h
in
4
AMBLING for big stukes waa
a common thing In tho west
n fow yrarn ago. In nearly
nil HOCtioiiB tho tivll lias
boon suppressed by law. In
the fow portions whoro It Is
still followed It In carried
on under cover and In con
stant dread of pollco Interference.
Not ho lon aco. howovar. tho crv of Mm
roulette man and tho click of tho hull could
bo hoard In the lobbies of many of the
principal hqtela. This was particularly true
of 131 Pnsp, Crlpplo Creek, Loadvlllo. Gold
field, Butte, tho Coour d'Aleno, and many
other sections. Tho practice prevaflod to a
greater or less extent In tho larger (owns
Everybody has money In tho early days of
a mining camp.
It was an era of speculation. Tho coun
try had not "boon proven," and honco a
"find" In a now section ramilfpri in n ....... f
rush to that locality. Property changed
hands at fabulouB prlcos ovornlght. The
ragged prospector of today might bo roll
ing In wealth tomorrow. It has happened
so many times.
When there Is money to throw at tho
birds, the gamblers, like so many vulturos,
assemble at tho point to which It Is being cast
by the thonghtloss and Improvident possessors.
Games woro played whore tho stakes ran Into
the millions. A man wealthy In tho morning
.sometimes had to borrow raonoy to avoid going
to bed hungry at night.
A etoeltman In Colorado "sat "into" a pokor
game In Denver, and by midnight had not only
lost all tho cash ho had with him, hut had ox
liatiHted a largo bank balanco.
Mo owned, on tho range In Colorado, tho neu
tral strip ("No Man's Land," now extremo west
ern Oklahoma), and In Toxns ton thousand head
9t cattlo, worth twonty dollars a head, or a total
of $200,000. ,
Ho possessed land In three states and a hand
some resldonco In Denvor, Ho made a bet of
a thousand steors worth twenty thousand dollars
and lost. Ho continued this until tho hord of
fen thousand head of stock belonged to another
man. Day dawned, and ho was still playing.
Breakfast was. sent In from n restaurant main
tained at tho end of tho gambling hall for Just
auph people, ,
"Now," he Bald to tho men who had won Iris
cattle, "you havo tho critters, but no place to
keep them. I will play you my' Texas ranch."
Ho lost that. Then followed tho Colorado
Tanch, finally the resldonco In Denver, togothor
with tho furnlturo, his horsos, his wntch and
chain. . At eight o'clock at night twenty-four
hours Inter ho waB ponnlloss, and started for
the nio Grando country of Toxns, whero ho found
employment hauling logs to a sawmill. Ho had
lost moro than a quarter of a million dollars In
twenty-four hours I
"Will you obllgo mo by taking off your shoes?"
asked a road agent politely, whllo ho hold a re
volver menacingly In tho faco of a pausongor
who Btood up In a lino with others.
The hold-up man had stopped tho stage going
Into Lcadvlllo to "collect toll." Ho lmd Just pur
chased tho road, he said, and noedod tho money.
Ho passed down tho lino and. by moans of a
pasongor whom ho forced Into service, gathered
up all the money and Jewelry, until ho enmo to
.tho last man In tho lino Then ho asked the man
to take off his shoes. Ho found four thouBam!
dollars undor tho Inner soles!
Sovornl nights later tho man who had been out
witted by tho 'hold-up man wns sitting In tho
doalor's chair of a faro game In tho ''Cloud Clty.f
as Lcadvlllo Is callod. Boforo him sat a man
who lost money steadily. Tho gambler "raked
In" tho monoy carelessly and with tho utmost un
concern. Tho player lost something llko live
.thousand dollars and then pushed hack his chair.
"All In?" aakod tho gambler, arching his
fbrows,
"Yop you'vo cleaned mo out."
"Then wo aro ovon for that little Incident tho
other night, when you collected your road tax
from mo."
'"Ypb. you!"
Tho hold-up man knocked down half a dozen
loUorers'ln his rush to roach tho door and escape.
A well-known mining mnn, who was notod for
his Judgment In "knowing a hole In tho ground"
when ho lookod Into It, had Just mndo a purchase
In Crlpplo Crook. Ho had monoy, and ho was will
Ing to spend It for anything that looked good.
After having tramped over tho hills all of one
day, ho "sat Into" a pokor gamo In tho lobby
of tho principal hotel that night, and engaged In
a friendly gnmo wlth a number of acquaintances
Thoy woro playing for twenty-five cents a cor
ner. Whllo the game was In progress n rnggod
pronpootor appoarod and attomptod to Injecl him
sfjf Into tho compnny The mlnlnu man explain
ed that It was simply a private gamo between
friends outsiders, nnd partlculaily strangers,
wero not wnntod.
"I hnvo money that has novqr boon spent."
"We don't know you."
"Oh, thnt's It! Thon let me Introduce my
self." There was no way to got rid of him appar
ently. Thon, like an Inspiration, and In an an
noyed manner, tho operator said;
"How much money havo you?"
"Eight hundred dollars."
"Sit down, and I'l allow you how to play
pokor."
In' lesB than flftoon minutes tho prospector
withdrew.
Shortly after ho roturnod with a thousand dot
lars moro. TIiIb wns Interesting. Ho lost It.
Then ho lost a diamond pin. following It with n
watch and his "cayuso "
When ho pushed back his ohalr tho operator
asked:
"Aro you broko now?"
"I havo a claim over on tho hill."
"What do you valuo It at?"
"Ono hlindroil thousand dollars."
This Btnggorod tho mining man for a moment
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J. H. HAMMOND WOULD PACIFY YAQUIS
"Vou havo been a good loser; I'll put In with
you and play a hundred thousand against your
claim."
Tho prospector lost the claim.
"Now I will play you for your services tomor
row to show me whoro tho claim Is and whero to
qpon the ore. For that I will consider that you
havo flvo thousand on tho table."
Tho prospector lost that.
Tho next day ho traced out the lines of tho
claim for tho winner, who organized n company,
with n stock of one million, tho shares of which
went for sixteen dollars each!
Millions wo:o taken from the mine within a
fow years. It becamp ono of the most famous
In tho entire Itocky Mountain country.
In tho early days of tho Comstock Lode, In
Virginia, Novada, somo merr-mado money so fast
that they did not know what to do with It. Those
who wero not making It spent their time devising
ways and moans to talk tho others out of a por
tion of their wealth. Gamblers wero in full evl
donco, and thoro were somo big stakes; but it
remained for a bunch of Mexicans to play for tho
largest stake on record In the United States
without the uso of cards.
Ono of tho many claims, located In the midst
of tho district, had not shown any ore. Even the
men who had millions hesitated to sink a shaft
on It. Tho people wero In a fever of exclternont.
Tho Moxlcana owned prnctlcaly nothing. In fact,
tho "greasors" could not got a "look in." Alto
gether It was very discouraging to them.
Thon It occurred to Bomo bright genius to
cnpltallzo tho labor of tho Mexicans. Gathering
a bunch of them together. It was proposed that
thoy Blnk a Bhaft on ono of tho well-known
claims, which waB twelve hundred feet In length.
"For each foot you sink, wo will give you a
one-foot surfaco Interest In tho claim," they wero
told," provided you sink to ore."
In othor words, If thoy abandoned tho work at
nny time- "beforo reaching ore, thoy would get
nothing, and tho owners would havo tho shaft.
It looked llko a cheap way to prospect.
Tho Moxlcans pow-powed and Jabbered at onp
anothor for half a night and then stnrted to
work.
Everybody laughed They were comparatively
poor men. They could 111 nfford the expenso thoy
woro undergoing. Thoy drilled by hand, fought
tho hard granite, and gradually lowered that
shaft. . Thoy bailed water that (lowed In so fast
that it throatcnod to drown them, but they stuck
to tho work with desperation.
At throe hundred feet they uncovered the rich
est portion of tho world-fnmous sliver deposit,
'and, from tho volu they opened, more wealth was
tnkon out than from, any other portion or that
richest single mile of'ground in the world.
Tho Mexicans' share was one-quarter. Nonrly
ono hundred million dollars came out of the hole
thoy Bank! It was a gamble pure and simple.
Thoy played for high stakes and won.
In tho t'oeur d'Alone, of Idnho. when that min
ing region wnB tho center of the earth, there wero
some big games. The story Is told of one mnn
who conceived tho Idea that ho could mako
monoy In gambling faster than he could tnko It
out of tho ground, It was so much easier. With
what cash ho had. after selling his mine, ho could
count up to ono hundred nnd fifty thousand
dollars.
Ho had evolved a wonderful syBtom.
"I simply can't loso." ho told his friends.
His plan was to piny steadily for sixteen hours
dally, and, by a complicated sorlos of bets, to
retrlovo when ho lost
Everything went along swlmlngly for tho first
fow days, At times ho was as much as twenty
flvo thousand to the good
Nine dnys after be started top lay ho suddenly
found that ho wns Just where he hod started
he had one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
when the cards came a certain way, which would
Involve, nccordlng to his system, betting tho en
tire nmount on n single "turn." Ho played tho
queen to wn, nnd tho lloklo creature played false
to him
"Women are tho cnuso of all trouble, anyway."
ho muttered, as ho roso fronn the table. "I ought
to havo known bettor thnn that, for that was tho
queen of spades, and I should not hnve made that
hot except when all tho queens except the queen
of hearts was out."
It was tho Irony of fato that, when tho queen
fhnt "vanara0 " f ,l10 bX' U B happonod
In tho days when Oheyenno, Wyoming, wns the
headquarters for the cattlemen of tho northwest
gambling ran wldo open Whon tho cowboys
came to town they mndo things hum. Monoy
Brow on troos. Tho gaming spirit was In tho air
A dealer standing behind n rouletto tablo one
night suddenly motioned tho proprietor. A fow
moments later ho was paid off it Is customary
to pay a gambler his salary nt tho end of each
day. Many of thorn luJvo
the faculty of losing It
back over tho very tablo
where they know tho
odds to bo ngalnst tho
player
In roulette thoro is a
distinct percentage in
favor of "tho housq."
Everybody knows that.
This dealer took a seat in 'ront of tho tablo
ami In the course of a fow hours had won fifty
dollnrs, Then ho stopped. . IIo would pass lu
and out a dozen timea a day. play a little here
and some there, but always ho would bring up In
front of the rouletto table, and moro often than
otherwise left It winner. His luck was amazing.
IIo started a bank acocunt. Ho was saving hia
money to got Into business with, ho said.
He won so steadily that It made the proprietor
of tho placo shiver every time ho canto In.
One day, whllo tho ex-dealer was playing, an
old man dropped In and. glancing around tho room
for a moment, nsked:
"Who runs this placo?"
"I do," answered a bewhlskered Individual
who was watching his former employe .rako in
tho rash.
"Will you do mo tho favor to tell me where
you got that wheel?" ho aBked, pointing to the
ono that proved such a hoodoo.
"I know it's a Jfcnah. That fellow over there
wins all tho time."
"SO?" said thn Rtrnnt-nr I
Ho walked over and watched the man lay hla
bets.
Heturnlng to tho proprietor, he said, as ho
passed out a card:
"I represent this house, which, as you seo,
dealB in gaming devices. I tako It that tho mnn
sitting at tho wheel makes a 'killing' every day?"
"Ho does, stranger, to the tune of fifty or a
hundred."
"For a thousand I can tell you how to busthils
luck nnd mako him look the living picture of re
morse. You would hao to agree to purchase a
new wheel from rne, nlso."
"If you show me, I'm gnmo."
"It's a bargain." said tho drummer,
alking over to the wheel, ho waited until the
ball dropped, stopped it, and turning to tho pro
prletor asked:
"See anything strange with thut wheel?"
"No."
"Well see, thero nro two nlneteena nnd two
twenty-thrues on this wheel. They aro unusual
numbors-so that tho fellow who plays them has
about the same percentage In his favor, on those
numbers, that you havo when a man plays on a
regular wheel. Wo made this wheel moro than
thirty yeara ago. It was sold to a house bv a
coup o of -sure thing' men. who almost broko "tho
outfit. Then wo lost track of It." "
The ex-dealer had noticed the double numbers,
and therein was tho socret or IiIb "luck." How
the numbers had escaped attoutlon so many
yenrs Is one of those mysteries or gambling that
can never be explained.
When Seattle was the big nolso In tho North
west gambling world, and the primeval forests
were closer to hqr doors, somo big games wero
played.
Ono night a stranger Btopped into one or the
principal houses and took a seat at a raro tablo
An hour later ho had lost more than flvo thou
snnd dollnrs. Tho proprietor sent him n fifty
cent cigar. A fow momenta nrterwnrd the
stranger had a couplo of hundred dollars, and
within an hour had regained his five thousand.
Thon commonced a streak of luck that has sel
dom been witnessed In nny gambling house Tho
roof had' been rnlsed "to tho sky" and Mr
Stranger "coppered" tho king and doubled a bet
or live thousand. Ho tried It again for a repeat
or. with teh thousand, and drew back twonty vel
low chleps, worth ono thousand each.
Arter that ho iffndo beta of a thousand eacn
and before he had smoked tho cigar he was twen
ty-o.Ight thousand to tho goqd! Thon ho quit.
Who ho was, whero ho camo from, whero he
went, no ono ever know. His coming nnd golriK
wero as mysterious as his winnings wero sensn
tlonal. Probably ono or tho groatest stakes ever hung
up was raked down ou a mulo raco in Arizona
A inau owned a "hole in tho ground." Ho was
satisfied that It was worth n fortuno His
rrlends thought ho was crazy. He refused to go
to other "diggings" where tho prospects wore
better. Ho wns moro than twenty-flvo miles
from water, which had to bo carried In on the
hurricane deck or a mulo. Ho workod away
nursing his claim and sticking It out alone. Then
ho went to a settlement Borne distance away. He
became oxcited over the porformancos of a mulo
owned by another man. nnd in a moment or ex
uboranco bet his claim against ono owned by a
prospector rrom another section that his mule
could outrun tho other rellow's. He lost.
.."?. h1n,1th0 Privilege of piloting tho winner to
tho mine" and saw him take moro than seventy
thouBnnd dollars' worth of silver, not, out of a
pocket, almost on the surface of tho ground!
Since then tho property has produced millions
It all ca,mo about because one mule could not
run so fust ns another.
John Hays Haminopd has asked
tho Mexican . government to permit
him to go, unarmed and accompanied
only by an Interpreter, into the
mountainous stronghold ot tho YaquI
Indians In Sonora, to paciry thai
turbulent tribe. Tho government of
Mexico has fought tho Yaquls for
thirty years, but today tho YaqulB aro
unconquored.
Mr. Hammond expects that tho
Madero government will glvo him the
permission which ho desires. His
program Is based on his bellof that,
as a result of his lifo nnd work In
Mexico, many years ago, tho under
standing between him and tho Yaquls
Is so thorough as to obviate tho risk
of his being Injured or killed. Major
Ilurnham, the famous American nnd
South African scout and fighter, will
accompany him.
Last July Mr. Hammond wrote tc
Senor Calero, the Mexican ambassa
dor to this pnnntrv. nntlinlnir hi
wishes to pacify the Yaquls and his plan for accomplishing that object.
Tho Yaquls maintain in their stronghold at this time, in addition to thoii
warriors, a force of 1,600 men armed with modern rifles. They are absolutely
Impregnable. Diaz tried to bring them Into submission, but failed.
WOULD EDUCATE MAN BEHIND THE PLOW
To carry knowlodgo or scientific
agricultural methods directly to th
man between tho plow handles, and
thereby Increase tho agricultural prod
ucts of this country by at least 20
per cent, Senator Hoko Smith In a
speech In tho senate tho other day
urged tho passage of the Smith-Lever
bill to establish agricultural exten
sion departments In colleges of. agri
culture "The annual value or our agricul
tural products Is, lh round figures,
$9,000,000,000," Senator Smith said.
"If tho Increase as a result of this
work were only 20 per cent wo would
have an increased value of ?1,800.000,
000, or a sufficient sum to meet the
proposed appropriation for GOO years."
Senator Smith pointed to tho pas
sago or the Morrill bill for tho estab
lishment of land grant agricultural
colleges In each of tho states of tho
Union, and of the Hatch bill for tho
establishment of an exnerimnnt ntn.
tlon in ench state. Upon them the government Is now spending nbout $4,000,
000 annually. Much or this monoy nnd or tho $15,000,000 appropriated each
year ror tho exclusively agricultural work ot tho department or agriculture,
he stated, is spent In investigating nnd experimenting to show how the best
and greatest crops can bo raiaed.
"According to tho plans or tho bill," ho continued, "tho representative!
or the colleges. In tho various states will enlist farmers who, under tho dlrec-
tlon or the representatives or tho Agricultural collego, will test the valuo on
their own land or the information brought by tho representative of the
collego."
rte;.
MME. JUSSERAND BARS "FREE LUNCH"
Mme. Jusserand, wife of tho
French ambassador, and new doyen
of tho diplomatic corps at Washing
ton, has decreed the abolition of the
diplomatic "free Hunch route," which
Is tho undiplomatic designation of '
that Indiscriminate and uncensored
list of hostesses from whom the at
taches of embassies and legations
havo been wont to accept luncheon,
dinner and dance Invitations.
Henceforth there will be a rigid
adherence to diplomatic and social
lines by the young diplomats who
havo entered too much Into tho spirit
of our democratic Institutions and
gone to those entertainments whero
ho spirit of conviviality led them.
Tho gossip In diplomatic circles is
that there has been not only a weak
ening or discipline, but that tho young
bnchelor sot, not provided with the
largo exponso account or tho heads
or legations, havo round In the bquntl-
iui noBpiiauty or Washington means
whereby they havo been ablo to ploco out their meager Incomes by saving
what otherwise would be spent at hotolB and restaurants for food and cheer
MISS B0ARDMAN LAUDS BOY SCOUTS
Misa Mabel T. Boardman, secre
tary of tho American Red Crosa
association, has sent a message to
tho 400.000 Uoy Scouts of America.
Sho rejoices In the good deeds- that
the Boy Scouts aro doing. Sho com
pares them with tho knights of King
Arthur of old.
"The Vision of King Arthur" la
tho title ot Miss Hoardman's artlclo In
Boys' Life, tho Boy Scouts' mugazine.
Miss Boardman pictures tho dying
King Arthur, and says: "Somothing
held his clear bluo ejos not glitter
ing armor nor helmet with Its visor
down only a boy lu simple brown,
who stopped to lift a little fallen
child. And there! Another guided a
blind man through the dangers of the
noisy street, and yet another, with
kindly mien and friendly stroke,
soothed some poor, bewildered dog,
his master lost. Hero one took from
her trembling hnnds tho heavy load
of some old dame and boro It for hnr
-- -. 1W. ...
Anothor darted swiftly through the town to cnll tho doctor to tlm ni,
one who was 111 Not here, not thero alone, hut everyw, oro. through noT
em winter snows nnd under sunny southern skies the klnc 2 1 1 ?
knights In brown. Bending over some Injured comrade Tclustorort h8e
group. With skillful flngera the wound STLyT
strong yet tender tho boy was carried home and To 'the nor Tu Y?r,
tho aid was given, behold, a cross or red " PrcU frtm' whlch
B!d times were dead, but you haVo biobt'lhem fftoHSi-
1 V.t3Ai - .-
