Part 2

In a mere thirty years, the "sheltered place" had become a place of lawlessness and corruption. The Old Tacoma Saloon, located on the present site of the Spar, was no exception. According to the Tacoma Daily Ledger in May 1906.... "It was 'street' poker - street poker played openly and for cash. At ten o'clock last night the resort was crowded with customers, from young men to old 'regulars'.... The game was played to the accompaniment of 'Asleep in the Deep' and 'In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree' coming painfully from the metallic 'tinpiano' in one of the 'furnished rooms' above the saloon. A stairway from the barroom leads to those rooms above. In answer to a question as to who occupied the rooms upstairs, a young man leaning over the chair back of one of the poker players said laconically, 'five girls and a piano player'."

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