Show HE WAS A BAD MAN Ben Hogan Who has Become an Evangelist HIS CAREER IX THE OIL REGIONS His Famous Floating Palace on the Allc chinj River His Adventures In Pitlinle In ISGSrt Ickcd LMle Babylon Ben Hogan is in the Pennsylvania oil country coun-try Ben Hogan old timo gambler cracksman confidence man bounty jumper divo keeper and pugilist who left tho oil country eleven years ago with the reputation of being tho wickedest man in tho world is back again after his long absence going from town to town visiting his old haunts greeting his old friends andpreaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christl Packed houses grcet hun everywhere every-where and although crude ungrammatical and with a vocabulary not at all oho o-ho holds the interested attention of ignorant i and cultivated aliko with tho forceful and rudely eloquent recital of his past adventures red the story of his marvelous conversion As ho looks across tho footlights ho can see f tho faces of many of his old patronsthe I man who drank Ins liquor at Pithole the babituu of his dance house at Babylon tho exoil prince who spent his 100 night onboard on-board tho famous or rather infamous floating float-ing palace at Parkers Landing and the driller who patronized his placo at Tarport near Bradford Pa They all come to hear j Ben preach the gospel For how many men does tho whirligig of time work such wonders as it has for Ben Hogan evangelist 1IOGAX 11 PITHOUZ Ben vent to Pitholo in ISCo soon after tho first oil was struck and at a time when tho town was tho toughest place in America Probably a more heterogeneous population was never before contained in one town The gambler tho cracksman tho sneak thief tho murderer the pugilist tho all round sport tho woman of the town the extravagant extrava-gant oil princo the spendthrift driller the I adventurer and adventuress in short hun drcds of Americas toughest citizens flocked there from tho four ends of tho earth attracted attract-ed thence by visions of wealth and thirst for excitement Oil was 9 per barrel money was plenty easily gotten and as easily squandered L4 squan-dered Ben Hogan was one of the motley crow that swarmed to Pithole and like tho f most of his companions ho came broke Ho was then quite proficient with his fists and gave sparring lessons and exhibitions of strength at Diefenbachs variety hall When not on tho Lingo ho acted as doorkeeper Tho hall was frequented by the very toughest citizens cit-izens and their favorite method of paying the entrance fee was by presenting a cocked revolver in tho doorkeepers face with tho Frenmrk Do I pass Ben says they usually did A short timo after his appearance in Pithole ho fought Jack Holliday for a purse of fGOO a id defeated hiti m seven rounds About foul hundred tough men and tougher women were present A largo number of them were armed and Hogan was assured several times before tho fight that ho would bo killed if how ho-w his opponent Ben was shot at by Harsh Elliott during the fight but escaped unhurt Ben met Elliott soon thereafter and knocked him out in four brief rounds breaking break-ing his nosy ud using him up generally About this tine Ben fell in with French Kate Confederate spy and companion of J Wilkes Booth and opened a palatial sporting sport-ing house tho receipts of which often reached 1000 a day Bens next adventure of importance im-portance was with one Stonehouso Jack This desperado and his gang had a grudge against Hogan and concocted a schemo to kill him Jack was to arrange a fight with Ben during which Hogan was to bo killed by tho crowd but Ben went to the appointed place covered tho crowd with a revolver and blocked their little game Ho then got tho burgess sanction to kill Stonehouse who was an unusually dangerous character on eight Shortly thereafter Ben saw his enemy coming out of a danco house and blazed away at him but without effect except that 1 the fusillade scared Stonehouse away from Pithole CLOSE QUltTElS Hogan next went to Babylon fourteen miles distant a remarkably wicked little town at the top of a high mountain Tho journey was made m a hay wagon containing fifteen hand painted damsels an organ and two fiddlers fid-dlers Tho novel equipago and its occupants mado things lively for the country folk along the route and attracted isidrablo attention atten-tion At Babylon Ben opened adano house which paid him 500 per day and which ho ran for about nine months There was a rd gang of seven mountain thieves who held up m people right and left at Babylon and tried to ply then nefarious trade around Bens place much to his displeasure Ho warned them to keep away and finally shot one of tho gang in tho leg They revenged themselves by getting him arrested upon tho charge of keeping keep-ing a disorderly house Fcur officers captured cap-tured him and took him in a sleigh across the country to Warren Pa thirtjsix miles Warrens entire population turned out to seethe see-the notorious Ben Hogan and tho court room was jammed with eager spectators But Ben although In tho toils was slippery 4 slip-pery as on eel and 4w wrigglod out of this scrape as ho had wriggled out 0 f 0 = others He many BEN ZOGA soft soapod tho judge was leleasod on 200 bail and when court adjourned relieved the sheriff of 300 in a friendly gamo of poker A short time thereafter tho mountain thieves entered Bens puce of business in a body and attacked him Ho was greatly outnumbered and only escaped death by the timely appearance of French Kate who came to his rescue with an unloaded navy revolver tho butt of which sho used to good advantage on tho heads of tho desperadoes During tho mcloo Ben shot four of his assailants one of whom afterwards died The baffled thieves came next day with a bogus constable to arrest ar-rest him but Ben opened fire on the crowd and the whole outfit fled A few days later I I Hogan was arrested for murder by six constables con-stables who escorted him through a dark forest to Tideouto While tho party was en I route tho thieves fired upon it from ambush wounding one officer and scattering tho rest Ben opened fro on tho ambush with a t o1 trace of revolvers and then ran toward Ti I deouto which he reached beforo the constables consta-bles Ben went straight to tho justices office II I Y and gave himself up When tho examination came off tho thieves were on hand prepared I I to get him held lor murder by their perjured testimony but Ben hired all tho lawyers in 1 I town and blocked their game by rising in court and threatening to kill any man oa the I I 1 hls threat cowed the would be perjurers and the evidence being be-ing insufficient Ben was discharged A LITTLE WARM LV BABTLONS Babylon proving rather too warm for Ben he left tho oil regions but after an absence of a year and a half he drifted back toTitus villo and opened a gymnasium where young oil princes were taught how to handle their dukes This was rather tamo business however and Ben soon went to Parkers Landing where he opened a palatial freeand easy Parker finally became so wicked that the authorities concluded to purify it Accordingly Ac-cordingly they arrested Ben and others of his ilk Ben finally secured his release by agree tsar not to resume busines < tin the chine UB adhered to the letter but evaded the spirit ot this agreement however by purchasing the Floating Palace the finest boat on the Allegheny river and anchoring her opposite the town on the Armstrong and Allegheny county line This county boundary ran through the middle of tho river and if the Allegheny county authorities molested him ho poled tho boat out of their jurisdiction jurisdic-tion into Armstrong county and vice versa if tho mstroug authorities became troublesome trouble-some Tho Floating Palace was one of Hogan most successful ventures It was originally built for a Pithole battling house end was 100x40 feet in dimensions Ben spent sooo in furnishing the boat and then loiimcnced his od business Fifteen j women the very handsomest that could bo obtained wero on ths boat dressed l in expen sivc lieses of an abbreviated character and union the other attractions of the craft were excellent music and the best of wines The patrons of tho placo wero wealthy young oil princes who squandered from 50 to 100 i fight and they were conveyed to the Pa ace in boats If any undesirable parties sue needed in entering the boats the experienced boatmen would tip over in midstream and let the intruders get back to shore as best they could The Palace was such a bonanza bonan-za that Ben finally weighed anchor with the idea of going down the river to New Orleans stopping at all the principal cities along the way The craft got no farther than PittsI burg however where Ben wrecked her on a faro bank On the trip down the river an amusing incident occurred At Kittannmg hundreds of people visited the Palace out of curiosity Ben waited until a large number num-ber of prominent men were on board enjoying enjoy-ing themselves then cut tho cable and carried car-ried tho protesting nabobs about twenty miles down tho stream IS rETROLI After the Floating Palace foundered upon the faro bank mentioned Bel went to Petrolia Pe-trolia squatted on a piece of laud against tho owners wishes and opened a big dance house which he felicitously named Hogans Female seminary While in Petrolia Ben had several sev-eral lively adventures Onco ho was wrongfully wrong-fully arrested for theft and settled tho suit by throwing tho justice and tho complainant out of a court room window A short time after this occurrence Ben was elected burgess bur-gess i e mayor of Petrolia defeating Dimick tho Republican candidate by seven votes but he was counted out on account of his unsavory character While in Petrolia Ben erected there the largest opera house in the oil regions at a cost of 811000 On two occasions during his residence in Petroha Ben narrowly escaped dying with his boots oa In a quarrel one of the inmates of the seminary fired at her lover but tho ball missed its mark struck Ben below tho belt and imbedded itself in the muscles of his abdomen ab-domen whero it still remains A few weeks later a desperado Nickey Miko by name fired four shots point blank at Bell on tho street but Hogan escaped by hiding behind a tree After a short absence in Boston Mass where ho joined a gang of cracksmen Ben came back to tho oil country once more and located at Elk City where ho spent 1000 in repairing the streets Ho next went to Bullion bought Nesbitts hotel and built an opera house The Lest companies on the road appeared at his theatre and each night after the performance tho chairs were cleared out in a trice a bar rigged with rollers was run in and before tho audience knew what was up they wero in tko midst of a freeandeasy dance After a sojourn at Long Branch Ben located at Tarjwrt near Bradford Pa where his notoriety had preceded him and where ho did a business which netted him 8300 a day Having amassed quite a fortune Ben started for Paris but got no further than New York where he entered by accident a religious meeting on Broadway one night and was converted Since that time Ben has been preaching the gospel and giving lectures lec-tures 011 physical culture He travels from town to town paying his own expenses and hall rent from tho proceeds of his nightly contributions That ho is truly repentant and sincere is show by his present exemplary life l and by the years ha has devoted to Chris turn work E H EATOS |