The $1,000 Diamond Ring, the Saloonkeeper and 'Camille'
A wealthy Seattle courtesan says she bankrolled her young lover's saloons and had her diamond earrings reset for him to wear behind the bar. Now he's charged with stealing the ring — and she's destroyed the will she wrote in his favor.
A peculiar story came to light last evening through the arrest of J. T. Davis, known among sporting people as 'Bodie,' on the charge of stealing a diamond ring valued at $1,000 from Anna Mazlngue, commonly known as 'Camille.'
Camille has been one of the common women of the town for years and is worth about $40,000. Her diamond earrings were the talk of the variety district. Davis is a young fellow, good looking, and was connected with the Tycoon saloon on Washington street in the days when Dick Burkman and Walter Offman were its proprietors.
About four months ago Camille became infatuated with Davis and became his mistress. She says she furnished the money to open the Opera saloon and gave him more when he moved to Pike street and took the Eclipse, $1,300 in all, and that when he said he wanted to look nice behind the bar, she had her diamond earrings reset by Albert Hansen, so that one was a shirt stud and the other a ring. He told her she could have them back when she wanted them.
The saloon was not a success, so far as returns to Camille went, and a row followed, in which she had the house closed up. Davis, however, opened it by giving a bond. One night Camille got up out of bed, she says, and took the diamond shirt stud, but could not get the ring. When she asked for it Davis said he would pay her for it.
Davis, it now appears, put the ring in the saloon window, and Davis has been arrested for larceny by unlawful conversion. The prisoner was released by Justice Caldwell on $750 bonds to appear [in court] this afternoon. Camille had made her will in Davis' favor, but yesterday she destroyed it.
“Camille had made her will in Davis' favor, but yesterday she destroyed it.”
Seattle's vice district ran on the earnings of women like Camille, and the papers tracked their fortunes in a mix of pity and contempt. The story survives as a rare glimpse of a woman's economic power — and how quickly an infatuated lover could strip it away. It is also a reminder that the city's nightlife economy has always been built on women's money and labor.
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