"'Oh no,' says Enright, 'no need of stringin him none.On second thought, Jack, I don't reckon I'd run him out neither.It dignifies him too much.S'pose you canter up to his tub-camp an' bring him over, an' we'll reveal this upheaval in his shirt-burnin' destinies by word of mouth.If he grows reluctant jest rope him 'round the neck with his queue, an' yank him.It impresses 'em an' shows 'em they're up ag'in the law.I s'pose, Peets, I voices your sentiments in this?'
"'Shore,'" says Doc Peets--which this Peets is the finest-eddicated man I ever meets.'This Chinaman must pull his freight.We-alls owes it not only to this Tucson lady, but to the lovely sex she represents.Woman, woman, what has she not done for man! As Johanna of Arc she frees the sensuous vine-clad hills of far-off Switzerland.As Grace Darling she smooths the fever-heated pillow of the Crimea.In reecompense she asks one little, puny boon--to fire from our midst a heathen from the Orient.Gents, thar's but one answer: We plays the return game with woman.This Chinaman must go.'
"When Jack comes back with Lung, which he does prompt, Enright starts in to deal the game.
"'It ain't no use, Lung,' says Enright, 'tryin' to explain to you-all what's up.Your weak Asiatic intellect couldn't get the drop onto it no-how.You've been brought to a show-down ag'in a woman, an' you're out-held.You've got to quit; savey? Don't let us find you yere to-morrow.By third-drink time we'll be a-scoutin' for you with somethin' besides an op'ry glass, an' if you're noticed as part of the landscape you're goin' to have a heap of bad luck.I'd advise you to p'int for Red Dog, but as to that you plays your hand yourse'f.""Next day that old drunkard Monte comes swingin' in with the stage;the six hosses on the jump, same as he allers does with a woman along.Over at the post-office, where he stops, a lady gets out, an'
of course we-alls bows p'lite an' hopes she's well an' frisky.She allows she is, an' heads for the O.K.House.
"It floats over pretty soon that her name's Annie, an' as none of us wants to call her jest 'Annie'--the same bein' too free a play--an'
hearin' she lives a year or two at Benson, we concloods to call her Benson Annie, an' let it go at that.
"'The same bein' musical an' expressive,' says Doc Peets, as we all lines up ag'in the Red Light bar, 'I su'gests we baptize this lady "Benson Annie," an' yere's to her success.'
"So we-alls turns up our glasses, an' Benson Annie it is.
"The next day the fetid Lung is a thing of the past, an' Benson Annie has the game to herse'f.Two days later she raises the tariff to fifty cents on shirts, instead of twenty-five, as previous with the Chink.But no one renigs.
"'A gent,' says Doc Peets, 'as holds that a Caucasian woman is goin'
to wash a shirt for the miserable stipend of a slave of the Orient must be plumb locoed.Wolfville pays fifty cents for shirts an' is proud tharof.'
"Things goes along for mighty like a month, an' then this yere Benson Annie allows she'll have a visitor.
"'I'm plumb, clean sick,' she says, 'of seein' nothin' but a lot of drunken, good-for-nothin' sots a-pesterin' 'round, an' I done reckons I'll have my friend Sal come over from Tombstone an' see me a whole lot.It'll be some relaxation.'
"Mebby it's four days after when this yere Sal hops outen the stage, an' for the next week thar ain't no washin' done whatever, while Benson Annie an' Sal works the wire aige offen their visit.
"`A gent as would begretch two pore, hard-workin' girls a lay-off of a week,' says Enright, 'ain't clean strain, an' I don't want to know sech a hoss-thief nohow'; an' we-alls feels likewise.
"But slap on the heels of all this yere gregar'ousness on the part of Benson Annie an' Sal, the deal begins to come queer.At the end of the week the two girls has a row, an' in the turn Sal goes to t'other end of camp an' opens a laundry.That does settle it.Benson Annie gives Sal fits, an' Sal shorely sends 'em back.Then they quits speakin', an when they meets on the street they concocts snoots at each other.This scares Enright, but he does his level best an' tries to keep the boys from takin' sides.
"'In a play like this yere,' he says, 'this camp don't take no kyards.For the first time Wolfville passes out, an' offers to make it a jack'
"But as one day an' the next trails by, the boys sorter gets lined up one way an' t'other; some for Benson Annie an' some for Sal, an'
things is shorely gettin' hot.Hamilton, over at the dance-hall, ups an' names his place the 'Sal Saloon,' an' Burns takes down the sign on the Red Light an' calls it the 'Benson Annie House.' Finally things sorter culminates.
"Dan Boggs, who's a open, voylent Annie man, comes a-prancin' into the Red Light one night, an' after stampin' an' rappin' his horns 'round a whole lot, allows his shirt is cleaner than Dave Tutt's.
"Tutt says he don't care nothin' for himse'f, an' none whatever for the shirt; an' while he an' Dan's allers been friends an' crossed the plains together, still he don't allow he'll stand 'round much an' see a pore ondefended female, like Sal, maligned.So Tutt outs with his gun an' gets Boggs in the laig.
