The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-02-25
GAMBLING IN THE WEST.
Poker7iIle's Attractions and Vicss-A
Ohinaman Runs Auruck.

Pokerville's Attractions and Vicss-A
0hinaman Runs AnIuck.
For the CITIZEN.
From the year 1879 to 1883 there
was what perhaps may not improp-
erly be termed a labor exodus from
the states of Illinois, Wisconsin,
Iowa and Minnesota toward the
northwes or rather to assist In the
construction of N. P. r. R., which
was then fast nearing its compile
ton. The read established labor
offices in the principal cities of these
states which sent men te different
points along the unfinished route at
one dollar per head. A great many
went on account of the wages paid
for labor. Men who struggled to
keep the Welt from their door in civ
ilization thought by ventrrIng be-
yond it's limits they would grow
rich and return to their home happy.
Money they earned, of course, for
none were paid less than 50 per day.
Some got more, board cost SIS =
week; yet few who went there to
live could show on their return how
their condition was bettered by GO
ing. Others went .whoes motives
were not labor, or at least not of
the kind that drives spike or lays
steel, yet these were the very men
whose wallets burst with green
backs. They were advent urers and
gamblers from nearly all parts of
tha Union who followed the line Of
! labsr and feeced everybody they
came in contact with. Faro, Span
ish monte and jack pots we're play
ed everywhere at night. These
wolves would pitch tents about =
mile from the railroads camps and
advertise it by riding up and down
the work. The railroad psmps
were seven miles apart. Each had
its pokerville, however, for such
was the name applied by the road
men themselves. The first aues-
ton after supper in railroads camps
was, "are you going down to peker-
yille?" The answer was invariably
yes. Some would play faro, others
monte, more would engage u! IN t ti.c
service of the towns name, but all
would have the same story next day
-lost q little, OF course the play
ers at faro did not lose every time
they put money on card, but in
aggregate, and their money was
swelling the dealers pile with same
certainty as il they made him a
present of it. Still everybody was
facinated by the play at the vile
and would go nightly to buck the
tiger, and few nights passed without
giving players q chance to show
their skill In the Marquis of Queens
bury art, which little circpm-
stances would never inturrupt the
interested players
Sunday Was the day of all days
most desired. Then five or six
hundred men mingled together,
most of them ready to gamble,
drink or shoot on the slightest pre-
tent, for there must in people of
this kind be some considerable num-
Der who are reckless and perhaps .
few who are criminal Be that As it
may, they all gambled and lost sx
cept the founders of pokervills who
were making money faster than
they ever did before, and that says
good deal. The Sabbath
was given entirely to play, and to
the excessive use Of fire water, which
crazed the motley Inhabitants Of
that crazy town. Horse racing
was another feature Of the Sabbath
in the burg. The most that can be
said IN praise of pokerville is that
homicides were not quite as numer-
Gus as might be expected in such
place where men knew no civil re-
straints, or at least did not recog
nize any; md as far as morality or
religion was concerned, it never oc-
CURED to them such things existed.
OF course there were men among
those who visited the sporting camps
that we're as upright and honest as
any to be found in other places of
better repute.
On some sections of the read Chi
namen were the laborers, and = con-
siderable amount of bad feeling ex-
listed between them and the whites
which often led to the destruction
Of Chinese camp or the killing of
some Cinnamon, which never caused
any remarks or inquiry to be
made in the direction Of dis
covering who the miscrsAnts were.
The almond eyed sons Of the flowe-
ry kingdom are fond of gambling
and OF the dupe pipe, and when uR
der the excitement caused by one or
both, they sometimes lose all con-
trel OF their better feeling and
snatch up eny deadly weapon they
can lay hands on and strike down
the first animated thing they see.
Whay Ching lest in pokerville the
earnings Of several months, and
maddened by his i'll luck, as well a.
by an over-iudulgenee in the opium
pipe, jerked from the Scabbard of
another player q knife with . doub-
lie edge, and ran through the crowd,
cutting and stabbing at every one
In the course of his amuckIhe cut
some half dozen men quite serious
~, though none died. He was
shot dead by the celebrated scout |
Johnson before he could do further
damage. JOHN MALLEY.
Bunker E1ill.