GIRLS OF THE GULCH

Little Ella
Sam G. Carr

The first time I seen Ella Hawks, or Little Ella as they soon came to call her, was on October 30, 1908, the day after Myrtle Thornton downed a glass of carbolic acid and killed herself.  My name be Willie Howard and I'm cook and general handyman for Annie Woods' sporting house on North Bleeker Street in Lead, South Dakota.

Don't know why Myrtle decided to take a shortcut to heaven, or hell, but we'd all seen she'd been drinking more than her share of booze. One of the girls told me Myrtle was unhappy but didn't know how to get out of doing what she was doing. Don't seem much of a reason, but you never know what these girls be thinking.

 I've seen with my own eyes the crazy things these ladies can do. Couple years back, one of Fannie Hill's girls, I believes her name was Gussie Edwards, came rushing in here with a six shooter in her hand.  I watched her go directly to the wine room and start shooting at the feet of a man called Fred Dineen while he and one of our girls  shared a flowing bowl. They had just enough of the smoke to give them nerve to josh Gussie about her marksmanship. That was too much for Gussie. She pointed the pistol at Mr. Dineen and hit him in his left hip. Then she just turned around and went back to Fannie Hill's place where she was later arrested by Officer Aladalo. Seems Gussie considered Mr. Dineen her solid man and he had to be punished for deceiving her. Mr. Dineen didn't die, but every time he takes a step his game leg reminds him of Gussie.

Now we was talking about Little Ella wasn't we? Well, like I said, the day after Myrtle left this world, I was in the parlor hanging a picture of Mr. Roosevelt when I heard a knocking. I opened the front door and there, with bag in hand, stood a peanut of a girl, real pretty with black hair, dark eyes and skin the color of milk. I'm six foot tall and on tiptoes she only come up to my chest. She was skinny as a 10-penny nail; I figured she weighed no more’n 60 pounds.

I invited her in and asked what I could do for her. She looked up at me and said, "I want to see Mrs. Woods. I believe she's got an opening and I want to apply for the job."

"You talkin' about Myrtle's old job? You sure a little girl like you wants to do that kind of work?"

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Willie, Ma'am."

"If you don't mind, Willie, I said I want to speak to Mrs. Woods."

I shook my head, went to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, "Hey Boss Lady, you got a visitor down here. Says she'll only speak to you."

Mrs. Annie Woods came slowly down the stairs. When I introduced her to the young lady, she asked, "How old are you, girl?"

I saw a bit of a pink tint her pale face as she said, "Eighteen, Ma'am."

Mrs. Woods laughed. "If you're eighteen, Willie here must be a hundred and ten.  Now tell me the truth."

She hung her head for a second then looked Mrs. Woods in the eye and, without a bit of shame, said, "Okay.  So I'm only sixteen, but I know my way around in this business. My mother is a whore and I was born in a whorehouse. Now I'm old enough to earn my own living."

"Not in my place, you're not," said Mrs. Woods.

"But the weather is getting bad," she pleaded, "and I have no place to go.  Please give me a chance?"

Mrs. Woods put her big hands on Ella's little shoulders and said, "These roughneck miners will break you apart in no time. Go get some meat on your bones and come back in a couple years.  Then I'll give it another thought."

Tears appearing in Ella's dark eyes was too much for old Willie. I said, "You're right, boss lady, she's too young and tiny to take any customers, but I could sure use some help 'round here. She can do dishes and dust and peel ‘taters and such. That way, I'll have more time for the heavy work."

Mrs. Woods grinned. "Willie, you're just an old softy. Okay, we'll give it a try.  You keep her away from the men and make sure she earns her keep.  I'll give her a dollar a week spending money."

I broke out in goose bumps when Ella asked, "Could you make it a dollar and a half?"

Mrs. Woods put her hands on her hips and in a stern voice said, "No! I can't.  Take the dollar or get the hell out of here."

"She'll take the dollar," I said.  "I'll put her in that little room in the attic."

So I had a helper named Little Ella and a good one she was. Without complaint she did the job I hated most; emptying the chamber pots from the rooms. The two of us worked our butts off every day, so by the time customers started coming, she was dead tired and ready to settle down in her little room. We got along just fine and I loved that little girl like a daughter. I think she felt the same about me.

She'd been on the job about ten days when early one cold morning all the other residents were still in their beds. Ella and I were drinking coffee in the kitchen when we smelled smoke. I jumped up, ran into the parlor and saw it was coming from upstairs.  Before I had a chance to say anything, Ella, fast as a cotton tail rabbit, rushed past me and up the stairs. "Wait for me," I yelled.

She paused just long enough to say, "Go wake up Mrs. Woods.  I'll take care of the people up here."

  I ran to Mrs. Woods' room and pounded on the door.  "Wake up," I yelled. "The upstairs is on fire.  Wake the others down here, I'm going up to help Little Ella."

Soon as I reached the second floor landing I saw what had happened. Earlier that morning when I banked the fire in the pot-bellied stove in the hallway, I must not have closed the door all the way. Burning embers must have shot out and set the floor ablaze.  In no time the hall was burning like Hades inferno. Through the smoke I could hear Ella pounding on doors and yelling "Fire!"  Believing she had the second floor in hand, I went up to the third floor and got those women out.

By the time I was back down to the second floor, flames were so hot there was no way I could get through them to reach Little Ella. I could hear glass breaking and people shouting so I figured they were jumping to safety. I leaped down the stairs and out the door to see if I could help anyone. First thing I did was look for Little Ella. She was nowhere in sight. I ran around to the back of the house where people were standing around and two were laying on the ground, but no Little Ella.

Firemen arrived and discovered the building was covered with sheets of tin, making it impossible to break through the outside walls. T'was only after they removed a couple whole sheets they finally got in. I followed ‘em through the hole they made and tried to get up the stairs to look for Little Ella. One of the firemen grabbed me and pushed me back outside.

I kept runnin' around the building hoping she'd jumped with the others, but she was nowhere around. It tears my heart out to say that when firemen reached the second floor they discovered her little body burnt to a crisp. Lillian Clark, one of the women Ella woke up, said before she jumped out the window she saw Little Ella going from room to room calling the others. She must have still been doing that when the flames caught her. One of the girls said that Ella left burned flesh from her hands on more than one of the doorknobs.

"Not once did she complain," said Clark.  "No doubt about it, she died so the rest of us might live."

Don't matter how hard that little giant tried, she couldn't save everybody.  William Watson and Grace Leek joined her in death.

The next day, the Lead Daily Call reported, “Ella Hawk, known to her friends as Little Ella, was a true heroine of the tragedy, and her actions undoubtedly saved many lives.”

When it was all over, Mrs. Woods discovered the fire gutted the second floor, but the first floor only had some water damage. In less than a week, the building was repaired and we was back in business.

It took a long time to get over not having Little Ella at my side. After two years she was pretty much out of my mind when some guy got it in his head that one of the girls hadn't treated him right, so he got even by again unleashing demon fire on Mrs. Woods'  house. Frank Askins suffocated 'cause he wasn't able to escape from his room. Because of heavy metal screens I nailed over the first floor windows I may have played a part in his death. Mrs. Woods made me do it so customers couldn’t jump out without paying. A week later, Laura Wilson died in the hospital. Doctors said her death was caused by pneumonia from inhaling smoke.

In addition to the two deaths, several residents had minor injuries like scorched hands and strained backs.  And then there was Irene Love. Irene is downright beautiful and the most popular girl in the house. She escaped by jumping out the window of her second story bedroom onto a small lean-to I had built alongside the building. It wasn't much of a jump but she must have landed wrong and broke her leg.

Once again the damage was repaired in no time at all and Mrs. Woods was back in operation. Took more than a couple a’ fires to keep her outa the business.

 Author's note: This is a fictionalized account of actual events. Characters are based on real people who participated in the events.