'Ladies of the Night' Fashion the Boarding House - Real Estate ...

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Real Estate Magazine Editorial 493 for PrintingThey did eventually catch up with her, but then were faced with a dilemma. None of the vehicles available to thetown constable were capacious enough to carry the opulent lady. Eventually the mischievous whore wasbrought to justice in the mail compartment of the auto coach, the springs of which broke on the way back toMendocino. Her girlfriends back in Mendocino provided the money to spring her from jail. “Although she waspardoned by the generous Mr. Kent, her fine included the cost of the repair to the coach,” Katy laughs.Katy says that although there were the usual abuses, in many cases women who chose a life of prostitution didso willingly. “Of course it was a sad place for a woman facing old age. But if you had good looks and littlestanding in society, what were your options? You could be a seamstress going blind over your work, or youcould be a laundress up to your elbows in soapsuds all day. With this life, you had your own money, which youwere encouraged to spend on clothes, jewelry, perfume—fun stuff. Plus you were taken care of, if you workedfor a good madam, you had access to medical care. And you often got to see the world. In some cases thelumber barons would ship the girls around, from San Francisco right on up the West Coast.”Martin adds, “Much of the time they were looking for husbands, and more often than not, they found them!” Hegoes on, “Once they were married, they could join the church and play a more accepted role in society. Or, insome cases, they continued as prostitutes even after they were married, making ends meet during the winter,when their logger husbands were rained out of the woods.”Martin explains that, in his experience in historical research, “You only find out about the prostitutes or themadams when they get hauled in to the judge.” He thinks he may have discovered a women “active in thetrade” who went by the whimsical name of Cinderella Wallace. Cinderella arrived in the rough and tumbleMendocino in 1865, at the tender age of twenty. She was said to have few women friends, and to havepreferred the company of men. She was known for her rough language, and was apparently comfortablewalking alone at night. There is one story that relates a trick that she played on a drunkard who sang andcarried on as he crossed the Evergreen Cemetery, disturbing her night after night. One moonlit night, coveredby a sheet, Cinderella hid in a freshly dug grave in the cemetery, jumping out at the man and scaring him sothat, according to the Mendocino Beacon of the day, “his cries could be heard all the way to Furytown (eastMendocino).”The Dragon Lady was another such “lady of the night,” who was said to have had the first “mobile” den ofiniquity in Mendocino, arranging for her trysts in the back of her automobile. A madam named “Pretty Pearl”Peck ran her business behind Billy Grotz’ saloon. One story recorded in the Mendocino Beacon recalls the daya house of ill repute caught fire, and the women were heard shouting randy comments at the brave men battlingthe blaze below. The ladies of the town were reported to have remarked that it would have been better to let itburn.One of the most interesting of the “fashionable boarding houses” was on an offshore rock near Ten Mile River[north of] Fort Bragg, which customers accessed by way of a long wooden bridge over the freezing waters.Drunken men repeatedly fell and met their death in freezing waters during the wee hours of the morning, so thatFort Bragg city fathers eventually dynamited the bridge.As more women and then children began to inhabit Mendocino along with the workingman bachelors, tensionsbegan to grow. Prohibition in the form of “local option” [liquor elections] began to be a force in the county, with“dry days” enforcement beginning in Mendocino in 1909, over ten years before national Prohibition went intoeffect with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Meetings were held and debateraged, both officially in community meeting halls such as the Oddfellows Hall, and in the street where thequestion frequently pitted neighbor against neighbor. The incorporated areas of the county were permitted tohold “wet or dry” elections, with Fort Bragg, Ukiah, and Willits voting “wet.” It is believed that Point Arena, (witha population of 476 and boasting nine saloons), incorporated in 1908 in order to escape the onerous eventualityof a “dry vote” in the rest of the county. Liquor licensing became a popular way of raise local revenues, and by1913 there were thirteen bars flourishing in Fort Bragg, with twenty-two in Ukiah and eleven in Willits.Meanwhile, Mendocino newspaper headlines declared, “Ban on Saloons Will Last for All Time!” andfile:///Users/chuckhathaway/Documents/WebSites/real%20estate%20mendocino/editorial_493print.htm (2 of 4) [1/14/09 12:09:52 PM]
Real Estate Magazine Editorial 493 for Printing“Mendocino To Have One Giant Party as 14 Saloons Dispense with their Stock of Liquid Refreshments!”Those in the Mendocino area who refused to give up their Saturday night drinking sprees were forced to hitchup horse and buggy for the long haul to Fort Bragg or Point Arena. It was said that, however tipsy, a man couldalways get home as long as he could find his horse. The crisis inspired a number of songs, like this lively tune,sung to the tune of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”“IT’S A LONG WAY TO POINT ARENA”It’s a long way to Point Arena,It’s a long long way to go,It’s a long way to Point ArenaWhere the beer and whiskey flows.Goodbye to beer and whiskey,Goodbye to rum and rye,It’s a long way to Point Arena,Since Mendocino went dry.In a remembrance by Herman Fayal, Fernance Lemos who had run a popular saloon frequented by thePortuguese community, was said to have announced before his saloon closed, “Well boys, I’ve got fifty gallonsof wine in the back room. I can’t sell it so you might as well drink it.”“They started drinking in the afternoon and then left to get something to eat, and returned to finish the fiftygallons.” Herman said, “I was sick for a week.”Most Mendocino saloonkeepers adapted to the new temperance law, with former saloons becomingrespectable businesses of all kinds. Fen Clyma’s saloon became a pool hall, Granskog’s Eagle Saloon becamea garage, and Billy Grotz sold out to Mr. De Grazia, who manufactured sausage and bologna. Fernance Lemosdecided to go into the grocery business. Frank Mendosa, who had barely had time to get his saloon and “chophouse” on a paying basis before the law passed, turned the building into a general store, which still thrivestoday.An Encouraging Outlook:Today will decide whether Mendocino and the several other incorporated towns and communities in the countythat have taken up the fight against the saloon are to be freed from its baleful influence not whether they mustbecome its chattels for a further period of time.The outlook is more encouraging than it was last year, and we believe when the votes are counted tonight theywill show that the precincts that voted dry last year have gone dry again by increased majorities and that anumber of new precincts have been placed in the dry column.One thing is certain—that this movement will never stop until its purpose has been accomplished. It isworldwide in extent and is making great forward strides each year.The saloon man makes nothing by trying to prolong the saloon’s days. The quicker he accepts the situation andtakes up a legitimate line of trade or business the better it will be for him and for all concerned. He suffers fromits demoralizing influence as well as his patron, and it is pretty sure to number him one of its victims in the end.—An editorial in A.A. Heeser’s Mendocino Beacon, June 25, 1910.Although many saloon owners followed this sage advice, others who were attracted to the obvious profit inillegal liquor began to flout the law, building up a secret list of customers up and down the coast formGreenwood/Elk to Caspar. Bootlegger or “blind piggers” as they were known, often used the hotels, which hadofficially closed their bars, to peddle their illicit wares. Former saloon owner Billy Grotz was arrested repeatedlyfor bootlegging. Katy Tahja notes that, “The fact that Prohibition came to the Mendocino Coast a full ten yearsbefore it reached the rest of the country made for some very colorful cops-and-outlaws scenarios.” The Januaryfile:///Users/chuckhathaway/Documents/WebSites/real%20estate%20mendocino/editorial_493print.htm (3 of 4) [1/14/09 12:09:52 PM]
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