His first venture in Parker's was in the gymnasium line. Charley Green, to whom he made known his plans, advanced him forty dollars, with which he opened a place. He stopped for a time with John Eckert, who now keeps a popular hotel in Auburn. The gymnasium was opened in a hall, and among the distinguished pupils were Eph Parker, Doc. Karnes, Charley Green, Tillinghast, and others. Eph Parker may be said to have been the mainstay and cornerstone of the concern. Whenever Ben became hard-up--which he did frequently in those days--Eph would generously advance him fifty or a hundred dollars, wherewith to bridge over the temporary troubles. Eph was a good-natured sort of a fellow, who spent his money with more freedom than wisdom. He had a great weakness for boxing, and believed himself to be an expert in that line. Ben very quickly discovered this susceptible point, and turned it to practical account. He would tickle Eph's vanity by telling him that he was the greatest boxer in the world, and follow up this stupendous flattery by borrowing a hundred dollars.
This sort of thing might have gone on indefinitely, but for the fact that Jim Linton opened a free-and-easy in the town, which made sad havoc with Ben's gymnasium. In fact it broke it up.
Bent upon taking advantage of this misfortune, Hogan proceeded to set up a free-and-easy himself.
Both of these places were what might properly be termed red-hot, and of the two, Ben's was a little the hotter. Parker's was a town at that time unlike any other spot on the face of the globe. The inhabitants grew accustomed to such exclamations as "I've lost my ear!" "I've lost my nose!" "I've lost my pocket-book!" This last, perhaps, was the commonest of all. It was a place where a man found so much life that he was apt to stumble upon death when he least expected it.
It was the red-hotness of the free-and-easys which finally led to their being pulled. Ben and his partner, Col. Adams, were not arrested. This, however, was no fault of the officials. Hogan received a telegram to the effect that a deputy sheriff was coming down on the train to close up his establishment, and he therefore found it convenient to get out of town very suddenly.