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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

1996

MARl SANDOZ'S SLOGUM HOUSE GREED AS WOMAN

Glenda Riley Ball State University

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Riley, Glenda, "MARl SANDOZ'S SLOGUM HOUSE GREED AS WOMAN" (1996). Great Plains Quarterly. 1128. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1128

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. MARl SANDOZ'S SLOGUM HOUSE GREED AS WOMAN

GLENDA RILEY

In her 1937 novel, Slogum House, Mari Sandoz few analysts or critics have analyzed Sandoz's turned the usual stereotype of greed and cu­ portrayal of greed as female. Those who have pidity on its head. Instead of presenting a vo­ done so have had little to say. Barbara Rippey, racious male rancher aggrandizing his land in a parenthetical comment, remarked only holdings to the detriment of hard-working that a woman who mistreated men and chil­ homesteaders, Sandoz created Regula Haber dren was "an unlikely thesis" for Sandoz's era. Slogum, a grasping woman who eventually Scott Greenwell hypothesized that Sandoz had owns nearly an entire county, which she has made her antagonist female because she real­ managed to have named after her family. Al­ ized that "in the animal kingdom the female is though Gulla, as she is known, controls most frequently the aggressor with an instinct for of Slogum County, she continues brutally to acquisitiveness. "2 foreclose mortgages and force sheriffs' sales, These superficial probings leave several cru­ even during the depression years of the 1930s.1 cial questions unanswered. Why did Sandoz Despite this depiction of what Katharine choose to portray evil as female rather than Mason has called "a caricature of motherhood," male? What did Sandoz convey to readers in making her Devil a woman? Could a Gulla Slogum have, in fact, existed in the late nine­ teenth-century and early twentieth-century Alexander M. Bracken Professor of History , Ball State West? University. Muncie. Indiana. Glenda Riley specializes in the history of women in the American West. Her SLOGUM HOUSE many books on the subject include The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley ( 1994) and Building and Breaking To answer these questions, one must look Families in the American West (forthcoming). first at Sandoz's basic theme. In Slogum House, a novel set in two fictitious counties on the Niobrara River in northwestern Nebraska dur­ [GPQ 16 (Winter 1996): 29-41] ing the 1890s and early 1900s, Sandoz pursued

29 30 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 her favorite moral motif-evil (as seen in the Gulla also keeps several upstairs "girls" as corrupt rancher) versus good (as personified prostitutes for the cowboys and freighters who by the homesteader). Sandoz's novels, as many board at the roadhouse called Slogum House. commentators have remarked, iterate one Late each evening, Gulla skulks through a spe­ complete concern: that the once free and open cially built passage-way so she can monitor American West has fallen into the hands of a the conversations of family members and few selfish and unscrupulous people. In Slogum freighters alike, gleaning information useful House, Sandoz made it particularly clear that in her rise to power. she deplored what she saw as the pillaging of Gulla and Slogum House earn disrepute the West-and the "dispossession" of the throughout the Sandhills region, yet no one farmer-by a powerful few. seems able to stop Gulla Slogum. For example, On the side of evil stand "mortgage holders she frees Hab and Cash of a murder convic­ and landlords," namely Gulla Slogum, who tion by ordering the slaying of a key witness. maintains a semblance of womanhood, and She eliminates others who oppose her and hires her sons, Hab and Cash, whom Gulla uses as shady lawyers to pursue her causes. Whenever her thugs. As Slogum House unfolds, the trio Gulla's own children resist her edicts, she backs build their empire by stealing supplies from them down. When Cash stands up to her, Gulla hapless settlers and by rustling cattle. Later, intimidates him with a bald show of authority they misuse the Homestead and Kinkaid land mixed with intimidation. She insults him, acts, which Sandoz believed to be "the hope of seizes his rifle and empties it of shells, and the poor man." The unscrupulous Slogums file threatens to reveal his deeds to the sheriff. on plots of land in the name of each family After Libby runs away from Slogum House, member and even of hired helpers at Slogum Gulla fetches her back. When Ward courts a House.3 Polish girl, Gulla tells falsehoods that turn the Representing the presence of good is Gulla's Polish community against Ward. She seems amiable but ineffective husband, Ruedy, whom unconcerned when a group of Polish men at­ Gulla has tricked into marrying her. Although tack him and maim him for life. And the night Gulla had hoped to gain position and wealth Annette tries to run off with her lover, Rene, by marrying into Ruedy's family, its members Gulla arranges for Hab and others to beat him. have shunned her, and Gulla determines to Throughout these events, Ruedy remains outdo them. Along with two of Gulla's and miserable, yet acquiescent in his wife's Ruedy's children, Libby and Ward, Ruedy sym­ schemes. Increasingly, he works his own sparse bolizes kindness. Neither he nor the children claim and lives in a soddy he has built there. has the fortitude to interfere with and halt Only when he learns that Rene has been cas­ Gulla's nefarious plans, yet they refuse to act trated does Ruedy lash back, killing the cas­ as her pawns. trator, skinning the man's horse, tanning the Because Gulla, Hab, and Cash represent hide to use as a rug before his own fireplace. immorality while Ruedy, Libby, and Ward epit­ Ruedy keeps his deeds secret, however, and omize virtue, the Slogum family stands divided, fails to confront Gulla. but Gulla tips the balance in her direction by The outcome of this morality play is much subverting two more children to her purposes. what one would expect. The evil players pay She goads her twin daughters, Annette and for their sins. Gulla, Hab, and Cash are unable Cellie, to prostitute themselves to local offi­ to enjoy what they have acquired, continuing cials, notably the sheriff and judge, to protect to intimidate and steal long after their corrals Hab and Cash from prosecution and to pick overflow with cattle. For Gulla, punishment up any information that might hint of legal comes in the form of a lingering death, caught trouble for the Slogums. in her own massive flesh and dependent, at GREED AS WOMAN 31 last, on Ruedy and Libby. For Hab and Cash, disasters and indicted the acquisitive and cor­ death comes swiftly yet horribly. rupt Gulla, Sandoz became the voice of nu­ Sandoz rewards the forces of morality. merous Americans. Her publishers reprinted Sandoz explained that because she would never Slogum House twice in November and again in emphasize "hopelessness of the struggle in the December.7 sandhills," in Slogum House "the meek do in­ Slogum House received enough favorable herit the earth."4 Ruedy prospers and builds a reviews that Sandoz termed the critics "very larger home, where he lodges family members grand," dismissing those who were less approv­ as they desert Gulla. He also turns his bloom­ ing. She said that Clifton Fadiman's dislike of ing claim into a sanctuary for the very people her work constituted "rank flattery," while she whom Gulla has driven off their land. diffused Howard Mumford Jones's comments In addition, the "good" Slogum children that the book proved "fatiguing" and full of achieve their own sorts of victory. Libby fi­ "artistic monotony" by referring to him as nally flees Slogum House and takes refuge in Mummy Jones.8 Ruedy's calm valley. She remains strong and Other criticism was more difficult to scorn. stable, a fine woman of good character. Ward Eastern readers failed to embrace Slogum eventually dies of his beating yet attains glory House, apparently because they objected to in death. Because he had helped poor home­ Sandoz's blaming eastern capitalists and en­ steaders, Ward's funeral draws everyone in the trepreneurs for the West's predicament. Sandoz area-except Gulla, his own mother. made no secret of her belief that the "en­ Still, in a sense, Gulla is the victor. Her trenched East" had treated the West as a colony greed has dried up the Sandhills for everyone to be exploited by financiers and speculators.9 but the Slogums. She has disabled her chil­ Before publication, Sandoz's editor had tried dren and made them unproductive, for not to soften her anti-eastern theme, but to no one of them marries and has children. Her avail. Sandoz had replied: three sons eventually die. Of her daughters, Libby remains alienated from the man she I realize you are looking out for your east­ loves, Annette becomes a religious fanatic, ern readers and the critics .... I don't give and Cellie withers into an aging, faded shell of a good goddam about the whole raft of read­ herself. Gulla's children are as incapable of ers and critics .... I'm in the writing busi­ happiness and peopling the land as the home­ ness for the writing and the rest is certainly steaders.5 very incidental. 10

RESPONSE TO SWGUM HOUSE It was one thing to talk about writing for writing's sake, but when fewer readers pur­ Of course, when Slogum House first appeared chased Slogum House than Sandoz had hoped, in 1937 it spoke to a generation of poverty­ she was forced to take notice. Besides resent­ stricken Americans, battered by the worst de­ ing Sandoz's anti-eastern bias, readers took pression in the nation's history. Numerous umbrage at her dark view of the West and the farmers especially begged the U.S. Congress novel's explicit language and lurid situations. and state legislatures for emergency aid. Sandoz One reviewer suggested that many readers herself had watched as more than four thou­ would see Slogum House as "sordid and ob­ sand farmers silently marched in Lincoln, Ne­ scene" although it was "free of any gratuitous braska, pleading for state assistance.6 Many intention in these respects." Another judged such farmers, as well as numerous factory-work­ that it was "written with power" yet "overbur­ ers, blamed powerful financiers for their mis­ dened with violence to a point that occasion­ ery. Because Slogum House analyzed financial ally touches burlesque."ll 32 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996

Readers themselves wrote to Sandoz, some her analysis seemed to go over most readers' pouring out their disappointment or chagrin. heads. According to Sandoz, "it seemed over­ To one of these, Sandoz replied that a person obvious when I planned it, yet only a lawyer or might dislike Slogum House and still "see its two got the idea."15 serious purpose," adding that she would not Not only did Sandoz baffle her readers with waste her time on anything without a larger allegory, but she also confused them by choos­ purpose.12 Some libraries and bookstores, es­ ing a woman, Gulla Slogum, as the symbol of pecially in Sandoz's home state of Nebraska, greed. During the 1930s, most Americans con­ boycotted Slogum House, presumably object­ tinued to idealize women as mothers, keepers ing to Sandoz's representation of Nebraska to of home and families, and inculcators of vir­ the rest of the nation-the reviewer for Time tue and morality. To many, a Gulla Slogum had referred to the Nebraska sandhills as a would have been incomprehensible and in­ "wild environment." Early in 1938, Omaha conceivable. Mayor Dan E. Butler banned Slogum House from Omaha Public Libraries. The McCook WOMEN IN THE DEPRESSION County Public Library placed Slogum House on its "rotten row" of books judged objection­ In addition to Americans' long-standing able because of their language or slurs upon propensity to romanticize women, the depres­ groups. 13 sion years largely cast women as sympathetic This mixed reception discouraged Sandoz, figures, unfortunate victims of hard times. who had hoped for more comprehension from Although working women often supported the reading public. She may have had diffi­ themselves and their children, or helped sup­ culty communicating her ideas because she port their families, they were fired at a terrify­ had configured Slogum House as an allegory. ing rate. Three out of ten white women workers She had recently discovered Friedrich lost their jobs, while more than half of Afri­ Neitzche's theory of the will-to-power indi­ can-American women workers did so. Those vidual and had decided to present her social who continued to work held low-status, often criticism through one person, Gulla Slogum, menial positions that paid on average only and one situation, Slogum House.14 Compli­ half of what men earned, $525 compared to cating the allegory further, Sandoz character­ $1,027 for men per year. 16 ized northwestern Nebraska as symbolic of the Married women lost their jobs at an even entire nation, which "was so short a time ago greater rate than single women. Because many the land of promise." In Sandoz's view, the Americans still believed that women worked country now lay "paralyzed, all activity halted primarily for "pin-money" rather than to sup­ except foreclosure and eviction and the length­ port themselves, they argued that all available ening lines of those who had no roof and no jobs should go to men. When the Economy bread," To reinforce her point, Sandoz invoked Act of 1933 prohibited two members of the the words of Jeremiah: "And I brought you same family from holding positions with the into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof federal government, such groups as the League and the goodness thereof: but when ye en­ of Women Voters and the National Women's tered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heri­ Party protested, but a significant number of tage an abomination" (p. 394). workers, three-fourths of them women, had to Sandoz was disappointed that most readers leave their jobs. State and local governments missed the allegory. It seems easily understand­ soon instituted similar policiesY able that someone like Sandoz, from a strug­ Women professionals lost their jobs as well. gling homestead family in western Nebraska, Three out of four school boards refused to would raise questions about the plight of farm hire married women and the percentage of fe­ families living in the once-golden West, but male teachers dropped from 81 percent to 75.7 GREED AS WOMAN 33 percent by the end of the decade. In profes­ women mentioned above were not only ef­ sions as a whole, the number of women fell fective at their jobs, but they refused to use from 14.2 percent in 1930 to 12.3 percent by them to enlarge their authority or causes. 1940. Accordingly, women's college enroll­ Frances Perkins avoided utilizing her posi­ ment dropped from 43.7 percent in 1930 to tion to further feminist agendas, while Mary 40.2 in 1940.18 McLeod Bethune seldom used her consider­ The prototype for the powerful, grasping able influence to challenge the existing policy Gulla Slogum was someone other than the of segregationY average American woman. Those few de­ On Sandoz's Great Plains, lived thousands pression era women who did occupy positions of poverty-stricken, despairing women. Cer­ of authority were usually admirable. Rather tainly, the national image of rural women than amassing resources and authority for was Dorothea Lange's touching photograph themselves, as did the corrupt and voracious The Migrant Mother (1936). There were also a Gulla, they devoted their energies to helping fair share of female government officials, law­ the distressed nation. Among these women yers, reformers, writers, and social critics such were First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Secretary as Sandoz herself. Other women fought the of Labor Frances Perkins, director of the Di­ effects of the depression through union ac­ vision of Negro Affairs of the N ational Youth tivism. During the 1930s, Manuela Solis Sager Administration Mary McLeod Bethune, head organized garment and agricultural workers of women's and professional projects for the in Texas and in 1935 helped form the Texas Works Progress Administration Ellen Sullivan Agricultural Workers' Union. Sager also col­ Woodward, and a horde of social workers laborated with San Antonio organizers, no­ called to Washington as members of Presi­ tably Emma Tenayuca, who played a crucial dent Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal role in the Pecan-shellers' Strike of 1938.22 programs. On the level of the common folk Fear of women's changing roles did, how­ were such labor leaders as Ella Reeves "Mother" ever, show itself in insidious ways, especially Bloor, Luisa Moreno, Emma Tenayuca, and in the market and media. For example, the Meridel LeSueur. 19 1930 Sears Roebuck catalogue, widely read Of course, one might argue that depres­ and utilized in the West, frequently reminded sion-era Americans feared women's increas­ women to remain "feminine." Its illustrated ing power, and Gulla may have been an advertisements emphasized long, flowing indictment of such might. Depression-era skirts and dresses, indented waistlines, molded women did exercise some leverage. Many sup­ bustlines, and corsets. In media, motion pic­ ported their families because they could get tures spread a similar message. Jean Harlow part-time, menial labor while their husbands bleached her hair and became the screen's could get nothing. Eleanor Roosevelt was the first blond seductress. Marlene Dietrich, Bette first politically active First Lady; Frances Davis, Greta Garbo, and Mae West paraded Perkins the first female cabinet member; Nellie women's sensuality with their "bedroom eyes" Tayloe Ross the first female director of the and painted lips. Z3 mint; and Ruth Bryan Owen, minister to Den­ Advisors and teachers also warned women mark, the first woman ambassador. Among to remember that they bore special responsi­ American laborers, women of all races, espe­ bilities to American civilization. Etiquettes cially Latinas, served as union activists and and guidebooks focussed on the need for strikers.20 women to maintain moral standards, espe­ Still, it would be difficult to construe cially now that automobiles carried dating Sandoz's theme into a warning about women's couples away from home and provided mo­ inability to manage increasing power. The bile bedrooms. Meanwhile, the marriage and 34 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 family courses rife in high schools, colleges, though Sandoz later wrote several books con­ and universities, advocated wife- and moth­ cerning American Indians, she had little to erhood for the nation's women.24 say specifically about Native women.29 Nor None of the women leaders resembled did Sandoz write about other women of color, Sandoz's Gulla Slogum in acquisitiveness or although her biographer Helen Winter Stauffer selfishness, and while the movie vamps and pointed out that Sandoz came to see herself as the emphasis on training girls to be ladylike a writer interested in "destruction of discrimi­ showed some unease, nothing like Gulla nation between economic levels, between na­ Slogum was apparent in American life, media, tionalist levels, between color levels and so politics, or film, either nationally or on the on."30 plains. From where, then, did Gulla Slogum In describing western women, Sandoz, like come? most writers of her time, focused upon white Claire Mattern has suggested that Sandoz's female migrants. Unlike most authors of the hostility toward her mother, Mary, led her to era, however, Sandoz observed the entire spec­ portray Mary as Gulla and herself as the inde­ trum from drudges to professional women. pendent Libby, who was even an accurate shot While historians Emerson Hough and Everett and frequent hunter like Mari. The opposi­ Dick presented women in highly stereotypical tion of Gulla (Mary) and Libby (Mari) thus terms as the salvation of the frontier, and writer played out the mother-daughter struggle that Hamlin Garland often characterized them as had shadowed Mari Sandoz's life. 25 It is true broken in body and spirit, Sandoz took an that in 1933 Sandoz had written harshly of even-handed view.3! her mother, who had opposed her career as an Because Sandoz could see the problematic author. She added that "there's no discount­ features of the West and its myth, she could ing the antagonism the average woman feels also see the dark side of western women and for the eldest daughter."26 But by the time their images. Some were staunch pioneer Sandoz wrote Slogum House, she had largely mothers while others gave in to a variety of reconciled with her mother and dissipated a pressures. In Sandoz's Old jules for example, great deal of her hostility toward both her par­ some women crumbled, but others persisted. ents in Oldjules, which had appeared in 1935,21 Henriette, Jules's second wife, asserted her­ self by pursuing a career as postmistress and IMAGES OF WOMEN IN THE WEST eventually divorcing Jules. In addition, a Mrs. Surber guarded her daughters against early Other explanations of Sandoz' decision to marriage and urged them toward careers. portray greed as woman are more likely. Twenty years after Old jules, in 1955, Sandoz Sandoz, a westerner herself, was realistic about restored a long-overlooked group-women myths of the American West. Seeing both the frontier doctors-to the limelight when she bright and dark sides of the region and its depicted Dr. Morissa Kirk in Miss Morissa.32 peoples, she frequently tried to dispel mythol­ Sandoz clearly believed that western women ogy, as evidenced in her debunking of Buffalo could be good or evil, weak or strong, sub­ Bill Cody. Sandoz not only set out to reveal missive or aggressive. She noted that "the many the chaos in the American West but also to women" among Nebraska settlers often vied show how adherence to myths of the West and with their menfolk for the role of boss and its inhabitants could blind people and keep some "plainly ran things." Sandoz also found them from action.28 women resilient: "nor were the women, bossy For another thing, Sandoz demonstrated a or not, always easy to drive out. Some clung to long-standing interest in western women, by the homestead even after their husbands were which she meant female Anglo settlers. AI- shot down by ranch-hirelings." Thus, in her GREED AS WOMAN 35 view, western women could be civilizers who Sandoz did not plan it, the ramifications were also added "gaiety" to the scene or could be staggering; Slogum House forced readers to forces of destruction, greed, and despair. 33 question the validity of their beliefs regarding Sandoz did not automatically impute evil a large number of their most sacred institu­ to one gender or the other. "I cannot think of tions. people as divided into sexes," she wrote, "so Such personal inquiry was all the more much as into types. Tome there are only frightening in 1937 because the West obvi­ people, varying a great deal among them­ ously had sunk to a low point. Millions of selves." She added that, "because I think men Americans would have agreed with Sandoz that with dictator complexes are not sufficiently the West appeared increasingly bankrupt. A male, I made my will-to-power individual an combination of over-cultivation and drought ambitious woman."34 had made such states as Kansas, Oklahoma, In choosing to liken greed and woman, and Texas vulnerable to ravaging winds that Sandoz imparted-purposefully or not-cer­ stripped the soil and left a Dust Bowl. Despite tain messages to her audience. Gulla defied relative prosperity in the Southwest and the every western convention of the times-and, Pacific Northwest, tragedy after tragedy raked in doing so, probably further perplexed a the Plains. As a result, thousands abandoned goodly number of readers. For instance, many worn-out fields, while western states applied Americans thought of the West as female, a for one federal subsidy after another. ripe, fertile source of abundance often defiled by rapacious men. Sandoz's Gulla ran counter MODELS FOR WICKED WOMEN to this image. Not only did men defile the West, but women pillaged it as well. And Despite all this, however, Slogum House what of the widespread belief that woman set­ would have lacked impact if, in fact, a Gulla tlers civilized the West, making it good, kind, Slogum could not have lived and breathed in and gentle for all those who came after them? the American West. Thus, the critical ques­ Sandoz presented "bad" women who cheated, tion is: could there have been a Gulla? Did lied, and prostituted themselves to amass women and situations like those Sandoz de­ wealth and influence. If women weren't the scribed exist? force carrying virtue to the West, what was? The answer to these questions is an un­ How would readers react to the concept that qualified yes. Sandoz was far too diligent a greed was not equated with gender? Even at historian to create a false character, She had the end of the twentieth century, many Ameri­ spent twenty years taking notes for Slogum cans continue to believe that women are gentle House, and a family who appeared in Old]ules and giving, while men are rough and selfish. clearly provided the prototype for the Slogums. And what about Slogum House as metaphor Mollie Schwartz not only ran a roadhouse, but for home? Americans usually thought of the her sons acquired supplies through nighttime home as a female preserve, a calm, virtuous, raids and her two daughters prostituted them­ refuge, yet Gulla had turned her family's home, selves with local officials. 36 Slogum House, into a nest of voracity, power, People all over the West wrote to Sandoz, corruption. The implications of Sandoz's claiming they personally knew the woman who ideas-whether she intended them or not­ had served as Gulla's model. According to were that women, home, and family were not them, she lived in a neighboring town or in necessarily pure and sacrosanct. In Slogum the next county. 17 Six years after Slogum House, House everything was corruptible: women, Minnesota/Manitoba writer Martha Ostenso home, family, farm, the West, and, through published 0 River Remember, a novel that also allegory, the United States itself. 35 Even if portrays a tyrannical matriarch whose greed 36 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 blights her family and community. It is, of but even during the Victorian hearts-and-ro­ course, possible that Ostenso was familiar with mance 1880s and 1890s, some women abused Slogum House; at any rate she thought this family members. For instance, J. Dayton kind of character plausible. Like Sandoz, Thorpe testified before an Oklahoma territo­ Ostenso had grown up on a homestead fron­ rial court in 1895 that his wife, Abbie, had tier, and her first book, Wild Geese (1925), struck and beat him on more than one hun­ portrays a tyrannical patriarch not entirely dred occasions, had pointed a revolver at him unlike Old }ules. 38 Despite contemporary ide­ which she repeatedly snapped to intimidate alizations of women, many North Americans him, and had thrown a pair of scissors at him. knew an individual woman or two who failed Thorpe added that Abbie had regularly called to fit the romanticized model. him a "damned old fool" and a "damn son-of­ Historians of western women have indicated a-bitch" and had told him to "go to hell" al­ that Sandoz's female antagonist and specific though he had asked her "civil questions." situations were common. For instance, in According to Thorpe, Abbie had eventually Slogum House Gulla trapped Ruedy because abandoned him and their daughter, saying "she she was pregnant, a circumstance she blamed did not want the child that it looked too much on him. Even though popular culture deified like its father, she had no use for it."42 If female settlers as highly virtuous civilizers and Thorpe's testimony was accurate, Abbie de­ helpmates, thousands of them "fell by the way," veloped some ploys that Gulla Slogum might as a German woman of the 1870s phrased it. have found useful. "Rush" marriages were far from uncommon and Besides helping create a miserable home paternity suits appeared in the courts. In 1881, life and mistreating family members, Gulla the defendant-an unwed mother-in Caverly Slogum was also responsible for hiding out­ v. Canfield charged seduction, in that she had laws from the sheriff and for rustling cattle. no prior knowledge of sex and had been Could a woman combining all these deviant drugged. Popular westerns like Zane Grey nov­ behaviors have existed in the American West? els also contained subplots of girls seduced The case of Belle Starr suggests that, again, and abandoned, only to be vindicated in the the answer is yes. 43 end. It is conceivable that Gulla became preg­ Belle Starr was involved in at least two nant and the seemingly weak-willed Ruedy suc­ marriages, both highly dysfunctional, and she cumbed to her accusation rather than cohabited with other men of questionable challenge it. 39 reputation. Also, like Gulla, Belle controlled In Slogum House Gulla also created a her daughter for her own purposes. In 1880, troubled marriage and a dysfunctional family, when Belle-then known as Myra Maybelle hardly Little House on the Prairie. In truth, Reed-married Sam Starr, she took the name however, dysfunction could, and did, occur Belle. She also changed her eleven-year-old with bewildering frequency. The rising divorce daughter's name, Rosie Lee, to Pearl. Belle rate during the late nineteenth century dis­ had been training Pearl for the stage, but Pearl tressed many Americans, who became even developed incapacitating dizzy spells. Thus, more troubled in 1908 when Commissioner of Belle decided that Pearl-like Gulla's daugh­ Labor Carroll D. Wright reported that "the ter Fanny-would be a "lady" who would rep­ divorce rate increases as one goes westward."40 resent the family favorably.44 Everything from divorce records to novels Because Belle intended Pearl to help the reveals that many western divorces resulted family by marrying a man of substance, she from verbal and physical abuse, some as hei­ refused to let Pearl wed the man she loved. nous as Gulla's.41 For a range of complicated When Pearl became pregnant by her sweet­ reasons, the accused abusers were usually male, heart, Belle advocated abortion and banished GREED AS WOMAN 37 the girl when she refused to comply. Pearl ing evidence, a court eventually released her took refuge with her grandmother and gave (188-202). A scant two years later, a rancher birth but eventually agreed to return to Belle named Hi Early complained that Belle had without the child. After that, mother and run off his horses and cattle. Belle confronted daughter attended dances, rode in public, and Early on a trail, firing her gun past his head appeared at other public functions together and threatening to kill him if he made any (220-29). more charges. Undaunted, Early offered a sev­ If Belle Starr's public appearances with Pearl enty-five dollar reward to anyone who would resemble Gulla's with Annette and Cellie, the kill Belle Starr (246-47). two women are also similar in their private Like Gulla, Belle emulated ladylike de­ harboring of outlaws. While not as notorious meanor, presumably to improve her image. on this score as legends suggest, Starr admit­ Gulla used corsets and styled hair, as well as ted that "boys who were friends of mine," in­ plucking her facial hair, and Belle wore long cluding the notorious Jesse James, "visited" skirts, gold earrings, and hats with feathers her for weeks at a time (147-48). Even Starr's and rode sidesaddle. When traveling alone, primary biographer, Glenn Shirley-who, like Belle wore a Colt .45, which she called "my Belle, belonged to the Shirley family and was baby" (171-73). On occasion, she shot at a determined to dispell myths-noted that there man to make him pick up her hat or get out of was "some basis in fact" for the many stories her way or demonstrate whatever action she about Belle hiding outlaws in Robbers Cave thought was her due as a lady. She also fre­ (151). Shirley added that other wanted men quented Fort Smith saloons, where she played sought refuge with Belle and Sam Starr. In the piano and gambled for high stakes, yet 1884, John Middleton, who had a price on his refused to smoke cigars because it was unlady­ head for murder, came to Belle, who probably like (194-97). took him in (177-85). The following year, lo­ Despite her affectations of civilized behav­ cal authorities who found several outlaws in ior, Belle Starr, like Gulla, eventually fell vic­ the Starr home accused Belle of being a "gang" tim to her own greed and meanness. To leader. As was the case with Gulla Slogum, improve her lands, which she held under ques­ the charges failed to stick when witnesses tionable title, Belle exploited sharecroppers. proved either vague or absent, and the court In 1889 someone shot her dead, and a share­ released Belle (188-202). cropper with whom she had had a dispute was Like Gulla Slogum, Belle Starr was a rustler charged. He was never convicted, but officials of sorts. In 1882, she was charged with horse gave up the search for Belle's assassin (230- stealing in Fort Smith, Arkansas. In this, her 45). first arrest and hearing, Belle-like Gulla­ It appears that Gulla Slogum surpassed Belle took charge. She guided the defense by send­ Starr in only one way: Gulla kept "upstairs ing frequent notes to her attorneys, who girls" as prostitutes and even prodded her reportedly paid close attention to her missives. daughters to exchange their bodies for goods In addition, one of the key witnesses fled to and favors. Gulla's behavior, however, was not Texas and was never heard of again. Still, the altogether unusual. Prostitutes and madams of court convicted Belle and sentenced her to all races, creeds, and ethnic backgrounds two consecutive six-month terms in a work­ abounded throughout the West, not only in house (151-65). mining camps, cattle towns, and near military In 1886, a Fort Smith court issued a writ for forts, but in such agricultural centers as Grand Belle's arrest for stealing a mare. She turned Island, Nebraska, and among such pious groups herself in and put up the required bond, claim­ as Utah Mormons.41 It would not take long for ing she was innocent. After hearing conflict- someone as ambitious as Gulla to recognize 38 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 that providing sexual services to western men use it wisely and well, but, with her sons dead, would turn a fair profit. most of Gulla's landed empire is likely to fall Gulla was only one of numerous western into the hands of one of her daughters. Per­ mothers who condoned or even initiated their haps Fanny, absent throughout much of the daughters' profession. Some mothers worked novel, will rise in Gulla's place and become side-by-side with their daughters. According another base, will-to-power person. to historian Anne M. Butler, "the presence of Clearly, Gulla Slogum is forceful and even children, often fully involved in the mother's frightening. Sandoz had observed widely and occupation, manifested itself as a common well, recognizing that people could be good or frontier occurrence."46 Motherhood did not evil despite their gender. In the same way necessarily deter women from prostituting their Sandoz saw the negative aspects of the Ameri­ own daughters. Butler observed that "some can West, which had turned from a dream to a young women came to prostitution ... as the nightmare in her own day, she could perceive result of deliberate actions by the mother." In the contrary side of women. By presenting 1875, for example, the owner of a Denver ci­ woman as greed, Sandoz may have offended or gar store provided her twelve-year-old daugh­ confused conventional minded readers, but ter as a prostitute for customers and later added greed as woman probably proved more effec­ another twelve-year-old girl to her offeringsY tive in shaking people's beliefs than yet an­ Even Belle Starr's daughter, Pearl, ulti­ other covetous male rancher or entrepreneur mately blamed her mother for her own entry would have done. Although most readers into prostitution. Shortly after Belle's death, missed Sandoz's allegory, they could not es­ Pearl married and divorced, then took up resi­ cape its impact. dence in a brothel at Fort Smith. She soon opened her own "boardinghouse," which NOTES boasted a string of pearls and electric lights The author would like to thank John Wunder across its front, defending her choice of pro­ at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for his ex­ fession by saying everyone knew "the condi­ tremely helpful suggestions, and Donald E. Green tions" under which she had lived.48 at Chadron State College for the opportunity to present a version of this paper to the 1995 annual meeting of the Mari Sandoz Society. GREED AS WOMAN 1. Mari Sandoz, Slogum House (New York: It appears, then, that Gulla Slogum was a Little, Brown and Co., 1937), hereafter cited in ttue-to-life figure, genuine in her machina­ parenthesis in the text. tions and transgressions. Sandoz offered her 2. Katherine A. Mason, "Greed and the Ero­ sion of the Pioneer Ethic: Selected Novels of Mari readers a reprieve from Gulla and her avarice Sandoz," The Platte Valley Review 1 7 (W inter 1989): by allowing Gulla to triumph only in the amass­ 92-101; Barbara Rippey, "Mari Sandoz' Historical ing of her fortune. Gulla was never able to Perspective: Linking Past and Present," Platte Val­ take pleasure in her wealth or her family; she ley Review 17 (Winter 1989): 63; Scott L. Green­ had no grandchildren to sustain her in old well, "Fascists in Fiction: Two Early Novels ofMari Sandoz," Western American Literature 12 (1977): age. And, perhaps most significantly of all, 136. Gulla never returned to Ohio to best the 3. Quoted in Mari Sandoz, Old Jules Country Slogums who had once shunned her. On the (New York: Hastings House, 1965), p. 288. other hand, greed will not necessarily die with 4. Sandoz to editorial offices of Longman, Gulla. Sandoz does not indicate who will in­ Green & Co, New York, 2 December 1933, Uni­ versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, Archives (hereafter herit Gulla's vast holdings. The optimistic called UNL Archives). reader might conclude that at least a portion 5. Helen Winter Stauffer, Mari Sandoz (Lin­ of Gulla's land will revert to Ruedy, who would coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), p. 37. GREED AS WOMAN 39

6. Ibid., p. 126. 1987); Blanche Weisen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt 7. Sandoz, Slogum House, printing history on 1844-1933 (New York: Viking Press, 1992); Lois copyright page. Scharf, Eleanor Roosevelt: The First Lady of Ameri­ 8. Sandoz to Paul Hoffman, 15 December 1937, can Liberalism, (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1987); and J. UNL Archives; Howard Mumford Jones, review of William Youngs, Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal and Slogum House, Saturday Review of Literature 17 (27 Public Life (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985). For other November 1937): 6 and Sandoz to J. R. dela Torre New Deal women, see James 1. Patterson, "Mary Bueno, Jr., 16 September 1942, UNL Archives. Dewson and the American Minimum Wage Move­ 9. Stauffer, Mari Sandoz (note 5 above), pp. ment," Labor History 5 (Spring 1964): 134-52 and 116-17 and Helen Winter Stauffer Mari Sandoz Martha H. Swain, "'The Forgotten Woman': Ellen (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1987), p. S. Woodward and Women's Relief in the New 18. See also, Sandoz to Alfred R. Mcintyre, 22 Deal," Prologue 15 (Winter 1983): 200-13. For la­ March 1937, UNL Archives. bor leaders, see Julia Kirk Blackwelder, Women of 10. Sandoz to Edward Weeks, 19 September the Depression: Caste and Culture in San Antonio, 1936, UNL Archives. 1929-1939. (College Station: Texas A & M Press, 11. Margaret Wallace, review of Slogum House, 1984); Clement ina Duron, "Mexican Women and New York Times 28 November 1937, Section 7, p. Labor Conflict in Los Angeles: The ILGWU Dress­ 6 and unsigned review of Slogum House, Time, 30 makers' Strike of 1933," Aztlan 15 (Spring 1984): (29 November 1937): 69. 365-75; and Roy Wortman, "Gender Issues in the 12. Sandoz to Jeannette N. Shefferd, 25 Febru­ National Farmers Union in the 1930s," Midwest ary 1938, UNL Archives. Review IS (1993): 71-83. 13. Review in Time (note 11 above); Omaha 20. Riley, Inventing the American Woman (note World-Herald, 17 and 18 January 1937. 16 above) pp. 259, 263. 14. Claire Mattern, "Mari Sandoz: Her Use of 21. See Elaine M. Smith, "Mary McLeod Allegory in Slogum House" (Ph.D. diss., Univer­ Bethune," Darlene Clark Hine, editor, Black Women sity of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1981), pp. 119-281; in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Brooklyn: Helen W. Stauffer, "Mari Sandoz" in The Western Carlson Publishing, 1993), pp. 113-27. Literature Association, sponsor, A Literary History 22. Dorothy Schwieder and Deborah Fink, of the American West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian "Plains Women: Rural Life in the 1930s," Great University Press, 1987), p.770; and Stauffer, Mari Plains Quarterly 8 (Spring 1988): 79-88; and Jeanne Sandoz (note 5 above) p. 37. See also, Friedrich Westin, Making Do: How Women Survived the De­ Nietzsche, The Will to Power, Oscar Levy, ed. and pression (Chicago: Follett, 1976) Anthony M. Ludovici, trans. in The Complete Works 23. See, for example, Maureen Honey, "Images of Friedrich Nietzsche. Vol. 15 (London: George of Women in The Saturday Evening Post, 1931-36," Allen and Unwin, 1924), and H. L. Mencken, The Journal of Popular Culture 10 (Fall 1976): 352-58; Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (Port Washington, June Sochen, "Mildred Pierce and Women in Film," New York: Kennikat Press, 1968). American Quarterly 30 (Spring 1978): 3-20 and 15. Sandoz to Russell Gibbs, 30 March 1939, Mae West: She Who Laughs, Lasts (Wheeling, Illi­ UNL Archives. nois: Harlan Davidson, 1992); and Andrew 16. Glenda Riley, Inventing the American Woman: Bergman, We're in the Money: Depression America An Inclusive History Vol. 2 (Wheeling, Ilinois: and Its Films (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1993) Harlan Davidson, 1995), p.256; See also, Julia Kirk 24. Beth L. Bailey, "Scientific Truth ... and Blackwelder, "Women in the Work Force: Atlanta, Love: The Marriage Education Movement in the New Orleans, and San Antonio, 1930 to 1940," United States," Journal of Social History 20 (Sum­ Journal of Urban History 4 (May 1978): 331-53. mer 1987): 711-32. 17. Helpful studies are Lois Scharf, To Work and 25. Mattern, Mari Sandoz (note 14 above) To Wed: Female Employment, Feminism,

Images of Women in Western American Literature Valley (Gering, Nebraska: Courier Press, 1939), as Illustrated in the Works of Willa Cather, Hamlin pp. 188-89; and Mary C. Rowland, As Long as Life: Garland. and Mari Sandoz," (Ph.D. diss. Univer­ The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor (Seattle: sity of Oregon, 1985), pp. 200-205. Storm Peak Press, 1994). 28. Stauffer, Mari Sandoz (note 5 above), pp.3-4. 33. Quoted in Sandoz, Old Jules Country (note 3 29. Father Peter J. Powell, "Bearer of Beauty: above), pp. 292-93,300. See also Yuvajita, "Chang­ Woman of the Sand H ills," The Platte Valley Review ing Images of Women" (note 27 above), pp. 223, 17,1 (Winter 1989): 3-16. 229. 30. Quoted Stauffer, Mari Sandoz, (note 9 above), 34. Sandoz to Beatrice Blackmar Gould, 23 pp. 5-6. March 1938 and to F. B. Griffith, 7 January 1941, 31. Emerson Hough, The Passing of the Frontier UNL Archives. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921); Everett 35. Rippey, "Mari Sandoz' Historical Perspec­ Dick, The Sod-House Frontier 1845-1870 (New York: tive" (note 2 above), pp. 60-68. Appleton-Century, 1937) and "Sunbonnet and 36. Sandoz to Cassandra L. Bloom, 28 February Calico, The Homesteader's Consort," Nebraska 1938, UNL Archives and Rosemary Whitaker, History 47 (March 1966): 3-13; and Hamlin Gar­ "Violence in Old Jules and Slogum House," Western land, A Pioneer Mother (Chicago: The Bookfellows, American Literature 16 (November 1981): 223. 1922). For changing ideas regarding western 37. Stauffer, Mari Sandoz (note 5 above), p.38 women's images-and an understanding of how long and Sandoz to Judge Louis Lightner, 3 March 1938, it took for those images to approach reality-see UNL Archives. T. A. Larson, "Dolls, Vassals, and Drudges-Pio­ 38. Martha Ostenso, 0 River Remember (New neer Women in the West," Western Historical Quar­ York: Dodd, Mead, 1943) and Wild Geese (New terly 3 (January 1972): 5-16 and "Women's Role in York: Dodd, Mead, 1925). the West," Montana the Magazine of Western His­ 39. Louise Sophia Gellhorn Boylan, "My Life tory 24 (Summer 1974): 2-11; Glenda Riley, "Im­ Story: Reminiscences of German Settlers in Hardin ages of the Frontierswoman: Iowa as a Case Study," County, 1867-1883," Iowa State Historical Soci­ Western Historical Quarterly 8 (April 1977): 189- ety, Iowa City. The court case is found in James S. 202; Beverly J. Stoeltje, "'A Helpmate for Man Ewing, Short Addresses, n.d., 93-133, McLean Indeed': The Image of the Frontier Woman," Jour­ County Historical Society, Bloomington, Illinois. nal of American Folklore 88 (January-March 1975): Also helpful is Joan M. Jensen, "The Death of Rosa: 25-41; Susan H. Armitage, "Western Women: Be­ Sexuality in Rural America," Agricultural History ginning to Come into Focus, " Montana the Maga­ 67 (Fall 1993): 1-12. zine of Western History 32 (Summer 1982): 2-9; 40. Quoted in Glenda Riley, Divorce: An Ameri­ Elizabeth Jameson, "Women as Workers, Women can Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, as Civilizers: True Womanhood in the American 1991), p. 86. See also Robert L. Griswold, "Apart West," Frontiers 7 (1984): 1-8; June O. Underwood, But Not Adrift: Wives, Divorce, and Independence "Western Women and True Womanhood: Culture in California, 1850-1890," Pacific Historical Review and Symbol in History and Literature," Great Plains 49 (May 1980): 265-84 and Family and Divorce in Quarterly 5 (Spring 1985): 93-106; Maryann California, 1850-1890 (Albany: State University Oshana, "Native American Women in Westerns: of New York Press, 1982); Paula Petrik, "If She Be Reality and Myth," Frontiers 6 (Fall 1981): 46-50; Content: The Development of Montana Divorce Glenda Riley, "Continuity and Change: Interpret­ Law, 1865-1907, " Western Historical Quarterly 18 ing Women in Western History," Journal of the West (July 1987): 261-92; and Glenda Riley, "Torn 32 (July 1993): 7-11; and Antonia 1. Castaneda, Asunder: Divorce in Early Oklahoma Territory," "Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western Chronicles of Oklahoma 77 (Winter 1989-90): 61- History: The Discourse, Politics, and Decoloni­ 71. zation of History," Pacific Historical Review 61 (No­ 41. Melody Graulich, "Violence Against Women vember 1992): 501-34. in Literature of the Western Family," Frontiers 7 32. Yuvajita, "Changing Images of Women" (Summer 1984): 14-20; Susan Gonda, "Not a Mat­ (note 27 above), pp. 179-93,207-09, and Elaine E. ter of Choice: San Diego Women and Divorce, Limbaugh, "A Feminist Reads Old Jules," Platte 1850-1880," Journal of San Diego History 37 (Sum­ Valley Review 17 (Winter 1989): 41-50. That such mer 1991): 194-213; and Betsy Downey, "Battered women doctors existed on the Great Plains is indi­ Pioneers: Jules Sandoz and the Physical Abuse of cated in Fride Van Dalsem and Abbie Jarvis, Pio­ Wives on the American Frontier," Great Plains neer Daughters Collection, South Dakota State Quarterly 12 (Winter 1992): 31-49. Also helpful Historical Research Center; Estelle Chrisman in understanding this phenomenon are, Lillian Laughlin, "Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix: Pioneer," in Schlissel, "Frontier Families: Crisis in Ideology," A. B. Wood, ed., Pioneer Tales of the North Platte in Sam B. Girgus, ed., The American Self: Myth, GREED AS WOMAN 41

Ideology, and Popular Culture (Albuquerque: Uni­ 44. Shirley, Belle Starr and Her Times (note 43 versity of New Mexico Press, 1981), 155-65 and above), p.144. All further citations to Belle Starr Richard Griswold del Castillo, La Familia: Chicano are from this source and are given in parentheses in Families in the Urban Southwest, 1848 to the Present the text. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 45. Lucie Cheng Hirata, "Free, Indentured, En­ 1984). slaved: Chinese Prostitutes in 19th-Century 42. Case #1978, Thorpe v. Thorpe, filed 25 July America," Signs 5 (Autumn 1979): 3-29; Anne M. 1895, Territorial Records, Logan County. Similar Butler, "Military Myopia: Prostitution on the Fron­ findings in California cases between 1850 and 1890 tier," Prologue 13 (Winter 1981): 233-50; John S. are reported in Griswold, Family and Divorce in McCormick, "Red Lights in Zion: Salt Lake City's California (note 40 above), pp.1-17, 120-40, 170-79. Stockade, 1908-11," Utah Historical Quarterly 50 43. Some recent non-fiction treatments of Belle (Spring 1982): Anne P. Diffendal, "Prostitution in Starr are, Glenn Shirley, Outlaw Queen: The Fan­ Grand Island, Nebraska, 1870-1913," Heritage of tastic True Story of Belle Starr (Derby, Connecticut: the Great Plains 16 (Summer 1983); Paula Petrik, Monarch, 1960); Edwin P. Hicks, Belle Starr and "Prostitution in Helena, Montana, 1865-1900," Her Pearl (Little Rock: C.A. Harper, 1963); Stoney Montana the Magazine of Western History 35 (Sum­ Hardcastle, The Legend of Belle Starr (New York: mer 1985): 2-13; Mary Murphy, "The Private Lives Carlyle Communications, 1979); Robert G. Winn, of Public Women: Prostitution in Butte, Montana, Two Starrs: Belle, the Bandit Queen, Pearl, Riverfront 1878-1917," Frontiers 7 (Fall 1984): 30-35; Anne Madame (Fayetteville: Washington County His­ M. Butler, Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery torical Society, 1979); John Thomas Edson, Wanted (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985); Belle Starr (London: Severn House, 1983); Betty Priscilla Wegars, '''Inmates of Body Houses': Pros­ M. Shirley, Belle Starr and Her Roots (Cupertino, titution in Moscow, Idaho, 1885-1910," Idaho Yes­ California: Shirley Association, 1989); Mack terdays 33 (Spring 1989): 25-37; and Benson Tong, Stanley, Belle Starr's Life and Hard Times (Spiro, Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nine­ Oklahoma: Stanley, 1989); Phillip W. Steele, Starr teenth-Century San Francisco (Norman: University Tracks: Belle and Pearl Starr (Gretna, Louisiana: of Oklahoma Press, 1994). Pelican, 1989); Glenn Shirley, Belle Starr and Her 46. Butler, Daughters of Joy, Ibid., p. 35. Times (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 47. Ibid., p. 41. 1982); and Carl R. Green, Belle Starr (Hillside, 48. Shirley, Belle Starr and Her Times, pp. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 1992). 252-54.