Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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THE ORIENTAL SALOON











As the year of 1880 was drawing to a close the Oriental Saloon had already developed a bit of an unsavory reputation. Wyatt Earp maintained that the trouble was caused by thugs hired by rival saloon keepers who were jealous of popularity enjoyed by the Oriental. Almost anyone could set up and run a drinking and gambling establishment in those days but few succeeded. In Tombstone not a single saloon operator listed in the 1880 census appears in the business directory three years later. The Crystal Palace, formerly the Eagle Brewing Company, was situated directly across 5^th Street from the Oriental and was fiercely competitive. The Crystal Palace had a faro set up run part time by Napa Nick who was a respected judge in California when he was not gambling in Tombstone. When Napa Nick was attending to affairs on the bench in California the faro table was run by an elegant dark haired woman who had enthralling table skills. At the Oriental the tables were run by tinhorns and gunmen such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Luke Short. Buckskin Frank Leslie tended bar there. When Doc Holliday hit town one of his first orders of business was to get in a drunken row in the Oriental in which he shot Milt Joyce, the owner, in the leg. Wyatt was wrong, of course; the Oriental was the place that hired the thugs. Things got downright rough and bloody in there sometimes. Luke Short killed Charlie Storms there on Feb 25, 1881. On December 28, 1881 US Deputy Marshal Virgil Earp was shotgunned from ambush by the coward, Ike Clanton, while crossing the street there. Buckskin Frank Leslie killed Billy Claiborne there on November 14, 1882. The fact that men routinely carried guns in there regardless of ordinances prohibiting them from doing so attests to the kind of joint it was. Nowadays a person carrying a desperate thirst can still find a substantial libation in the Crystal Palace. The Oriental is a place for women, little children, and sissies to buy their souvenirs.

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Photos

THE ORIENTAL SALOON
Northeast corner of Fifth and Allen. Thirsty people will want to attend to their business in the Crystal Palace on the northwest corner.