A Saloonkeeper’s Fine and a Woman’s Reputation in Metaline
A Tuesday law-enforcement visit to Metaline ends with a saloonkeeper fined for selling liquor to a woman, a second woman fined under a moral charge, and a warning that Sunday closing and anti-gambling laws will be enforced.
Sheriff W. H. Graham and Prosecuting Attorney Kirkpatrick were called to Metaline Tuesday to investigate charges of law infraction, and their visit resulted in the arrest of E. T. Paulmer, a saloonkeeper, who pleaded guilty to selling liquor to Miss Armstrong and was fined $25 and costs. A further investigation developed the belief that Miss Frankie was not as good a girl as she ought to be to reside in this county, and as she only possessed $10 she was fined that amount, with $2.50 additional costs, which Mr. Paulmer furnished. These cases were brought before J. W. Ferguson, justice at Ione, there being no justice of the peace at Metaline. The county officials served notice upon the saloonkeepers of that section that saloons must be closed on Sunday and screens must be removed, and that dice boxes, cards and gambling games are no longer good in the sight of the law.
“Saloons must be closed on Sunday and screens must be removed, and ... dice boxes, cards and gambling games are no longer good in the sight of the law.”
The item is a small window into how vice enforcement worked in Pend Oreille County: saloon rules, Sunday closing, and gambling crackdowns were civic issues, but the same court also policed women’s reputations. The euphemism about Miss Frankie shows how moral regulation could fall hardest on women with little money, while the saloonkeeper paid her fine.
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