News Feb 7, Men felt that it would be a short stay β they would make their fortunes and return home. Letters told just how much the men missed family life, but with so few women living in the mining towns and camps, men retired to gambling houses and saloons β bordellos and cribs.
Most of the women in those establishments saw prostitution purely as an economic opportunity; others saw it as the lowest moral degradation. A dichotomy existed β reverence for the good women and contempt for the bad.
The good women worked to outlaw drinking, gambling and prostitution. The bad played up to the male ego; they kept the liquor flowing at the saloons and between dances at the dance halls. They waited nightly in the cribs and bordellos. Prostitution flourished wherever men willingly paid for it.
Although ages varied, ranging from as young as 13 to as old as 50, the average prostitute was about 21 years old. No matter her age, she hoped to make money fast, marry well and become socially acceptable.
What pulled women into prostitution? Sometimes women answered ads for domestic work that promised high pay but found themselves in brothels instead with no means of escape. The prostitute had many names: soiled dove, lady of the evening, jeweled bird, fallen angel, shady lady, that other woman, lady of the lamplight, frail sister, scarlet woman, painted hussy, fancy girl and many other less flattering appellations. In the United States, its origins date from the days when railroad men left their red signal lanterns outside the brothels or cribs while they were inside β so they could be found in an emergency.
