Saloons
Saloons were the western version of a tavern but did not provide lodging; entertainment, however, took on a decidedly western flair. Instead of art displays, saloons offered prizefights or boxing matches. Saloons did not host formal dances; they had dance hall girls who danced with the men for a price.
Many saloon keepers built stages on which short plays and variety shows were held. The Apollo Hall in Denver opened in 1859 with the saloon on the ground floor and a theater on the second floor. Denver was only a year old, but ready for variety in entertainment. Saloon talent, however, was not especially sophisticated or refined; for example, the strong woman act of Mrs. De Granville; the entrepreneur who installed a stereoscope with obscene pictures; and the man who was hired to walk to and fro on a platform above the bar in a Cheyenne saloon for 60 hours.
Saloons had liquor of the best, and the worst, qualities, depending on their location—a rich mining town or a hardscrabble settlement. Saloons had the most success in mining or cattle towns. In some of these settlements, saloons outnumbered stores and other establishments by two to one. Abilene, Kansas, with a year-round population of only 800, had eleven saloons. Abilene was on the trail of the cattle drives from Texas, thus the population would briefly increase by at least 5,000 cowboys. Regulations were few, so some saloons were open all day and night, seven days a week, especially in mining towns. Gunfights and other violence were common in both the cattle and mining towns.
Saloons located in farming communities were much quieter. Farmers were usually settled inhabitants, with a name to protect and consistent hard work facing them each morning. They discussed their successes and difficulties over snacks that the barkeeper supplied as they sipped their beers.
Many Americans thought that saloons and strong drink were the work of the devil (indeed, alcoholism was a major problem in the United States). Perhaps the most vociferous in that belief was Carry A. Nation, who traveled around the country preaching her temperance message, urging moderation in most things but complete abstinence of intoxicating liquor. She carried a hatchet in her underskirt, and more than once used it to destroy liquor bottles and bar equipment. Churches promoted the temperance movement, and it spread throughout the country during the last decades of the nineteenth century.