Hoy, Joe Day, Harrison French, and Charles French, charged by Ben Springer’s recently opened Comique Theater and fired into the building as they rode. Inside the Comique, all was confusion. Eddie Foy, who was performing at the time, recalled the scene:
Everybody dropped to the floor at once, according to custom. Bat Masterson was just in the act of dealing in a game of Spanish monte with Doc Holliday, and I was impressed by the instantaneous manner in which they flattened out like pancakes on the floor. I had thought I was pretty agile myself, but those fellows had me beaten by seconds at that trick. The firing kept up until it seemed to me that the assailants had put hundreds of shots through the building. They shot through the wall as well as windows, for a big .45 bullet would penetrate those plank walls as if they had been little more than paper.
The firing had been going on for a minute or so when we heard a volley from another quarter—this time out on Main Street. Some of the city police and deputy sheriffs were attacking the gunfighters in flank.24
Wyatt Earp was standing outside, leaning against an awning post when the shooting began, and he immediately began to fire after the cowboys, as did James Masterson and several citizens who joined the fray. Near the bridge, George Hoy fell from his horse, wounded in the arm. Hoy was a likable young man, although a fugitive from Texas for cattle theft. “The marvelous part of the whole affair,” Foy remembered, “was that aside from a few harmless scratches and some perforated clothing, nobody in the dancehall was hurt.” Hoy was not so lucky. He died on August 21 of complications from his wound, attended to the end by his companions, Day and the French boys.25 No charges were ever filed against any of the cowboys involved.
By the time of the Hoy shooting, Doc and Wyatt Earp had become friends. Doc also deepened his sense of belonging with the gambling and saloon crowd. William H. Harris, Chalkney Beeson, Bat Masterson, and their associates accepted him in a way he had never known in Dallas, Fort Griffin, Denver, or any of the other places he had traveled. He had found a congenial place, and he apparently had decided to stay. He made
for himself what he called “[a] Pocket Dental Office,” a kit of basic dental tools, inscribed “J. H. Holliday, 24, D. H., Dodge,” fitted into a gold-worked ambrotype case. The case indicated Doc’s gold-working skills, but the inscription also suggested an intent to settle down.26
John Henry Holliday’s pocket dental kit. The medallion at center bears the inscription “A Pocket Dental Office, J. H. Holliday, 24, D. H., Dodge.”
His association with Earp was also about to become closer. Earp would later state the reason succinctly: “I am a friend of Doc Holliday because when I was city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, he came to my rescue and saved my life when I was surrounded by desperadoes.” In a more dramatic statement ghostwritten for him, Earp said that Doc “saw a man draw on me behind my back. ‘Look out, Wyatt!’ he shouted, but while the words were coming out his mouth he had jerked his pistol out of his pocket and shot the other fellow before the latter could fire.”27
Unfortunately, the local papers did not record Holliday’s intervention. Stuart N. Lake, the author of the somewhat fanciful biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, placed the episode in September 1878. He also claimed that the incident in question involved the ranchers Tobe Driskill and Ed Morrison. According to Lake, Earp met the Driskill-Morrison crew on Front Street near the Long Branch. They were closing around Earp when Holliday stepped out of the Long Branch and, with a string of expletives, ordered the cowboys to throw up their hands. “There were times … when Doc Holliday swore beautifully,” Lake quoted Earp as saying. According to this version, Doc’s intervention gave Earp time to draw his own guns. Still, one of the cowboys made a play, and Doc shouted a warning to Wyatt while simultaneously shooting the drover in the shoulder.28
There is another version that is more directly attributable to Wyatt Earp that states:
It happened that Doc Holliday was seated at a monte table and glancing through the window he appraised the situation in an instant. Turning to Frank Loving, the dealer, he said, “Have you a six-shooter?” He handed his gun over to Holliday who sprang without hesitation through the doorway into the sidewalk, and throwing both guns down on the crowd, said, “throw up your hands!” This rather startled them and averted their attention. In an instant I had drawn my gun, and the arrest of the crowd followed. They were confined in jail over night and fined and released the following day. It was because of this episode that I became the friend of Doc Holliday ever after. This event happened at about 7 o’clock in the evening late in August 1876 [sic].29
The newspapers of the period never mentioned either Earp or Holliday specifically in connection with such an incident, but at least two episodes could be the incident in question, given the local papers’ habit of speaking of “officers” without identifying them. The first came in late August and fits well with Earp’s recollection that the incident took place in August:
Another shooting affair occurred on the “south side” Saturday night. It appears that one of the cow boys, becoming intoxicated and quarrelsome, undertook to take possession of the bar in the Comique. To this the barkeeper objected and a row ensued. Our policemen interfered and had some difficulty in handling their man. Several cattle men then engaged in the broil and in the excitement some of them were bruised on the head with six shooters. Several shots were accidentally fired which created general confusion among the crowd of persons present. We are glad to chronicle the fact that none were seriously hurt and nobody shot. We however cannot help but regret the too ready use of pistols in all rows of such character and would like to see a greater spirit of harmony exist between our officers and cattle men so that snarling cayotes [sic] and killers could make their own fights without interesting or draging [sic] good men into them.30
The second incident occurred on the evening of September 19, 1878, and it fits with Earp’s insistence that the incident involved Tobe Driskill and Ed Morrison. On September 14, the Times issued a special edition announcing that the Northern Cheyennes had fled their reservation in the Indian Territory in a desperate attempt to return to their traditional home in Montana. Over the next several days, rumors spread rapidly that the Indians were killing cattle and drovers and raiding homesteads. The Cheyennes were especially interested in horses, and on the morning of September 16 they ran off fifty-five head from the camp of the Driskill brothers. The following day the Driskill brothers, Doc, Tony Day, and close to twenty other cowboys joined Captain William C. Hemphill’s company of cavalry in pursuit of the Cheyennes. After a sharp engagement on Wednesday, September 18, the cowboys showed up in Dodge, and the following morning Hemphill arrived with his company.31 Later that same day, September 19, before the cavalry and the cowboys took the field again, two incidents occurred:
There was a scrimmage Thursday night between the officers and the party that were going on the Indian hunt. Several shots were fired. One man carries a bandaged head and a soldier was severely wounded in the leg. A disgraceful row occurred in the afternoon in which it was said that the officers failed to appear. These occurrences are the subject of much comment on the conduct of the officers.32
The timing and circumstances of the Thursday night “scrimmage” fits with Earp’s recollections. First, Earp said that the incident occurred at the time of the Dull Knife raid (as the Indian outbreak was called in Kansas). Second, most of the men involved were from the crew of Tobe and Bud Driskill, men with a grudge against Dodge City’s police over the Hoy shooting. Third, though the account differs from Lake’s version, one man was in fact wounded in the fracas.33
In any event, the distraction of the Indian scare caused some breakdown in law enforcement. On September 24, the Globe observed that “[n]o less than half a dozen shooting scrapes occurred in our city during the past week. We are glad to state, however, that no one was seriously hurt. The last one occurred night before last. There seems to be more danger in being shot in the city than there is danger of being scalped by the Red Man on the plains.”34
Just when Doc and Kate Elder left Dodge for points west is far from clear, although Kate suggested that it was late November or early December. The decision to move was based on several things. First, on August 6, 1878, the town council had passed ordinances outlawing gambling and prostitution. In fact, the true purpose of the ordinances was to regulate gambling and prostitution through fines, not to eliminate either, while giving authorities the ability to get rid of undesirables. Nevertheless, it did increase the costs of gambling even for the favored ones.35 More practically, gambling opportunities declined once the cattle season was over.
Second, Doc would later claim that he left because he was falsely accused of burglary. On December 11, 1878, an attempt was made to burglarize Jacob Collar’s store, although no connection to Doc is implied in news accounts. A different story claimed that in Dodge, Doc had made the acquaintance of Charles Wright, who ran crooked faro games, commonly called “brace games,” in Chicago and had a shady reputation in Dodge. Wright, a Canadian-born gambler and saloonman, was related to the Dodge City businessman and town father Robert M. Wright. When money went missing from Wright & Beverley’s store, Charles Wright was suspected, but he accused Doc of taking the money. Robert believed Charles’s story and blamed Doc. Doc could not buck a man as important as Robert Wright, so he left town rather than face further trouble. This incident was said to have increased tensions between Robert Wright and Wyatt Earp, who resented the accusations against his friend.36
The most critical reason for Doc’s move, however, was his health. Kate later claimed that she and Doc left Dodge for Las Vegas, New Mexico, to take advantage of the famous Montezuma Hot Springs near the town that was already becoming a mecca for consumptives. Clearly, Kansas had not been kind to Doc. Bat Masterson recalled that “[i]t was easily seen that he was not a healthy man for he not only looked the part, but he incessantly coughed it as well.” None of the Texas recollections of him—and they are sparse—made any real point of his poor health.
Masterson’s comments and Kate’s recollect
ions suggest that Doc was moving into the “second phase” of consumption in the inhospitable climate of Kansas. His voice began to develop a deep hoarseness as the result of throat ulcers that would periodically make it difficult for him to speak above a whisper or to eat. His cough became more severe, constant, and debilitating, producing a thick dark mucus of greenish hue with yellow streaks and laced with pus. The cough was attended by “hectic fever” that rose and fell with an accelerating pulse rate. The fever contributed to a ruddy complexion that seemed deceptively healthy yet alternated with a “deathlike paleness.” Even so, most doctors were reluctant to confirm the diagnosis of consumption because the same symptoms might appear with problems like bronchitis. Even in the second phase, the symptoms could become more severe and then subside.
At the least, though, the hollow rattle of Doc’s cough and the frequent pallor of his face suggested that his condition was worsening as the fall snows began to blanket Dodge City. He and Kate took the train as far as Trinidad, Colorado, where Doc’s health worsened to the point that they were forced to lay over for ten days. They were on hand when the first train departed Trinidad and took them along the winding track over the pass to end-of-track in New Mexico. The railroad was still a long way from Las Vegas, however, and with snow in the mountains during a particularly bitter December, Doc and Kate had to seriously consider their next move.37
According to Bat Masterson, within a week from the time Doc reached Trinidad, “he shot and seriously wounded a young sport by the name of Kid Colton [Earp called him Kid Dalton], over a very trivial matter.” Masterson claimed that it was this incident that forced Doc to move on again.38 The shooting did not make it into the record, if it occurred at all, but something convinced the pair to challenge heavy snow and bitter cold rather than winter in Trinidad. Kate recalled that Doc’s health was so bad that once they reached end-of-track they “had to hire an outfit to take us to Las Vegas, New Mexico. We traveled with a big freight outfit.” George Lail, a teamster who was hauling supplies to the Santa Fe’s end-of-track, confirmed that he transported Doc, whom he remembered as being in bad shape, and his “woman friend,” who spoke with “a German accent,” into Las Vegas that December.39