St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-28

chosen people in the majority of the
seats facing the auctioneer under the
tent.
Before L went to the hotel, L saw two
other odd things on this oldest of
estates: A salt water swimming pooI
under cover. 250 feet long and 100 wide.
with exceptionally fine dressing rooms
all around it, except in the space de-
voted to the musicians who play here
every morning; then a few yards
away from the pool is circular build
ing, about forty feety in diameter,
with conical roof surmounted by
the statute of q horse. This was the
COCK pit, where Mr.. Hoey used to en-
tertaln such friends as cared for cock
Hshts. But why the horse on the top
Vi the structure? No one could tell
me- ana there probably was no reason.
except possibly, there happened to be
suoi statute lying around among
iiidny others, and they put it there to
have 1t out of the way.
Anu as found out the exact truth
OF one Of the stories [ had heard. So the
olher one L found to be true, also.
ms olher isn't as pure, and does not
ne III such lines as the one [ have told.
Out II is equally true, and is about two
Wloe open palatial gambling hells at
the western end of Long Branch. IL
any Official there had known that T
was newspaper man and had gone
LOT the express purpose of finding ont
anout and writing up the two places T
would have been thrown out without
ceremony and with some force of arms
and tongue.
Inc two weak limitations of Monte
carlo stand back behind shubberies
ana flowers and trailing vines on oppo-
site sides of the street The gates of
the property are open and the drive
ways are smooth to the portals: over
and above the one large irregular
frame building rise two gilded cupoIas
ike two brazen nipples from the Tar
tarean mother below; three-story and
basement houses, both of them: each
with much land to spare about it. so
That paSser-by on the street cannot
near the click of the gamblers chips.
or the fall of coin into the full box Of
the proprietors, and it wouldn't mat
ter, really, if he did. They are called
the Pennsylvania club and the New
York club. They differ very little one
from the other, except that the Penn
sylVania club is larger, has more games
going, and has a restaurant attached.
where women are allowed to eat. drink
and go on. Each is as bad, as rotten
and as corrupting as the other. and
men go from this club to that without
caring from which owner thew win.
the oscillation depending in a. great
measure upon the superstition of the
victim.
Let us spend the evening at the
pennsylvania club. God knows a part
is enough and though the clubs are
open all the time, day and night-so
long as the birds are near the trap
one need not wait until the dawn
breaks to have seen all there is to be
seen and to be surfeited with that.
From the graveled carriage drive YOU
walk up a small fight of stairs to a
piazza which winds round the house,
and after passing through a little yes
Thule, which leads into a bar on one
side, you enter the gambling rooms, of
which there are three all in line They
are carpeted with carpeting so thick
that you do not hear a football, and
yet so loud in color and pattern that
they almost cry out. The chairs and
sofas are easy and gilt in flashing col
ors, while the mural and ceiling dec
orations are probably the work of an
artistic but unsuccessful gamester, who
has reproduced while intoxicated the
dream of what would have happened
if he had staked all his pile on the red
and won, instead of black. and lost.
They are hideously unreal and vulgar
In the first room are two tables going,
roulette and faro, in the second, or
middle room, there are a gambling
table of rolling faro, unpatronized,
sofas and easy chairs and an air of
diabolical regret and cheap visions of
success; in the third room, where there
are a job lot of lambrequinS and heavy
curtains, as in the others, are two
tables running games of roulette and
baccarat. There is no noise, except
the rolling of the ivory balls on rou-
lette wheels, and the sound of the
checks at baccarat and faro.
Behind each table sits one of the
clubs agents, who is dealing cards, or
rolling the wheel; around the tables
as close as they can sit, are the
patrons of the establishment, poor de-
luded idiots, each with a large or a
small cylinder of chips of various
colors and value. Here is d man
whose fingers tremble with poorly sup
pressed excitement as he makes his
bets by placing chips on this card or
that at faro, and you are told that he is
betting chips costing $2.50 each; he has
already bought one stack of fifty in
my presence and lost it and some one
at the table said that this was his fifth
going to the bank. He looks at first
like a respectable, conservative bust
ness man. but when he says Jake,
give me another stack of chips; yes
same" and hands over another big
bill out of q roll Of them, you know he
isn't. Moreover, you see he is a Jew,
and as you wander round the rooms
you are surprised to see the number
of Jews in the rooms and about the
place. Gambling or strolling in
the place were q number of prom
inent men, one of them a member
of the famous LeXow committee,
another a judge of the New
York bench, another millionaire mine
owner, and others prominent in jour-
nalism, the law, business and medicine.
Some of these were there undoubtedly
for curiosity and the mere experience
of the thing and after losing SO would
get up and go out, or look on, while
others, the majority, were regular GUS
toners. As to which class of players
the Lexow committee man belonged,
it is unnecessary to say. He knows.
The great interest for me was in the
study of the faces around the tables,
and in the restaurant where gamblers
and women Of their intimate acquain-
lance could be seen at supper. I
could not help recalling Walt Whit
mans powerful lines in his poem
Faces"
"The face as of dream, the face Of
immobile rock;
The face withdrawn of it's good and
bad-a castrated face;
A wild hawk, its wings clipped by the
clipper;
This, too, is too lamentable face for
man;
Some abject louise asking leave to be-
cringing for it;
some milk-nosed maggot. blessing what
let it Wrig to it's hole;
This face is dogs snout, shifting fol
garbage;
Snakes nest in that mouth hear the
sibilant threat;