, 1877-07-13
wiekede.t Town in AmerIea.

have seen wicked cities IN ny time
I have ,eru spresing Il the E.lrr N ST
Prtsrspurg. -e~n fellows make a night
ui H." iu the Orphsum ia Berha, seen
the Wicksdne.s at MINI NOvgurue during
the - pb inter fair. seen the Maoi.le
packet with depravity When the cmI,irc
Was at it, meridian. hut never eXp,cisl
to sev bell it-elf I ssunt-fei on the
streets II Cheyenne at midnight Fifty
saloons and = dozen liceuse,l gambling
houses line the principal street., All
thrungei and gAily illuminated till the
morning sun puts out the light.
What makes Cheyenne the ~ickedest
city in the WOrldi
|. Cheyenne is the metropolis where
the rich owners aud the buckskin clad
drivers IT five million dollars worth Of
cattle rendezvous for weekly spree.
II. II is the nearest point where the
Black Killers can sell their gold dust and
nuggets and then gamble and spree
away the proceeds 50 rs to go back To the
mines.
Ill. tits the point to which all the In
dian fighting army officers come as n
place where they Can spree away a hun
dred dollars in a night and make up for
lost time on the Big Horn.
". 1t is the stopping point for all the
swell demi-mOnde from San FranciscO,St
Louis aud Chicago, In word, it 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. It 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, rsnchmen 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 throEg 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-siDger, the
clOg-dancer, the negro minstrel, the
model artists and the female bathers
come out in a continuous stream from
ten at night till morning.
On the first floor every drink is twenty
five cents, and 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 and
soldiers is row Of private boxes filled
with rich ranchmen, officers, tourists, and
fellows who have come down with gold
dust from the Black Hills. These boxes
all communicate with the stage. Twenty
or thirty waiter girls supply the boxes
with champagne, the price of which is
five dollars for pint bottles. All drinks
in the boxes are fifty cents. 1t is a COM
mon thing for a rich ranchman, after
selling thousand cattle, to come here
and spend one thousand dollars on q
spree. A colonel in the army, who had
been fighting up in the Big Horn coun-
try, came in the other evening and spent
81 900, and finally left his watch on the
red, and lost thai, too. The proprietor OF
this gambling and variety saloon is q
very generous man. Everybody likes
him, and he is considered to be good
citizen in Cheyenne. Clergymeu shake
him by the hand, and bankers chum
with him like an old schoolmaie. The
profits in the one building are 81, 900 per
day. suppose there are dozen houses
on one block where gambling goes on
day and night with open doors. Some
times the marshal and the policeman take
a hand. The Judge goes out and "bucks
the tiger" while the jury are agreeing on
a verdict. You will see colonels in the
army standing by private soldiers, and
see cowboys in buckskin dividing the
chips with a Cheyenne Indian-all in
the most enterprising border town in
America and the wickedest city in the
world.-Ez.