The Indianapolis journal., 1896-09-06

There are hundreds of people living in
tents. and there are boarding tents and
lodging tents. in which from fifty TO sixty
men pay from % to 80 cents a night for
cot and a cover. Rents are high in Cripple
Creek. There are no vacant stores or
houses, though building is going on every
where. Some stores, which are not more
than eight feet square, rent for from $50 to
500 month"; and any kind of sleeping
room would cost you from S. to Sc a week.
Real estate is very active, and the town is
now being built with the best of public i'm
provements. About So, 900 a month are spent
in improving the streets by blasting away
the rocks by dynamite A number of new
school buildings are going up, and there
are five different religious organizations
which propose to erect news churches The
town has a Y. NJ. c. A, a Salvation Army,
and its police organization is such that
lady might walk along through its business
streets at any hour of the night and not be
insulted. There are many nice families Nv
ing here, and some neighborhoods are as
good as you will find in any part of the
country.
So much for the bright side of Cripple
Creek. The camp has also it's darker side l
am told that it is not worse than that of
other rich mining camps, but 1t is bad
enough, and, to say the least, 1T is a dis
grace to Colorado and the United states
Along the main business street nearly eV-
cry other house is saloon, and in these
saloons gambling goes on from daylight
until dark and from dark until daylight.
There are all kinds of games to catch the
money of the miners. You can play any
kind of a stake, from cents to $1,000, ana,
in addition to faro, roulette and poker,
there are wheels of fortune, policy games
FTYt-. r.vl1x
eight hours. and as the work goes on day
and night in each mine, three corps OF
miners being employed throughout twenty
four hours at eight-hour shifts, there are
always crowds upon the Streets and the
saloons are always full.
Each saloon, it is safe to say, has at
least three gambling games going on with
in it, and the saloons number about
eighty, there must be at least 240 games
at which you can lose your money in the
town. All sorts of vice are licensed. The
saloons am told, pay 5000 a year for the
privilege of selling liquor, and every game
pays it's license of $1U month, so you see
the town has an income of about '$4S,00O
year from it's saloons, and of nearly $4,000
"a year from gambling.
IN THE DANCE HALLS.
1t is on Easy street that you find the
There are dozens of these in the town,
and they would be a disgrace to any Chris
tan community. You enter saloon, at
the back of which is big room. in which
screeching band plays. The saloon, at
filled with men and women, some sober,
some half drunk, others tottering with in
toxicaton. The women are young and not
a few are pretty. Some wear long Mother
Hubbards some are even more scantliy
clad. The faces of all are flushed with drink.
and some of the women almost stagger as
they push their way in and out among
the men, begging them to dance and drink
with them. In most cases the men refuse,
for many are here only to see. There is
no charge for the dancing, but the man
who dances is expected to treat his partner
and the girls are held out as a bait to sell
the liquor and to get the drunken miners
to gamble. Stop a moment and watch the
dance There are quadrilles and waltzes,
and cowboys. with their hats on, are hop
ping about in heavy boots over the board
floors and swinging their drunken part
ners Listen a moment and you hear
their conversation. 1t is not fit to print,
and oaths and slang are mixed with the
viest of language. / have seen some of
the famous wicked dances of the world.
I have been in the Moulin Rouge in Paris,
and have seen the can-can, but this is
worse The Parisians vice is to a certain
extent refined and hidden. Here it is open
and disgusting in the extreme.
CRIPPLE CREEK CHAUTAUQUA.
Gambling goes on everywhere. There is
a faro game now being played in the back
of the Cripple Creek Hotel. Bills are
scattered around the streets advertising
free keno rolls, and there are club rooms
oh T.r1av ba r1aS
word and in which high games played.
One such club is known as the Chautau-
qua [ have lectured at Bishop Vincent's
great Chautauqua summer school at Chau-
tauaua Lake n. Y. 1t is one of the chief
Christian institutions of the world, and 1t
has it's branch circles in almost every
county of the United States. In walking
down the street the other day with a news
paper friend 1 saw the sign "Chautauqua"
above q door across the street, and L said
that / would like to go over and call and
pay my respects to the members of the
circle. A queer smile came over the news
paper mans features as he said:
''All right am a member of that Chau-
tauuua and / will introduce you." We en-
tered a narrow hall, through one door of
which L could see into a saloon where at
least five hundred men gambling. We
passed this and went upstairs and stopped
before a door which was closed. II have
a key said my newspaper friend, as he
opened the door with a night key and let
me into a large parlor on the tables of
which were papers from all parts of the
world. L saw a copy OF the Cosmopolitan
Magazine, a Harper's Weekly and the
Chautauqua. Magazine, and next to them
lay a copy of the Police Gazette. Before
I could realize how such an ungodly paper
as the latter came to be taken by a Chau-
tauqua circle, a tall, thin, gentlemanly
young man. with a brown mustache and
cold blue eyes, came in. was introduced
to him as the manager of the Chautauqua.
He gave me words of welcome in voice
like oil and asked to step into the
next room did SO, and l there the
biggest and most popular social circle in
Cripple Creek. 1t a literary circle to
some extent and its members were hard at
work. They sat about little tables each
with several leaflets in his hand. AS /
looked L saw that the leaflets were illus
trated They were covered with red and
black spots and with pictures of kings,
queens and knaves. 1t was a poker chau-
tauqua and the chips on the table repre-
sented many dollars. In another part of
the room what / thought at my first
entrance an objsct-lesson class standing