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Kansas Charlie's Deadly ObsessionClothes Makes the Man or so He Thought
Kansas Charley in Rochester, New York is obsessed with clothes. He believes a friend of his father has some money for him.
In November of 1889, in Rochester, New York, Charley Miller, who was now calling himself Kansas Charley, saw his fifteenth year come round. He had another newspaper job, could pay for a room of his own and, best of all, he could buy himself new clothes. He was having a grand time. When not working he could watch a baseball game, go roller-skating, or even go to the theater. The Best of Rochester RememberedA couple of years later, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while waiting to know if the governor would save him or hang him, Charlie recalled what he felt was the best thing about Rochester, New York. It wasn't that he could often see his sister Carrie. It wasn't that he had a good job and a place to live, nor that there was unending forms of entertainment. What Kansas Charley recalled best about Rochester was that it was where he had, at last, good clothes to wear. He emphasized this point by saying that: "It was the only suit I ever had that was whole." Good Clothes, a Deadly ObsessionMost adolescents, no mater the century, tend to have a strong desire to be as well dressed, or as badly dressed in some cases, as their peers. But in Charlie's case it was an obsession that surely lent its taint to a deadly outcome a little later when he met two well-dressed young gentlemen travelers such as himself. Yes, Charley, after only eight months in Rochester, was off and running again. He told his sister he was headed out west to become a cowboy, which was probably a Dime Novel-fueled dream he possessed at the time. But that little westward lye to his sister was in reality somewhat the opposite direction he took and far from his reason for leaving, at least for the moment. A Believed InheritanceKansas Charley headed south to New York City. He hoped to find a friend of his deceased father's who Charley believed held an unclaimed family legacy for him. Could it be that Charley had read a story about a hero cowboy/outlaw, who had been saved from starvation by inheriting a fortune? It was possible, considering the Dime Novels he still dwelt upon. Kansas Charley and a Deadly Obsession: Clothes Makes the Man or so He Thought, continues with Kansas Charley and an Unexplained Theft: A Crime Gone Bad and Forgiveness Previous: Kansas Charley Ships Ahoy: I Want to Be Like Jesse, Slim, and Dan.
The copyright of the article Kansas Charlie's Deadly Obsession in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Kansas Charlie's Deadly Obsession in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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