Probably Pit Hole, at that time, was the wickedest place on the globe. The roughest and most desperate classes had centred there. Pistols and bowie-knives were the ordinary adornments worn by pretty nearly everybody. It was no unusual occurrence for half a dozen men to be killed in a day, and if twenty-four hours did happen to pass without somebody's being shot, it set the inhabitants of the town to wondering what was the matter. [Illustration: _FIGHT BETWEEN HOGAN AND HOLLIDAY AT PITTHOLE, PA._] At the time of which I am writing, Fred Hill and Dean Wilson came to the town to give a sparring exhibition, and Hogan was trotted out as a "green Dutchman," who would put on the gloves "just for fun." Hill naturally supposed that he had a soft thing, but that idea left him by the time four rounds had been fought. He was so used up that he did not want any more of the "green Dutchman." From Pit Hole, Ben went to Oil City, where he worked in a variety show, and afterward in O'Hara and Hill's Theatre, keeping order where nobody else could. He next joined Capt. Smith, and played in Rouseville, Petroleum Centre, and Pit Hole, at which latter place Ben, who carried the "boodle," lost nineteen hundred dollars at faro. That bursted the show, as the captain couldn't make out where the profits were under such management. Remaining in Pit Hole, Ben's next venture was in the dance-hall and restaurant line, he becoming the business manager for a woman known as Em Fenton. She had conducted the place on a one-horse scale, but Ben ran the trade up to a hundred dollars a day. No doubt Cal Wagner will remember his visit to the oil regions at this time, and the benefit which Hogan, in connection with Baldy Sauers, got up for him after his hard luck in Pit Hole. Although Ben had made Em Fenton's house his stopping place, he left there owing the woman six dollars. He next joined "French Kate," a notorious character, with whom Ben was associated for a considerable time. This woman had served as a spy in the Confederate army and had been a companion of J. Wilkes Booth, Surrat and others. In connection with Kate and Fanny White he opened a first-class house, where liquors were served by pretty waiter girls, and where the patrons very soon became quite numerous. At about this time occurred his fight with Holliday, formerly of Rochester. Although the stakes were only two hundred dollars, it is doubtful whether a more exciting contest was ever seen in the ring. Fully seven hundred persons were in attendance, women as well as men. Pistols and bowie-knives were as plentiful as cigars, and it took a good deal of courage to face such a crowd in a prize ring. Just before the fight, French Kate called Ben to her side--he was then her acknowledged champion, and said: "Ben, if you lose this fight you shall cease to be a friend of mine!"