Chris Enss's Blog - Posts Tagged "soiled-doves"
Wicked Woman Takes Her Own Life
Enter now to win a copy of the new book Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West.
Lottie Goodrich, a denizen of Hangtown, California who makes her home in a house known as the Palace, attempted to poison herself by taking morphine this morning. About l o'clock this morning as Lottie
Mitchell, who occupies another house of the same character in the vicinity, was going to breakfast, she saw the Goodrich woman wandering about in an aimless sort of way in the streets. Observing that she was in distress she went to her assistance and enquired the
trouble and was informed that the Good - rich woman had taken m orphine with the intent of poisoning herself. Help was summoned, but before it arrived the woman fell in the street. A crowd of soiled doves soon congregated about her and attempted to believe her with the usual antidotes, but failed. Dr. Ward was summoned and the woman was taken into the house. After laboring with her for two hours he
succeeded in restoring her to consciousness. The doctor says if she can be kept awake she will recover. Before taking the morphine the woman wrote a note which she left in her room. It was addressed to Lou Carlton and in substance was as follows: “ Telegraph to my mother in Oregon that I have killed myself. Tell her to come down. What money I have left give to my children. I am tired of life.
Give my love to Mrs. Johnson, of Sacramento. Curl my hair before burial.” Lottie Goodrich is supposed to have money in an Oroville bank. It is said that her husband is in San Quentin. She is the mother of several children.
To learn about wicked women on the wild frontier read Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West.
National Book Launch on February 21, 2015 from Noon to 2 p.m. at the Nevada County Railroad Museum in Nevada City, California.
Lottie Goodrich, a denizen of Hangtown, California who makes her home in a house known as the Palace, attempted to poison herself by taking morphine this morning. About l o'clock this morning as Lottie
Mitchell, who occupies another house of the same character in the vicinity, was going to breakfast, she saw the Goodrich woman wandering about in an aimless sort of way in the streets. Observing that she was in distress she went to her assistance and enquired the
trouble and was informed that the Good - rich woman had taken m orphine with the intent of poisoning herself. Help was summoned, but before it arrived the woman fell in the street. A crowd of soiled doves soon congregated about her and attempted to believe her with the usual antidotes, but failed. Dr. Ward was summoned and the woman was taken into the house. After laboring with her for two hours he
succeeded in restoring her to consciousness. The doctor says if she can be kept awake she will recover. Before taking the morphine the woman wrote a note which she left in her room. It was addressed to Lou Carlton and in substance was as follows: “ Telegraph to my mother in Oregon that I have killed myself. Tell her to come down. What money I have left give to my children. I am tired of life.
Give my love to Mrs. Johnson, of Sacramento. Curl my hair before burial.” Lottie Goodrich is supposed to have money in an Oroville bank. It is said that her husband is in San Quentin. She is the mother of several children.
To learn about wicked women on the wild frontier read Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West.
National Book Launch on February 21, 2015 from Noon to 2 p.m. at the Nevada County Railroad Museum in Nevada City, California.
Samuel Colt
It’s just a dead Giveaway! Enter now to win a copy of the new book More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.
In 1839 Samuel Colt patented the revolving-chamber pistol. As a teen he had worked as a sailor and had spent long hours staring at the ship’s wheel. He used this principle to invent a gun that could shoot multiple bullets without reloading. He excelled at both invention and marketing and today would be considered a compulsive workaholic.
He struggled with a way to produce his guns cheaply but was forced to find a method of mass production after he received an order from the U.S. government in 1847 for 1,000 revolvers. By the time he died of exhaustion at age forty-seven, Samuel Colt had produced more than 400,000 Colt .45 revolvers. At his funeral in 1862 it was said of the Colt .45 he invented: “God created man, but Sam Colt [the Colt .45] made them all equal.”
To learn more about Samuel Colt and others like him who left their mark on the American West read More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.
In 1839 Samuel Colt patented the revolving-chamber pistol. As a teen he had worked as a sailor and had spent long hours staring at the ship’s wheel. He used this principle to invent a gun that could shoot multiple bullets without reloading. He excelled at both invention and marketing and today would be considered a compulsive workaholic.
He struggled with a way to produce his guns cheaply but was forced to find a method of mass production after he received an order from the U.S. government in 1847 for 1,000 revolvers. By the time he died of exhaustion at age forty-seven, Samuel Colt had produced more than 400,000 Colt .45 revolvers. At his funeral in 1862 it was said of the Colt .45 he invented: “God created man, but Sam Colt [the Colt .45] made them all equal.”
To learn more about Samuel Colt and others like him who left their mark on the American West read More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.
Wayward Ladies
Enter for a chance to win a copy of Wicked Women:
Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
The effect of vice upon the destiny of the expanding western frontier was considered by some religious and political leaders in the mid-1850s to be a sign of a rotten and decaying civilization. In 1856, Methodist pastor John M. Chivington told a congregation in Nebraska that “the extravagant development of immorality, particularly the development of immoral women given to gambling, whiskey drinking and prostitution, marked the decadence of a potentially great nation.” Ernest A. Bell, the secretary of the Illinois Vigilance Association maintained that “from the day the serpent lured the first woman in the garden there have been few days and nights when some daughter of Eve’s has not been deceived into a wicked life by some serpent or other. It has not changed and will not change.”
In 1849, women of easy virtue found wicked lives west of the Mississippi when they followed fortune hunters seeking gold and land in an unsettled territory. Prostitutes and female gamblers hoped to capitalize on the vices of the intrepid pioneers.
According to records at the California State Historical Library, more than half of the working women in the West during the 1870s were prostitutes. At that time, madams - those women who owned, managed, and maintained brothels - were generally the only women out west who appeared to be in control of their own destinies. For that reason alone, the prospect of a career in the “oldest profession” – at least at the outset – must have seemed promising.
Often referred to as “sporting women” and “soiled doves,” prostitutes mostly ranged in age from seventeen to twenty-five, although girls as young as fourteen were sometimes hired. Women over twenty-eight years of age were generally considered too old to be prostitutes.
Rarely, if ever, did working women use their real names. In order to avoid trouble with the law as they traveled from town to town and to protect their true identities, many of these women adopted colorful new handles like Contrary Mary, Little Gold Dollar, Lazy Kate, and Honolulu Nell. The vicinities where their businesses were located were also given distinctive names. Bordellos and parlor houses typically thrived in that part of the city known as “the half world,” “the badlands,” “the tenderloin,” “the twilight zone,” or the red-light district.”
The term “red-light district” originated in Kansas. As a way of discouraging would-be intruders brazen railroad workers around Dodge City began hanging their red brakemen’s lanterns outside their doors as signal that they were in the company of a lady of the evening. The colorful custom was quickly adopted by many ladies and their madams.
To learn more about the wild ladies on the rugged frontier read Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
The effect of vice upon the destiny of the expanding western frontier was considered by some religious and political leaders in the mid-1850s to be a sign of a rotten and decaying civilization. In 1856, Methodist pastor John M. Chivington told a congregation in Nebraska that “the extravagant development of immorality, particularly the development of immoral women given to gambling, whiskey drinking and prostitution, marked the decadence of a potentially great nation.” Ernest A. Bell, the secretary of the Illinois Vigilance Association maintained that “from the day the serpent lured the first woman in the garden there have been few days and nights when some daughter of Eve’s has not been deceived into a wicked life by some serpent or other. It has not changed and will not change.”
In 1849, women of easy virtue found wicked lives west of the Mississippi when they followed fortune hunters seeking gold and land in an unsettled territory. Prostitutes and female gamblers hoped to capitalize on the vices of the intrepid pioneers.
According to records at the California State Historical Library, more than half of the working women in the West during the 1870s were prostitutes. At that time, madams - those women who owned, managed, and maintained brothels - were generally the only women out west who appeared to be in control of their own destinies. For that reason alone, the prospect of a career in the “oldest profession” – at least at the outset – must have seemed promising.
Often referred to as “sporting women” and “soiled doves,” prostitutes mostly ranged in age from seventeen to twenty-five, although girls as young as fourteen were sometimes hired. Women over twenty-eight years of age were generally considered too old to be prostitutes.
Rarely, if ever, did working women use their real names. In order to avoid trouble with the law as they traveled from town to town and to protect their true identities, many of these women adopted colorful new handles like Contrary Mary, Little Gold Dollar, Lazy Kate, and Honolulu Nell. The vicinities where their businesses were located were also given distinctive names. Bordellos and parlor houses typically thrived in that part of the city known as “the half world,” “the badlands,” “the tenderloin,” “the twilight zone,” or the red-light district.”
The term “red-light district” originated in Kansas. As a way of discouraging would-be intruders brazen railroad workers around Dodge City began hanging their red brakemen’s lanterns outside their doors as signal that they were in the company of a lady of the evening. The colorful custom was quickly adopted by many ladies and their madams.
To learn more about the wild ladies on the rugged frontier read Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
