The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-04-02
OUR NHw YORK LETTER.
A GAMBLING HOUSE-DEECHER TILTON-
CHARTrY-BUSINESS.
NEW YORK, March 80, 1915.
THE LAIR OF THE TIGER.

Z 4'ic H. A4H WEN l'IOpOSe 10 uc-
vote my space to another kind of re-
sort Tor wayfarers-one that costs You
more money TO tarry in, but which will
give you, possibly, more excitement.
| than even the best hotel in the great
city
| On Broadway, near Union Square, is
plain, unpretending house, just such
one as you would suppose a good, solid,
retired merchant would live in. were it
farther removed from business. 4 good,
| solid, retired merchant does not live in
| it, however, nor is it a residence at all.
| 1t is n faro ban6-or in other words a
gambling hell; a place in which young
men and old, strangers and residents, go
either for gain or excitement, and where
they meet ruin just as surely as they stay
long enough and arc sufficiently indus
trious and persevering.
The interior of the house bellies the
exterior-that is to say, the inside is as
gorgeous as the outside is plain. The
halls are all beautifully wide, the rooms
are all high and spacious, and the fur
nishing is as magnificent as money can
purchase. The reading-room is wonder
fully fine. \ velvet carpet of Persian
design covers the floor silk and lace
shades the windows. The uost costly
upholstery is scattered around. A stand
upon which are placed all the leading
daily journals of the country occupies
the center of the floor. At the right of
this is the wine room, where you see no
liquors, but gorgeous Ethiopian,
elabOrately dressed, is in waiting, and ali
you have to do is to intimate your desire
and whatever that is you get it without
money or price. Everything is free.
Back of the wine-room is the gambling
hail, which is more goTgeously furnished
than any OF the others. Lace curtains,
costly carpets, costly pictures, exquisite
statuary everything that is tasteful and
beautiful is here.
In the centre of the room the tables
are ranged. That is n faro table at the
right There is an elevation in the cen
tire, longer than it is wide, upon which
are painted some cards of each suit.
This is done that you can designate your
favorite card without speaking. At ev-
cry table at which cards are played all
is fixed, that the game may move ON in
silence. Faro is the American gambling
| game, just as monte is Mexican. The
next table is for English hazards; you
stake your money on the throw of the
| dice. Then there is roulette, trente ct
| qnarante, and any other game that the
devilever invented to capture souls with.
You shall see in these rooms men of all
| ages and conditions. At the faro tables,
side by side, will be seen grey haired
men and beardless boys. The grey
haired man has played faro since he was
a beardless boy, and has wasted on the
| game all the fortune he inherited, all
the profits of his business, and all he has
begged, borrowed or stolen since. He
believes that he has learned n system by
| WHICH, liC IsiiA DiNtAh bsilihs anu lit
has been trying to do it thirty years.
| He plays very low now, for five dollar
notes are not easy to get, but his faith
| is mistaken. tie will die some night
and viii; be earted out to Potter's field.
But as long as lac can raise ten dollars
and can keep clean shirt collar, he is
welcome.
The beardless boy has just commenced,
but lac will go the same road He will
play and play till he robs his father or
employer, then hc will either become n
professional aud plumber others, or lie
will degenerate into a perpetual pigeon,
and, in tiiar, become II miserable old
man, playing constantly in the hope of
retrieving his fortunes.
In addition TO these there are n dozen
or more country merchants who drop in
to lose ten dollars or so for n nights
AMUSEMENT, and as many more wealthy
New Workers, who play because they get
Up too heavy an excitement at their bus
iness during the day to let up without
this to taper off with.
At midnight a gorgeous supper is serv-
ed, which like everything else, is free.
The dining room and the Kitchens below
exceed DeImonico's in all that which
goes to make their specialties perfection.
Venison from the Adirondacks, birds
from the Southern marshes, fish from the
lonely woods where rolls the Oregon,
which gives no sound but its own plash-
ing, save that made by the fisherman
casting in hls ner, frogs from the pond at
the foot of Washington monument All
this is served on daintiest porcelain,
freshest linen, purest glass. Walters
black rs ebony, and silent as the sllld-
ow5 Of Hades, move silently on their
round of duties. Wines the most costly,
and cigars the most expensive, are served
and all free as water. The amiable pro-
prietor charges nothing-:lll his profits
come from the tables.
And how does he get his profits to sus-
tain this enormous expenditurei Easy
enough. The game is played fairly in
the public rooms, but even then there is
% per cent in favor of the bank, so that
in any event the bank is certain to win
everything if the play is continued long
enough. But on the upper ilOor there
is the private game, to which the gene
raj public is not admitted. In these
rooms the rich young idiot is filed with
wine-he is lucky if he be not drugged
plays against a dealer who can deal
the cards exactly as he chooses, and the
young man, after he has been nursed
sufficiently, is never allowed to 90 away
without losing all that he can afford to
pay without making a row about it.
They calculate that a young broker with
rich father will stand plueky to the
amount of $50, 600, and they make him
lose that amount. He will pay it as a
rule rather than make a fuss, and before
he gets sober they take his note.
And they have one of this kind on tile
carpet all the time.
These places are excellent ones to
keep out of. No decent man should ev-
er go into one, even for fun.
BEECHER-TILTOS.
shall not say much about this mat
ter this time. The fact is, it has got too
nasty to be fit matter for the public
prints Each days proceedings grow
nastier and nastier-in brirf, is too filthy
to touch. Bessie Turner, girl of eigh-
teen, is put upon the stand, and she