Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1865-09-01
From the New York Weekly
THE DEAD GAMBLER,
BY JAMES REYNOLDS.

landed in Sacramento in the summer of the
year 1919, on their way to the p7occres on
the South, Middle and North forks Of the
American river, was prepossessing looking
gentleman of the name of IIardie His only
companion was his son, lad Of some four
teen years-but who, notwithstanding his
extreme youth was sharp, shrewd and mtelli-
gent. Mr.. Hardie was what might be call
ed, as the fashionable phrase goes, '.rcti-
cent man. He had once been wealthy; but
his passion for gaming had ruined him. He
was not professional Indeed, he looked
with contempt upon all who kept games of
chance; but his personal dislike for such
characters did not prevent him from risking
his money upon the turn Of "a card, or the
cast of the dice. His son, fully aware of his
fathers only falling, sought by every pos
sible means to keep him from the table, in
the hope, vain though it was, that the pas
sino would lose its hold upon him, and that
eventually he would be thoroughly weancd
| from cards.
| Hardie landed in Sacramento with about
one hundred dollars in money--the last Of
his once am, pie fortune-,nd, without an hours
delay, pushed for the mines which had just
been discovered to the eastward Of Coloma,
| formerly Suttersville, where it was rumored
very rich veins had been discovered.
| BY a fortunate chance, Hardie and his son
made the acquaintance on the road of two
honest-hearted, adventurous sailors, and to-
gcthcr they determined to prospect, the
country.
! On the fourth day from their leaving Sac
ramento, the little, company entered gulch
which subsequently became famous as the
Oregon" and there succeeded i'll securing
claim that amply repaid the adventurers
for their time and labor At the expiration
Of four months the company had realized
twenty thousand dollars. This was equally
| diyided-one-half being handed to nardie
and his son while the other moiety was re-
tanned by their co-laborers. When the di-
vision had been satisfactorily made, Hardie
became suddenly restless. lie intimatcd a
desire to return to Sacramento, there to en-
gage in some mercantile pursuit for which
his early education had fitted him; and he
offered to sell his own and his sons interest
| to the sailors These men were reluctant to
part with him. The lad also was averse to
the proposition, but Hardie persisted in his
resolution, and finally disposed Of his claim
for twenty five hundred dollars. ~-
On returning to Sacramento, father and
son, as the reader perccives, had the snug
little capital Of upwards Of twelve thousand
dollars to begin upon. Had Haldie, as he
honestly intended when at Oregon canon, at
once embarked in trade, he could have in a
few months trebled if not quadrupled his
capital, and perhaps in the course of a couple
of years returned to the Atlantic States with
a fortune quite as large as he was master Of
before the mania for gambling came upon
him.
Unfortunately for him, however, before he
had fully arranged his mercantile projects, he
renewed his acquaintance with a gentleman
who, like himself, had been addicted to gam
bling, and was by him induced to visit the
Empire Saloon, at the time the leading hell
of the town, where faro, monte, rouge ct noir,
and other games of chance, were openly
played 'hell" where miners, after months
of exposure, perhaps sickness, and always
hard labor, would lose their hundreds OF
thousands of dollars in single night, and
then be compelled to return to the diggings
with saddened hearts to win from the rivers
and hills those smiles which fortune had de-
MED them at the tables Of the gamblers.
Hardie had barely entered the saloon when
his old thirst returned to him and even be-
fore he was fully conscious of his actions, he
found himself seated at a faro table. I'm
fortunately, again, for Hardie, he rose, from
it the winner Of thousand dollars
The passion for gaming once aroused in
the man, and he could no more restrain him
self from indulging in it, than brokcn-down
thirsty topper keep his lips from tasting the
fiery potation that stimulates and poisons.
The next night and the next Hardie was
at the table; now, however accompanied by
his son-who, with tears in his eyes, stood
4 by the chair on which his father sat- ano
tremblingly saw their little capital gradually
| ~, L. e u