The City Cracks Down on Unlicensed Saloons
Three women and a Frenchman are fined by Judge Cann in a sweep of Washington Street’s unsavory quarters.
Yesterday was a bad day for persons who have been selling liquor without a license, no less than four persons having been fined for this offense. Early in the afternoon, Dora Blake, Mai Howard, and Delia Stone, the proprietors of three bagnios in the unsavory portion of Washington Street, were brought before Judge Cann on this charge. They made no defense whatever, but inquired the amount of their fines and paid up. Each of them was relieved of $50 and costs. Later in the day, a Frenchman by the name of Bellinger, proprietor of the Palace saloon, was hailed upon a similar charge and was fined $50 and costs.
“They made no defense whatever, but inquired the amount of their fines and paid up.”
In 1884, Seattle’s City Council and judiciary were actively asserting moral control over the growing frontier city. This crackdown on unlicensed liquor sales in the 'bagnios'—brothels—of Washington Street reflects the early, ongoing friction between unregulated nightlife and the civic push for a more ordered, law-abiding municipal environment.
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