Black Diamond's Saloon Fight: Dancing Girls, Profanity and a License on Trial
County commissioners weigh whether Anton Greene & Co.'s place was a 'dive and dance hall and worse'—or just a barroom where women worked and swore.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The county commissioners yesterday took the Black Diamond saloon license case under advisement after hearing the remainder of the evidence of the complaining citizens and of the saloon men, Anton Greene & Co. The citizens were sure that the saloon was a 'dive' and also a dance hall and worse. The witnesses for the defense denied any personal knowledge of these offenses so far as the alleged immorality of the women was concerned. They raised a laugh among the spectators, however, by saying that the 'girls' in the barroom used language that would have sounded out of place in a family parlor. The saloonkeepers' attorney said that there was no state law forbidding women going to saloons and that no saloon could run if the license could be revoked because people swore in the barroom. The prosecution argued that the saloon was making a profit by hiring the women to dance there, and that this was forbidden by law.
“The citizens were sure that the saloon was a 'dive' and also a dance hall and worse.”
License fights over nightlife are as Seattle as rain, though the terms have changed. Then the question was whether women could work in a barroom and dance for pay without turning the place into a 'dive'; today's arguments over liquor licenses, strip clubs and late-night venues still hinge on who gets to define public morality—and who pays for it.
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