Bawdy House Gals

The bawdy houses produced a litany of ladies with colorful sobriquets. The tender feelings western men had for these ladies are shown in the nicknames they gave them. Some, like Irish Queen, and Spanish Queen were related to ethnicity.  Rose was a favorite; there was Prairie Rose, Midnight Rose, Texas Rose, and The Wild Irish Rose.

Prairie Rose was a good time girl and gambler who could always win a bet when she had to. She was well-endowed with natural assets which she freely displayed after laying down a bet that she could walk naked down main street in a Kansas cowtown. To make sure she collected her winnings,  Rose made her stroll with a loaded pistol in each hand.

Some were more descriptive sobriquets like Fickle Flossie, The Waddling Duck, The Roaring Gimlet, the Little Lost Chicken and Big Butt Callie. The Dancing Heifer and the Galloping Cow were a pair of ex-washerwomen.  One assumes Leo the Lion could roar. Madame Featherlegs acquired her name when she raced a horse down main street wearing only a pair of chaps that flapped in the breeze like feathers. Cotton Tail was a natural blonde. Nellie the Pig was a name pinned on her because she had a cute little turned up nose.

During the 1870s one French fandango house clad its girls in red slippers, black stockings, fancy garters, short red jackets and nothing else.  This bottomless innovation in dress was abandoned after a few weeks because girls complained of the cold.