St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-25

what dreary time they have. There is
nothing to see and nothing to do, no merry
go-rounds, no concert halls, no cheap
restaurants OF the right sort, no roller
coasters. no cheap shows. nothing to
amuse the children. They walk the weary
avenue, they ride into the shabby village,
and then they come back to the pier and
sit in the sand or battle, Sometimes the
crowds contain a very shocking element.
Indeed, the assembly the Sun reporter found
under the pier one day last week was alto
gether too Hogarthian for description. The
toughest Fourth ward girls were burrowing
in the sand with evil-looking, battered
featured rowdies, children clad in nothing
but narrow trunks were FLASHING in the
water, mothers nursed their babes regard
less of publicity, men and women passed
bottles to one another, and altogether
well, that day the better grades of eXcur-
slonistS kept away from the shady, cool and
ample beach beneath the pier.
Isn't there any show or any fun here?"
an eXcurSionist asked of native.
Eyes, two miles and half up the beach
you can see where Garfield died." the Long
Branch man made answer.
a GAMBLERS PARADISE.
To the mind in which the moral conser-
vatism OF few years ago still fingers, how
ever feebly, the question occurs, "What
has become of the ce-dominant mass of
Americans who taught their children to
shun the present hell as part of the
means of avoiding that of the future, and
who shuddered at the mention of gambling,
and avoided the presence of a gambler as
If his very atmosphere was poison?" If
those parents are dead, where are their
children and the results of their teachings?
Neither is at Long Branch. The law is
as blind there as justice ought to be. In
Phil Days club house, when the reporter
dropped in, were fathers and sons. officials
from New York and Brooklyn, merchants,
bankers, lawyers and all sorts of persons
that one did not use to see gambling in pub
lie, or the sight of whom at such place
was such rarity as to make a deep in
preston on the mind. In another gambling
house was seen a TOmbS lawyer, whose
name is just rising above the dead level of
obscurity, trembling so over his losses that
it was pitiful to see him. His chair trembled
beneath him and shook the sturdy frame of
companion who was resting part of his
weight on the back of it. The lawyer had
begun with little luck, just enough to still
a beginners conscience, but it changed in
an instant. and he put his last chip on the
down the lawyers face. though he sat in
cool draught, and when the croupier raked
in that last chip the lawyers face was a
sight to see. He borrowed $50 from a
friend and was proceeding to lose that,
shaking the while as if he had fit of
Chickahominy ague, when the reporter left
the place.
At Phil Days the reporter saw Hebrew
StOrekeeper make his first venture on the
green cloth. 1t was the same game. He
bet So, 81 on each of three numbers, and
he won $50. His eyes sparkled and his thin
lips expanded in a smile of delight as he
stacked up the chips and sat down to make
fortune in an evening. 1t took him
several minutes to lose the $50. because he
only bet one at time, but he did lose them
and S25 besides.
The ''Penna. club" as the legend on the
flag over Phil Days announces, is said to
be the most gorgeous gambling house in
America and to be eXcelled in Europe by
only two or three gaming-houses. 1t is
constructed so that its rooms form series
of octagonal apartments whose ceilings are
so many domes. These ceilings are
deliberately frescoed, the walls are trimmed
with hardwood chandeliers of white
glass and of superb construction de-
pend from the ceilings, and costly down.
like carpets clothe the floors. There is
restaurant in one room and two rooms are
for the games, faro, roulet, and red and
black. All the dealers and assistants per-
form their duties in full Dress and the broad
area of Mr.. Days shirt front is Illuminated
by juvenile Kohinoor bearing the same
relation to the shirt-bosom as would
big fountain in a little grass plot
Mr.. DAILY does not disdain to deal occa-
slonally. but his life has been too enjoyable
to leave him graceful. and he has to put on
his eyeglasses to distinguish the denomina-
ton of any but new bank note. This is
said to be the only clubhouse" so to
speak, whereat all the dealers dress in full
evening costume. OF course the lowest
chips are 81 apiece in such place. In that
way visitors are obtained who are as select
as the attendants.
If there is any oaken or iron or double
barred pretension of caution against the en-
forcement of law at this place, with
peephole in it, and a scrutinizing darkey be-
cuStomsd to, the Sun reporter failed to see
it. The front door stood as wide open as
the entrance to the West End hotel or
the doorway to Kalb's beer garden.
Mention was made of foolish Hebrew
who lost $50 after he had won $50. There
are those who imagine that the Jews are
too cautious and too fond of certainty in
money making to become patrons of gam
bling houses. This is not the case. Nine
men in ten in the Long Branch gambling
houses the Sd and 9Th of July were He
brews. 1t was said that is more or
less the case in all gambling places. 1t
must be the speculative spirit in them that
overpowers their prudence. At the piazzas,
at the dinner tables, and in the beach
pavilions, while surrounded by their fami-
lies, they were to be heard talking about