Gunfire and a Moral Cleanup in Cusick
A whiskey-fueled crowd shot out the windows and back bar at Joe Cusick's saloon; the town's 'better element' answered by ordering 'lewd women' to leave.
There was a very rough house in Joe Cusick's saloon one night last week. A lot of men and women congregated in the joint early in the evening and began to tank up on Cusick whiskey. After midnight the booze began to take effect and the crowd became wilder than the old-time rowdies had ever dared to be. They shot up the house, destroying the back bar and most of the windows in the front of the building, according to the reports received here.
The better element of the little town are going to take steps to see that such an affair does not occur again. They have served notice that all lewd women must leave the town and stay away from Cusick in the future or there will be things doing.
Mr. Cusick advertises in the Times: "Wanted—1000 men to drink up all the booze I have in stock. Then I quits."
“Wanted—1000 men to drink up all the booze I have in stock. Then I quits.”
The saloon rampage and the town's answer—running out women labeled 'lewd'—show how moral reform often landed hardest on the most vulnerable people in the vice economy. Modern debates over bar violence and nightlife still struggle with the same question: how to police the damage without policing the people who are already exposed.
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