Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-17
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"Gath'' az Saratoga.
l took a walk to-day with Hon. Rich
ard Mccormick, talking politics and our
families. de is the son-inlaw of Allen
G. Thurman. Bill Allen is his wife's
great uncle. His wife is one of the most
peart and accomplished little ladies in
America, well educated and inquisitiye.
She said 10 him Don't forget to 90
to the club house, and describe it 10 me
when you come back" He took me
along, or | took him, or Morrissey took
us both; for we found that great warrior
in his office, wearing his familiar suit of
light gray, otherwise the picture of gigan.
tic health, a little mellowed BY the run
Of years. This man CANDLES, but,
strange to say, he is more respected
than beloved. 1t is usual for a gamester
to have some weak and amisble qualities
about him which make him liked, but
Morrlssey has no other weakness than
getting drunk about twice a year, and
then he is amisble as Pontiac or Goliath.
An awful wilderness Of staggering
strength is he at such times, a kind Of
hurricane on legs, a sort Of Prometheus
unbound or Polyphemus with his eve
punched out. ALI the rest Of the year
he is a cool, measuring, gain.seeking
business man, with the soul of a mer-
chant. l say he is respected because he
keeps his word, says no o~ftener than yes.
has public enterprise and eompels order.
and inside the extent of such a physique
IS decent. de owns nearly two acres of
ground here, on which are a large hotel.
a pool house for betting On horses. four
cottages, a mineral spring, a rock
spring, and a trout pond, He has nearly
one thousand trout, and he took US out
to see them feed; many of them weigh
two pounds. His hotel is a substantial
brick edifce, built on piles and planks,
twenty-iour feet under the surface. He
took a swamp, piled it, filled it, and
made a paradise Of it. | asked him how
much he had spent here. He said Il
have laid out $780, 900. The first piece
OF ground | bought, fifty feet front, Il
paid $500 a foot for. | never bought
anything in Saratoga at second price. II
you reflect on any proposition over
night they'll raise on you next morning.
l keep a hotel in connection with nv
club house to be allowed to gamble. |
aim with that hotel to pay my servants
and to support the table. There are
seventy people in my employment here.
The cook is paid 1900 for the season,
and | generally present him with 5000
when he goes away. The good servants
| re-engage tor the next year" The
hotel part of Morrissey's establishment
bears no relation whatever to his
gaming, and the games are neither
visible nor the players audible from the
dining room. His sale de jouer is a sort
OF transept to his hotel, one immense
room, lighted from the sky, carpeted
richly, with narrow rim of gaming tables
around the sides. No citizen of Sarato-
ga is allowed to play, no intoxicated
person, no verdant young man. Gam
bling has its own class. There are some
men who game as naturally and as
coolly as they do business. Morrissep
himself never plays, except with great
experts, and men of equal purse and
nerve, like Ben. Wood or Prince Nc
Grath. He goes to Wall street with the
spirit Of en- operator, and takes his
chances. His race track here is a profit
able investment, and his partner in it is
the soninlsw of Reyerdy Johnson.
Having been in Congress, he has con-
nections all through public life. When
we consider that this man was of the
lowest extraction, and mashed his way
to fortune with his fist; that he has been
hated, at times. by the whole nation and
often fought without a friend in the
crowd that he has never been put
under, never failed; that he deals on
equal business terms with Vanderbilt.
Tliden, Stewart, Tracy and Belmont,
and bids fair to close out lite with a for
tune and no little local respect, your
remark with the psalmist: "As for man,
his days are grass; like a flower of the.
field he fourishes.''