The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-07-05
Wickedest Town in America.

, WlckeQeSC TOWN. IN AulcIloa'
have seen wicked cities m my time
l have seen spreeing at the Esler m y
Petersburg, seen fellows snake a nlgn
of it," in the Orpheum in Berlin, see'
the wickedness at Mini Novgoroe durins
the September fair, seen the Mablil'
packed with depravity when the empir'
was at it's meridian, but never expected
to see hell itself. l sauntered on tn'
streets of Cheyenne at midnight. Flity
saloons and a dozen licensed gambling
houses line the principal streets, al
thronged and gaily illuminated till the
morning sun puts out the lights.
What makes Cheyenne the wlckeoes'
city in the world2
/. Cheyenne is the metropolis where
the rich owners and the buckskin clad
drivers of five million dollars worth OF
cattle rendezvous for weekly spree.
II. 1t is the nearest point where the
Black Killers can sell their gold dust and
nuggets and then gamble and spree
away the proceeds so as to 60 back to the
mines.
III. tits the point to which all the In
dian fighting army officers come as
place where they Can spree away nun
dred dollars in night and make up Tor
lost time on the Big Horn.
~. 1t is the stopping point tor all the
swell demi-monde from San Franclsco,ot
Louis and Chicago, In word, 1t is the
American paradise for licensed drinking,
lighting, gambling, etc.
Walk with me into one licensed house
on the principal street In Cheyenne at
three o'clock in the morning. The house
is medley. 1t is the Partisan Varieties
on Sixteenth street, John Morrissey's
Saratoga gambling house, the Argyle
rooms on Sixth avenue, and the Alham-
bra, with its fifty waiter girls, in London,
all crowded into one. The building Is
fifty by one hundred and thirty feet, and
two stories high. On the ground floor
is theatre stage, room for three hundred
cow boys, soldiers, ranchmen and waiter
girls, and just out of it are the gambling
tables and bars. At the tables every
known game is played. Among the
dealers are several French women dressed
in silks and diamonds. Utterly devoid
of delicacy they shuttle and deal the cards
and handle the chips for the swearing,
drinking crowd which throng the tables.
On the stage there is constant variety
show going on. Skillful variety actors
are employed, and there the tight-rope
walkers, the song and dance women In
tights, the low necked ballad-singer, the
clog dancer, the negro minstrel, the
model artists and the female bathers
come out in continuous stream from
ten at night till morning.
On the first floor every drink is twenty
five cents, aud about thirty English
French and American waiter girls keep
the crowd constantly drinking. Above
this motley crowd of cowboys, ranch
men, Black Hills freighters, miners an6
soldiers is a row Of private boxes filled
with rich ranchmen, officers, tourists, ani
fellows who have come down with golt
dust from the Black Hills. These boxe
all communicate with the stage. Twenty
or thirty waiter girls supply the boxe
with champagne, the price of which il
five dollars for pint bottles. All drinks
in the boxes are fifty cents. 1t is a com
mon thing for rich ranchman, afte
selling a thousand cattle, to come her
and spend one thousand dollars on
. spree. A colonel in the army, who hat
been fighting up in the Big Horn coun
try, came in the other evening and spen
81 900, and finally left his watch on tn
red, and lost that, too. The proprietor O
this gambling and variety saloon is
very generous man. Everybody like
him, and he is considered to be a goo'
citizen in Cheyenne. Clergymen shak
him by the hand, and bankers chun
with him like an old schoolmate. TIL
profits in the one building are 81 900 pc
DAY. suppose there are dozen house
on one block where gambling goes o.
day and night with open doors. Some
times the marshal aud the policeman tax
"a hand. The Judge goes out and "buck
the tiger" while the jury are agreeing O.
a verdict. You will see colonies in tn
army standing by private soldiers, an
see cowboys in buckskin dividing tn
chips with a Cheyenne Indisn-all il
the most enterprising border town i
America and the wickedest city in tn
wOrld.-Ex.
A RATHER seedy- looking individua