Pearl Hart:: Bandit Queen

Little Pearl Hart, mother of two, Saloon singer, laundress, and stage robber. 

       

     Pearl was born in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, and raised in a middle class family offering a good education and high hopes for a happy future. Then her heart betrayed that future when she fell blindly in love with a swaggering itinerant gambler named Frederick Hart. They eloped when Pearl was only 17 years old.

In 1893, the couple traveled to Chicago, Illinois where Fred worked as a sideshow barker at the Colombian Exposition, and Pearl worked at a number of odd jobs. 

     Here, she saw Annie Oakley perform, which cinched her fascination and passion for the Old West. She also attended the World's Fair Women's Pavilion listening to a number of women's speeches, especially enjoying one by the prominent activist and poet, Julia Ward Howe. 

    Fredrick Hart turned out to be better at drinking and abuse than at successful gambling or working. Pearl, inspired by these strong women, and enamored by the heroes of the Old West, gathered her courage, said adios to Freddy, and moved to Trinidad, Colorado. 

       Here she became a popular saloon singer. But the song came to and end when she discovered she was pregnant with Fredrick's child. She returned to her family in Ontario, gave birth, left her son there, and quickly returned to the West. This time she landed in Phoenix, Arizona. While working as a cook and laundress, her dreams and fantasies of the Old West and it's heroes began to dissolved away.   

    Being a woman of substance herself, she toughed it out until 1895, when Fredrick tracked her down and they became a couple once again. Fredrick worked steady, and they lived the high-life for a while frequenting saloons where Pearl learned to smoke and drink. 

    But a  happy domestic life was not to be hers. After the birth of a second child, this time a girl, Fredrick ran off to join Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba. 




  After trekking back to Ontario, where she left her daughter, Pearl again returned to Arizona. But life was becoming harder and harder for a woman alone, and totally depressed, she even contemplated suicide. 

    Then in 1899, she received a letter stating her mother was ill and the family needed money. She asked an acquaintance, Joe Boot, for advice, and once again not having chosen wisely, she hooked up with the ne'er-do-well. 
                                       

   Joe had lots of ideas on how to make money, like having Pearl lure men to hotel rooms with the expectation of romance where Joe knocked them out and robbed them. But this wasn't lucrative enough, and they finally decided to rob a stage.  

The year was 1899, the streets were quiet. No more shoot outs at the Okay corral, and saloons were serving mixed drinks as well as Red-eye whiskey. The stage they chose to stop and rob was making a routine 65 mile trip from Globe, Arizona to Florence. 

They supposedly planned the robbery to the last detail. Unfortunately they didn't plan the get away quite as well. On May 30th, they robbed the passengers of $450 dollars and sent them on their way. Then Joe and Pearl headed for the hills where they promptly got lost. After a couple of days of wandering around, they made camp and fell asleep, only to wake up surrounded by the local sheriff and his posse. They were taken to the Globe jail where Pearl escaped once, but was quickly recaptured.  
                                    

    Pearl played up being the lady bandit, handing out autographs at the Globe jail. During her trial, she remembered the Women's lectures she attended, and insisted the court had no right to place her on trial under a law which her female sex had no voice in making. The jury found her not guilty, but the judge still sentenced her to 5 years in the Yuma territorial prison. Where she once again became a celebrity. 

 
     Joe Boot got 30 years, but he escaped and rumor has it he went to Mexico and was never seen again. Pearl was paroled in 1902 and moved to Kansas where some say she opened a cigar store. Others say she moved to San Francisco. But most say she married a rancher in Dripping Springs, Arizona, went by the name of Pearl Bywater, and died in 1956.  I hope she had a few happy years at the end. 

     Now that you're in the mood and hankering for a good western romance, why not try one of these. Each comes complete with a wild west adventure, a hunky cowboy, and brave women. 

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Desperate Women of the West by James D. Horan
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Hart
How a Woman Stagecoach Robber became a famous outlaw by Parker Anderson. 
Legends of the American West

Happy Autumnal Equinox

     Autumn, my favorite time of the year. Cool nights for sleeping, the sun feels good on your back rather than sending you desperately seeking a patch of shade, and it recalls knee socks, and wool skirts, and crunching through piles of leaves. 

    Also known as Mabon, from the Pagan perspective, the equinox is a cross quarter day, (and therefore a direct barometer), and we have twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night. All is in balance.  



But on that special day, the battle between light and dark tips in favor of darkness. 

Slowly the night takes over...so subtly at first one hardly notices. Then leaving work one day you're surprised to see you need to turn on your headlights when driving home. Or you need a thin jacket in the morning going out to the barn as you stumble along in the dimness. 

   The edges of dawn and dusk blur and fade away; little bits of daylight replaced by shades of gray. And so it goes until Yule, the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. 

    Then the battle shifts once more in favor of light, and so the wheel turns. 

        Mabon is the second harvest, and we give thanks for the abundance in our lives, whatever form that may take.
                   
   We also must remember to lay in supplies--like wood, and hay, and maybe a bottle of Evan Williams. Aah Evan, the only man I know for sure who will be there when I wake up in the morning. But I digress.  




The equinox also reminds us of pomegranates, and the tale of Persephone. 



 As the story goes, Zeus and Demeter (goddess of agriculture) had a daughter named Persephone. Zeus and Demeter's brother, Hades, falls in love with her and wants her for his bride. For some reason, Zeus agrees to this, and Hades kidnaps his niece and takes her to the underworld.  

Demeter searches the world over for her daughter. destroying crops, land, and livestock as she bewails the loss of her daughter. 

    Helios, the god of the sun, and the one who sees all that happens on earth, finally tells Demeter what transpired. She is furious, especially when she learns Zeus' was jiggy with the whole abduction deal. She takes the form of a mortal and wanders the earth forbidding the trees to bear fruit or the crops to grow. After one year of plague, Zeus relents and send Hermes to get Persephone. 

     During all this time, Persephone hasn't eaten anything, (yeah right) and since Hades is pretty cute, being Queen of the Underworld has it's perks. Anyway, before she leaves, Hades convinces her to eat just one little old pomegranate seed, and that sets the curse into action. If she eats down there she must remain down there.

    Now Demeter is really in a tizzy, so Rhea, the mother of Zeus, Demeter, and Hades, steps in to settle the dispute.  

   Persephone will spend half her time in each realm. Demeter agrees, (Rhea rides a chariot pulled by lions. I wouldn't argue with her either) but Demeter is still ticked-off so during the months her daughter is in Hades, it will be winter and no crops will grow. And thus we have the reason for seasons. 

      So, do not tarry, go out and enjoy the last hurrah. The time for snuggling and hibernating (which can be fun too) is just around the corner. 

A Cowboy’s Fate earns 4 1/2 STARS from - Got Romance! Reviews

     Thank you Pattie @ Got Romance! Reviews. 

Forced to leave England, Britania Rule chose to come to The Colonies. She was looking for someone to take her to Leadville. Cody James was wanting to get a fresh start in Leadville, so he answered Britania’s ad. He thought she was very fancy. She thought he was infuriating. They start out, Britania is definitely not used to camping out in the on frontier. They share food, fire and sleep near each other. They get closer as they get closer to Leadville.

Britiana discovers that Cody is the man that will take care of her. They learn to respect each other and realized they that really do care about each other.  Along the way, they have several adventures that bring them even closer together. In spite of their differences and trials they had getting to Leadville, Cody and Britania found their love through their travels.

I really liked this book from the start. I love the characters. Britania Rule is not a woman afraid to take on a challenge. Cody James is a man for hire and does not really have a home or a family. It is not until he meets Britiania that he finds that maybe he can have that and more. Cody never expected to fall for a woman like Britania. In spite of their differences they found their love. I believe that they will have a very happy life together. I would recommend this book.

A Cowboy’s Fate earns 4 1/2 STARS from - Got Romance! Reviews

     Thank you Pattie @ Got Romance! Reviews. 

Forced to leave England, Britania Rule chose to come to The Colonies. She was looking for someone to take her to Leadville. Cody James was wanting to get a fresh start in Leadville, so he answered Britania’s ad. He thought she was very fancy. She thought he was infuriating. They start out, Britania is definitely not used to camping out in the on frontier. They share food, fire and sleep near each other. They get closer as they get closer to Leadville.

Britiana discovers that Cody is the man that will take care of her. They learn to respect each other and realized they that really do care about each other.  Along the way, they have several adventures that bring them even closer together. In spite of their differences and trials they had getting to Leadville, Cody and Britania found their love through their travels.

I really liked this book from the start. I love the characters. Britania Rule is not a woman afraid to take on a challenge. Cody James is a man for hire and does not really have a home or a family. It is not until he meets Britiania that he finds that maybe he can have that and more. Cody never expected to fall for a woman like Britania. In spite of their differences they found their love. I believe that they will have a very happy life together. I would recommend this book.