The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-04-22
OLD-TIME GAMBLERS.
Faro Thing of the PaSt-Sena.
tor Pettigrew'S Unlueky
Game.
Washington Special to Philadelphia Inquirer.

vice in 10 ing all its grossne:s has
lost half its evil. In the days of
Thaddru. Stevens, Senator Green, of
Missouri, aud Pe.rce of Maryland !;
Congressman Herbert, from Ca i
fornia, and Lawrence Ke'tt, If South
Carolina, the gambling houses and
faro tanks in the city Of magnificent
distances were the only club HOUSES
known at that period, and here the
nerthe:n and southern members of
congress met on common ground, and
in cOnvivial pleasures, the joys of the
table AID the music of good fellow
ship, politics were for The once forgot
toll, and all the asper;ties OF politics
forgiven, til cpngress met next day.
The favori'e housGs where the south.
ern members most id congregate
were Joe Ha Is and Prindle's.
Hall WIS a poor white from Vir-
ginia who got rich behind the faro
tab and became very purse-proud.
About the time James K. Polk was
elected, President Hal lived in great
grandeur in Washington. His horses
W. re gold mounted harm IS, and Cool
Marin, the best preserved gambler
# that ime, asserts i. as one Of the
substantive facts of the period. when
the gamblers hell high carnival in
Washing on, that Joe Hall hal silver
buckets, solid silver at that, out of
which his high stepping bays were
wa!ered. But the fcsle goId-ss of
fortune and faro went blck on poor
Joe Hall and he fell financially and
Was g ad to get gIeenbacss enough to
keep the wolf from the door. He BE-
came local preacher in Baltimore
and was supported by vo'untary coz
ributions from the Washin- ,,n @lm-
blers.
Fro fell into desue,ude i'm Wash
ing:On scon sfier a treasury clerk
robbie l the big vault of Unc e Sans
on Penus. lvania Avenue of $4,000,
and speut ii at roulette wheel in
Parker's gilded palace of sin and gin. |
Pre- ,ident Arthur resolved to move
temptation from the paths of impecun-
ious clerks. so he babe the commission
ers-five of whom rule Washington -
drive the faro money changers from
the national temple, and reluctantly |
they pickle! up their layou's and fed.
There may be and doubtless Is an &C.
ceslohsi Iui MO- -
risky congressman waste their sal |
aries and the midnight gas, but king
faro has abdicated, and all the gl",y |
of Joe Hall, and Jim Pendleton, ami
Dave Prindle, and George Parker is
now represented across the long
bridge at a tumble down viilsge
called jackson City, in forlorn brick
house. Here is all that is eft of the
silvery spleudor which blinded the
eyes of the !gamesters s>uth and north
before the war. There Is just one
whe5zy faro bank across the PotOmsc
to accommodate all the sports of
Washington City.
Last week Cool Martin, now NEST
learned pundit among the gemblers
Of the past, who live OH the memories
of the DAYS when gambling was not
under the ban. proposed ID Senator
Pettigrew of Dakota, to 60 across the
bridge and try their luck st jackson
City. Martin called hack and the
pair were soon laundering across the
long bridge. As they drove over the
river AID gszed upward at the sky
Pettigrew recalled the brilliant Ser
geant S. Prentiss, of Mississippi, who
the year before the senator of DakO a
was born, won s4S, 900 from Hall IL
game in one night, after
saying TO a Mississippi congressman
II feel tonight as if could win the
stars from heaven The congress.
man from Naichez did bust the. bank
but he lost four big warehouses under
The bluff, on the Mississippi worth
5000, 900.
Perhaps the recollection Of Prentiss
was the harbinger of bad lnck aud
Cool Martin recalled, later cn, that he
1ad heard black dog bark in front
IF the faro bank when they entered.
Both of the gamesters went into
he game with two stacks of blue
chips, forty chips or fish" at SO
apiece, making $500 capital.
Cool Martin played two deals, then
found. himself broke, without nickel
n his pocket. He retired in good
order to the buffet and solaced him.
,elf with two drink of Pepper whisky.
The senator from Dakota, though
bis 5000 worth of "blue fish had
gone, called for $500 worth of addi-
tional s'fish." The dealer handed cut
the stacks.
Senator Petiigrew played in differ
emf luck. making one lucky call for