The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-01-11

jingle of silver upon the counter.
The purchaser returned to the room
by the door in the little hallway and
sat down to a green top table with
half dozen others. They were play
ing poker.
This was not the only gaming table
in the room. Near curtained win
dow in the southeast corner of the
den was faro table, bnt it was evil
IDENTIFY an off night, for nobody was
playing at the game and the white
alley rested serenely in corner of
the drawer. A chuck-a-luck table,
with an old desk and a number of
chairs, completed the furniture Of the
room.
The poker game, however, was oc-
cupying the attention of number of
hard-looking characters who looked
as though they still owed for their
last weeks board. One fellow on the
west side of the table had about all
the chips and he was saying things
and laughing at his own wit. All the
other stacks had gradually dwindled
away and their owners were sour.
A stranger came into the saloon.
He stood around minute watching a
couple of callow youths play pool
then quietly went to the front Of the
partition and tried the door. 1t did
not yield.
With patronizing look the bar
tender helped him out of the diff
Guilty by saying:
'"The side door is all right"
The stranger ''sat in," removed his
rabbit-skin coat and called for "Joe."
Joe came into the room with the alac-
rity of champagne cork. Again the
silver favors dropped into his eager
palm, and he handed out another
stack.
The deal came round to the man
with the lantern-jaW. He was appar-
emily the head "booster'' for the insti-
tuition, for he had his coat off, his
sleeves rolled up, and the Indifferent
air Of man with royal flush.
They were evidently afraid of him.
for he began a suspicious shutting of
the cards.
IDEAL them cards on the square,
you --," said a thin-faced player
directly across the table.
"YOu ought to be in St. Peter,
that's where you oughter be-" was the
answer
Evidently the slim young man was
a jay, but the tin-horn could not
break himself Of the habit of roast
ing his victims even when trying to
touch" them.
The game was in full blast at II
O'Clock with no prospect for a cessa-
ton. The fellow who had the big
stacks was playing for the few he had
not won, while the others were trying
desperately to win from him what
they had lost.
The attention of the authorities is
called to the frequent violation of the
law, which is very pointed on this
Sec. 295 of the penal code of
1885 says:
Penalty.-Whoever deals cards at the game
called faro, pharo, or forty-eight, whether the
same is dealt with tiftytwo or any other num-
Der of cards, and whoever keeps any gambling
device whatever, designed to be used in gam
bling, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
$500, or Imprisonment in the county jail not
exceeding six months. or BOTH
None the less plain is Sec. 297 of
the same law, which says:
Premises Used for Gaming.-Whoever suffers
any gaming table, faro bank or gambling de-
vice to be set up or used for the purpose of
gambling, in any house, building, steamboat,
raft, keelboat or boom,yard or garden, to him
belonging by him occupied, or of which he
has the control, shall be punished by fine not
exceeding $500. or Imprisonment in the county
jail not exceeding six months or both.