Tombstone
license fee of twenty dollars a month was imposed. For
many years the fees collected from the sales of these
permits was the sole source of financial support for the
schools of the town. The prostitutes themselves were also
required to pay a fee of seven dollars for a city license.”
According to the writer of this article, Kate’s place was
not a classy one, and harlotry was not glamorous. “Many
of the lower class houses of prostitution were located east
of the Bird Cage. At Rowdy Kate Lowes, the girls and the
atmosphere were more like Dodge City’s roughhouses.
The life was challenging and the morality amongst these
girls was awful. Many lived in cheap filthy shacks that
surrounded the Bird Cage. Although the dancers and
hostesses of the Bird Cage were several steps up the
ladder from all the other working girls in Tombstone, life
still offered the symptoms of depression for many of the
girls and many indeed ended their lives in suicide.”
Gone Back to Texas?
According to at least one source, Rowdy Kate Lowe died
in Big Spring, Texas, about 1896, having arrived there
about 1887 with an adopted son named William Lowe.
Another account has her dying in 1928 in San Angelo. In
this account, in 1888, Kate met a young girl who changed
her life. As Kate traveled by stage from Fort Worth to Fort
Griffin her party came upon a young girl alone and afoot
on the lonesome road. The stage passed the girl who ran
after the conveyance, begging the driver to stop, which
he did, but only long enough to confirm to her that she
was indeed on the road to Fort Griffin. The driver then
orthington
Go see him at
Worthington CDJR
in Graham Today.
1609 US-380 | Graham, Tx | 940.549.2020 | worthingtoncdjr.net
Brookes Worthington
and grandaughters,
Tatum and Lyla
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