Madam Julia was the town's ranking prostitute; virtuous female society demanded that they not suffer the unbearable pain of looking at, and being in company with, a fallen woman— one of the happiest, fallenest women in history, by the way.
1964, Katharine Hillyer, Mark Twain, Young Reporter in Virginia City: The Racy, Rollicking Adventures of a Great Author in the Gamiest, Richest, Mightiest Town in All the Frontier West!