D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May 2008
Bernie Sargent's Wild West
page 2
Tombstone's continued prominence among Old West aficionados sticks in Bernie's craw a little bit. The OK Corral gunfight, he says, was the only thing of importance, in terms of Old West history, that ever happened in Tombstone. "Their 30 seconds of fame," he describes it dryly.
The SGSL group got itself banned from one Tombstone festival because they tried to add fun to the rather humorless events. Their costumes, however, won prizes.
In contrast to Tombstone's inflated reputation, El Paso and neighboring Las Cruces are rich in Wild West heritage, which Bernie says neither fully capitalizes upon. Both places emphasize their Mexican culture, which Bernie says he appreciates, but he points out that it's hardly unique: "You can go almost anywhere and get a margarita and a bowl of salsa, but when people think of El Paso, what do they think of? The Old West. Why market what is available everywhere, and why settle on just that small portion of what everyone already knows?"
He adds, "The local schools don't even teach local history."
And then there is that famous Marty Robbins song, "El Paso." Bernie knows the true story from Robbins' son, Ronny. "There was no Rosa's Cantina. He told me that his dad came up with the idea for the song while driving through El Paso."
Nor were there any actual recorded incidents of two gunfighters having a "showdown" at any particular time of day in the middle of Main Street, Bernie insists, in El Paso or any riproaring Western community. But he does confirm that some of those who carried guns carried two guns, an idea that has been challenged over the years. Sometimes they even packed more weaponry, secreted in leather pockets sewn inside a coat or jacket. Many Old West characters simply were very bad shots, he explains: "Most good gunmen weren't the first to shoot, but rather they had the best aim."
Melissa Sargent is equally knowledgeable about the role of "shady ladies" in the Old West. She has a particular interest in the styles and fashions of the period. For the SGSL troupe, women's costumes are sometimes remade from old prom dresses and such, since the prices of ready-mades has soared to as high as $500 in recent years.
"It was a romantic period, a more genteel time, and it makes you feel more feminine to wear the outfits," she says. "I also like to learn how the fashions changed over the years. In the early 1800s, women's clothes were looser, and during the Civil War period hoops and bustles came into style. . . . Women were not allowed to wear pants or own property, so fashion became a way for women to keep appearances up."
She also knows the "language of the fan," which may be fact or fiction, but was said to be a way for women to signal their availability. Fan signals were probably also used by female spies during the Civil War, albeit for different reasons.
Melissa goes on to note that the Civil War changed things in other ways: If a woman became a widow during the conflict, she often didn't have a way to make a living or earn money. After the war, there were fewer men to marry. Lacking other opportunities, many women turned to "the world's oldest profession." They worked in various venues, including houses and "cribs" (a very small space or shack), sometimes having their names on the door to make it easy for repeat customers who could read. Brothels near a military base were called "hog ranches" or "pig farms," Melissa says, adding, "One lady is said to have had 200 clients in 24 hours, many from Fort Bliss."
According to the outlawwomen.com Web site, the average price for a prostitute's services was a dollar. (Eliot Spitzer, are you reading?) Time spent with a "soiled dove" often became as much a social event as a sexual encounter, in a land bereft of women in general.
"Whenever there was a disease outbreak or an epidemic," Melissa goes on, "prostitutes were the first brought into help. They weren't part of the upper crust, so they became, shall we say, expendable."
To at least try to keep up appearances, El Paso had a system of fines for prostitution. Melissa says with a laugh that it was the Utah Street vicinity that first got paved streets and boardwalks, paid for by the fines: "Utah Street was the area where most of the girls worked, and the reason it was probably paved first was so the men could go there and not have mud on their shoes and clothes, so no one (wives, especially) would know where they had been."
Times have not entirely changed. With a note of disgust, Melissa says she's had to fend off a couple of moronic SGSL spectators who suggested that she carry her shady lady role one step further.
Perhaps to avoid such problems, she's branched out. "I play all kinds of characters, including Ruby the Temperance Broad. Ruby takes on the prostitutes." SGSL has also just added its first "school marm."
Another aspect of Old West history that is much overlooked, the Sargents say, is the role of Chinese migrants. In the 1880s, El Paso became known as the "Chinese Mecca of the Southwest," with an estimated Asian population of 1,500 to 2,000; in 1883, only two of those were women.
"El Paso's 'Chinatown', was on the southwest side of the city," Bernie says, "and the only Chinese cemetery in El Paso is within the Concordia Cemetery." It has about 100 graves.
The citizenry of El Paso railed against the Chinese presence, blaming them for any disease outbreak since Chinatown was crowded and dirty, partially because of laundry water that was dumped on the streets. The residents of "Little Monaco" (another of El Paso's nicknames due to its wide-open gambling) also complained about the many opium dens in Chinatown. But the city never acted to close the dens, since — like the bordellos — many "upstanding" citizens frequented them.
Bernie says, "After the Civil War, when slavery was banned, the Chinese said they would do it" — the menial labor formerly done by slaves — "and a number of them were brought here." The Chinese influx "upset some folks, and they pressured Washington (DC) to do something about it, which resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act."
This 1882 law was the first significant restriction on immigration in US history, and remained in effect in various forms until 1943. The act led to an "underground railroad" of Chinese migrants coming over the border from Juarez to El Paso, where they were kept in safe houses, giving them a chance to learn English to have a better chance of staying here.
According to Nancy Farrar in her book, The Chinese in El Paso, "Immigration officials even believed that tunnels with walls two feet thick and ceilings made of railroad iron actually extended under the Rio Grande to serve as entryways for illegal Chinese. When the right time came, they crossed the border into El Paso." Specially designed houses with attic rooms and underground passages were built; floors contained secret compartments where a man could lie down and hide. Farrar writes that some buildings on south Oregon Street were linked with underground tunnels.
Bernie says, "Most of the Chinese that came to El Paso came through South America, and they had left China as indentured servants, and then had to work that off in South America before coming north. There was a 70 to 80 percent death rate for them, and most Chinese people worked on the railroad, in mines or in laundries. The change in the law (1943) was made to help the Chinese fight the Japanese during World War II."
That wasn't the first enlistment of Chinese help in a fight, however. "Pancho Villa hated the Chinese," Bernie adds, "and when the Federales found out about their expertise in martial arts, they were hired to help fight Villa's forces."
Chinese households in the area, he adds, used to hang Japanese flags so that they wouldn't be harassed by Villa's forces.
Whatever the topic, it's obvious that the Sargents relish their roles of myth busters and historical revisionists. But they certainly enjoy the playful side of their work as well, as witnessed in the Six Gun and Shady Lady performances.
Bernie says, "We want to have fun with history and we're not into reenactment."
After wincing at the often far-too-seriousness of "historical reenactors," Melissa adds, "People want something that is entertaining, not a history class."
For information on Six Guns and Shady Ladies, see sixgunsandshadyladies.homestead.com/Information2.html
or call (915) 581-7920.
Senior writer Jeff Berg lives in Las Cruces.