The herald. (Smyrna, Del.) 1870-1871, 1870-09-17

A correspondent of the New You

A correspondent Of the New York
Times writes -
Let not the good brothers and sisters
who yearn TO be fishers of men possess
their souls with Impotence TO cast their
lines by the sea of Galilee, or dwell WIN
pagans by tile turbid Nile. Here, in the
ca pital OF Colorado, are moral leprosies
and reckless heathenisms sufficiently
developed to satisfy the most ardent de-
voice that great achievements in the
Masters name are to be wrought ere
Christian civilization can claim Denver
as her oW n. Passing along the street at
dusk, every step brought us in contact
with drunken men, staggering ana
swearing, on the lookout for the next
dram shop. They hao not far to seek,
for the retail trade holds prominence
here. Entering one of these uens, which
is brilliantly alight, we find it crowded
with men in all stages of intoxication.-
Most of them wear the toughest curb OF
the 'plains,'' and are probably team
sters, miners and drovers. When they
have drank enough poison to render
them easy victims, the lair of the tiger
is at hand.
Just in the rear of the dram shop is
another room, whose furniture consists
o. 1Sour tables and numerous chairs
Two of the tables are devoted 10 faro,
ono is for rouge ct noir, and behind the
fourth an industrious gentleman busily
turns roulette wheel, occasionally pay
ing the 'stool-pigeon," who is playing
the part of decoy, the astonishing odds
of twenty to one With singular
generosity he calls attention to these
strokes of fortune ~, and invites the au-
dience to come aud tackle" him, while
he is in "bad luck" The gambling r. ON
is crowded, too. Faro is the choice of the
many, and those two tables are entirely
hidden from view by The throngs around
them. Youths and old men, rough min
ers and shabby-g enteel habitues, min
gle here on level, and joke or wrangle,
as varying fortunes frame their moods.
Thespis, dragged to this sink, of course
becomes bawd. Advertisements en-
on the wall inform the inquiring mind
that in the next room-a long hall, with
entrance on the whiskey shop-there
will be produced the 'Great Success, the
Blonde, Shoo-fly and Statue Blanche"
Noises that bring TO mind the pit of the
old Bowcry in its palmy days are issu-
ing from the hall, but there are other
sights" to be seen, and we hasten on
TWO doors 10 the right, and up broad
staircase, well'lighted, we find one 0i
several keno" rooms which Denver
boasts. The entire floor is covered with
long tables, at which men are seated, in
dustrioHsly gambling away the small
sums they have earned, begged or stolen
during the day-for this gamo is the
choice of small gamblers, and is NOT, like
faro" one on which fortunes may
change hands on the turn of u card
Some jubilantly, but by far the greater
number haggardly and YEARLY, listened
TO the calls OF the game-keeper, far into
| the watches of the night and looked
wistfully for the numbers. which, at last.
could only blast what little hope was left
them.
AID this is Denver by night. No ex-
else law compcls the debauch TO ceaseaai
midnight, or hide itself behind closed
doors. Flared in the faces of such good
citizens as would enforce a different state
Of things but cannot, gambling and law
lessness hold full sway.