St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-16
STRANGE SUCCESS OF A GRAD
UATE FROM THE SLUMS OF
MEMPHIS.
A BLACK BEAU BRUMMEL
WHOSE HIGHEST AMBITION WAS
TO WEAR EXPENSIVE
CLOTHES.
HE ONCE WAS A CRAP SHOOTER.
Amassed u Fortune-Buried With
POnp in the Windy
City.

Eight years ago Frank Moore was
Memphis negro crap shooter. The
police records show that he was ar
| rested in this city in that year for
gambling. A week ago he was mur-
| dered in Chicago by his mistress,
after having attained to high for
tune and the title of the Black Dia-
mond King. Not much is known or
remembered about him here, says
the Memphis Scimitar He came
from Nashville, and the Chicago
people say Nashville was his birth
| place, and that is doubtless correct.
| He was certainly a town negro, for
he was up to all the tricks of the
| flash young bucks who made their
| living by their wits. He was far
| above manual labor, and, while he
was a gambler by profession, he did
not belong to that class that works
! hard all week and throws away it's
money on Saturday night on the crap
| table. He was the oily chap that
run the game and gathered in suck
ers and their scudi.
What was in all respects the most
remarkable funeral that ever took
place in Chicago was that observed
when Frank Moore was laid away
forever. The dead man had thrived
| in the bad lands" of Chicago-the
levee district. The cortege was the
LARGEST EVER SEEN
at black burying in the West. The
crowd in and around the church
numbered 1000 people, black and
white. The floral offerings were as
numerous, as costly, artistic and in
| appropriate as were ever laid on the
bier of private citizen. The hearse
that carried the body to the tomb
was the best in Chicago-in fact, the
same vehicle in which the mortal
| remains of the late Carter Fl. Har-
rison were conveyed to the cemetery.
The colored preacher who delivered
| the discourse, actuated by a desire
! to deliver "a few words to the living,
none to the dead" knew the disreput-
| able character of the life that had
been ended in tragedy, and did not
hesitate to say so from the pulpit
His remarks drew from the uncles
and mammies in the audience such
expressions as "Amenw "Deen he
dor Dress de LawdW "God a
mercy" The best and worst eIe-
ments of life in the crime-infested
spot in which Moore was regarded
as an uncrowned king followed the
corpse to the grave, and ever since
! then the pomp of the obsequies and
| the renown of the dead man have
| been the chief topics of talk among
| the night birds who heard the brass
bands play a requiem over Moore's
eternal resting place.
Frank Moore was the product of
| unadulterated vice. He was not a
brawler, nor drunkard, nor a thief.
He was only twenty-three years of
age, tall, muscular, athletic, full of
Women were
HIS WILLING VICTIMS.
and seemed to vie with each other
in showing favors on him. His
friends among the frail ones were
many. They literally loaded him
with gifts, always diamonds. He be-
came known as the "Black Diamond
King" and it is unquestionably true
that he possessed the largest and
finest collection Of gems owned by
a colored man in America. Ten
thousand dollars is not high esti-
mate of his jeweled wealth. He
wore diamonds on his fingers, in his
collar and cuffs; set in his watch
case and imbedded in the charm
hanging from his vest chain. The
possession of white gems was man
! ia with him, so pronounced that only
a few days before his death he ar
ranged with a dentist to set
half-carat stone in on of his front
teeth. He was the pride Of the col
| ored tough of the levee.
1t was his popularity that caused
| his death. Rosie Scott, who, only
! few months ago, bought a well-ap-
| pointed saloon and installed Moore
as the proprietor, and who had there
| tofore given outright to Moore uncle
a completely stocked hardware store
on a busy street, became jealous Of
! the attentions other women were be-
stowing on her protege. She sent for
him, and when he crossed the thresh-
old of her room she shot him dead
without warning, explanation Or
compunction. Before the police had
taken the body to the morgue the
same persons who had been Moore's
friends in life had plucked diamonds
worth $4,000 from
HIS FINGERS AND BOSOM.
! But it was not alone in the owner
ship of diamonds that Moore found
! pleasure He was the best-dressed
! man in Chicago. 1t is impossible that
! there should be a better-dressed CIV
| ilian in the world. His clothing was
the finest money could buy, and he sup
piled himself with a wardrobe as COM
| plete in all details as the veriest fop
| could wish. He was never at a loss
| for money, and he indulged his eX-
| travagant tastes to the utmost, much
| to his own delight, as we'll as to the
| Joy of his female admirers. Yet, de-
spite the faultless elegance of Moore's s
attire he had a rival-a "yella fella"
named Henry Smith, much the same
kind of a man. For five years these
two, each bearing the title of diamond
king-Moore being distinguished by his
color as the Black Diamond King-had
| striven against each other, not for
! superiority in the ownership Of dia-
monds, not for excess of favor in the
| eyes of the half world of women, but
| for the title of "the best dresser in
| town." Every Easter Sunday since
1890 the two dandy coons," each ar
rayed in his purple and fine linen, pa
raded the principal streets of '1evee"
territory, their heads high in air, their
eyes seemingly taking note Of none
! of the attention they were attracting.
| The parade was not of the cake-walk
| order. The men went apart and alone.
! They would call here and there at sa-
| looms, where crowds might be expect
! ed on the holiday,
| THEIR ONE PURPOSE
! was to be seen of men. They prom
| enaded for an intangible prize-the