The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-23
GAMBLING IN MEXICO
Characters Met with IN the Gaming Rooml
OF the Capital City.


OF the Capital City.
Enter a Mexican gambling saloon
when things are little slack, and you
will see the habitues of the monte
table discussing the topics of
the day, while they roll their cigar
cites and loll back in their chairs as II
they had met for no other purpose.
Seated on chair little removed from
the table is man who has probably
inhabited the gambling saloon for
days past. He is now overcome with
sleep, and as he sits with his legs
crossed and his head rocking from side
to side. one wonders how he can keep
his seat or how it is that his greasy
tall hat dees not topple off.
Then you will see an unshaven, I'LL
kept fellow, nursing his knee and
modify gazing At the roulette table
for hours, while the little ball spins
round and the croupier rakes In the
coin and hands out the winnings with
machine-like deftness and accuracy.
No one ever suspects the croupier.
Nine out of ten of those who bet and
them. But they take what the
croupier gives them as a matter of
course. He has no inducement to
cheat. for the bank is not his, and any
way the bank must win in the long
run, come what may.
A Chinamau may saunter in to give
some animation to the table. He asks
for no chips. but wagers hard, cold sill
yer. Where the Mexican lays one dol
lar he will lay five. and oftener than
not he wins. With the absence of I'M
dignifed hurry and eagerness peculiar
to the oriental, he does not take in
his winnings at once, but produces a
cigarette, rolls and lights it. and then
lays hold of his dollars You will be
sure to see at any table mild lunatic
with paper and pencil before him, not
ing each point, and slowly laying the
foundations of new and infallible
system" AS If there were any way of
obviating a law of nature.
Now and then young gambler will
enter, bringing with him into the
heavy-laden atmosphere a gust OF
fresh air from the street. He will bet
and have a run of luck that will draw
to him the attention of all the lack
lustre eyes that surround the table.
One or more will gradually sidle up to
him, and with parched. trembling lips
ask him where he is going TO place his
money and ask leave to follow bis
lead.
Where but round the gambling table
do you see so many and such striking
examples of statuesque immobility?
You count not by minutes, but by
hours, the time that gray-haired vo-
tary of chance has sat with his hands
folded on the table and his eyes fixed
on vacancy. And how much longer
will ne stay in that posture? Perhaps
until the lamps are turned of in the
gray morning or until he summons mp
energy enough to stagger OF TO the
pawushop TO raise pittance- And
that man who has sat so long with his
head buried In his hands. what is he
thinking of Perhaps of the home as IL
was once, and as il might have been
still.
A sprinkling of Anglo-Saxons is gen.
orally there to give heightened piquan-
CT to the scene A sporty railroad
conductor just in from his run perhaps
goes there to try his luck. and you
may see the tattered. demoralized spec
linen of his race, who, in sheer pity.
has been given a trial and turned or
by all the American enterprises in
Mexico. How does he get a living
uow?-Mexican Herald.