Smyrna times., 1877-06-27
The Wickedest City in America.

Eli Perkins thus writes about Cheyenne,
the Capital of Wyoming Territory. In
letter dated Cheyenne, June 11th, Eli says:
l have seen wicked cities in my time.
l have seen spreeing at the Esler in st.
Petersburg, seen fellows "make night of
it" in the Orpheum in Berlin, seen the
wickedness at Mini Novgorod during the
September fair, seen the Mabille packed
with depravity when the empire was at its
meridian, but 1 never expected to see hell
ITSELF 1 sauntered out on the streets of
Cheyenne at midnight. Fifty saloons and
dozen licensed gambling houses line the
principal street, all thronged and gaily
illuminated till the morning sun puts out
the lights.
What makes Cheyenne the wickedest
city in the world?
l. Cheyenne is the metropolis where the
rich owners and the buckskin-clad drivers
of five million dollars worth of cattle
rendezvous for a 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 go back to the mines.
III. 1t is the point to which all the
Indian-fghting army officers come as a
place where they can spree away hundred
dollars in a night and make up for lost
time on the Big Horn.
". 1t is the stopping point for all the
swell demimond from San Francisco, st.
Louis, and Chicago. In a word, it is the
American paradise for licensed drinking,
fighting, gambling, &c.
Walk with me into one licensed house
on the principal street in Cheyenne at 8
o'clock in the morning. The house is a
medley. 1t is the Partisan Varieties on
Sixteenth street, John Morrissey's Saratoga
gambling house, the Argyle rooms on Sixth
avenue, and the Alhambra. with its fifty
waiter girls, in London, all crowded into
one. The building is perhaps so by 13C
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 o.
delicacy they shuttle and deal the cards
and handle chips for the swearing, drinking
crowd which throng around the tables.
On the first floor every drink is 25 cents
and about thirty English, French anC
) American girls keep the crowd constantly
| drinking. Above this motley crowd o
: COW boys, ranchmen, Black Hill freighters
| miners, and soldiers, is a row of privat,
, boxes filled with the rich men, officers
t tourists, and fellows who have come dowI
with gold dust from the Black Hills
S These boxes all communicate with tn,
stage. Twenty or thirty waiter girls suppl,
D the boxes with champagne, the price o
l which is So for pint bottles. All drinks il
e the boxes are so cents. 1t is a common
n thing for a rich ranch man, after selling
J, thousand cattle, to come down here an,
+ spend 81 900 on spree. A Colonel in tn
j army, who had been fighting up in tn
# Big Horn country, came in the othe
e evening and spent $1,000 and finally lei
C his watch on the red, and lost that toe
e The proprietor of this gambling an
e variety saloon is very generous mar
y Everybody likes him, and he is considere
n a good citizen in Cheyenne. Clergyme
y shake him by the hand, and bankers chur
e with him like an old schoolmate. Th
IS profits in the one building are 81 900 pC
day. / suppose there are dozen house
1t on one block where gambling goes on da
E. and night with open doors. Sometim,
% the marshal and the policeman take
Ie hand. The Judge goes out and "bucks I'll
lie tiger" while the jury are agreeing on
es verdict. You will see Colonels in IL
to army standing by a private soldier, and S,
n COW boys in buckskin dividing the chi
n with Cheyenne Indian-all in the mo
I'd enterprising border town in America al
I'd the wickedest town in the world.
OF ELI PERKINS.
Pt - 60