University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1987 Comparative Frontier Scoial Life: Western Saloons and Argentine Pulperias Richard W. Slatta North Carolina State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Slatta, Richard W., "Comparative Frontier Scoial Life: Western Saloons and Argentine Pulperias" (1987). Great Plains Quarterly. 429. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/429 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. COMPARATIVE FRONTIER SOCIAL LIFE WESTERN SALOONS AND ARGENTINE PULPERIAS RICHARD W. SLATTA In sparsely populated cattle frontier regions of helped to shape many of the negative stereo­ the nineteenth century, only a limited number types of the cowboy and the gaucho, the of social institutions functioned. The ranch, as itinerant cattle hunter and ranch hand of the a central socioeconomic complex, took on pampas. It was in the saloons of western cow added importance. Ranch owners often took towns that eastern journalists formed their upon themselves political and legal powers judgment of cowboys as wild and drunken. exercised by civic officials in more settled The Cheyenne Daily Leader described cowboys areas. In the cattle regions of the American in 1882: "Morally, as a class, they are foul­ West and the pampas of Argentina, taverns mouthed, blasphemous, drunken, lecherous, were important local institutions. A compari­ utterly corrupt." The newspaper found their son of social activities in the western saloon behavior in town particularly reprehensible and the Argentine pulperi'a-a combination because there "liquor has the ascendancy over country store and tavern-reveals strong simi­ them." Relatively comfortable taverns, rich larities. As frontier institutions, they served with gossip and news, held considerably more analogous multiple functions, and their cow­ attraction for eastern writers than did the hot boy and gaucho patrons behaved according to dusty plains, so it is not surprising that writers the norms of similar "saloon cultures."! spent more time in the saloon than in the Beyond their intrinsic importance as fron­ saddle.: tier institutions, the saloon and the pulper'ia Similarly, European travelers on the pam­ pa saw gauchos lounging, drinking, gambling, and fighting at pulperi'as. Outsiders formed Richard W. Slatta is associate professor of history equally unflattering estimates of the gaucho at North Carolina State University. His award­ character. One mid-nineteenth-century visitor winning book Gauchos and the Vanishing opined that "gambling is the moving spirit of Frontier was followed in 1987 by Bandidos: The existence and enjoyment in the real gaucho. Varieties of Latin American Banditry. Indeed the veritable camp gaucho is a sort of loafer, hanging about pulperi'as, looking out [GPQ 7 (Summer 1987): 155-165J for gaucho-flats to fleece of whatever they have 155 156 GREAT PLAINS QliARTERLY, Sl\l\IEI, lel<,- about them, drinking (ana and gin, now and w\\'ns, where they sold liquor and incidentals. then ripping up somebody with his knife after On the pampa, where vast distances separated a dispute of the most insignificant nature." towns, they served as way stations. Although By viewing cowboys and gauchos at rest the western saloon often shed the historic and play, rather than at work in the saddle, lodging function of the tavern, the rural pul­ I11,1I1V ubsef\'Crs recorded biased conl,lusions peri'a added the services of post house for about their character and way of life. For most travelers. In his fine novel of gaucho life, Don cowhands of Argentina and the United States, Segundo Sam bra, Ricardo Guiraldes describes a idling and drinking at public houses rep­ typical country tavern of the pampa: resented only a small, if more highly visible, proportion of their lives. Like other elements It was a single building, rectangular-shaped; of cowboy life, the time spent "hellin' 'round the taproom was an open room on the right town" became exaggerated and romanticized. with benches where we sat side by side like swallows on a wire. The storekeeper handed ORIG[i\:S AND FUNCTIOl\:S out the drinks through a heavy iron grating that caged him in with tiers of brightly Many aspects of tavern life in Argentina labeled bottles, flasks, and jugs of every and the North American West were similar, kind. Skin sacks of mate leaf, demijohns of including the origins of the institutions. West­ liquor, different-shaped barrels, saddles, ern saloons grew from urban roots in colonial blankets, horse pads, lassos, covered the America, where taverns and hotels provided floor.' both lodging and liquor. Such institutions served as important political and social meet­ Accommodations at these post houses re­ ing places during the colonial period. In 1788 mained rudimentary throughout the nine­ the Hillsborough Convention voted that the teenth century. Guests could partake of a capital of North Carolina had to be built spartan meal and sleep on the floor amid within ten miles of a tavern located on Isaac hordes of ravenous insects and bold rats. Hunter's plantation. As a result, Raleigh, in Although similar to the businesses operating Wake County, was laid out as the state's in Buenos Aires and other towns, rural capital in 1792.4 pulperlas-those frequented by gauchos-took The etymology of the word saloon includes on a different character. Gauchos, avoiding the sense of an abode (German saal), a large contact with civic and military officials when­ room (French salon), or hall (Dutch zaal). The ever possible, preferred the remoteness of the term, meant to conjure up images of a lavish rural public house. Families of the landed elite French salon, came into general use in the often owned the pulpedas and operated them United States during the 1840s. As the settlers through managers as adjuncts to their ranch­ moved westward, state laws changed by the ing and mercantile interests. Although a few 1830s and 1840s to permit the sale of alcohol bottles of cheap French wines occasionally without lodging facilities. Richard Erdoes graced the shelves of these crude country identifies New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, stores, pulpedas held few other accoutrements and San Francisco as especially important in of urban or European civilization.; shaping the nature of the western saloon. At In some ways, the pulperla resembled the the cutting edge of the moving frontier, the road ranch (or ranche) of the Great Plains. saloon carried urban values and practices These way stations offered humble shelter to westward. It also served as a principal theater plains transients benighted between towns. A where western and eastern ideas and practices Cincinnati banker, James F. Meline, described met, melded, and clashed.' a Nebraska road ranch in 1866 as "not a Argentine pulperias also first operated in dwelling, nor a farm-house, nor a store, nor a SALOONS AND PULPERIAS 157 tavern, but all these, and more." These rude and other "fruits of the countryside" and structures often carried colorful, suggestive usually asked few questions about origin, names, such as "Dirty \Xioman's" and "Fort brands, or ownership. Pulpedas became im­ \\licked" in Colorado. An important historical portant collection points for licit and illicit foornote to the road ranches is that they livestock produce-cattle and horse hides, ,howed that cattle could survive Great Plains tallow, and bones-that eventually reached winters. But unlike the pulpeda, which sup­ merchant houses in Buenos Aires for shipment ported local gauchos and transients, the road to European markets. Salted beef went to feed ranch catered almost entirely to passing mi­ slaves in Brazil and Cuba. Ie' grants. ' It would seem that gauchos had somewhat Despite some differences, however, western better access to illicit gains than did American saloons and Argentine pulpedas both fulfilled cowboys. Rural pulpedas, spread far across the a variety of functions. The public house in pampa, operated beyond the pale of adequate American history has operated as courtroom, policing. In addition, mobile stores (pulpedas church, political arena, barber shop, trading ,dantes), run by itinerant merchants, ex­ post, post office, and library, in addition to its changed liquor and goods for hides and usual services. Since cash flowed into taverns feathers-far from the watchful eye of the on the specie-short frontier, many saloon justice of the peace. The landed elite lobbied keepers took advantage of the lack of banks by strenuously for repression of the traveling making loans. One Denver tavern-owner, merchants. They charged that the itinerant "uncle Dick" Wootney, charged up to 20 traders encouraged drunkenness, disorder, percent interest per day. Saloons also provided and theft. Pulpedas vol antes also offered a logical and convenient site for illicit activ­ unwelcome competition for the estanciero's ities, including prostitution, gambling, and own country store. Buenos Aires province fencing stolen goods. Y banned the traveling traders in 1831; bans Pulpedas, while not quite as varied in their followed in Corrientes in 1833 and Santa Fe in functions as the whiskey mills of the American 1836. None of the bans was successful, how­ West, also provided a diverse set of services. ever, cend the maligned, itinerant mercachifles The proprietors, or pulp eros , sold liquor, basic continued their profitable, illicit activities. I I necessities, and the gaucho's favorite vicios (his Because of the substantial market for illicit vices of mate' tea and tobacco). Pulpedas also livestock produce, Argentine gauchos could functioned as hiring halls. A rancher in need earn a marginal living by cooperating with of hands for a roundup could count on finding corrupt pulperos and ranchers in the contra­ unemployed and willing peons at the local pul­ band capitalism of the pampa.