The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-03
SOCIETY IN CRIPPLE CREEK
ITS LEIDENG FEATURES .4S THEY
 IPPEAIs TO 4 TENDERFOOT,

Gambling Dens, Dance Eouses and Hotels
 Some Stories of Nolan, q Professional
 Ganester-How Reform Was Achieved.
 Cripple Creek, Sept. 29-The life of
 mining camp like this can be summed up in the one word, gamble. The spirit
 is everywhere and it pervades all
 things. And there could be nothing
 more natural, since it is the gambling spirit that makes men hunt for the pre- cious metal in the mountains, as MT. Stratton did for twenty weary years
 before he chanced upon a certain piece
 Of rock in Cripple Creek and from a humble carpenter and inveterate pro- spector suddenly blossomed out as a great American millionaire. To men who are accustomed to see vast for
 tunes made from a chance strike there can be nothing immoral in the poker | table. And so it happens that gam
 bling is openly recognized here as a l lawful vice and that all the parapher- nalia of the game are openly displayed in almost every saloon. It is perhaps a mark of advanced civilization that every game pays ten dollars as a li- cense fee, which yields to the town thirty thousand dollars as yearly reve- nue from gaming
 Thus it happens that one finds the sa-a looms and gambling clubs the most in- teresting places in the Creek. It is there that you find society" Making the rounds on Sunday evening, we en- ter some finely furnished rooms from the main street and find Johnny No 1 lan's place. which is accessible only to those having private keys. In the first room which is separated from the larger one by elegant portieres, is pi- ano and music and a reading table piled high with the best magazines of 1 the east, the leading newspapers, and the comic Weeklies. In the rear room we find brilliantly lighted space. whose walls are hung with large oil paintings of the usual type, tables scat tered around, and the equipment of the various games In which one may in- dulge. Here is a man playing the wheel. Over there in corner is a group of six gamesters, quiet and re- pressed, over a poker table. Several men stand around and watch the play | in silence Some of these are story books In themselves. One man of small stature and frowsy appearance, who is intently watching the battle of the chips, is pointed out as the luckiest prospector in Cripple Creek. He dis covered the great Pharmacist and Cal umet gold mines and four or five others of inferior value. His next strongest point was in disposing of bonanzas soon after he had found them for an insignificant sum, and allowing others l to reap the golden harvest. Thus he sold the rich Pharmacist for the beg garly sum of fifty dollars, and within six months thereafter eighty thousand dollars worth of gold had been dug l from it. There are millionaires alive as the result Of this mans strikes" and 1 here he is with hardly a dollar to his name. Unhappy? By no means. To- 1 morrow he may find the richest gold deposits in the camp.
 | The group at the poker table that | Sunday evening were for the most part | professional gamblers, and the king of them all was Nolan himself, the propri- etor of the club. Nolan is a remarka- | ble character. He is the ideal of the I professional gamester in appearance 1 Of medium size and quick, nervous mo- | tions, his smooth-shaVen face displays | wonderful will power in the square. massive jaw and thin, tightly com pressed lips. His forehead is high and 1 full, the eyes a steely gray in color and somewhat prominent in their setting. and the nose large straight, and with such nostrils as quiver and diIate only in the genuine thoroughbred. This ex- traordinary face, over which kindly l -r,,i lac r1o a, | trab1e mask when Nolan sits down at l the gaming table. Apparently pos sessed of the most ample plasticity for | the expression of feeling or emotion. | this countenance reveals absolutely nothing to an opponent at cards. And Nolan has infinite sand" The other night quiet-looking chap came in and | began playing at the wheel Before midnight the fellow had beaten the game to the extent of sixteen thousand dollars and had busted" the bank. Nolan went out and soon returned. | Placing twenty thousand dollars before him, he coolly offered to continue the battle. The stranger paused, looked at his sixteen thousand dollars won, gazed at the twenty thousand dollars in front of Nolan, and then, slowing the sixteen thousand dollars in his pocket, sensibly went away. And Nolan only smiled and said not a word.
 1 Another side of Nolan's character is revealed in the story of an episode of recent occurrence which impressed all who witnessed it. Besides this ele- gantly furnished club, he also runs an adjoining saloon, where the various games are played. This is open to the general public, as was demonstrated the other day, when two bad men from the hills tried to ride themselves through the front door on horseback. One night Nolan sat in this saloon at poker table, making Up a hand with some patrons of the place. One of the players was miner of no special skill at poker, but who was nightly ab- sorbed in the game. The limit was one dollar The play had been pretty tame. but soon began to show some lightning. The miner had been losing and was gradually getting afire with the fever of the gambling spirit. The cards were dealt After the usual byplay several dropped out, leaving Nolan and the miner in the game The miner had finally got a hand, 1t appeared, that suited him, and he proposed to play it for all it was worth. With the pot al- ready at twenty dollars, the miner