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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2016)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL March 30, 2016 11A T HE HUNT IS ON ! photo by Sam Wright Over 100 kids gathered at the Easter Bunny's Easter egg hunt on Saturday at Middlefi eld Oaks. Treats inside eggs were placed all over the assisted living grounds including special golden eggs that could be traded in for a prize. O FFBEAT Continued from page 4A marshal, whipped out his heavy Colt Dragoon revolver and pistol-whipped the offi cer with it … and the fi ght was on. “Instantly the house was in an uproar,” Waggoner recalled. “Su- sie screamed and ran from the stage. Navy Colts leaped from their scabbards and bellowed like the roar of artillery.” A local outlaw named “Chero- kee Bob” jumped up and started shooting, picking soldiers off like bowling pins at a shooting gallery. Return fi re knocked him off his chair, but it later turned out he’d been wearing armor un- der his shirt. “The fi ring continued from all parts of the room, and a ter- rible stampede ensued, everyone but those engaged trying to get out of the house,” Waggoner writes. “More than 50 shots were fi red, and the room was fi lled with smoke, out of which pistols blazed, fi red at supposed enemies, although several times friends fi red upon each other.” Waggoner, unfortunately, gives us no hint of what his role in the fracas was — whether he was among those shooting, or those running for the exits. But he was there in the aftermath, carrying a man shot directly in the breast to a surgeon for a desperate at- tempt to save his life. The man, who had given himself up for a goner, turned out not to even need the surgeon; a bag of coins in his pocket had turned the bul- let away from his vitals, leaving him with a minor fl esh wound. Others weren’t so lucky. How- ever, considering the number of shots fi red and the size of the crowd packed into the theater, the death toll was astonishingly light: Just three men died. Doz- ens more were wounded, how- ever. In classic gold-fi eld boomtown style, this deadly riot was accept- ed as just part of life on the fron- tier; the wounded dressed their injuries as best they could and got back to work, the dead were buried with appropriate ceremo- ny, and everyone else made plans to sit closer to the exits next time Susie took the stage. “No one was arrested, and the theater went on as usual,” Wag- goner writes. “But Susie never seemed quite the same after- ward. A slight commotion in the audience would attract her atten- tion in the midst of her best song, and in her best play she always looked as though she was afraid someone was going to shoot.” This sort of shell-shock on Susie’s part is certainly under- standable. Still, as Waggoner points out, it’s not every Vaude- ville actress who can honestly say that men have fought and killed and died for the right to hear her sing. (Sources: Waggoner, George A. Stories of Old Oregon. Salem: Statesman, 1905; Bromberg, Erik. “Frontier Humor: Plain and Fancy,” Oregon Historical Quar- terly, Sept. 1960) Finn J.D. John teaches at Or- egon State University and writes about odd tidbits of Oregon his- tory. For details, see http://fi nn- john.com. To contact him or suggest a topic: fi nn2@offbe- atoregon.com or 541-357-2222. An illustration showing a Vaudeville theater scene in around 1899, from Schribner’s Magazine, by Wil- liam J. Glackens. The theater in which a riot broke out over frontier Oregon beauty Susie Robinson was, of course, considerably less refi ned than this one. E E R R O O T T S E E R WINTER HOURS: T HURSDAY , F RIDAY & S ATURDAY 10 AM -4 PM For Drop-off appointments, after hours, call the offi ce We need volunteers for the ReStore ~ a few hours each month! Will you help? Habitat Offi ce and Warehouse 2155 Getty Circle ~ Unit #1 in the Cottage Grove Industrial Park South on Hwy 99 past the High School S S N O N I O T I A T N A D ON D O W A A Y Y S S A A L L W E E ! ! M O M C O L C E L W WE Call 541.767.0358 for more information Email info@habitatcg.org