They were called soiled doves, fallen angels and scarlet women. In the early days of statehood, these monikers referred to the women who plied the trade of prostitution. And during the waning years of the 19th century, that trade was prosperous, conflicted, and deadly in the streets of Fargo.
On this date in , The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican newspaper reported a sad tale of struggle for one of its fallen women. Viola had fallen on bad times that would become even harsher. Abandoned by her husband, who left her to join the Salvation Army, Viola, out of desperate necessity, became a working girl at one of Fargo's numerous brothels.
But following a quarrel with the house madam, she was forced to leave that house of ill repute. Circumstances soon found her drinking whisky in the company of a soldier at a saloon in neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota.
Events transpired that led the agonized Viola into taking a debilitating dose of laudanum, a popular and dangerous narcotic that was evident throughout the great West.
Although she was aided from her narcotic stupor by a physician, she was expelled from Moorhead, back into Fargo — only to be arrested and thrown in the city jail.
