El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-07-05

lSlduuS, and DeIOre Lnem Two girls,
both OF them plainly American,
danced what the announcer said was
the hula hula, but which We all agreed
was as vile an exhibition Of the old
fashioned American hoochis koochie
as anyone ever witnessed. Men and
women of all degrees Of sobriety and
social standing crowded about them.
applauded and tossed coins at them
until the girls almost fell from ex-
haustion- As one would retire out OF
sheer exhaustion the other would take
her place and the dance would go on.
amid the drunken piaudits of the
spectators and the jingle Of dollars
and half dollars that the dusky mu-
sicians gathered from the floor and
clinked into big box. How much Of
it the girls got Is only conjecture.
This all happened on an ordinary
night What happened Monday night
when California, in common with the
rest of the world. babe farewell 10
John Barleycorn, 1 do not know, for
the signs on previous nights said the
admission would be IS and mo re-
servations will be made but IL they
gave all that for so cents, It must
have been some show they had for
IS on the last night. One Of the Los
Angeles papers said people were
having as high as sI25 for reserva-
ton Of tables for the big night
san Francisco Not SO Wicked.
This was Los Angeles. San Fran
cisco is said to have taken off the
lid" for the last three nights of its
wet existence, and to have opened
things WIDE" but when we were there
last week, Notwithstanding the city
was filling with people from as far
north as Seattle and as far west as
Salt Lake City for the final big
week." We did not see as much naugh-
tiness in a week as We saw in Los
Angeles in two nights.
At Tait's. the big place OF the Pa
eific coast, they we're opening wine
rapidly and paying good prices for it..
but Tait's Is patronized by people who
know how to drink and stiu be re-
spectacle.
At the Portola there we're few
tipsy ones, but not many. This is the
next step down the social ladder in
San Francisco FRONT Tait's-
Drop into the -Black Cat" just an
other step down the rung. and you
found a few more tlpsy ones and a
few-just a few-men sitting on the
far edges OF the crowd with arms
about bieary eyed girls, who had
drunk too much and were feeling
faint in an atmosphere thick with to-
bacco smoke, where girls half dressed
las II at a respectable country club,
we might say-were trying to sing
songs that nobody paid any attention
chestra to start up something they
could dance TO-
Entertaining Yourself.
San Franciscans don't go TO the
csbzrets 10 be entertained-at least,
after they got below the TAFT
and Portola strata-they 90 to
drink and dance themselves. Occa-
sionally you see someone eating food,
but seldom. and a waiter seems sur
prised II you order from the menu
card instead Of from the vine card.
or rather the drink card. for wine is
seldom sold in these places. unless 1t
is the cheap sort, the very cheap sort
At the Black Cat you bring your
girl with you If you want to dance,
unless you come quite often and hap
pen to know one or more Of the score
OF half dressed females who offer
entertainment to the patrons.
But when you step down another
rung IN the social scale and get into
one or the other OF the two score or
more OF places that masquerade under
the name OF cabaret, you get into the
class OF the old time frontier va
riety theater. where the women en-
plcyes are supposed to do all sorts OF
entertaining.
!. Being Entertained.
They cavort about between the
tables and when they spy a likely
A01N-A--E
him and sing. sometimes with a hand
on his shoulder or his knee. It is
almost always good for a 50 cent
piece, sometimes a dollar, and maybe
an invitation to dance It is followed
BY the purchase OF a drink or two
she passes on and sings 10 someone
else-youthful sailors are favorites.
usually.
There are song numbers with
choruses and there are solos and solo
dances, plenty OF 1t as il is. with very
little talent and sort OF hungry.
unhappy look in the faces OF all the
performers.
While there is that bohemian" IA
miliarity In the places that artists
talk about and the uninitlated think
is very fine. II is difficult TO find It
appealing, but you seldom see a
drunk
Occasionally a sailor is seen steer
ing to leewards when he really wants
to steer the other way-whateverl
that is-but there is very little drunk
enness in any OF the san Francisco
cabarets. and really much less naugh-
tiness, even among the class Of places
where the employed girls furnish
most Of the female portion OF the
audience, than there has been around
any Of the Los Angeles beach cafes.
where the male patrons must bring
their own female Irieno2-
The sZOHe Law
And speaking Of tipsy sailors, we
wondered why it was that a sailor
could get drunk in San Francisco,
when warships are lying IN the har-
Dor within a mile OF the places that
openly sell them drinks We asked
and they say they only had a two mile
limit there and that the limit applied
to the Preside. The result is that all
OF downtown San Francisco calls it.
self over two miles from the Preside
and sells booze to nyhody-while
at FL Paso we we're placed under a
ten mile limit. sent men 10 the peni-
Tertiary IL they sold 10 anybody with
a uniform on But they do say the
San Francisco politicians are quite
powerful
Getting away fron1 the white lights
OF san Francisco and down into The
Barbary Coast" called the worst
place on the American continent be-