Dodge City times., 1877-07-28
THE wICKEDEsT TOWN.
What an American Humorist Saw
in Cheyenne.

have seen wicked cities in my time.
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 Novgoroe during the
September fair, seen the Mabille packed
with iepravIty when the empire was al
its meridian. but never expected to ses
hell itself / sauntered on the streets oi
Cheyenne at midnight. Fifty saloon.
and dozen licensed gambling houses line
the principal streets. all tbronged and
gaiIy illuminated TIL the morning sur
puts out the lights.
What makes Cheyenne the wickedesi
city in the world
/. 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 Hiiiers can sell! their gold dust and
nuggets and then gamble and spree away
the proceeds So as 10 go back TO the
mines.
Ill. Ii is the point to which all the In
dian fighting army officers come as place
where they can spree away hundred
dollars in night and make up for lost
time on the Big Horn.
~. Ii is the stopping point for all the
swell demi- from San Francisco,
ST. Louis and Chicago. In a word. it is
tho American paradise for licensed drink
inp fighting gambling etc
Walk with me into one licensed house
On the principal streets in Cheyenne at
three O'Clock in the morning. The house
is medley. Ii is the Partisan Varieties
on Sixteenth street, John Morrissey's Sar-
atoga 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 per-
haps fifty by one hundred and thirty feet.
and two stories high. On the ground
floor Is theatre stage, room for three
hundred cowboys. soldiers. ranchmen and
waiter girls. and just ont 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
sxearing, drinking crowd which throng
the tables.
On the stage there is constant variety
show going on. Skilful variety actors
are eIapioye6. and there the tight-rope
walkers. the song and dance women in
tights, the iow-necked ballad-singer, the
ciog-dancer. the negro minstrel, the model
artists and the female bathers come out
in O continuous stream from ten at night
till morning.
On the fret 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 cOw>boys, ranchnen.
Black Hillsers. miners and soldiers is a
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 commu-
nicate with the stage. Twenty or thirty
waiter girls supply the boxes with cham
pagne. the price of which is five dollars
for pint bottles All drinks in the boxes
are fifty cents. II is a common thing for
. rich ranci,man. after selling thousand
cattle, to come here and spend one theus-
and dollars on spree. A colonel in the
army, who had been fighting up in the
Big Horn country. camc IN the other
evening aud spent 81. 600, and finally left
his watch on the red. and lost thst too.
The proprietor of this gambling and
variety saloon is q very generous man.
Every body likes him. and be is considered
a good citizen in Cheyenne Clergymen
shake him by the hand. and bankers
chum with him like an old schoolmate.