The Painted Ladies of the Old West Cow Towns

howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I've been talking about the Cattle Drives from Southern Texas heading
up North to Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas in the late 1800's and
what that journey was like for the Cowboys. The sheer number of
men and cattle being moved North created "cow towns"..
predominately located at the end of the trail drive where the railroad
line was.

In these Cow towns sprang up dozens of saloons, dance halls,
brothels, barber shops, livery stables and restaurants to take care of
all those cowboys' needs. The most iconic being the saloons and
dance halls.

Hollywood didn't romanticize the brothels much but some historians
estimate that as many as 25% of the citizens in these towns were
prostitutes! It was illegal of course, but these towns had so many
brothels to service the cowboys.. that the Lawmen just didn't even try
to enforce any laws against them

The only thing the towns did was put the "Parlors" as they were called,
in one section of town. Bytheway they had bright red curtains on the
windows or put red lanterns out to let potential customers know
which building was a brothel. AKA Red Light District.

The nicer brothels were usually set up in mansions with 2 stories and
had musicians, fine wine, expensive liquor and cigars. Some had
dance floors and pianos. The girls with rooms were always on the 2nd
floor. There was also a bouncer to protect the girls in case someone
got drunk and disorderly.

The other houses were not as nice and didn't have all the added
amenities and culture, just a bar, whiskey and rooms. Then there was
another type of prostitute that worked in the saloons, usually giving
the owner a slice of the payment. Lastly, the lowest level of prostitutes
were the independent "street walkers" who were on their own.

As far as prices, the street walkers charged $1 or less, the regular
houses charged from $1 to $5 and the "classy" Parlors charged from
$10 up to $50 per visit. They were all in a dangerous trade though.

Cowboys would get into fights over girls and sometimes several
people were killed including the girl. Diseases were common,
especially syphilis which was bad because they didn't really have the
medical treatments that we have now.

It's a little hard to comprehend why any woman would want to get
into this trade but it's the same reasons you find today. The only thing
that is different culturally speaking is that in the 1800s there was very
rigid code of sexual ethics in what is known as The Victorian Era.

And while the cow towns had more lax behavior, there were still
certain beliefs that were very hard on women. For instance if a
woman was raped, her life as a "good woman" was basically over and
she was considered to be "spoiled goods" and an outcast. Many of
these girls turned to prostitution because they were already
considered trash.

check out that ornate little table, I have a spot for that!

And also, in those days there were few ways that women could make
good money and many came just to do that and hopefully get out
alive in a few years.

The Cowboys of course were ready to let loose and go crazy when
they finally got off the trail which lasted from 2-5 months. Plus, they
were young. Being a Drover on a cattle drive was a young man's
game and most Cowboys were in their 20's and early 30's.

There are several aspects of the women of this time in these Cow
towns which made them trailblazers of sorts and very, even extremely
controversial.

For one thing, there were no women in saloons East of the Missouri
River, that was unheard of. Also, the term Painted Ladies comes from
the fact that the women wore make up and lots of it, which was
considered to be totally outrageous in Victorian society! lol.

And the dresses the dance hall girls wore..heaven forbid!
Having dresses as short as half way up on the chins or even to the
knees was considered completely scandalous! Tramps! lol.

It's pretty entertaining to read about the outrage which the "proper"
women had at the dress and painted faces of the cow town girls!
The Cowboys loved it all of course but the entire commerce system
was set up to take every penny from them. It make me feel bad for
the poor Cowboys.

On the next post I'll give a detailed explanation of the way the system
was set up to rake in as much money as possible and to talk about the
Dance Hall and Saloon Girls because they were very different from
the prostitutes. I think you'll be surprised. At least I was.

all photos are from legendsofamerica.com

thanks so much for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know, you might just be a redneck if:

your kids are going hungry tonight because you just HAD to have
those Yosemite Sam mud flaps!