All of these folks of questionable repute, a category of humanity that sometimes included the sheriff, seemed to gather in the saloons. It was there you could wet your thirst and, as in Omaha, Nebraska, you might find a game of draw poker or stud to sit in on. That was the town and situation where a one-eyed gambler met his match.
It seems a man called Mr. Jones caught another fellow, who was known as Old One-eye, palming a card and called for a fresh deal. Before they started this new deal Mr. Jones announced, while fingering his revolver, that they were going to have nothing but square deals, and that he wasn't accusing anyone but if he caught anyone cheating, he'd shoot his other eye out.
Of the women who came to the Plains, like the men, not all settled on homestead. As well, not all of the women became schoolteachers or wives of men of the town. But they served a necessary function - for the times. One such young woman was Josephine "Chicago Joe" Hensley who set up her drinking and dancing business in a log cabin in Helena, Montana.
Hensley's kind of establishment was referred to as a Hurdy-Gurdy House, a term left over from California's gold rush days. Josephine once avoided a jail sentence when the Montana legislature outlawed Hurdy-Gurdy Houses. It seems Hensley's business, in place of a hurdy-gurdy, had a three-piece band. So by the legislature's own wording, Chicago Joe wasn't breaking any law- such as laws were in the west.
Good laws or bad, someone had to enforce them, such as Marshal Wild Bill Hickok did in Abilene, Kansas, in 1871. Often there was a unique understanding between the lawman and the lawbreaker. It seemed to be so when Jesse and Frank James slipped into Hickok's town and passed the word to Wild Bill that they wouldn't cause any trouble while there. However, the James boys added a slight bit of advice to their message: in case Bill tired to capture them, they had already made arrangements for Hickok's funeral. The marshal didn't pay them a visit.
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