Читать книгу GOLD FEVER Part Three - Ken Salter - Страница 15

The Spring of 1853 brought us worries as well as an exciting partnership with Levi Strauss. Governor Bigler proposed to the California Legislature that they authorize another extension of the San Francisco waterfront. The scheme was to extend the existing waterfront another 600 feet into the bay, fill in the extended area to create new bay front lots the state could sell for outrageous prices to help cut the state’s budget deficit. The mayor of San Francisco and the city council opposed the plan as did all the waterfront merchants including us. The city pointed out that the plan would be harmful to shipping by causing ships with heavy draft to anchor much further from shore in treacherous, dangerous currents. It would affect our ship’s position on the Long Wharf and expose our “Eliza” to gale force winds in the rainy season. The state had already leased “waterfront” lots for 99 years and now they would no longer be on the waterfront. Needless to say, the lessees howled about unfair play by greedy, profit-motivated “waterfront lot gamesters” to mostly deaf ears. We had been anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Senate’s vote after the lower house legislature approved the cabalistic plan.

We’d organized all the local merchants on the wharf to sign a petition laying out arguments against the scheme which Attorney Hawthorne forwarded to both houses of the legislature. He was the first to bring us the results on April 26th. The Senate vote was tied at 13-13. Fortunately, Lieutenant Governor Purdy broke the tie with a no vote and we heaved a monumental sigh of relief. For once, David Broderick and his Tammany Hall-style political machine that controlled our city offices were on the right side of this debate. We knew the waterfront lot speculators would target other areas of the shoreline with their schemes, but we could now relax a bit as our wharf was out of their gun sights.

Our local newspapers were rife with speculation for some months that the notorious dancer, actress and seductress, Lola Montez, would make her way to San Francisco once she finished her latest tour of east coast and southern cities. The Alta California made a point to chronicle her every move, salacious tidbit, and performance since she fled scandals in London, where she was sued for bigamy, and on to Paris and Rome where her pursuers and notoriety followed. She arrived in New York City aboard the steamer “Humboldt” in December, 1851 and wasted no time in booking stage performances.

As the east coast reviewers pointed out, the 32-year-old actress and dancer was no longer the stunning beauty she once was who captivated the 60-year-old King Ludwig I of Bavaria who lavished on her money, citizenship and the title of Countess of Landsfeld despite opposition from his wife, Therese, and all of Ludwig’s counselors. Nevertheless, at 32, Lola Montez still had “impressive eyes, a teenager’s figure,” and while no great dancer, she projected “a magnetic stage presence and gracefulness” that charmed audiences.

As the New York papers reported, Montez wasted no time mounting her comeback. On December 29, 1851 she danced “Tyrolienne” from her repertoire on Broadway to a packed house of 3,000 curious New Yorkers. The critics panned her dancing while having to concede, she knew how to engage and enchant her audience and earn $3,400 for her first week’s performances to boot. From New York she toured Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Virginia, and Baltimore where she acted in plays and skits that allowed her to show off her dynamic figure, sometimes in men’s clothing and gypsy girl costumes, to the great satisfaction of her male admirers. On her tour to New Orleans, she danced her notorious “Spider Dance.”

To the delight of San Francisco’s primarily male population, Lola Montez arrived in San Francisco with her entourage via New Orleans and Panama on the mail ship, “Northerner” on May 21, 1853. She wasted no time booking an engagement at The American Theatre, which had been recently renovated to seat 3,000. She opened as “Lady Teazle” in “School For Scandal” on May 26, 1853. The best seats in the house sold for $5 and her sold-out first night’s performance netted $4,500. The Alta California loved her performance and their critic wrote, “Lola evidenced all that grace and vitality of one who has turned heads of princes and unmercifully scorned editors and assailants.”

Lola Montez announced that she would perform her renowned “Spider Dance” that seduced King Ludwig I of Bavaria and most recently her fans in New Orleans. Manon brought me the flyer announcing the performance and stated, “I want you to take me.” Montez announced she would move on from San Francisco to give performances and tour Sacramento and possibly some larger mining towns. As Manon pointed out, she might well not return to San Francisco for quite awhile and even if she did, might not dance her signature “Spider Dance” again, which had made her the envy of so many other performers and critics.

I was a bit surprised as Manon usually opposed outings to balls or theatrical performances that featured sexy women. Fortunately, the performance was scheduled for mid-week when we served only lunch in our restaurant. Giselle agreed to sit our babes. Manon insisted I purchase seats in the first balcony next to the stage so we’d have the best view of the performance and the audience. We took our seats well in advance of the performance due to begin at 8 P.M. in order to watch the spectacle of San Franciscans from the highest to the lowest ranks taking their seats.

Charles Cora had reserved several front row boxes to showcase his mistress, Belle, who was stunning in a gauzy, slinky mauve silk dress that hugged her curvaceous body and whose daring décolletage showcased her luscious bosom. The additional seats were for Belle’s parlor house ladies, each of whom was decked out in her sexiest finery. Belle had moved permanently to San Francisco from Sacramento and her bordello was the top one in the city. Her “girls” were the most beautiful courtesans to be had in the state and Belle’s opulently furnished parlor house was frequented by the all the rich and powerful from the governor down to our local judges and merchants. No doubt, she would do a roaring business after the performance with her “girls” on public display.

Belle was not the only top-tier madam in attendance. Ah Toy, the tall, beautiful Chinese madam dressed in bewitching silk trousers and jacket was also in attendance. She’d moved from independent Chinese burlesque queen in 1849 when she charged an ounce of gold to view her peep show to owner of the top Chinese parlor house across the street from Belle’s. Her “girls” were beautiful and she charged through the nose those who sought the mysteries of the Orient. She gave a subtle wave of recognition to Manon from her nearby box she shared with her protector.

All of San Francisco’s “high society” including the mayor, aldermen, judges and sheriff were present as well as grubby, crusty miners and laborers from every corner of the world. However poor they might be, they’d scraped together $3.50 for a standing room admission and were now hooting and hollering for “Lola, Lola, Lola.”

Lola Montez must have been monitoring her audience—letting the hooters build heightened anticipation for her entry. It was at least twenty minutes past eight P.M. before the house lights dimmed and the curtain lifted. Close up Lola Montez was a bit more plump than she had been in her teens. She was dressed in tights and a short skirt showcasing her shapely legs. She proceeded to wiggle, twist, and sashay around the stage dropping little rubber spiders from her skirt which she continued to raise higher and higher to the delight of the hooters who started a chorus hollering “higher, higher.” As she swished her skirt higher and higher to the top of her thighs, she started a bump and grind routine worthy of the best girly pole dancers and strippers in London or Paris. As she paraded around the stage bumping, swishing and grinding, she attacked the little rubber spiders she’d released from the folds of her skirt by stomping on them with her high-heeled slippers. When the last spider was finally crushed, she raised her skimpy skirt even higher, did a series of pirouettes and then a deep bow to her audience as the curtain dropped for her exit. Manon whispered in my ear, “Ooh, la, la.”

The stunned audience erupted as one in a cacophony of sound—hollers, wolf whistles, bravos, and calls for “encore”—and the hooters started stamping their boots to mimic Montez stomping spiders. When after several minutes the noise reached fever pitch, Montez slipped out from behind the curtain, sashayed to center stage all the while swishing her short skirt to give dazzling but fleeting glimpses of juicy thighs and a delectable derriere. She did another deep bow as a cascade of flower bouquets, some with notes attached, rained onto the stage. As she picked them up she returned the gesture by tossing several rubber spiders as souvenirs to the delighted audience. And just like that it was over. House gaslights returned to full brightness. We’d seen the infamous “Spider Dance” in a performance that occupied the stage for a little over an hour and had probably raked in another $4,000 or more in proceeds. We watched the hoi polloi, gentry, movers and shakers and riffraff scoot out of the theatre heading for their favorite watering holes to regale each other and brag about what they’d seen and how high she’d lifted her skirt; we eventually made our way back home.

“So Chéri, you like what you saw?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I said no, would you?”

“Of course not. All men like sexy ladies. Your poor wife has to slave in a restaurant to make a living while Miss Montez makes a fortune every night as she wiggles her ass and shows her legs to horny men, yes? Is that fair?” Manon added with a pouty look.

I laughed. “I have to admit, you’ve got better stuff than Montez and, if I remember correctly in Valparaiso and later with a big belly, you did a strip tease that would get you more applause than Montez, if you took your act on the stage.”

Manon was so pleased with my praise and comparison that I got an encore performance in our bedroom before our twins awakened us howling rudely.

Lola Montez decided to marry her companion, Patrick Hull, in Mission Dolores before starting her tour to Sacramento and the gold country where she received rave reviews from critics for her dancing the “Spider Dance” and “El Olé” from her repertoire, but her mostly male audiences turned rowdy and belligerent as her tour proceeded. During one performance, she stopped dancing to dress down a raucous crowd who would not be appeased. Taking offense, some unruly troublemakers threw apples and rotten eggs at her and she responded by stomping on a bouquet of flowers which she then threw at them along with a return volley of their missiles. Finally, fed up with the rough and tumble miners and riffraff and their crude behavior, she abruptly cancelled the rest of her performances after an engagement in Marysville was poorly received.

Montez had been quarreling with Hull and shouting at members of her cast all along the trip. It culminated with her throwing Hull’s clothing out of a second storey hotel room. After dumping Hull, she proceeded to Grass Valley where she rented, then bought a cottage on Mill Street near the center of town. She sent Hull packing for good claiming he was living off her money; she now referred to herself as “Mrs. Heald.” She established a Wednesday evening salon at her cottage where she offered her guests good food, brandy and cigars in exchange for stimulating conversation. For the time being, she was “semi-retired,” dancing only on special occasions in the small theatre above the Alta Saloon or when in the mood in nearby mining camps.

Levi Strauss invited us to join him during the annual German festivities celebrated on May Day (May 1st). The German population in the city was somewhere between five and six thousand people, many of whom were Jewish immigrants from Prussian Poland. Fortunately, the weather was clear despite an early fog that lifted late morning and clear skies with a bone-chilling wind off the bay. About 1,800 Germans took part in the celebrations as brass bands accompanied gymnastic parades and played patriotic German tunes as the merrymakers, men in Tyrolean costumes and women in colorful dirndls whirled and danced and shouted the lyrics of “Das Deutsche Vaterland.”

We were seated at a stand sipping German white wine and sampling cold cuts when Manon remarked in English, “It would be nice to have a couple of German women to run our wine bar and canteen. They’d sell as much wine as Teri did wearing her native costumes.”

Levi Strauss replied, “I know two sisters who used to work in a biergarten. They’re looking for work. I get them for you, yes?”

Manon looked at me and shrugged, “Why not.” Strauss was off like a bullet and after tugging two very pretty dancers out of the parade, he hustled them towards us. The two women arrived gasping for breath, with faces flushed a rosy hue. Their dirndls featured tight bodices and waistbands, short sleeves, low necklines and gathered skirts. Strauss introduced them as Heidi and Anneliese Blumental. Both looked to be in their mid-twenties. Heidi, the elder of the two sisters, locked steely-blue eyes with Manon’s black ones and smiled. She was tall, full-figured and had pinned her two blonde braids in a curl atop her head. Anneliese, a few inches shorter than Heidi with grey-blue eyes and blonde braids with amber highlights, let her sister take the lead.

“Levi says you might have work for us?” Heidi said in English with only a trace of an accent. Manon and I both raised our brows in surprise.

“We have a food canteen and wine bar on the Long Wharf. Our two women employees are needed in other jobs—one to help in our restaurant and the other to sell Levi’s work pants. So, we are looking for an experienced, capable couple to run our concession. Do you think you could handle the job? You start early, work late and as single women, you’d be fending off Lotharios right and left,” Manon said soberly and matter-of-factly.

Heidi laughed. “What’s new about dealing with aggressive men? Anneliese and I worked as barmaids in beer halls in Bremen because we are pretty and it was the only job we could find with the country in recession. Just like here, sailors and the upper class males thought they had a right to proposition us and try to pinch our asses as we served them; we were considered one step above the girls who sold themselves on the street to support jobless parents, siblings and kids. That’s part of why we scrimped and saved to come here, to escape dead end jobs in a spiritless port town. But so far, it’s no different here. There is so little work for women if they won’t sell themselves. We’ve been offered jobs in saloons and dance halls here, but we’ve turned them down because the employers expect us to do favors for them and their special clients. We’re currently doing laundry and scrubbing floors in a Dutch boarding house until we can find a job with more to offer,” Heidi said gravely. I noticed that Anneliese nodded vigorously to everything her sister said and Levi Strauss, who stood behind her, was holding her hand.

“The woman who tends our wine bar is Chilean. She is very attractive and isn’t shy to wear colorful peasant costumes that showcase her figure or to banter with clients. She claims she made as much or more in tips as her daily wage of $10.00 by dressing in costume. She prudently saved her earnings and now will be opening her own store. Is this something you would be comfortable doing here?” Manon directed her question to Anneliese who quickly dropped Levi’s hand held behind her back.

“Sure, why not? We wore our dirndls serving beer. Bar maids are expected to wear traditional attire in beer halls. Drunks and rowdies are going to make a pass at you no matter what you’re wearing. If women-starved men here are willing to tip us just because we are dressed in pretty costumes, then sure, I’d love to make more than $10 a day in tips. We work our butts off now for $5.00 a day and the male boarders never stop pestering us,” Anneliese said in very confident English.

I could see Manon, like me, was impressed with the sisters’ command of English. “Were did you learn to speak such good English in such ashort time?” Manon asked.

The sisters looked at each other, then at us and chuckled. “If you plan to stay and work in a new country, you need to speak the language; we studied on the ship to San Francisco and attend classes when not working. Most Germans plan to stay in California and make our futures here, so we all study to speak good English,” Heidi stated proudly. Oh boy, I thought. Wouldn’t it be nice if the French had the same attitude. We were the laughing stock of the English speakers who mocked us by calling us the “Keskydees” because we were forever asking “what did he say?” as most of us understood little English. Unlike these two sisters, most French couldn’t be bothered to learn English as they envisioned themselves returning to France rich men hauling heavy bags of gold.

Manon nodded her head. “Do you speak French or other languages in addition to English and German?”

“We don’t speak French, but we can learn it fast if that’s necessary for the job,” Heidi blurted out. “We speak Yiddish and some Polish as well.”

“Why don’t you both visit our operation on the Long Wharf and see if it’s something you could run efficiently and would want to do? You’d have a chance to see and meet the two women who’ve been running our stands and get a feel for the work. We could discuss the positions more fully then. What are your days off where you now work?” Manon asked.

Both sisters looked at each other and laughed so as to say, “you must be kidding.” “We don’t have any days off. We have to work every day. The woman who runs the boarding house threatened to dismiss us when we pleaded for for some time off today to celebrate our national holiday,” Heidi stated bitterly.

“Well then, if you don’t mind to miss the rest of the festivities here, perhaps you should accompany us back to the boat now as our stands will be open for another hour or so. Levi can come along and escort you back here,” Manon suggested.

Both sisters nodded their agreement vigorously and dashed off to get their capes. Levi Strauss’ face beamed like a kid who’s just been told he can eat as much as he likes out of the cookie jar. He undoubtedly expected a reward from Anneliese if he was instrumental in getting her a good job. From our perspective, the sisters’ fluency in English and Germanic tongues would be an added bonus to business on the wharf. In addition to our regular clientele, Germans, Poles and other eastern Europeans would be attracted to food and wine stands tended by attractive, single young women in peasant costumes who spoke their language. While Teri and Giselle were paid $16.00 a day, they were partners, not employees. If the sisters could handle the work for $10.00 day each without a drop off in sales, we’d all be ahead.

I suggested to Manon in French as we made our way to the Long Wharf that we offer the cabins Teri and Giselle would be vacating to the sisters for a nominal rent of $30.00 month. That way they’d be at the job site ready to open for business early and Georges would be there to help them set up. Teri’s dog, Fido, would be staying on our ship when Giselle moved as the dog hated Hawthorne and tried to nip him every time he got near Giselle. We needed the piebald terrier both as watch dog to signal alarm at the top of the gangway and to keep our ship free of rats. Giselle would take her fat cat, Gamelle Boy, as Hawthorne had won him over with tasty morsels from his plate.

As we approached our wine bar, Teri was busy serving glasses of wine and bantering with her clients while Giselle watched, hugging her jacket behind her food stand. Teri was dressed in a colorful Peruvian peasant dress with lots of embroidering which showcased her mature figure despite the breezy conditions on the wharf. We introduced the two sisters and Teri immediately invited Heidi to give her a hand with the stand; it was quitting time for many wharf laborers and they tended to congregate around the wine bar to knock down a glass or two of red wine or Chilean brandy before heading off to their spartan boarding houses and their bowls of gristly stew and hard bread. Most could not afford both to eat and drink at our stands. Most preferred to drink and chitchat with an attractive woman given the choice.

Heidi doffed her cloak and set to work serving drinks and bantering in English to the delight of the coterie of men, which included several Irish elbowing each other for a place at the small bar and access to Heidi. The sight of two attractive women in peasant dress created quite a sensation that was not lost on Anneliese. She motioned Giselle aside, peeled off her cloak and said politely to three arriving customers, “What may I serve you to eat from our delicious menu?”

I motioned Giselle and Levi Strauss to follow Manon and me up the gangplank and onto the poop deck where we could observe the phenomena of three attractive women in peasant costumes holding forth with an ever growing crowd of men who probably would have paid just to be present. We could see how comfortable Heidi and Anneliese were in their new roles. They would be a perfect fit to our wharf-side business. Even Fido seemed to like the changing of the guard. He was still tied on a short leash to Giselle’s stand and was now protecting Anneliese against anyone getting too close just as he’d done with his mistress.

Giselle and Teri were delighted with their replacements on the wharf. Heidi and Anneliese were thrilled with the job, the pay and a private cabin on the ship. They’d been forced to sleep on the same small mattress in the cramped attic of the boarding house where they worked. They’d had to dodge the advances of residents on the floor below in order to use a water closet or fetch water to wash. Levi Strauss looked longingly at Anneliese’s cabin. One could see he was smitten and hoped to share it with her one day. We hoped he’d make a lot of money with us and be able to afford a place of his own and a wife if she’d have him. Teri was happy to meet Levi Strauss and looked forward to working with him in her own store as soon as possible. Good things were happening fast, just the way we liked it.

Giselle, too, was excited to move on from working on the wharf to serving in our restaurant. It would now be up to Hawthorne to make her a happy bride. It had been a difficult courtship as Hawthorne wasn’t making enough money in his law practice to set up a household until just recently. Giselle had wisely insisted that their earnings be separate when married until such time as they had children.

“LOLA MONTEZ, COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD”

— portrait reproduced from an etching by Laurie. Courtesy of the Archives for the Performing Arts, San Francisco.