Bold Spirit - Linda Hunt [18]
Something else proved fortunate for Helga. New breakthroughs in the controversial field of gynecology were occurring and three surgeons operated on her.18 During a long convalescent period afterward, Clara, as oldest daughter, became her mother’s main source of help in the home. A thoughtful and responsible child, Clara was now fourteen years old, capable of getting children ready for school, cooking family meals, and providing comfort to her mother. Best of all, a few months after the successful surgery, Helga regained her health. She no longer lived with the belief she would be weak and painridden forever. After a rare five-year pause between births, Helga became pregnant with their eighth child and gave birth to William in April, 1892. With this renewal in their fortunes and the children growing, Helga began to dream a new dream.
5 FRONTIER VICES AND THE MOVE TO MICA CREEK
We used to have lots of fun, sleigh rides and hayrides and everything like that.
—IDA ESTBY, DAUGHTER
None of the glowing publicity enticing newcomers to Spokane Falls acknowledged the rawer side of the city beyond the elegant Victorian homes, cultural entertainment, and a conservative, highly educated populace. Helga soon realized that the Spokane Falls of the late 1880s and early 1890s seemed more like two cities, a town with a split personality. The town leadership encouraged the emphasis on churches, libraries, schools, colleges, and literary societies, while simultaneously catering to a large population of transient men. They allowed what westerners called an “open” town, a description determined by how strictly police enforced laws against prostitution, gambling, and alcohol.
The growing city included many self-employed craftsmen like Ole, working men who planned to set roots in the community and raise their families. Known as “homeguards,” they often joined the early unions, wanting to better their lives. However, another large group of men were known by locals as “blanket stiffs,” including seasonal miners, loggers, and ranch and farm hands.1 These men lived a migrant lifestyle, constantly on the move looking for better jobs offering good pay or new adventures. Now that the railroads in Spokane Falls provided a means of national distribution, companies hired these men primarily for their muscles to help extract the vast resources of timber, grain, and ore.2
Although Spokane Falls was becoming known for beautiful residential neighborhoods, these were not the neighborhoods in the Estby’s backyard. Within a few short city blocks from their home existed all the lures of a brawling western town, created by greedy businessmen for workers passing through. The city catered extensively to the drinking, sexual, gambling, and entertainment desires of the hungry miners, loggers, and farm hands carrying cash to spend. Saloons, gambling halls, boarding houses, billiard halls, Turkish baths, Chinese opium dens, and brothels openly operated in a downtown area that reached over to Division Street. The Estby home on Pine Street was just one block east and a few blocks north of the active downtown. Although city ordinances outlawed prostitution in 1889, the police department, under the orders of the city council, was lax in how they enforced the antiprostitution laws. Instead of eliminating prostitution in the city, these laws allowed the city to collect fines systematically—rich revenue for the city coffers. Once a month, prostitutes came to city hall to pay their fees.3 Nor was there only one identified red-light district; rather, these places were scattered throughout town, with some not too far from Helga’s home. A prostitution hierarchy existed, with the lowest-ranking working in “cribs,” which were easily observable small shacks built in city alleys.
Spokane businesses catered to a large group of itinerant male miners, lumberjacks, and farm laborers who passed through the city during the years the Estby family lived near downtown.