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Show A WORD OR TWO FROM "POLLY PRY" FOR KATE S. HILLIARD TO READ. And now "Mother" has disappeared utterly vanished from Colorado. She left the Oxford early Monday morning. And since that time not a trace can be found of her. Thy say she is not in Trinidad, Trini-dad, nor Telluride; neither can she be found in the noithern fields, nor at Cripple Creek. Or, if she is, her usual haunts know her no more. However, "Mother" Jones always was a changeable change-able being, ever since she was known as "Mother" Harris in May, 1889, when she leased the house then standing on what is now 2114 Market street, between Twenty-first and Twenty-second streets. She refurnished it from top to bottom, and soon opened it as a "house" that afterwards became cne of the most notorious in the city. Had seven inmates, who were known as the "best-looking girls on the row." For several months took groat pride in the character of her house and the class that patronized it. At that time it was the most exclusive "house" on Market street. Made a specialty of midnight lunches and social so-cial card games, at which unlimited gambling was indulged in. Catered entirely to the "gang" then In control cf the city, county political machines, and a few wealthy mining men. Four months after opening the house, had over $15,000 on deposit in city banks. Had a "friend" at that time, called "Blackleg." "Black-leg." He deserted her in September and went to New Mexico with an inmate of the house After that "Mother" went to the bad. Took to drink, and was arrested several times on the charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduct. con-duct. Left her "house" to manage itself, and In a short time it became one of the typical dives of Market street. By November 15th she had spent the $15,000 she had had on deposit in the bank only a few months before, and borrowed $2,500 from S. H. Engel, a loan broker, giving a chattel mortgage on the furniture in the "house." On December 20th, 1889, the mortgage was foreclosed, fore-closed, the furniture sold and the house closed. "Mother" Jones then became an inmate of the "Minnie Hall house." Then came the record as I told it last week. And this is the woman the wives and children of the deluded miners call "Mother." Interesting, isn't it? |