Sin & Grace

A Historical Novel of the Skagway, Alaska Sporting Wars

BOOK ONE OF THE SI TANNER CHRONICLES
BASED ON A TRUE STORY

By Catherine Holder Spude
Illustrations by the Author

SIN AND GRACE
BOOK ONE OF THE SI TANNER CHRONICLES

U. S. Marshal Si Tanner settled in to watch the trial from his favorite position at the back of the courtroom, near the door. He preferred to stand. He could keep an eye on everyone this way. He looked around to find those who most interested him.
Saloon owner Tuck Flaharty sat in the front row, his arm wrapped protectively around his wife, Madam Essie Miller. A society that eschewed outward displays of affection would ordinarily have frowned on this gesture. Here, the court understood it exactly for what it was – a husband attempting to shield his wife from the hostile masses.
The leader of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Anna Stinebaugh, sat near the back, still totally baffled about why she was there. She didn’t know anything about this case. Well, she’d soon find out.
For twenty years that couple and this particular woman had battled one another. Well, the war was just about over. The whole town of Skagway knew who had won. You could see it in the self-satisfied set of Anna Stinebaugh’s shoulders, and in the bruises on Essie’s face.
Well, Si wasn’t quite ready to let it end. Si Tanner was a good lawman. He’d been marshal, judge and legislator in this town. Now he guessed he’d played God, too. Well, okay, he’d allowed himself this one time. Just this once. And as long as Si felt in a Godly mood, he thought he’d teach one final lesson.

SIN AND GRACE
BOOK ONE OF THE SI TANNER CHRONICLES

In 1898, Tuck Flaharty followed his brother Flick north to find gold. Instead he discovered a man’s world, where he could drink beer in the convivial company of the saloon, play games on the ball fields, in the pool halls, bowling alleys, and gambling halls, and love the women of the red light district. And one woman in particular – Essie, the woman with the milky skin and the dark brown ringlets. The woman who hoped one day to be Queen of the District, just as Tuck dreamed of owning the Board of Trade Saloon.
Anna Stinebaugh, wife of the Principal Barber, knew she could make this ugly, raw town of Skagway safe for her children. It would take time and patience, but a strong woman with conviction could do it. If she and her companions in the struggle to do what was right for the downtrodden women of America had to do it one saloon keeper, one corrupt politician, and one prostitute at a time, they would. And nothing could stop them, not if it took their lifetimes and their souls.
Si Tanner, the heart and soul of Skagway, knew everyone in his town. He owned it like a mother owned a child or a wife owned a husband. Others might think they ran the town, but only one man every really ran Skagway, and that was Si Tanner, and he wouldn’t let anyone destroy his town.

The Klondike Gold Rush has gotten all of the press in Skagway’s history. The truth be told, the best stories have all been hidden away. Until now.

Catherine Holder Spude, PhD, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she retired after working for the National Park Service for thirty years. She has published five archaeological monographs, and a number of historical articles on her work in Skagway. This is her first novel.

SIN AND GRACE

BOOK ONE OF THE SI TANNER CHRONICLES

At the turn of the century, sports were something in which men engaged, and the sporting world included a lot more than games played with a ball. Important as the men found those athletic competitions, they knew a larger Sporting World. They called their bartenders Sports. Their best pals were Good Sports. Women who lived in that world referred to themselves as Sporting Women.

Today, when we pay a dollar for what they bought with a nickel, we’ve forgotten about that other Sporting World, outside the games played with balls – I mean the round, rubber ones you hit with a bat or a cue or bounce on a gym floor. We’ve forgotten because the good women of Skagway – and cities and towns all over the nation – fought a war to shut down the Sporting World and leave the men only their competitions.

Count now the casualties of Skagway’s Sporting War.