The Cowboy and the Irish Girl

Following the trail, his gun heavy on his body, Roy rode into Fort Worth west of Dallas on a weekday, hoping to find a room without paying the weekend rates that he knew hotels charged. He was interested in seeing the stockyards.

It took several minutes until he found a suitable place to spend the week, maybe longer. "That'll be a dollar a night," said the desk clerk, pushing the register toward him with one hand and reaching for the money Roy proffered with the other.

"You know where there's a decent saloon around here?" Roy inquired.

"Next street over, the Red Dog." The clerk pointed down the street to the left.

Roy handed over a small box that he had all his gold coins in. "And where's the bank?"

"Street over from there, but they're closed now, open tomorrow at ten in the morning."

"OK, then let's lock this up in your safe, all right?" He opened the box and took out one hundred dollars in gold, had the clerk sign for the rest, and handed over the money to be locked up.

Roy left the hotel lobby and walked back up the street toward the saloon, thirsty after a long ride across the prairie. The saloon was about half full of cowboys spending their money after bringing in the cattle for the long rail trip to Chicago.

"Beer," he said, glad that it was cold. The barkeep set the mug down, sloshing a little over the rim. He put a small dish of popcorn next to it, an old trick to keep the thirst level high. "Can you get a girl here, or do you have to go somewhere special?"

"No, you can get a girl here... there is no other place."

"OK," Roy answered, "who do you have to choose from?" He looked around the saloon, wondering which girl was available.

"Right now, there's Susan and Mary. One's a blond and the other is a red head and with everything that goes with that."

"I like the idea of a red head ball of fire. Let's go that way."

The bartender left the front of the saloon and walked up the stairs, leading Roy past several doors until he knocked on one and asked "Mary?" The door opened and a red-headed girl put her face out into the hallway. "I've got someone for you."

The girl stepped back into the room and waited for Roy to enter, closing the door after he was inside. He liked her look and felt the evening would be fun. She had a summer dress on and bedroom slippers.

"How old are you?" he asked.

She patted the bed's cover and sat down. "Twenty-two. My name's Mary," she said, "what's yours?"

*****

Roy settled up with the woman, satisfied with the turn of events. "Let's have dinner," he offered. "Can you get a good steak around here?"

"The hotel has a good dining room. I've only been there once, when I first came here. I'm not allowed there anymore. They don't like whores in the hotel."

"I can fix that," Roy said, knowing that money spoke louder than words. He finished dressing and waited for her to make herself decent, wondering what she had to wear. "Let's go to a dress shop, first."

"Mister, are you sure?"

"Yes, I am. C'mon."

They went downstairs, Mary unsure of what the barkeep was going to say but if he noticed her leaving he said nothing.

Two streets over the whore pointed out the general store that sold dresses and other womanly needs. "Well, let's see what they have," Roy wondered, following the woman into the store. A short while later she had found something that pleased him and had her keep the new clothes on, her old dress wrapped up in brown paper. He took her by the hand, as if afraid she was going to bolt down the street with her newfound clothes.

Ten minutes later, they entered the hotel and if the clerk recognized her he gave no indication of it. Finding an empty table, he held the chair for her and then sat himself down. He ordered two steaks, mashed potatoes and green beans and apple pie for desert. He ordered her two bottles of root beer while he had a beer for himself.

They quietly ate, she rather quickly as if afraid the food would disappear before she could finish it.

"Tell me about yourself," he said in a commanding tone, wondering if she was really worth his time.

It became a long tale of loss. Loss of her homeland, loss of her husband, loss of her money saved from the old country...

"I'm sorry," he said, not really sure what else to say. "How much to spend the week?"

Silence... then "Twenty dollars?" she said more as a question.

"I'll give you fifty but I want all your time." He reached into his pouch and pulled out ten five-dollar gold pieces and placed them in her palm. It seemed more like a gift than a payment and had gone unnoticed by the other diners, none of which recognized the woman from the saloon.

Mary stared at the coins resting in her hand as if unsure what to do. She had never been in this situation before and was unsure what to do... accept the gift for what it was or get up and flee the generous stranger that she had just met.

Roy coughed. He would have thought it was a simple cut-and-dried proposition.

Her hand closed on the coins just as the pie was set down on the table. "I haven't had pie in such a long time," she said, "thank you."

*****

They went for a walk after dinner, ending up back at the saloon where she picked up her underthings to take back to the hotel. She wasn't sure what would happen when they returned but decided that wasn't her problem. She had been embarrassed before.

They walked up the stairs to the second floor where his room was and left her clothing there, deciding to visit the vaudeville theater down the street near the bank. He reminded himself that the next morning he would have to visit the bank and deposit the rest of his coins.

He treated her more like a girlfriend than a lady-of-the-evening and was gentle that night as they came together several times. He felt comfortable with the touch of her body against his.

*****

The next morning, after breakfast of steak, hash browns and eggs, he got his gold from the hotel safe and they walked to the First National Bank, his hand on his gun just in case.

"I would like to deposit this gold," he told the bank manager. "I am bringing it from Alaska and want to settle down here. I have more in San Francisco."

The manager's eyes were wide open as he counted the coins, eventually coming up with a total amount of twenty-two thousand six hundred dollars. "I'm sure we can accommodate you, sir. Will you be needing paper bills?"

"Yes, leave me, let's say, five hundred."

Roy pulled out his billfold and put the money in. The manager gave him the deposit book with the entree.

"Time for lunch," Roy said, "let's go." The couple left the bank and walked to a nearby German cafe where they had sandwiches and coffee.

"I'm wondering where there's a real estate office around here. I should have asked at the bank. We'll go back."

*****

"I want to buy a ranch that's between ten thousand and twenty thousand acres. I want to raise cattle." He knew he was looking at 16 square miles.

The agent smiled to himself. The commission on such a sale would be tremendous. "I can take you out to see a few. There aren't that many for sale right now but the ones that are are well worth the asking price." He pulled out a large map that had several counties delineated and pointed out several parcels. "Here, here, and here," he said, "all have a good source of water for livestock as well as homesteading. How close do you want to be to town?"

"Close enough without being too close, I think you understand. I'm prepared to buy it today if that can be arranged."

"I'll bring my car around and we can leave in a minute. Have you had lunch?"

"Yes, we have, thanks."

Roy and Mary waited on the sidewalk while the agent, John by name, brought the car around the alley and waited in front of his office as the couple got in.

John pointed out various points of interest as they headed west along the gravel road, the heavy dust rising in their wake.

An hour later, they arrived at the first of the interesting parcels which had a small lake halfway back from the roadway. Roy got out his binoculars and inspected the property. He saw where a house could be easily built, close to the lake for water while not so close that it would be humid.

"I'll be looking for an architect, someone who really knows what he's doing."

John was happy. Things were going much better than he had hoped for and he stood to make even more with the referral of the architect.

*****

"I would like a six-bedroom house with a covered porch all the way around and a place for automobiles not too far away as well as a stable for six or seven horses. There has to be a water tower to supply the buildings. Am I forgetting anything?" He turned to his red-headed companion, seeking a response.

"Southern exposure for the parlor," she said, surprised that her opinion held any weight. What did he have in mind? She looked at him, wondering what was in his mind.

"I was thinking," he began, "would you be interested in marrying me? I think we would do well together."

'Well, that explains that,' she thought. 'Why her, though? There had to be plenty of women who were more suitable.'

He stood there, waiting for an answer, not used to the hesitation she was showing.

"Yes, I'll marry you," she said, having so much loss in her life that she was willing to reach for anything she could. "Yes."

"Anyone you want to invite?"

"Just my friend from the saloon. That's all."

*****

"...and do you, Mary Owens, take Roy Campanella, to be your lawfully wedded husband, so help you God, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live??

"I do..." and she was married, seeking a much better life than that which she had been trapped.

Roy and Mary had a wedding dinner, inviting her friend from the saloon. Only by the grace of God were their positions not reversed. Roy compensated the woman for her time.

Several days later, the newlyweds met with an architect to see what he had drawn up and with just a few changes and additions, Roy approved the blueprints and sketches. The house was two-story with the covered porch all the way around, suitable for outdoor living in all kinds of weather except the most harsh of winters. The house had been shifted so that the parlor was facing south and the kitchen north. The master bedroom was twice the size of the others and had its own bathroom with both a shower and tub. There were four fireplaces, one in the parlor and three sharing the bedrooms.

The west side of the house had space for a vegetable garden while the stable had an attached coop for several hundred chickens. Nearby would be a water tower that serviced the buildings and boiler.

"I forgot," Roy said, "I need a bunkhouse for the cowboys and ranch hands. Put it on the other side of the stable but close enough that it wouldn't be a problem during the wet seasons and three fireplaces like in the ranch house."

A week later, the property had changed hands and building had started on the house. Roy and Mary had bought a large tent to live in while construction was taking place and two months later, the house had been completed. It was a bright white with blue trim and shutters. She supervised the planting of trees around the house to provide shade that would would be needed in the north Texan summer and Roy bought her a 1904 bright red Cadillac Model A for $750 and a Model B for $850, hiring a man to drive her to town for what she wanted to purchase. She was like a child at Christmas as she went from one furniture store to another in Dallas buying everything that caught her eye and arranging to have it delivered from French style sofas to bedroom furniture for the six rooms on the second floor. She wanted to wait for a cook before buying a stove and oven and icebox.

She was glad when the new furniture began to be delivered, tired of sleeping in the tent in a sleeping bag but was mature enough to see what tomorrow would bring.

Roy, on the other hand, had made arrangements for his fortune to be transferred from San Francisco to Dallas with a money order for one million seven hundred thousand dollars, just in time to avoid the great earthquake that leveled the city. When the bank manager realized the extent of his new depositor there was nothing he couldn't do for his visitor.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to telegraph the San Francisco bank to verify these funds." He made arrangements for Roy to have a room at the best hotel in Dallas and invited him to share dinner with him. It wasn't everyday that a millionaire walked into his bank.

There was no way for Roy to contact Mary but he had told her that he might spend the night in Dallas, the traveling distance not easy to traverse late at night.

Later that afternoon came the reply that the funds were legitimate and that they would miss the depositor.

He went to a lumber yard to arrange for ten cords of wood to be delivered for the winter.

*****

The next day, Roy went to the stockyards to price cattle, Hereford in particular, looking for a good bargain without losing quality. The cattle were known for many good traits including longevity and number of calves.

He wasn't sure how many to buy. His research had indicated that one head of beef would need two acres of grassland, which he knew he had plenty of, ten thousand three hundred acres, more or less. He decided to start out small and expand from there. But first, he had to fence off his property to keep the cattle from wandering off and to do that he needed to hire ranch hands and house servants for his new wife. She was his wife, he realized, not a servant.

Mary had returned to the ranch, driven by Peter who was very proud of driving the automobile and he kept the shiny red car in prime condition in its place of pride in the stable, polishing the car out of the sunshine.

Consuela, in her early thirties and with a small boy, Tomaso, was a widow, and busy in the kitchen preparing dinner. Roy was glad that he liked Mexican food for he was sure that that would be the majority of food offered. As time went on, he was sure that the fare would be expanded. Mary had bought two iceboxes for the kitchen and arranged for ice to be delivered twice a week, knowing that there were going to be many more people at the ranch. Groceries were bought by Consuela and Peter using the ranch wagon until arrangements were made to have them delivered.

Roy sat in the parlor, lit up by oil lamps and music provided by a Victrola, "I can't tell how I love you but I do," waiting for dinner to be called. For the time being, Consuela would live in the main house. Peter lived in the ranch hands' house. Every now and then Roy would grill steaks and the four would eat together.

*****

Peter and Roy took the Model A into town to hire hands for the ranch. They stopped for a cold beer. Roy was sure that he could find enough workers at the same place he found Peter. Unsure as to how many he should hire, he had visited the nearby ranches and asked what they had done. Among the six he hired were several that had been released from prison, having been convicted for what he considered minor offenses brought on by hunger. He made arrangements to get enough horses to outfit the workers and paid them the standard rate of a dollar a day.

The ranch hand house had been finished along with a basement for protection from tornadoes and the seven men now working there were established in the quarters. The next day, they went to work fencing the property into four parcels of four square miles each.

In the meantime, Roy and Peter had rode into Fort Worth to arrange for several hundred chickens to be delivered into the new coop. He figured he needed ten roosters to accomplish what he wanted to do and Mary was waiting with Consuela for their arrival. The two men returned with the knowledge that there would be enough eggs and fresh chickens to eat after they had been settled.

Mary asked Roy if she could hire her friend from the saloon to help Consuela in the house and he agreed, anything to keep Mary happy for he had fallen deeply in love with the Irish girl. He hoped that she had felt the same way about him.

Peter drove Mary back to town to meet with Susan and after a short talk, Mary was able to convince her to return to the ranch with the two of them. The life of a prostitute was not one to be...

*****

Susan, the new girl, and Consuela divided the chickens into two groups, one for eggs and one for eating. The second group was allowed to hatch their eggs and raise the chicks to adulthood. When she wasn't working with the chickens, Susan kept up the housecleaning and helped in the kitchen. While it was different than working at the saloon, she knew that it was a much better life than what had awaited her before and she could see her friend everyday now.

*****

That night, Mary reached over to Roy and held him in her hands, bringing a strength that she had only felt occasionally in her previous life. She leaned over and kissed him, whispering, "Make me a baby."

He had waited for her to give her feelings known to him, and now he was sure that she cared for him as much as he cared for her.

*****

The following morning, Susan collected eggs in her two large baskets and then fed the hens, calling them "here, chicky, chicky," She decided to wait before harvesting five hens to chicken dinner.

Roy had bought several Fannie Farmer cookbooks for the three women to use as he realized that Mexican food would not be accepted for long. The smell of baking cornbread filled the house as well as steak and baked potatoes. Fresh bread was prepared every morning for the evening meal and served with softened butter and honey. He thought about getting some hives but was unsure if that was a good idea with the women working outside the house... and if there were children, so much not so.

Peter assumed the role of foreman based on his early hiring and driver position. He took a shine to Susan and would spend time with her in the evening on the back porch, sharing ice tea with her as they talked about the future and what it had in store for them. As the time went on, their romance blossomed to the point where they thought about getting married.

*****

"There are some men here who want to speak with you regarding oil leases on your property." The bank manager had driven out to see Roy, ever interested in making more money for himself by commission. There had been great talk about what was being called the "Fort Worth" basin, rich with natural gas and Roy's property was located in it.

"We can drill in just a parcel of your property and you can still run cattle on the rest of it. The going rate is a dollar a barrel and we anticipate that you will get about the same commission as oil production."

Roy thanked the men for their interest and promised to get back to them through the bank manager but wanted to talk to his wife, first.

After dinner he met with his wife in the parlor about the visitors they had earlier in the day.

"Well, that explains what they want. What do we want? I don't want to miss out and yet I don't want us to be cheated."

"It would double the amount of money we would have," she said, doing the math in her head quickly.

Roy looked at her, glad that she was more than a pretty face. "I think it would be a good idea," he said, "money with no work, although that's not the way I was raised." He kissed her cheek. "It'll be for the baby."

"What baby?" she asked.

"This one," he answered, pushing her toward the bedroom.

*****

Papers were signed and the following month oil men arrived to drill for gas on the farthest piece of property that Roy owned.

*****

Roy looked for his wife and finally entered their bedroom, finding the three women kneeling on the floor next to the bed, saying the rosary. He was surprised, not thinking she was that religious. He quietly stood in the doorway, watching, finally walking away.