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I wanna know the meaning of "jungle town" and "sporting woman" in the following context from Hemingway's To Have and Have Not:

We stopped the car in back of this place and went into the kitchen where the man's wife was cooking at a stove. "Hello, Freda," Harry said to her. "Where's Bee-lips?" He's right in there, Harry. Hello, Albert." "Hello, Miss Richards," I said. I knew her ever since she used to be in jungle town, but two or three of the hardest working married women in town used to be sporting women and this was a hard working woman, I tell you that.

Miss Richards used to be a sporting woman but, after getting married, became a hard working woman?

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    It's literature, it's a character, it's a story. Do you imagine that stories and literature and characters inside them have a fixed definition for what these things mean? The meaning is found in the story or nowhere at all. Perhaps the author wants you to infer that Sporting means "a woman who was a flirt" or "a promiscuous woman", and it's all to be implied and inferred by characters and no real absolute meaning exists.
    – Warren P
    May 21, 2014 at 16:10

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Sporting Women:

An Americanism for "gay women." -Phrases and names, their origins and meanings, by Trench H. Johnson

Sporting lady - a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money

I uncovered in my research was Mollie Walsh and the Reverend R. M Dickey’s tale of the Skagway sporting women. I tell the same story using Miles as the instigator with the steamship captain–whereas it was Reverend Dickey in real life. But the story is true.

When Mollie Walsh, a small woman restauranteur in Skagway saw an old friend from high school in Minneapolis, she was dismayed to discover the woman a prostitute. Gold Rush: Mollie Walsh Skagway

Suggesting by the fact that Hemingway states they were "hard working woman", the term likely suggests former prostitute:

Mollie Walsh and the Reverend R. M Dickey’s tale of the Skagway sporting women. I tell the same story using Miles as the instigator with the steamship captain–whereas it was Reverend Dickey in real life. But the story is true.

When Mollie Walsh, a small woman restauranteur in Skagway saw an old friend from high school in Minneapolis, she was dismayed to discover the woman a prostitute. Gold Rush: Mollie Walsh Skagway... Gold Fever: A Narrative of The Great Klondike Gold Rush, 1897-1899.

Jungle Town is an area of Key Wrest

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  • Thank you very much. Jungle Town was the houses of prostitutes, located in Key West. I've found it out by googling.
    – Windy Forest
    May 21, 2014 at 17:35
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    Key Wrest? Should have oiled the lock.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    May 21, 2014 at 18:34

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