The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-05-28

1t was exclusively "blue-chip" or gold
game, not open to the general pubic. and
| thousands of dollars frequently changed
hands for hours together on each turn
from tho box. In rooms on the same
floor poker and other sbOrt-card games
were played, sometimes for stakes that
were almost bewiderng. No one with
less than thousands to hazard was admit
ted to these games, where fifty-dollar Slugs,
double eagles and golden ounces were the
coins usually employed in betting.
Above and nearly adjoining the FL Do
RADIO was Lees Exchange, a large gam
bIng-hall of unsav0ry repute. where for
time swlndling games of every description
were in progress and where fights were of
hourly occurrence. In 1851 1t was the
principal rendezvous of the three-card
cuD-and-bal and dice sharks, and for
months they paid the rent of the building
to secure the privilege of displaying their
tables on the open veranda fronting the
main saloon. The music was barbarous,
the liquors dispensed were vile, and at
night the hall was a pandemonum; but
the air of lawlessness pervahing the place
was attractive to the reckless and half
drunken miner, and he gave it share of
his patronage.
In October 1852, disastrous fire swept
away four-hfthS OF the buildings in Sscra-
mento, and not single gambing-hall was
left in the city. The owners Of the Ell Do
rado rebuilt and resumed business, and
gam bling-roOms were reOpened in various
parts of the city as soon as accommodate
tions could be secured; but the wild gam
Ding craze In Sacramento disappeared in a
measure with the great fire, OF again to
return except in a Subdued form.
In San Francis o, with maritime and
other elements of floating and permanent
population unrecogniZed in the interior.
gambling conditions aud methods were
somewhat different from those already
referred to. Gaming-halls were abundant,
but, with the exception of few in the
neighbOrhooj of Portsmouth square, the
most OF them were little better than dens
OF robbery. The city swarmed with
ambiers, but tw0-thirds of them never
thought of giving the player an honest
deal. and were often the c0-partners of
thieves and the companions of murderers.
Their faro-oOXes, roulette-wheelS, monte
cards and dicing arrangements were all
under their control, and men who declined
| to be robbed at their games were relieved
OF their purses by rOugher methods. The
gambllng-dens on the lower portions OF
Clay aud Commercial streets were places
oil especial danger after nightfall. They
were under the control of thieves and muir
derers, who, when quieier means of rob
berry failed, were prepared to sav their
victims and drop their bodies through
trapdoors into the bay.
Ills brick building on the southeast cor
ner oil Washington and kearny streets is
perhaps the only monument left in San
Francisco of the flush gam bling days of he
fifties. 1t was then known as the Ell Do
RADIO. and was for some time regarded as
one OF the finest structures in the city.
The entire first floor, with the entrance on
kearny street. was gambling hall,
where women presided at lansqueneL and
twenty-ohe, and men at faro monte and
roulette, with we'll furnished bar in the
room to supply their patrons with refresh
iaents and wel-paid policeman to pre-
serve order. No one who looked in upon
the Lively scene presented there forty years
ago will fail to recall the picture as he
passes the building to-day.
III.
Some heavy betting was certainly done