Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-01-19
HURDY

status in society. In towns where the
female element Is limited. and a large
proportion of the population single,
various attractions are furnished for
his enjoyment. Cosy and handsomely
fitted up saloons keep open doors, and
solicit his company. Gaming tables
and keno rooms pander to his specu-
lative disposition, and entice him to
tempt his fortune. Beer halls, with
pretty waiter girls, music and songs,
offer special inducements, and turn
which way he may his tastes are catered
to, and his presence sought. Although
the town has improved wonderfully
since its first settlement, and the old
wild, reckless, pushing, devil-may-care
population has given away, in a great
measure, to a more sober and steady
element, there still remains a large class
of men who have no homes beyond
the cherries lodging house, or the
lonely cabin. Earning good wages,
and having no one to care for butthem-
selves, it is natural hat they should
seek some relaxation from the toll that
4 u iOosSF
| Besides the institutions mentioned
above, there is one that is peculiar to
Nevada mining towns. We neal the
hurdy houses. These establishments
have a counterpart in the low dance
halls of the cities, and resemble them
in every particular except in their
habitues. The majority of the fire.
quenters OF the Eureka halls are hard
working men, whose habits, or tastes,
debar them from entering the limited
social circles of the town. To these
the hurdy house proprietors cater, and
from them reap a rich harvest, for they
scatter their coin with a p%rofusIon AID
generosity that proves their careless
habits and traits.
The Interior of one of these institu-
tons, shortly after pay day, or during
the presence OF a party OF festive cam
sters or coalburDers, presents a lively
and animated appearance. There is no
furniture in the room, beyond a bar
and a platform for the musicians,
anything more would be a su%perf1uity.
The outfit consists of a string band
OF four or five pieces, a barkeeper, and
in the language of the place, a "deck
of hurdles" These latter are COM
posed of half a dozen girls engaged
expressly to dance with the patrons.
They have no choice in the mat
ter, but must accept the attentions of
any one who offers, the considera-
ton being hat their partner dlsburses
fifty cents at the bar for a mutual
drink at the conclusion of the set. OF
this the females receive one half, and
an account is kept until the hail closes,
when they divide the proceeds, share
- 49, xlsi,1 , r Ia - n rau pu
this system there is 10 possibility of
one earning more than the other, and
the ugly and i~ll-favored receive as
much for their services as the more at
tractive. The style of terpsichorean
exercises are, as a rule, vigorous. The
girls are adopts at their business, and
can accommodate themselves with
equal facility To an awkward or grace
full partner. Be it a teamster, who
plunges through a figure in the same
manner that he would drive his team
through a mud bole. or dainty clerk,
who glides over the floor with al ease
cultivated or affected. it is all the same
to them, and they regard their dane
ing as a means to the end, a quarter
of a dollar added to the company
purse.
When a party of coalburners break
loose, it is AS if Bedlam had turned its
inmates forth. Take your partners
for a quadrili ~ shouts the barkeeper,
and a half a dozen brawny hands are
stretched forth, the possessors prance
to the floor with a female companion,
the music strikes up its liveli-
est strains, and away they go:
forward and back, cross over, and
other intricate figures, balancing with a
a tervor that shakes the house, pound
ing The floor with their big brogaps,
and executing a jig with a ~vivacity
that threatens to burst through the
floor. "Swing your partner" shonts
the master OF ceremonies. and they
grasp her by the waist n raise her
clear of the boards, while they whiri
in a mad excitement, only satiated by
complete exhaustion. The music in
ereases in rapidity, the dancers keep
pace, the fun grows more fast and
more furious until the figure ends with
a wild gallop or the participators to the
bar.
This is but a mild description of one
OF the features. 1t would take the pen
of the author of the dance of Death"
to do JUS ice to the revelries that OBJ
tain, and we shrewdly suspect that he
RUt tttt tiNilIaNtph W ms oocN AAOhh
one of these establishments. 81
AT times the aspects of the place are
more serious. Men maddened with
excitement, crazy from the effects OF
vile whisky, their baser passions
aroused, are quick to resent fancied
insults and ready to provoke them.
Des perate encounters are OF nightly
occurrence, and at times the ball is a
perfect pandemonium. A single
handed rencouuter often ends by the
whole room participating in a free
fight. during which knives and pistols
are drawn. and as often used. There
is no place more prolific of rows or
deeds OF violence than these same
hurdy houses. Many a man owes his
decentralization, and many a criminal
can trace the influences that led him to
crime 10 them. Their worst feature Is
the fact that boys of tender ages haunt
them and are fascinated by the excite
ment. looking upon the sport a. man
ly and something to he cultivated, and
are insensihly led int viscious habits
that ultimately ruin them. All of the
incorporated towns have suppressed
or taxed them out of existence. aud
fhay O r q onlv tolorafaI In Euraka he.