Police Blotter — 1880s
by Paula Bosse
A saloon in a calm moment
by Paula Bosse
A few snapshots of life among Dallas’ lively and unruly set in the 1880s, as reported in The Dallas Daily Herald:
(June 16, 1881)
(June 3, 1881)
(Oct. 27, 1882)
(Nov. 17, 1882)
Looks like Dallas had a steady flow of cash coming into the city coffers. The usual fine seemed to be five dollars, and that was a LOT of money back then. If you plug that into the Inflation Calculator, it shows that five bucks in 1881 would be equivalent to about $118 in today’s money. So, yeah — the city was raking it in. Prosperity! Thank you, drunks and reprobates — you helped build our city!
***
Top photo shows imbibers inside the Arc Light Saloon in San Angelo, Texas; photo found here. Not Dallas, but I was unable to find a photo of a saloon in Dallas in this period. (I bet there’s a Tumblr on this, though. Or a Pinterest page….)
All newspaper clippings from The Dallas Daily Herald, accessible through the invaluable Portal to Texas History; browse through the collection here.
See more tidbits from the police blotter in the Flashback Dallas post “Police Blotter — Drunks, Vagrants, Adulteres,” here.
*
Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Regarding the “unlawfully going into a saloon” ones, I guess women were not allowed in saloons? Also, I wonder where Dan Reardon ended up…
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure women weren’t allowed in saloons. A commenter elsewhere thought perhaps they were involved with the temperance movement and had muscled their way in to proselytize against the sins of alcohol. Another person assumed they were prostitutes. As far as Dan Reardon, I bet he hightailed it.
LikeLike
[…] source of city revenue? Oh yeah. See my previous post “Police Blotter — 1880s,” here. Building a greater Dallas, five bucks at a […]
LikeLike