As in most occupations, there was a pecking order, with the women who lived in the best houses, at the top, and scorning those who worked out of dance halls, saloons or “cribs.” However, the majority of prostitutes did work out of parlor houses, the best of which looked like respectable mansions. To advertise the building’s true intent, red lanterns were often hung under the eaves or beside the door and bold red curtains adorned the lower windows. Inside, their was usually a lavishly decorated parlor, hence the name “parlor house.” The walls were flanked with sofas and chairs and often a piano stood in attendance for girls who might play or sing requests for customers.
Cribs were a closet-like space where the girls lived and worked. She would rent this room for $10-$20 per week. She charged a man as little as 25 cents depending on how dirty or run-down she and/or her crib was. Her profit was in volume. In a cattle or mining town, she would little more than stay in bed as the men lined up outside her door. Normally, a crib nymph would see 20 to 30 men per night. During a cattle drive, she could see as many as 75 to 100 men per night. And no clean sheets here. She put a rain slicker over the bottom of her bed to protect the sheets from mud and cow manure since the cowboy might take off his hat, but not his boots or pants. Volume, remember?
According to Elizabeth A. Topping, author of “What’s a Poor Girl To Do?” the term RED LIGHT DISTRICT originated in Kansas where alleys filled with cribs crowded the areas closest to train stations making for quick and easy access by railroad workers and passengers with time to kill. History says the railroad brakemen would pay a young lad to watch for incoming and outgoing trains while they were otherwise occupied. While this was going on, the brakeman would leave his glowing red lantern outside the door indicating his location so he could be roused when it was time to go back to work. Some nights these slum locations would glow red with brakemen’s lanterns giving the area its notorious moniker.
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