title: The Bawdy House Girls: A Look at the Brothels of the Old West
author:  Alton Pryor 
description: Alton Pryor has been a writer for magazines, newspapers, and wire services for fifty years. He worked for United Press International in their Sacramento Bureau, handling both printed press as well as radio news. He then moved to Salinas, where he worked for the Salinas Californian daily newspaper for five years as editor of Western Ranch and Home, a weekend supplement. In 1963, he joined California Farmer magazine where he worked as a field editor for 27 years. When that magazine was sold, the new owners forced him into temporary retirement. He gained an intense interest in California and Western history after selling a number of short 500-word articles on Southern California history. In his research of these stories, he kept finding other stories that interested him but did not fit the particular publication for whom he was then writing. He collected both facts and ideas as he researched, and finally turned them into his first book, Little Known Tales in California History. Alton Pryor is now the author of fourteen books, Little Known Tales in California History, Classic Tales in California History, Those Wild and Lusty Gold Camps, Californias Hidden Gold, Outlaws and Gunslingers, Historic California, Its Colorful Names and How It Got Them, Jonathans Red Apple Tree, Publish It Yourself: Five Easy Steps to Getting Your Book into Print, Little Known Tales in Nevada History, Little Known Tales in Hawaii History, The Lawmen, Those Wild and Lusty Gold Camps, and The Bawdy House Girls of the Old West. He is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism.
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  [Begin Reading](index_split_003.html#filepos909)
  
  [Table of Contents](index_split_034.html#filepos661562)
  
  [Copyright Page](index_split_035.html#filepos664513)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > For  
  > “The Wenches”  
  > Your friendship and talents are a source of constant inspiration.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Prologue](index_split_034.html#filepos661808)
  
  So this is what a brothel looks like. It is not at all what I expected.”
  
  “Good Lord in Heaven,” muttered Captain Harley Stiles as he blotted the sheen
  of sweat from his brow. “I would hope that you haven’t given the matter a
  great deal of thought.”
  
  “Not a great deal,” replied Lady Alexa Hendrie. She turned for a closer look
  at the colored etching hung above the curio cabinet. “But one can’t help being
  mildly curious, seeing as you gentlemen take great delight in discussing such
  places among yourselves.”
  
  Her brother’s friend quickly edged himself between her and the offending
  print. “How the devil do y