so of her kind." Honkytonk bars in that era often had a reputation as places for prostitution and his choice of language ("three hundred or so of her kind") may have referred to Josephine's work as a prostitute. Other researchers have questioned what she did prior to 1883. A town like Tombstone, full of single men, attracted women who sought adventure with little concern for what others might think. Josephine always sought excitement in her life. In the book I Married Wyatt Earp (1967), based on a manuscript which she purportedly wrote, author Glenn Boyer quotes her as saying, "I liked the traveling sort of man... better than the kind that sat back in one town all his life and wrote down little rows of figures all day or hustled dry goods or groceries and that sort of thing... My blood demanded excitement, variety and change." Men in Tombstone outnumbered women nine to one, and the miners were eager to pay substantial fees to women who would cook their meals, provide rooms, wash their clothes, and provide sexual services. Many madams and prostitutes had more control of their lives and greater independence than "respectable" women, who often ostracized them. Married women of the era were expected to avoid working outside the home, or risk being considered "public women," a euphemism for prostitute. A few women of the era chose to remain single as a means to maintain their independence from men, and Josephine was among them. The type of work available to unmarried women without means in that era was as waitresses, laundresses, seamstresses, or other dull work which Josephine avoided. Some women in Tombstone operated restaurants, boarding-houses, and apparel and millinery shops, and a few ran some of the dry goods stores. Many wives of the prosperous mining engineers, merchants, and business owners lived in better class cities where they didn't have to contend with being confused for a prostitute. Josephine's life on the frontier and possibly as a prostitute allowed her greater independence. She likely enjoyed the social life and independence that accompanied her role. As an unmarried woman in frontier Tombstone, vastly outnumbered by men, she was likely regarded by some as a prostitute, regardless of her true status. Runs away In a remarkable set of coincidences, the known life of Josephine Sadie Marcus overlapped the life of an otherwise unknown prostitute named Sadie Mansfield. Josie attended