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.
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WINTER HOURS:
T HURSDAY , F RIDAY & S ATURDAY
10 AM -4 PM
For Drop-off appointments,
after hours, call the offi ce
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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
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for more information
Email
info@habitatcg.org