El Paso City Has A “Spitty” History

El Paso has a very colorful history, full of the good, the bad and the ugly. Most cities do but El Paso has been around a minute and one of its markers is the time it was "spitty".

El Paso was once "spitty". I don't mean El Paso was a "city" and I absolutely don't mean it was "shi**y". At one point in time though, chewing tobacco users in El Paso were so numerous, the city had to enact a law requiring "spitoons" in key buildings.

El Chuco had become El Yuck-oh.

I wrote about this 1901 ordinance once before but I just learned something new. (I also wrote an article about how spitting in general is/was illegal in the 915.) The ordinance requiring spitoons wasn't enacted to minimize the disgusting aspects of "chewers". It was actually a pretty major public safety issue.

At that time in in El Paso's history, disease was rampant and bodily fluids being flung around was NOT helping.

Since vaccines or cures for these lay in an unknown distant future, they had to act. (For tuberculosis a vaccine was 20 years away; for bubonic plague 35 years; diphtheria 39 years; typhus 40 years; scarlet fever 41 years; cholera 63 years; and leprosy 118 years.) - authentictexas.com

Spitting In El Paso Is Not Exactly Forgotten

Their solution was three-fold: 1) stiffen (so to speak) laundries’ regulations to improve cleanliness; 2) impose 30-day quarantines as diseases spring up; and 3) require every establishment in El Paso to place spittoons throughout their buildings. - authentictexas.com

READ MORE: 100 Year Old El Paso Country Club Became A Sanitorium

Apparently, this was "classy" back in the day and they didn't want people to stop. They just wanted them to be "nice" ... and health conscious.

Why Did El Paso Require Spitoons?

I guess people go tired of stepping in the goo because there certainly wasn't any shortage of people doing, (chewing), it. I tried it once when I was about 12. Don't. It was terrible. Tasted like s**t, I had the taste in my mouth for about a year and ZERO 12 year old girls had any interest in kissing the guys that, (somehow), enjoyed this crap.

El Paso Banned Spitting In General

You can read the whole story here but, long story short ... when it comes to spitting ... just, don't. The city made that illegal in the late 90's, for all, no matter what the spitter is "disposing" of or what ever disease may be involved. Again, law or no law, it's not cool. Don't. Ok?