The fire of August 1908 was the greatest fire in recent years, which spread across Fernie and its neighbourhood, but Fernie had another fire in the summer of 1910, which burned down seven prostitute caves on one side of town. There were two new houses managed by brothel businessman Takagi’s Osan and they were using one of those but both were burned down. Other than this, there were two houses that were owned by an old devil Tokuzō Umino and were rented out to whites, but they were also burned down. House of Oshichi, a woman from Gōshū, whose picture was published in this newspaper once and who was with Kagawa, a western restaurant owner, was also burned to the ground. Lastly, the house of black prostitute Josie and a Chinese house were also caught up in the disaster. As a result, someone like Takagi was no longer able to continue his brothel business; he was giving sighs like withered smoke and grieving throughout the winter. Giving smoke after the fire sounds like a logical joke. Back then Umino was in Elko and Oshichi was in Cranbrook, but they were both disappointed by the news. Each time they saw fire they groaned and only drank water for the following three days. This is an extraneous story.
Anyway, the ones who were the most panicked about this fire were the Takagi couple and they finally moved to Calgary last March. Umino and Kagawa’s Oshichi, on the other hand, were certainly shocked by the news but they managed to get through this mess as they had fire insurance. Oshichi’s insurance had a coverage of $1,500 for one house, Takagi’s $2,000 for two houses, and Umino’s $2,500 for two houses.
Since the fire, Fernie is not of so much importance when speaking about interior prostitute caves. It is actually much more preferable not to be of importance in such a matter. The fire is nothing to shudder about as the disaster did not happen after contrition and enlightenment; they had survived other fires but simply could not push their fortune this time.
Fernie has twenty or so Japanese men working at a sawmill with high turnovers, but they rarely visit prostitute caves. It seems that in other cities Japanese actively visit prostitute caves but this is not because prostitutes actively accept Japanese clients. In earlier days, and still today, Japanese customers are absolutely refused by the caves who accept them reluctantly to sell some alcohol. This situation has not changed since the time I wrote the first series, so I do not spare details.