Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1885-03-19
GAMBLERS OF THE WEST.
ODD SECTIONS OF HONOR's SLY
EST CODE.

ODD SECTIONS OF HONOR's Sly
EST CODE.
Destiny's Receivers for Spendthrifts
and Sots, and OR-Handed Justices
Pistol-Bau Executions for Cheats.
BY EDWARD PAYsoN HALL.
For the Sentinel.
We have all read too many stories
of greenhorns plundered at the card
table to very readily sanction the no.
ton that there ever was or ever could
be any good in any professional gam
bier. But as among the glory-crown-
ed Spartans thievery was practice
morally good and honest, there may
be some modern heather at our very
doors almost who have yet some noble |
traits as there is "honor" to be found !
even "among thieves there may be
some white streaks .diversifying the
murkiness of black-legs; and as the
human race himself is accredited, on
frst-rate classical authority, not to be
nearly $50 black as he is painted"
there may be no positive harm in tax
ing you with me to look at Mississip-
pi River gamblers as l found them,
and pointing out the redeeming lines
in their suspicious physiognomies, if
perchance l can see any.
And whilst proceeding to this ex-
animation, let us frankly, candidly
and charitably admit that the passion
for gambling is inherent and irresisti-
blein human nature that every country
pumpkin who forecasts the future to
his comrades by saying, "Jack, its
going to be a fair day tomorrow" or
"Tom, it's going to rain like "fujince"
for about a month"; is virtually bet
ting ON the weather, loves to do it and
can't help it; and stakes his reputat-
ion as wise-acre and weather proph-
ct, on the strength of some imaginary
high cards of wisdom which he thinks
he has been smart enough to draw
from the prophetic pack, against any
other competitive prognosticator's say
so to the contrary; and if it should
shine when he said it would "shower
pitchforks'' at the dreadful hour he
set for the descent of three pronged
hay lifters, he believes he has won
yes, "high, low, Jack and the game
and is correspondingly elated, proud
and weather renowned.
Let us not suppose that where cards
and dice are not, the gambling mania
cannot be. Almost everybody has
heard the story of the old gambler,
who, having been induced to resolve
that he would never touch the dan
gerous, greasy packs, and spotted cubes
again, was found soon after betting
with neighbor as to who should draw
the longest straw out of hay-stack.
In similar category is the man, who,
while protesting to denounce gambling,
may be habitually practicing it under
the plausible disguise of mercantile
pursuits, railway and other specula-
ton, lotteries, gift-enterprises, church
fairs and the like
| used to know a man named Ed
wards, whose wife and children resi-
ded permanently in Florence, Illinois
who followed the business of gamb-
ling ON the steamboats, from there to
New Orleans all summer, and, while
the rivers were ice-locked in winter
time and all trade and travel were
stagnant, remained at home with his
family. And l can honestly aver he
was by no means the worst man in the
world. Far be it from me to become
an apologist for such characters or
even to insinuate that the giant evil
they support is whit smaller than it
is, on the one hand yet far be it from
me to charge my pen with wholesale
sweeping, condemnatory criticism OF
all my un-churched fellow-mortals, on
the other. never played game for
stakes in my life. Nor would [ advise
my younger readers to ever risk play
ing thus with gentlemanly Edwards
or anybody else. Yet Edwards was a
peaceable citizen of the town where he
Iived-a liberal and regular contribu.
tor to church and school enterprises
man who would risk his life for the
preservation of order in the communi
ty-who would fight, cat the drop OF
hat, amy scoundrel who had feeced
a green horn at cards, whip him sound
ly and make him restore the money
who educated his children, and treated
all about him with unmistakable phil
anLrOplC respect, lodrIlou from MIN
that the Mississippi gamblers of the bet
ter sort had rules of their own, never
descended to the dead level of low
trickery and knavish robbery, and
never associated with the filthy class
of. black-legs, with whom they are
so much confounded, and on whose ac
count they are SO infinitely malignant
A respectable gambler Does not the
liuxtaposition Of that noun and adjec-
tive sound most paradoxically queer
to us, the musty denizens of this old
Gland of steady habits?'' But you
must consider how different from ours
was the state of society out there. The
country swarmed, with adyenturers
bound to snake or break grog-shops
every few doors, and billiard-saloons
T gambling-hells and faro tables on near
, " every block of the rising city streets
cards played to kill time, for amuse
ment or gain, by all hands, from the
wood-chopper's begrimmed cheap deck
to the steamboat captains fancy En-
glish linen pack. In such a re-
. gion "aecent" gambler was but al
aristocratic of.shoot and upper-ter
/ fgnre-head of the universal game
-