Commonly drinks bought for the girls would only be cold tea or colored sugar water served in a shot glass however, the customers were charged the full price of whiskey, which could range from ten to seventy-five cents a shot. Whiskey sold to the customer was generally marked up 30-60% over its wholesale price. Though the “respectable” ladies considered the saloon girls “fallen,” most of these women wouldn’t be caught dead associating with an actual prostitute.Įarning as much as $10 per week, most saloon girls also made a commission from the drinks they sold. The second type of “bad girl” was the saloon and dance hall women, who, contrary to some popular thinking, were generally not prostitutes - this tended to occur only in the very shabbiest class of saloons. The “worst” types, according to the “proper” women, were the many painted ladies who made their living by offering paid sex in the numerous brothels, parlor houses, and cribs of the western towns. There were two types of “bad girls” in the West. This was unheard of east of the Missouri River, except in German beer halls, where the daughters or wives of the owners often served as barmaids and waitresses. The biggest difference in the American West was the presence of girls in saloons. A Lady of the Evening poses for the camera.Ĭalifornia ‘49ers labeled these women with names such as “ladies of the line” and “sporting women,” while the cowboys dubbed them “soiled doves.” Among the many trails of Kansas, common terms included “daughters of sin,” “fallen frails,” “doves of the roost,” and “nymphs du prairie.” Other nicknames for these women, who were as much a part of the Old West as were the outlaws, cowboys, and miners, were “scarlet ladies,” fallen angels,” “frail sisters,” “fair belles,” and “painted cats,” among dozens of others.
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