obituary, described Kate as “an unfortunate of more than
ordinary attainments, and a woman who in her early life
was good looking.” The article continued by providing
a little insight into the Lowes’ relationship: “Joe would
occasionally, when full of red liquor, abuse her most
shamefully and she would as promptly have Joe arrested.
Joe would get a continuation of the case and then she
would come slipping around into the halls of justice
and ask the presiding dignitary if she could pay up the
costs and have the case dismissed, and this she generally
accomplished, and peace would again reign over their
mansion until Joe would thoughtlessly take on more red
liquor.”
Apparently red liquor was Rowdy Joe’s Achilles Heel.
In other writings he is described as a “fine fellow, gregari-
ous, funny, entertaining, endowed with polite manners.”
And he had a sense of style, “favored expensive, well-
tailored, and immaculately clean dress clothes with
a crisp white shirt and a diamond stickpin in his tie.”
Then come the words: “when he was sober.” The writer
explained, “Unfortunately, there are two Joe Lowes. The
other one was the drunk Joe Lowe, and you would be
hard put to find a more rattlesnake-mean human being
when intoxicated. The drunken Joe Lowe was vile, nasty,
short-tempered, ill-mannered, obnoxious, quarrelsome
and just plain rotten.”
Of course, these were not the published words of one
of Joe’s contemporaries. Not many newspaper men had
that kind of sand.
86
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