The house, it should be remembered, was really conducted on a high-toned scale. Artists were there who could speak all languages which any of the patrons would be apt to understand. The patrons were drawn from the prosperous citizens of Pittsburg, Oil City and elsewhere, and included speculators, bankers, capitalists and merchants. Many a respectable citizen found it frequently necessary to go to Parker's on pressing business--and the business usually proved so very pressing that it necessitated his remaining over night. So far as it was possible to conduct such a place honorably, Ben did so. Of course there were ways enough for the visitor to spend his money, but there was no violence used toward anybody, nor was robbery permitted. An idea of the amount of business done may be gained from the announcement that the income of the place during the three years amounted to fully fifty thousand dollars. If some pious people objected to the nature of Ben's business, it must, nevertheless, be admitted that that business did a great deal toward keeping up Parker's. It called to the town hundreds of men who otherwise would probably never have gone there; and it kept in circulation a large amount of money, for Ben spent as freely as he received. Among the earliest incidents which occurred to Ben during his early sojourn in the place, was one in which Parker himself figured conspicuously. While Hogan was first preparing to open his house, he was engaged one day in painting the outside, when Doc Barnes happened to pass along, and Ben, from his perch on the step-ladder, sprinkled some of the paint over Doc's new clothes. Thereupon a friendly tussle ensued, in the midst of which Parker put in an appearance. He straightway concluded that the two men were fighting, and he regarded it as his Christian duty to interfere. Just as he got under the step-ladder, the pot of paint, in some mysterious manner, tipped over, and the contents struck Parker on the head, and trickled down his clothes, giving him a coat as brightly colored as Joseph's. Perhaps the paint pot upset itself without any aid from Ben; and then, again, perhaps it didn't. At any rate, Parker, with the paint dripping off of him, vowed that he would never interfere with a fight again. In such a house as Ben presided over, it was inevitable that a good many tough characters should at times assemble. To manage these properly called for nerve and pluck. Here is an incident which illustrates how Ben played the champion at the risk of his own life: