Stingaree

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* Category:Stingaree

> Maeve’s travels steered her away from the hustle and bustle of downtown into the colorful neighborhoods beyond the train tracks.
> There, Chinese fisherman paced the streets, baskets full of dead fish slung over their shoulders, calling out in their mother tongue and occasionally stopping to make exchanges—fish for money, fish for non-fish goods, fish for different fish—with other non-Caucasian immigrants who passed them by.
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> They either ignored Maeve or glowered at her and hurried across the street upon her approach. She didn’t begrudge them their distrust; they probably thought all Americans hated them.
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> They probably weren’t imagining things, either.
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> Numerous merchants had fresh produce displayed in neat little boxes outside their shops; attractive arrays of green, orange, purple, and red. Salted pork hung outside another booth beside the fruits and vegetables, and—for those who wanted the freshest—there was a pen housing live pigs, flopped over amid their filth.
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> Despite the wandering fisherman, a fishmonger displayed his catch of the day—Maeve assumed—fresh from the sea a few short blocks over.
> Although the beach was mere minutes away, she didn’t suppose the fresh catch got on well with the afternoon sun beating on it. The smell revolted her so she escaped into the market house for some dry and canned goods. (...)
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> This neighborhood was in its infancy but already falling into disrepair through neglect or abuse.
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> Maeve continued south on Third Street, passing a few tenements, laundries, and lodging houses before crossing I Street. On one corner stood the Old Tub of Blood and across from that, the Seven Buckets of Blood, her ears assaulted by allegro melodies played on asthmatic pianos, discordant fiddles accompanying each other—or dueling; it was hard to tell—and a chorus of drunken voices bellowing the lyrics to lewd songs.
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> She hurried by the gambling and lottery drawing center before turning left on J Street, passing on the left Yankee Doodle Hall and on the right, a line of Chinese businesses spotlighted by their red lanterns and colorful banners decorated with ample gold fringe.
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> She assumed the residents here suffered with exposure to such squalor, but children played in the street, happy and—as far as Maeve could tell—healthy. Any sense of danger she felt must’ve been all in her head.
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> Chapter 4, Coven

## History

Gambling and prostitution were illegal in California after 1855. However, law enforcement throughout America and especially in the West saw these vices as impossible to eradicate. Special "restricted" districts were created in many cities where the vices were tolerated so long as they were kept within the boundaries of the district and that there were no greater crimes involved. Illegal payments from the vice trade to the police were also typical components of these bargains. The **Stingaree**, like the more famous Barbary Coast in San Francisco, was one of these districts.

The neighborhood saw a concentration of drug peddlers, brothels and gambling halls. Many other establishments in the neighborhood participated in petty crime, like the Railroad Coffeehouse on Fifth and K that sold liquor after midnight under the title "Coffee Royal" (coffee and whisky) for 15¢. There were at least 120 openly illegal establishments in the district in 1888.

Between 1887 and around 1896 Wyatt Earp owned four saloons and gambling halls in San Diego, one on Fifth, one on Fourth Street, and two others near Sixth and E. The saloons offered 21 games including faro, blackjack, poker, keno, and other Victorian-American games of chance like pedro and monte. At the height of San Diego's real estate boom, Earp made up to $1,000 a night in profit.

The Oyster Bar on Fifth Avenue was one of the more popular saloons in the **Stingaree** district. One of the reasons it drew a good crowd was the brothel upstairs named the Golden Poppy. Each room was painted a different color and each prostitute wore a matching dress.

The **Stingaree** of *The Witches' Rede* is very much like the historical district; a home to the minorites and the downtrodden. In the world of the *Rede*, however, this also includes the area's perternatual populance, who frequent a saloon and underground village known as L'Aringa Rossa.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingaree,\_San\_Diego