Arizona silver belt., 1895-06-01
A BANKRUPT TRIBE.
Their Unbroken Run of Ill Luck at
 a Game of Chance.
How the Black River Indians were Cleaned Out by the Puyailups In the Great Twenty-sIx Day ''sing
 GAmbIeu Near Tacoma.

between two tribes of the Puget Sound Indians for the trophies of the year and for such blankets, wearing apparel, ve- | hicles and horses as can be spared to be used for stakes, and sometimes more than should be spared This year the pot at the beginning of the gamble consisted of twelve Winchester rifles of the latest pattern, eleven sound horses, seven buggies, one hundred blankets, forty-three shawls, an uncounted pile of mats clothing for men and women, some badly worn and some in good con dition, but mostly worn, and forty-nine dollars in money.
 This year the "sing gamble" was held in the barn of Jake Tai-ugh, com monly known as Charley Jacobs, whose place is four miles from Tacoma. At the beginning of the sing gamble" siXty-seven old men and women, many of them wrinhled, many of them gray headed gathered at Jakes big barn, which had been cleared of all hay, grain and other stores
 On the ground, which serves as Q floor were laid two mats woven from straw and weeds and flags Each of these mats was three feet wide and six feet long Between the mats was the space of about three feet Around these squatted the serious gamblers of the ancient races, many of them wear ing brilliant colored blankets, others urTayed in combination costumes picked up at the reservation or in the town.
 As a necessary preparation to the game, the drummers, one for each tribe, took positions in front of their drums, made uf horse hide drawn over one end of Q stout frame two fectund six inches deep. Beating heavily on these drums with sticks, the sound is similar to that from bass drum save that 1t is more sluOrous and is readily heard distance of half a mile As the drums beat the Indians begin their chants or walls, the men shouting: "iii-ah, hi-ah, bi-ah, ' and the women meaning au accompani- meut between the shouts of thcir braves, sounding something like this. 'Alm-uh mm-uh, mm-uh.
 The players gather around the mats seven being permitted on each side One mat is for the Puyallups tho other for the Black Rivers The dealer for each side sits at the head Of his mat lingering deftly ten wooden chips about two inches in diameter and quarter of an inch thick. Nine of these are of the same color, but the tenth is different in color, though similar in shape and dimensions. The shuiIer handles the chips rapidly, like an cx- nericnced faro dealer playing to a big board Hetrunsfers them from one hand 10 another, hides them under pile of shayings mude from the cedar bark growing close to the sap, resembling much the product called excelsior He divides the chips into two piles of five each. and conccals each pie under the shavings Mysteriously he waves his hands forward and backward, cross wise and over and over, making passes like the manipulations of a three-eard monte dealer The drum keeps up iJs constant beat, the Indians at the mats and those looking on with interest clap their hands and stamp and chant iu time to the drum.
 Now is the time for the Indian as signed to guess 70 point Co one of the two piles The game is entirely one Of chance, there being no possible means for the closest observer to detect in which pile the dealer places the odd colored chip It is the custom of the rame, however, for the Fucssman to ponder for some time before dccid- ing which pile to select. This adds in- tsrest and excitement tO the specula- tiJn Finally he decides, and with his finger points to one of the piles The dealer rolls the chips across the mat to the farther end. If the guess is right the side for which the guesscr is acting scores one point. If the guess is wrong the tribe to which the dealer belongs scores point, and the other side takes the innings that is to say, the deal
 John Towallis was captain of the Puyallup team and now is the most popular man in the tribe on account of the remarkable victory of his side after the session of nearly month. and also on account of the quantity and value of the pot Capt. Jack. the leader of the unsuccessful Black River team, proved a thorough sport, for, in addition to his ? contribution to the stake of his tribe, be stalScd and lost his greatest treas ure, big knife, his principal decora- ton, shiny brass rings, all his money tsixty dollars), his watch, his rife and his harness, his buggy and his horse. He advised his companions on the team to bet everything they had except their canoes. He insisted that they should keep those, in order that they might have some way to get home. He was not SO careful of himself as of them, for he had to walk when the time came. Some of the men and the squaws who padded home in their canoes felt the sharpness of the weather, for shirts and trousers were exceedingly scarce when the siXtieth stick had gone to the Puyallup end of the board.
 At the last part of the gamble the Black Rivers plunged wildly Tho run Of luck of the Puyallups had been con stant, and Capt Jack announced to his followers that this could not continue Luck must turn, and here was chance for them to get every movable thing, except that which belongs to the gov ernment, transferred from the Puyallup reservation over to tho BlackRiver res ervation. His men were quick to follow his suggestion, and the result is that poverty is intense this year at Black River, and the Puyallups are having boom.
 THE MODERN UYSfrR STEW. The Middle Aged Man Contrasts It with
 the stew or Before the War
 When ] was boy, before the war,