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Deadwood Free Press Vol. 2 Issue 25October 30, 18781
 Vol. 2 Issue 25 October 30, 1878
ProPosal: No Vote for WomeN
Densmith calls for voter reform
Town Councilman Daniel Densmith 
started the council meeting Thursday by 
calling for better government by removing
the right of women to vote.“I’m not entirely sure how they got this 
right in the Black Hills, but people around
the world, with the exception of the sav- 
ages on the Pitcairn Islands, recognize women should spend their time in more proper duties such as administering for 
the home.“The fact, is every civilized state gives 
men their due authority to vote, and leaves 
to women what is proper for them the care 
of their home and of their children and
to express opinion. These other cities do 
not bedevil their communities by luring
in front of women the vote. I do not know 
how this town gave women the right to 
vote, but it’s time we become competitive 
with other communities. I would call for 
this council to do one of two things. Either 
wait until we have a fully seated council
with Mr. Bluebird or Mr. Leonard or put 
in front of the voters of the entire town the 
question as a referendum,” he stated.
The council ultimately voted not to make any decision at all until their next meeting.Reaction to Mr. Densmith’s comments was 
not positive from those present.Dr. Morri responded by saying that if the measure was passed, she would depart Deadwood and leave citizens without hos- pital care.
“My entire staff is made of women. I
don’t think that Deadwood would like to be without medical care. But if you would
prefer that the citizens of Deadwood die from their injuries and infections...” she 
said. “And that’s aside from the fact we’d
be denying the fine heritage and history of 
this town. Our first Mayor/council presi- dent was a woman.”
In that vein, a young girl, Miss Elizabeth
Vita, commented, “I am writing a paper 
for school about the history of Deadwood.
We have had three lady mayor kinds of 
ladies peoples: Miss Dio, Miss Mah some- body and Miss Asto and, um, some menand it seems the ladies, they didn’t do any more bad than the men.”Men also piled on. Said former Sheriff JF Kanto, “Mr. Densmith, it is obvious to me that you are a single man. A married
man would have more sense then to call
half the population of the town imbeciles.I have the good fortune to be married to a woman, who is not only a loving wife, but a fine business woman as well.If a womancan run a business, then how can you say that she cannot have the sense to vote?”
Miss Merryann Munster, council
member, agreed with the idea of putting it up to a public vote. “Mr. Densmith, I have 
no problem in putting this issue before the 
voters. I don’t think women have anything
to fear on this issue,” she stated.
There was only one loud supporter of the 
proposal besides Densmith, an unnamed
man who was ejected at one point for 
speaking out too much. Before his ejection,
the man pointed at the pregent Doctor 
Morri and commented, “You’re pregnant for Godsakes, wouldn’t you be happier at home cookin eggs and waitin on that little one than getting her all confused tryingto figure out whats going on?”
Reaction after the meeting was more 
mixed. An employee of the Bella Union,
Miss Taj, when told that women had the 
vote in Deadwood, responded, “We do?”
Another employee there, Miss Isa- 
belle Endsleigh, also expressed surprise.
“Really? I’ve never voted.”
Densmith said he was not afraid to speak 
out besides the strong reaction.“I’ve only had the courage to stand up 
and say what needed to be said. Women
cannot stifle discussion by placing her taboo upon anything seriously unflat- tering being said about her in public,”
Densmith stated. “there is a flaw in this 
reasoning. Suffragists say woman is, by 
assumption, in mental endowments a rep- lica of man. She lives in a world which is,
by tacit assumption, free from complica- 
tions of sex. I mean, that’s nonsense. Look 
around you.”“We face many tough decisions here in
Deadwood to survive. Now it is by physical
force alone and by prestige, which repre- 
sents physical force in the background, that 
anyone with status protects themselves: a family, a city, a state, a nation. Nothing
could in the end more certainly lead to war 
and revolt than the decline of the military 
spirit and loss of prestige which would inev- 
itably follow if man admitted woman into 
political co-partnership. Women turn to 
emotion, not to force. The voting of womenwould be an unsettling element in the gov- 
ernment of the State, for by reason of a general lack of interest in public affairs,
only very; seldom come to the poll. In fact,
women only vote in numbers when some 
special appeal had come home to their very 
considerable emotions,” Densmith added.
“Further, their condition is worsened,
and we all know this, if the woman is 
unsatisfied sexually, and there’s no sure 
way to know what state the woman is in,”
Continued on page 2
 Town Councilman Daniel Densmith says there are two good reasons why women should not vote, pointing out Miss Isabelle Endsleigh as a healthy example of those two reasons.Miss Endsleigh said she was even unaware women had the vote and did not plan to vote. Miss Taj of theBella agreed.
 
Editor and Publisher
Neil Streeter
Reporter
 Addison Leigh
Contributing Writer
D. A. Kuhr
Typesetter
S. Morigi
Deadwood Free Press Vol. 2 Issue 25October 30, 18782
editorial
 A TerritorialUniversity forDeadwood
Letters to the Editor
As we look around at the grand views 
of the Black Hills, we are called by Godand Man both to develop institutions that will be every bit as grand as the works of nature around them.
It is late to become the territorial capital,
or house the territorial prison. This leaves 
to Deadwood the Natural Right to host the 
Territorial University of Dakota.Now, you may wonder where the schol- ars or students may come from. I consider these the wrong questions. The real ques- tion is, can we get the state to reimburse us for the cost of setting up the TerritorialUniversity?
Consider, if you will, how a professor,
administrator or student may benefit our 
economy. They would stay in local rooms,
buy local food and drink, partake in the cost of local entertainments and religious 
institutions. There are many advantages 
to having this form of money come into 
Deadwood.
The first thing we must convince our local territorial legislators to approve is 
$15,000 in expenditures for land immedi- ately above town hall and the church, as 
well as in the adjacent riverway. There are 
those who might look at the steep nature of this land and say, “Surely no one could
build a university here. There exist no 
buildings that could perch securely on such
a steep slope. “
And there are those who would say,
“How could you possibly think of puttinga University in the bed of a river?”To those asking these questions, I very Editor,
I dun writ so good, so my pardner Zaca- 
riah is writtn this fer me.I was athinkn it wulda be a good idea ifn the saloons had some special holidays oncen awhile.
Fer example, me an Zach come inta town
after a hard week in ta mines and we was 
in the mood fer a good frolic. But the 
damnable saloons is sellin their likker at 
prices whar a honest man caint git drunk.
An as far as beddin a woman, well...reckin
me an Zach kin go ta China Alley an git one, but dammitall, we should be able ta have a white woman oncet in a while.
So heres what me an Zach proposes...Oncet a week one a ta saloons gives out 
free drinks. Meself, I rather have a free 
hoor, but Zach figgers Clay and Miss Salis- sa aint gonna give no white woman aroundfer free. Now ifn that don settle good with
the saloons, mebbe we miners kin go on
over Lead and see ifn they will make sure us miners is proper takne care of.Signed,Josiah and ZachariahEditor,It is with heavy heart that I take quill inhand and write this missive to your well- 
respected institution. It seems that civic 
reasonably say, Kindly shut the hell up.Let’s bill the state capitol and tell themthey must support our youth and not ask fool questions.Practicality should not stand in the way of higher education. People are willing to pay insane amounts of money for a Uni- versity education, and it would be wrong
to stand in the way of their enthusiasm.
America was not built on boredom. It was built on vision.
And the vision is pretty damn nice. I
refer you to the University of Washington,
which benefited from a grant from Con- 
gress of 46,000 acres. As you may recall,
when the board of regents began selling
that land to raise money, the books were 
not kept well. By the time the regents were 
replaced, there were only 3,400 acres left and $5.85 in a bank account. Many thou- 
sands of acres were disposed of and no one 
seems to be sure where the money went.Gov Flanders of Washington commented
that the first governors of the board of 
regents were part of a program “that was a calamity and disgrace, and gross extrava- gance and incompetency, if not an outright 
fraud.”
I don’t know about you, but I want a 
piece of that!Meantime, at most we should have a few 
dozen students, with teachers who need not 
be paid much as they don’t need all that much education. The majority of students are likely to be young women, which can’t be bad either.pride and responsibility is no longer a part 
of the lifeblood of the citizens of Dead- wood. Elections for Sheriff and Town
Council members were just conducted, but 
from all the excitement that was engen- 
dered, you would have thought that it was just another day like any other.
I understand that the contestants ranunopposed (for which we should all be 
heartily ashamed of). Yes, your newspa- 
per did carry interviews of the contestants,
but, where was the speeches, the kissingof babies and all the fanfare that should
accompany an election?
Yes, there has been some upheaval within
the Town Council recently, and I am sure 
everyone was scrambling to make sure 
the day-to-day business of the town was 
kept going, but, that does not excuse the 
CITIZENS of Deadwood from not step- 
ping forth. I include myself in this bit of fingerpointing as I did not step forward to run either.We should all remember that in the past 
100 years our nation has fought several wars 
to enable we, The People, the opportunity 
and the right to be free. That freedom
comes with the responsibility to serve our nation and community where we can.
So, I would encourage and challenge the entire community of Deadwood to take an
active part in the Town Council meetings and to run for office if you feel you have the ability.I will close with this. Our right to exer- cise our franchise was bought and paid for 
with the blood of our brothers, fathers andgrandfathers. Let us pay them the respect due them, by taking part in the civic life of 
our nation and community.George A. HoustonDeadwoodhe further commented.There is ample evidence that bloodflow to the female brain is restricted by certain
channels and the presence upon the female 
of certain noteworthy appendages that 
move the bloodflow toward the direction
of the nurturing of her children, Densmith
added. Densmith said that if the vote is 
granted to women, it should be granted to 
women with smaller appendages. Densmith
noted that in looking around Deadwood,
so many women have ample appendages 
that it’s just simpler to remove the vote 
entirely.
ProPosal: No Vote for WomeN,
cont.
Continued from page 1
 
Deadwood Free Press Vol. 2 Issue 25October 30, 18783
a guide to the WesterN horse,
Part 2
To continue our discussion of the horse in
the West, let us consider issues of appear- ance and type.
First of all, we should explain that some- 
times there is a bit of difference of opinion
as to whether a certain horse with a certainappearance belongs to a unique “breed” or 
is just some sort of horse that looks differ- ent from other beasts.We won’t try to sort that out, because frankly I don’t have the time or patience to bother with it. So I’m just going to give 
you my take on things and if you disagree,
then by gum, you can take it up with the horse in question, being as I really don’t care all that much.But still, I would like to at least give yousome kind of idea of what people are talk- ing about when they toss around certainterminology.
So let’s talk about coloration. I will give 
you the fancy nomenclature first, and if 
regular cowhands use a different term, I’ll
point that out.
Sorrel
These display a red hue that can range 
from copper-colored to a hearty brick 
red. The mane and tail might either be 
the same color as the body, or in a lighter tone that contrasts with the darker red the 
predominates on the animal. It is common
for the face and legs to have white mark- 
ings. The term “sorrel” is generally not 
used by working cowhands. Their term
for this coloration is “red.”
Bay 
These have a brown body with a black mane and tail. More often than not, the 
legs will be black as well. The shade of 
brown on the body can vary from a sort of mahogany color to a deep, dark brown.
Bays sometimes have white markings on their faces and on one or more legs.
Remember the song “Camptown Races”
and the line “somebody bet on the bay?”
That’s what they were talking about: a 
brown horse with a black mane and tail
(doo-dah, doo-dah).
Chestnut
These animals feature coats that are varying shades of a solid brown color.
Cowhands usually describe this coloration
as another form of “red.” or sometimes 
simply as “brown.”
Black 
Some folks will tell you that a true black has no red or brown tint in it, but out West,
if the darn thing looks black from a few yards away or as it trots by, it is going to 
get called a “black.” These sometimes have 
white markings on the legs and face.
Grey 
The name pretty much says it all. A grey is ... yes ... grey. Oddly enough,
these horses are born a darker color and
turn grey as they mature. This lightening
continues as they age, and in fact, some horses that may seem white are actually 
greys that just got really old. Seriously.I’m not making that up.
 White
Horses that are born white (usually with
blue or almost colorless eyes and ivory- 
hued hooves) are actually relatively rare.
Some folks think whites don’t do well in
bright sun or harsh weather conditions and
easily develop eye problems. I can’t tell
you for sure about that -- never owned
one myself.
Pinto / Paint
The term “pinto” and “paint” generally refer to a horse that has splotches of color 
mixed with areas of white. The darker 
parts of the coat may be any possible shade 
of red, chestnut, brown, black, gray, or bay. The pinto pattern may vary fromalmost pure white with just a few oddpatches of color, to almost entirely dark 
colored with just a couple white markings on the body.
“Pinto” is a term commonly used by folks other than cowboys, who prefer to call an animal with this coloration pat- 
tern a “paint.” Some people actually go to the trouble of having different special
terms to identify the different varieties of paint colorations, and for all the different 
ways that the white parts appear on the horse’s body. These are, however, folks 
who clearly have a hell of a lot more free time on their hands than I do.
Roan
These are animals with a coat that is 
a dark color, but liberally sprinkled with
white hairs, giving a salt-and-pepper or cinnamon-and-sugar appearance. The 
mane and tail may be either solid-coloredor streaked with white or grey. The vari- 
ety of ways the color mixture is manifested
has led some folks to come up with more additional titles for the variations.For example if someone is talking about a “blue roan” they are jabbering about a 
horse whose primary coat color is some 
shade of grey, so the white hairs give it a sort of bluish tone. Or if they talk about a “strawberry roan,” they are referring to a roan whose main body color is red witha sprinkling of white hairs that gives the horse an overall pinkish hue.
In all honesty, I have never heard a cow- 
hand standing around in a saloon talking
about his good old “strawberry roan” (I
suspect mostly because the other guys 
would feel compelled to beat him up if he did).
Buckskin
These feature a light cream to tan color,with sharply contrasting black mane, tail
and legs. Sometimes the buckskin will also have a dark brown stripe running along its 
back. Now and then, you’ll see one withsome white markings on the face, or per- haps a white foot, but the hooves are usu- ally black. Many folks regard buckskins 
as particularly tough and hardy horses.
Maybe so or maybe not, but they are for sure damn good looking.
Dun
These have a body that is tan, light red,or tan with a blackish cast to it, combined
with a mane and tail that are colored either 
slightly darker than the rest of the coat, or perhaps a dirty brown-black. Duns also 
have a darker stripe along spine, and vague striping on the legs, which will be a darker 
shade than the body. They may have a bit of white on the face or legs. Yeah, they are kind of like horses who couldn’t quite decide what color they wanted to be.
Palomino
These have a distinctive blond or rich 
golden body color, with contrasting white 
or flaxen-hued mane and tail. The face 
and legs often have white markings. It’s a great color scheme for hero-type fellows,but your working cowboy may find it a bit too foofy.So that’s the basics as far as colors. We 
could also talk about spotted coloration,
but that kind of leads us in to the realmof what might be considered a breed, andI am too tired right now to fool with that nonsense. In fact, I just decided that we will save the discussion of breeds for next time when we bring you part 3.
By D. A. Kuhr
a Texas paint pony by Frederic Remington
of 00

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