One of the Oldest Professions
Prostitution is known as one of the oldest professions in
history, and the trade was instrumental in settling the West. In the lawless West,
women were barred from most jobs and wives had no right to own property,
however, madams owned large tracts of lands. Prostitutes made the highest wages
of all American women, and some madams funded irrigation and road-building
projects.
Prostitutes won and enjoyed the freedoms denied a married
woman or women in general. Before employer offered health was a reality, madams
provided their employees with free health care, as well as room and board.
In the movies, we often see prostitutes as the victims of
violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse. And this did happen often, especially in
some of the earlier establishments. In a time when women were told they
couldn't protect themselves from violence, and women had no legal recourse
against spousal rape, many madams hired police officers to protect the women
who worked for them.
Though contraceptives were banned, prostitutes made
possible their production and distribution. Doctors would make condoms
available to single men to keep them from catching a disease, but were denied
them to prevent pregnancy in their wives.
Women were taught they belonged in the "private
sphere," and couldn't travel unattended. Prostitutes traveled at will by
themselves and were brazenly "public women." When social dancing
became popular in the 1910s and 1920s, prostitutes invented many of the dance
steps that were fashionable in the era. The makeup, clothing, and hairstyles of
prostitutes, which were maligned for their overt sexuality, later became
fashionable among American women—red lipstick, short fringed dresses, and short
hair cuts.
A study by the U.S. Department of Labor in 1916 found
that the major legitimate occupations for women were department store clerk and
light manufacturing. Their average weekly salary was $6.67. Since there were
many women who needed work, the over supply pushed wages down to a minimum.
However, the demand for prostitution was enormous, especially in the West, and
the number of workers was kept small due to the fear of stigmatism.
According to historian Ruth Rosen, "'The average
brothel inmate or streetwalker"—the lowest positions in the
trade—"received from one to five dollars a 'trick,' earning in one evening
what other working women made in a week.'" In a 1916 study, prostitutes
made between $30 and $50 per week, while skilled male union workers averaged
$20 a week.
This information was paraphrased from excerpts from the
chapter —"How 19th Century Prostitutes were Among the Freest,
Wealthiest, Most Educated Women of Their Time." A Renegade History of the United
States, by Thaddeus Russell, Copyright 2010. Published by Simon &
Shuster, Inc.
Women
of Controversy in Waco, Texas
The following
is from a blog post I wrote in 2010, but since I have several books written
about Waco, I'd like to include this.
My time travel romance, MyHeart Will Find Yours, is set in 1880s Waco, Texas, and another time
travel romance, Birdie's Nest, is set in 1890s Waco. Located on the Brazos
River, in its early history, Waco was known as Six-Shooter Junction. Trail
drives herded their cattle across the Brazos in Waco and the cowboys usually
spent time in the bawdy houses of the Reservation or Two Street as the
red-light district was known. Drinking in the multitude of saloons and card
games sometimes led to fights, often involving the use of firearms.
When the suspension bridge opened in
1870, and the railroad arrived in 1871, business in Waco thrived. Trail drives
repeatedly lost cattle when herding their livestock across the Brazos. It
wasn’t uncommon for a man to be caught in the undertow and drown. Cattle bosses
were willing to pay the 50 cents per animal to get their cattle across safely.
In her book, A Spirit So Rare,
Patricia Ward Wallace broaches the topic of how women forged a path in the
early history of Waco. Her chapter on prostitutes is titled "Women of
Controversy". Since prostitution plays a minor role in one my western time
travel romances and a major one in the other, I’d like to borrow her title and
share some of what I learned.
The first noted record of prostitution
in Waco is documented in an 1876 city directory. Matilda Davis of 76 N. Fourth
St. is listed as a madam with 10 occupants in her house. The women listed their
occupation as actress. Waco had no playhouse at the time. In 1879, the city
issued the first license for a bawdy house for an annual fee of $200 and a good
behavior bond of $500.
Waco officials legalized prostitution
within the Reservation in 1889 making Waco the first town in Texas and the
second in the United States to condone a controlled red-light district. Madams
paid a yearly fee of $12.50 for each bedroom and $10.00 for each bawd.
Prostitutes paid an additional $10.00 license fee and paid the city physician
$2.00 twice a month for a medical exam. This guaranteed they didn’t ply their
trade outside their designated territory and were disease free. The city
prohibited drinking within the area. Fines for violators ranged between $50 and
$100. With the large number of prostitutes it’s easy to see the city benefited
from trade within the Reservation.
Prostitutes were prohibited from being
seen on the streets outside the Reservation yet they were allowed to trade with
local businesses. No more than two at a time could travel via a city hack to
the stores. Usually tradesmen sent clerks to the curb with merchandise. Some
storeowners required the prostitutes to stop at the back door.
Life was hard for these working girls.
Violence abounded in the bordellos as did drug and alcohol use and abuse.
Though licensed, the police had little to do with the establishments. The
madams disciplined the women in their houses and maintained order among their
clientele. On occasion the police were called when robberies or assaults
occurred.
Waco’s most famous madam was Mollie
Adams. She had worked in another house but in 1890 opened her own three-room
operation. By 1893 she had a seven-room establishment. In 1910 she’d obtained
enough wealth to commission a house to be built by the same firm that built the
First Baptist Church of Waco and the building now the Dr. Pepper Museum. Her
home at 408 N. Second St., had indoor plumbing, electric fixtures, two parlors,
a dance hall, and a bell system wired to every room. Her portrait, included
here, hung over the fireplace.
Though wealthy at this point in her life, she
died in an indigent home in 1944. Lorna Lane, the madam in Madison Cooper’s
epic novel, Sironia, is supposedly modeled after Mollie Adams.
In 1917, the US Government ordered
cities with military bases to shut down red light districts to protect the
health of America’s soldiers. Not wanting to lose Camp MacArthur and its 36,000
troops, the city shut down the Reservation in August of 1917. It is rumored
some bawdy houses managed to continue business through the 1920s.
It's interesting to note that the Waco Convention Center sits where the Red Light District, known as the Reservation, was once located.
It's interesting to note that the Waco Convention Center sits where the Red Light District, known as the Reservation, was once located.
References:
Wallace, P. W.,
A Spirit So Rare, pp. 148-156.
Photo:
Courtesy of
Texas Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
