The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-05-16
FRISCO'S WILD GAMING.
MONEY FLOWED LIKE WATER
AMONG GAMBLERS.
with Wicked Reckicssness Thousands
We're Thrown Upon the Gaming
Table without q Thought
For the Morrow.


attachment or annex. The bar was
usually on the street, and, as now in
Cheyenne or Denver. the back room
approached through the barroom, was
faro bank, with many poker and
roulette tables. and here the whirr of
the wheel and the click Of the ivory
chips could be heard every night till
Aurora walked the eastern skies. The
most famous gambler in my time was
Judge" Jones. 1t was only known OF
him that he mysteriously dropped
down from Texas, and came in as q
forty-niner. with the title of 'Judge;"
he was a slender little fellow, with
nerves tempered like Bessemer steel;
when sober, OF Chesterfieldian manners,
but ready 10 pick a quarrel with any
man when three sheets in the wind"
Judge Jones was the best dressed
man in San Francisco; all his clothes
came from London, and while natty in
appearance nobody had the temerity to
tempt the Judges wrath by the slight
est allusion to his passion for dress.
Fortunes changed hands rapidly in
those days. when Ophir and the Com
stock Lode made millionaires in a
single night / have known rough
men come down from the gold country
with $50, 900 in gold dust and "blow''
it all in ut Judge Jones's faro palace
inside of two days; then without a
murmur the same man would borrow a
grub stake and flee away to the
mountains and before year the same
man, ten to one, would dig, put anoth-
er fortune in gold and, perhaps, have
sense enough to pull up stakes, go
east, and keep it.
While the proprietor of faro bank,
Judge Jones had burning desire to
take his own '.bad medicine, " that is,
to 'buck" against faro bank. and the
result was that about one-half the
judges time he was fiat broke and at
such periods an extremely dangerous
man to tackle. Billy Owens, who had
a saloon rivaling in splendor Ed Stokes
Hoffman bar room. was the fast friend
of the Texas gambler. When Jones
went broke Owens would stake him
again. Bad blood ran in Jones veins
toward Belcher Key, an English pugil-
list, who was then the local John l..
Sullivan, of Frisco, whose bunch of
fives earned for the prize fighter re-
spect his bad manners did not entitle
him to win or wear. Key was quar-
relsome and so was the Texas Judge.
Both met in the Eldorado, near Billy
Owens saloon and Gambling place.
when Key, who was reasonably full of
liquor proceeded directly to where
Judge Jones was standing and slapped
him in the face.
Jones was game, and though much
inferior in size. put up fist and lot
drive at the burly prize-ighter with
his right, drawing first blood freely.
This was more than fighter Key ex-
pected, and he let fly with his left-he
was left handed-and foored the little
gambler, who, quickly regaining con-
seriousness from the marble floor where
he lay, pulled his revolver and shot
Bclcher Key through the heart. The
coroner hadn time to waste as the
result of Judge Jones fatal facility
with his pistol. He was not even ar
rested, and that night he received an
ovation which might have gratifed
the last OF the Caesars Judge Jones
was the hero of the hour, and bore his
honors as meelsly as any great victor
should.
The business and sporting life OF the
pioneers on the golden shore and in
the glorious climate of California was
feverish one. To the forty-niners
the old things of the offete east had
passed away and all things had become
new. 1t was not an unusual thing at
Billy Owens's back room to see man
walk in and lay down n certificate OF
deposit for $40, 900 on the ace, having
first asked the banker to cover his bet,
and without change OF muscle bank
er and player would abide the coming
out of the ace and If the bank won he
quietly raked in his $40, 600 certificate
OF deposit. laid 1t in his left hand
drawer, and the man in front OF the
table went out wiser and poorer man
to begin prospecting again at Poverty
Flat.
/ once saw rich horseman come
in, and. firing of 'piking" along with
$0OO DetS on u single cara, ne nom
chalently tapped on the high card
with his pencil as he said: ''Mr.
Dealer, I'll just go you on the high
card my three story brick house near
the Palace Hotel against your $40, 000,"
and drawing out Of his pocket his deed
the bettor laid it on the ace spot.
"Done, said the dealer, who was likely
TO have a $4,000 bank roll in his
pocket and reserve fund OF 800, 900
in small safe in the corner of the
gambling hell. Quietly the outside
betting went on, and nearly all the
cards were out the ace being the
s.soda" card and three aces still in the
box. The deed still lay on the ace.
At last when king, queen, jack, and
three aces were the only cards In the
box, the bettor said: Hold, dealer;
I'm - tired of that ace; it's going to
split. want to put my brick house
on the king. Are you agreedp"
"Certr exclaimed the dealer. He
pulled. Out camo the king, falling at
the RIGHT of the dealer. The bank
lost. The man with the brick house
won 100 600. s.How will YOU have