Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-26

mine. But that was an event that en-
crossed the whole town. The NEST ex-
traordinary efforts had been made to
save the miners. The mayor OF the
city had been conspicuous at the head
OF the most gallant workers, and grate-
ful citizens gave him great gold badge
bearing upon il an emblematic story of
the efforts made to save the men. The
whole city sorrowed for the dead and at
tended the funeral. Then the dealing
boxes were turned face up again.
All OF the principal gambling houses
run three shifts of men for each game.
The after midnight early morning run
is called the grave yard shift, but why
that name should be applied to those
nours more than to any other group OF
hours, is not quite clear.
You push open the door from the
street and enter big barroom. Nearly
all OF these barrooms have a row of
chairs along the wall opposite the bar,
and these are generally occupied. The
gambling room is usually directly back
of the barroom, and reached through
broad opening without any door or cur
tain or any impediment whatever,
though in one large place you find a
cut partition, with the cut.out piece set
back a little, like the approach to the
In New York. There are still different
arrangements in some places, but usually
you walk right straight into
THE GAMBLING ROOM,
and whatever the arrangement,
they are all equally open and
public. The big houses run three faro
tables each, one roulette table, and some
of them two or three poker tables, where
the bank sells and redeems chips for
percentage, and deals the cards to the
players. Faro is the favorite game,
though in some places keno has pretty
strong grip. 1t happened that when
was in Leadville business was little
slack. The pay days of the miners and
railroad men and freighters were
earlier in the month, and most of the
money that was to be played had already
been banked. But in some of the
rooms there were men enough to
make you look for the opening among
them before passing through. They
were mostly miners with some railroad
men, and freighters and others.
Scarcely any clerks or men In like oc-
cupations at the times when the rooms
were visited by me, and business men
who play, play in the upstairs rooms.
In the big public rooms the white check
is ten cents each, SO that men of limited
means can play. The miners earn not
less than So DAY, for all kinds of labor
brings good wages here. asked a
gambler if the kind of men l saw in the
mine visited gambled, and he was in
clined to the belief that they did. The
stranger ranges about, exciting no sort
OF attention from the miners or the
other men there, for the most of them
deal every day with nature and big
force that give to nearly all of them a
sort of broad guage sense, and to some
of them touch of maybe half unknown
to themselves superiority that makes
them not, perhaps superior to but very
civily Indifferent to the ordinary
stranger. The dealer or the lookerout
may glance up for an instant, but that
is all; the stranger at once feels that he
is but an atom in the sea, and moreover
of all vices gambling is the most en-
crossing.
Drinks are free to the players, but
they don't drink over much. In all the
gambling places l heard only one voice
that sounded like that of drunken
man, and he was in the barroom. The
cases are kept by a miner, maybe, who
keeps track of the cards and plays at
the same time, with ostentation. The
men who gamble are big and little, but
mostly good-sized men, old and young,
not boisterous, all intent on the game.
In some of the houses not all of the
games are owned by one man or con-
Germ, but table privileges are rented.
Gamblers are paid for each shift from
$40 to SO per day, and each game pays
the city S25 month. This is nominal
lv called fine, but it is not Gambling
is against the laws of the state of Col
orado, and there is no Leadville ordi-
nance which permits it, and this fine or
tribute, or whatever you may call it,
could not be collected of any gambler
who should resist, but they are very
willing to pay the money to the city Off
cial who collects it. and are not molest-
ed. Announcement of the lottery is
posted on the sidewalk, and probably
more than half the population of Lead
vile gamble. l don't suppose that the
civil authorities of Leadville desire to
have gambling carried on in the city;
probably if the money now spent in
gambling could be kept in the city and
diverted to other channels they would
prefer to have the gambling stopped;
but where so many gamble it becomes
a somewhat difficult problem to handle,
and they generally end by letting them
gamble and looking to the future for re-
lief, and occasionally setting the date
back little further.
/ dropped in to see my friend the
gambler, whom l had met at the hotel,
pull few cards. In an interval in the
| playing he introduced me to the locker
out, genial gentleman from Chicago,
! who, some twenty or thirty years ago,
| at the time of the excitement in the
south, served few years in one of the
famous light batteries that went out
| from Chicago. He was man of cheer
full temperament, perhaps more buoyant
| in manner than his confrere the dealer,
who inclined rather to sedateness; but
both were disposed to regard life, per-
haps, not as continuous picnic, but yet
as period with more fun than funeral.
At night went to the up-stair rooms
of what is generally recognized as the
| principal gambling establishment of the
| city. These rooms are uD one flight OF
stairs which may be reached through
door from saloon below or by an
other door from the street, both equally
easy to open. There are four or five
rooms reaching from the front of the
building to the rear, the floors all
covered with velvet carpets. The faro
table and the roulette table are in the
front room, and the tables and all their
appurtenances are of the best materials
and workmanship, Then there are two