The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-07-08
Select Mlisfellang,
CALIFORNIA GAMBLING SCENES.

A writer whose fortunes led him to
San Francisco, in 1852, presents fear
full picture of the scenes enacted at that
period in the gambling hells of the gold
en- capital. He says that the most cor
rupt of the gamblers, aud the only ones,
in fact, who could compete with the
Spaniards, generally SO crafty and cold
blooded in hazard playing were the
American "boys," that from the splen-
didly decorated saloon at San Francisco,
with its picturesque bijouterie and hun
dreds Of tables groaning beneath the
burden of gold, to the scanty tent iu
the furthest mountains, where the scrape
thrown over rickety box, served as a
cloth by night, and as bed and blan-
KIT on approach of dawn, they were ev-
erywhere to be found ready, at any mo-
ment, to plunder the poor miner of his
hard earned savings; and the Spanish
cloak served to cover the money they
won, as we'll as the six barrelled revol-
yer and, sharp knife, as weapons
of attack or defence, according as the
moment or the prospect of gain might
demand. After a graphic description
of one of the most Splendid and largest
of the "helIs" over whose entrance
cleaned in golden letters, the name of
{" Ell Dorado" the writer says:
The visitors are suddenly crowding
about table, where high play is appa-
rently goi,g on. Let US go, too, and
see it. A young fellow is standing al
the table, between the keeper of the ta-
BILE and his confederate; the first of whom
is slowly shutting pack Of cards, for
sake of employment till the play CON-
mences, while the, other watches, with
his little, piercing gray eyes, the cards
as they are turned up. The game itself
is strange to us, although the Spaniards
on the other side of the table who follow
it's vicissitudes and the hands of the deal
er with a scarcely perceptible smile, and
without stalking, for the present, seem to
understand it better than we do. Ii is
monte, Spanish game, and played with
Spanish cards, and the stranger figures
on them, the crossed swords and golden
balls, the horsemani instead of queens,
etc., attract the strangers eye above all,
and impart much higher and mysterious
p Z 4
charm to the bags of silver aud gold
boldly staked upon them.
The young fellow, in whom we feel an
interest from the outset, cannot be more
than sixteen years of age. He is tall
and thin, and his features would have
something efeminate about them, were
itnot for the cleaning eye and the firm
ly Impressed lips. His right hand is
supported on the green cloth of the ta-
Bile, upon the centre of which piles of
dollarslform barrier around heap of
gold as well as sacks of gold dust, and
three or four large nuggets and ingots,
more for ornament than use. His left
is in his pocket, and from beneath his
hat two orzthree locks of auburn hair
peeped out His stake amounting, per-
haps, to twenty or twenty five ''eagles, y
is on the horseman, and his cleaning
eyes are fixed nervously on the hands
of the dealer.
The latter, an American, sits coldly
and calmly behind the table, with the
card in his hand ready to turn up. and
casting, at intervals, rapid glance at
the stakes to see. that al is in order
The ace and queen are the uppermost
cards; the young man has won, and
triumphant smile plays on his lips
Z. I'll pay you back now for the other