A hastily selected jury heard the boy's story that Wild Bill had killed his brother in Kansas the year before. He was found "not guilty," according to the code of the times, but was told to get out of the Black Hills. Before the event, Wild Bill had heard that a kid was looking for him, and he had said, "a kid looking for me, is the only kind I am afraid of : he may get me."

A Yellow Affair

Appearing in the Telegraph of August 4, 1S77, was the following notice, affording a basis for some range of the imagination:

"Calamity Jane No. 2 has arrived from the Black Hills. She received promotion on the road as assistant wagon boss. She became so powerful as to lead to the discharge of a number of hands. She has now gone west with a bull-whacker to learn the trade. Her husband is not a violent mourner. She is a stubby customer, American, and cus-sed. If she has any conscience, she took it with her, and if she had any virtue, her husband didn't know it. Her child is now in good hands, and the painter is happy.

Evidently the painter was unhappy, and took an unkindly departing shot at his neglectful spouse. According to codes then prevalent, either the Black Hills wagon boss or the painter would have tarried permanently somewhere beside the Trail. One or the other failed to measure up to the standard required by the red-blooded men of the period. True, it was probably better thus, for none of them was the worse, and the "child is now in good hands." which is an objective worthy a tempi irary humanity.