The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-04-16
TIGER . AND STATESMEN.
"reminiscences of Some Noted Faro
Playing Law Makers at
Washington.
The Big Game is Chased From
9ilded LARS to For
lorn Hut.
Cool Martin the Sole Survivor Of q Tribe OF
Sports-Senator Pettigrew Plunges
With Disastrous Results

Gambling, save as lost art, is no longer
picturesque in Washington, says the fhlia-
delphia Enquirer. Maybe, as Edmund
Burke says, this vice in losing all its gross
ness has lost half its evil. In the days OF
Thaddeus Stevens, Senator Green OF Mis-
souri,, and Pearce of Maryland, Congress
man Herbert from California and Lawrence
Keitt of South Carolina, the gambling
houses and faro banks in the city OF mag
nificent distances were the only club houses
known to that period, and the northern and
southern members of congress met on COM
mon ground and in convivial pleasures, the
ioys of the table and the music of good fell
lowship, politics for the nonce were forgot
ten and all the asperities of politics for
given, till congress met the next day. The
favorite houses where the southern members
most did congregate were Joe Halls and
Prindle's.
Hall was poor white from Virginia who
got rich behind the faro table and became
very purse. proud. About the time james
X. Polk was elected president Hall lived in
great grandeur in Washington. His horses
wore gold-mounted harness, and Cool Mar
tin, the best preserved gambler of that
time. asserts it as one Of the substantive
facts Of the period, when the gamblers held
high carnival in Washington, that Joe Hall
had silver buckets (solid silver at that out
Of which his high-stepping bays were
.watered. But the tickle goddess OF fortune
and faro went back on poor Joe Hall, and
he fell financially and was glad to get
greenbacks enough to keep the wolf from
Baltimore and was supported by voluntary
contributions from the Washington gam
blers.
Faro fell into desuetude in Washington
soon after treasury clerk robbed the big
vault of Uncle Sans on Pennsylvania ave-
wheel in Parker's gilded palace of sin and
gin. President Arthur resolved to remove
temptation from the paths of the impecuni-
GUS clerks, SO he bade the commissioners
i've of whom rule Washington the
faro money changers from the national
temple, and reluctantly they picked up their
layouts and fled. There may be, and doubt
less is an occasional lurking poker room
where frisky congressman waste their sala-
ries and the midnight gas, but king faro
and Jim Pendleton and Dave Prlndle and
George Parker is now represented across the
long bridge at the tumble-down village
called jackson City, in a forlorn brick
house. Here is all that is left of the silvery
splendor which blinded the eyes OF the
There is just one wheezy faro bank across
the Potomac to accommodate all the sports
of Washington city.
Last week Cool Martin, now most
learned pundit among the gamblers of the
past who live on the memories of the days
when gambling was not under the ban, pro-
posed to Senator Pettigrew, of South Da-
kota, to go across the bridge and try thei,
luck at jackson City. Martin called a
hack and the pair were soon laundering
<ho l011fvh q
the river and gazed upward at the sky, Pet
tigrew recalled the brilliant Sergeant s
Prentiss, of Mississippi, who, the year be.
fore the senator from South Dakota was
game in one night, after saying to Missis.
sippi congressman: II feel tonight as if
could win the stars from heaven The
Natchez congressman did 'bust'' the bank
but he lost four big warehouses under the
bluff on the Mississippi worth $500, 900.
Perhaps the recollection of Prentiss was
the harbinger of bad luck. and Cool Martin
recalled, later on, that he had heard black
dog bark in front of the faro bank.
Both the gamesters went into the game
with two stacks of blue chips forty chips OF
''fish, Fat $40 apiece, making $500 capital.
Cool Martin played two deals, then found
himself broke, without a nickle in his
pocket. He retired in good order to the
buffet and solaced himself with two drinks
Of Pepper bs y MoS "a bDs R1
had gone, called for $500 worth of ad
ditional fish," The dealer handed out the
stacks.
Senator Pettigrew played in Indifferent
luck, making one lucky call for $500, anC
was paid $4,000, or four for one in fish,
This encouraged the wiry and virile western
senator, who forthwith BECAME "plunger;'
doubled his money the next deal, and thu
subsequent turn he ''paralleled" his bets, i
e., let them lie and double, the limit hav
ing been extended from $50 to $500 on
single card. The end of that deal foune
the junior senator from Dakota with JUS
enough money in his pocket to pay cab far
to Washington.
Lets swear off, SENATOR said Coo
Martin.
"Done," said Senator Pettigrew, II pla.
no more for five years.
They played no more that day, and Will
the junior senator is not averse to quie
game of draw" he has forsworn the far
table, because he lost the price OF a small
brick house at Sioux Falls in single hour
Wanted.-A gsod appetite. You can have j
easy enough by taking Hoods Sarsaparilla.
tones the digestion and cures sick headache.
Unsurpassed in the World.
The vestibuled trains of the Chicago