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In our last episode James Wolf told of the troubles at Charleston, along with some surprisingly robust partying by some who visited it. He also shared a bit of Charleston's social side. Some of the saloon-worn types tried to assume new identities when respectable women arrived in the area.

James Wolf offered reasons for such hard-bitten revelry. “Most of the soldiers at these isolated Arizona forts were a hard bunch in those days. Some of them were Civil War Veterans who had found it impossible to settle down to civilian life at the end of that war. Many of the rest were hard nuts from the big cities who had been run out by the local judges and police. Their life was hard and their only diversion was whiskey and women, and that old soldier whiskey was awlful (sic) stuff, ditto the women.”

Of the toxic combination of soldiers on leave with pent up energies, women of questionable reputation and the town of Charleston in general, Wolf continued: “Then would ensue several days of really wild debauch. What money the soldiers did not throw away on women, whiskey and the gambling tables, was generally stolen from them by these harpies when stupidly drunk. Those who first went broke necessarily became the first to sober up. On the return of a sufficient number of these to the fort, they were organized into a squad of military police and sent to round up their buddies and herd them back to the reservation (Fort Huachuca).”

It is a testament to the stamina of these soldiers that they could survive the hard duty that was required of enlisted men in the Arizona Territory, and on breaks endure such unrestrained partying, and still be able to chase Apaches when needed.

But such revelry was not without its price. “There was no medical inspection of red-light districts. In Arizona, whether in or out of the Army, every man had to look out for himself in all things.”

Referring specifically to the leave time of Fort Huachuca soldiers when visiting Charleston, Wolf added, “The terrible amount of disease that would appear after these events was awlful (sic). It was estimated that more soldiers were permanently ruined by one of these paydays than were killed by Apaches in any one year.”

Wolf remembers recreation and courting in Charleston. 

“We worked pretty hard ten hours daily, all of us. For diversion, many of us usually drank whiskey, gambled and danced with the saloon girls.”

But when a woman of higher reputation moved to Charleston, gambling and saloon girls took a back seat as men vied for the attention of the newcomer. If the attention wasn’t returned, then they just went back to the saloon girls, whiskey and gambling as if nothing in between had occurred.

Wolf added: “When a new school-teacher, or a new family having one or more daughters moved here, a few of the softest galoots were apt to mop up, (bathe) slick down their hair with soap and then attend church to secure an introduction to the fair maids. Then, if they secured but a fleeting smile, they would immediately invest in an outfit of store clothes.

“Those who were confident of their ability to handle Mr. Colt’s hardware properly might even buy a derby hat (implying that in Charleston, wearing a derby hat should also be worn with a gun, in case of ridicule turned violent). Otherwise, they used discretion. With every corn aching and all dressed up in a stiff collar like a government mule, they would attend the next church bazaar where they would be mulcted of all their money buying raffle tickets, all for the sake of a new face and the opportunity to learn to curl their little finger around a tea cup in the toniest fin-de-siecle (the 19th century artistic climate of sophistication, world-weariness and fashionable despair) manner of the day, when straight whiskey and the Bird Cage (theater in Tombstone) was really their calibre (sic).”

Though Wolf never married, he did consider it, and women who were at the Bird Cage, although not prostitutes, were a sporting bunch that were indeed his caliber as well. “ … I got that idea several times and experimented around the Bird Cage and like places with husky girls that I thought would be suitable for this ranch and neighborhood. Some of them could ride horses and even frisky broncs, but they all shied at the sight of the wood-pile and plainly murmured their opinion of ranch life when I talked about hoeing corn and milking a cow. Anyhow, they left me go my solitary way.”

Wolf would make no further romantic attempts at ending what would be lifelong bachelorhood.

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