The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-30
FOUR DAZED AUSTRALIANS
THE END-UP OF roM TlNBRUeHS
LAST GAMBLIyG IRIP.

Been1s = Freufnent Citfyen In aussFnlfn-
The oeeas Ca.paira mat Gave uia Ms
last Start Toward Assessing . roFtune.
WARRINGTON. May as.-"I recently received
a letter from an old side partner OF mine who
has been making money in the wool business In
Australia for the past afteen years or So" said
William J. H~unseker. an Oregon watsr-works
contractor staying here. and he mentioned in
his letter that Tom vanbrush. who until 1877
was the proprietor OF the biggest gambling
houses in Oregon. had died of pneumonia in
Melbourne. Q very wealthy man, surrounded by
his antipodean family. a few weeks before. Al
though I knew that after his smash-up In Ore
gon vanbrush often made the run 20 Australia,
1t was news to me that he had made his home
there, for the last I heard OF him he was gold
mining in the interior of Corea- That was about
fourteen years ago, and my friends announce
ment Of his death in Australia, rich and re-
spected by all hands. Is the only word I've heard
OF him since.
Until 1873 Tom vanbrugh ran perhaps the
SWEETEST Of the faro banks on Clark street in Chi
caSo, and. unlike most OF the other Chicago gam
bling institutions at that time. his goryeously
furnished joint was q wide-open affair without
peepholes or passwords; any man who had the
coin could get into Vanbrugh's place and play
at his tables without any preliminary iubdub.
Tom had started his game going right after the
Ore, and for three years he seemed to have the
same sort OF pull with the municipal authori-
ties that Mike Mcdonald sfterward exhibit
ed. While the strictly q. t. layouts right
in the same block with v~anbrugh's wide
open bank were being raided almost nightly by
the police for the purpose of appeasine an
aroused public sentiment as to gambling. Tom
was not interfered with in his business until the
summer Of 1873. and during the three years he
had become pretty well on. When the papers
began hammering him hard, yanbrugh closed
up in disgust. and when he left Chicago for the
Northwest. carrying something like $4,000
along with him. he took an oath never to SCI
foot within the town ~again-vhich he kept
He rambled around the kootenai country for
Q while. probably sparrins for an opening. and.
not fnding it. he finally struck Portland. In my
State, in the spring of "a At that period, when
Portland was in process Of formation, IL was =
pretty lively town that never went TO sleep O.
nights, and there were no very violent munich
pal laws on the subject of public gambling.
which suited vsnbrush down to the ground.
He furnished some rooms on Willamette street
in very magnificent style, and it was not long
before all of the high rollers Of the town were
playing at his tables. After a year or 50, dur
ing which time VanbruSh prospered even
more than he had in Chicago, he opened branch
layouts at The Dalles, Baker City, and Astoria.
and more than raked in money until the fall of
-. Then the professional gamblers all the
way from Denver to SAN Francisco appeared TO
form an alliance to jolt Toms four banks to
pieces. They landed in Oregon In pairs, trios,
and q~uartets, apparently with any amount Of
money. and began banging away at the Van
bruzh layouts. A few Of them went down. but
most of them more than stood the pace, and it
became quite a common thing after a while for
To-. - - 1n-,pAila3 IN tnrn rha h1v IN rhASa
systematic players In 1875 he had TO close up
his Astoria and Baker City banks, and the pro-
fessionals were making the bank at The
DaIles vabble. Joe Treharne Of Denver smashed
The Dalles bank in 1876. leaving Vanbrugh
with only his Portland outfit to manage In the
spring Of 1s1. Byron NcGrescr. san Francisco's
biggest faro plunSer at that time landed in
Portland. and he and TrehArne went up against
vanbrugh's Portland Institution together. Be
vanbruEh. quietly remarstns that he was the
worst broke man from British Columbia TO Mex
leo, and declining to acseps a dollar ron: me
furniture and left Portland l ought to say
right here that four YEAR, later vaporugh
hshed = pretty betty faro game himself on
Sacramento street in San Francisco Fanbrush
with ten or fifteen thousand dollars in his
clothes, and induced Mc6iregor to take the $500
n nn,i on aea ans sasps ana rh dou bbIii his bets ri s a good %
deal, be drove McGrexor to the wall in a week
1T Was about a year after Eanhrush quit
take the steamer for Japan on q business and
pleasure trip: One Of my fellow voyAgers Was
me Hs1 ai1Soa. a me iSefsa PaSi ssas Ss h ada TAKEN hs 100 TO
the Australia and China steamers for the pur-
P Pssis # . sdsnS e.. Rs a az spFtp I gef, the ans ship / am an
Honolulu for a stop-over. bat during the seven
days that it took as 20 get down there l watched
the other passengers pretty carefully. He played
on the dead level all the time, and yet when I
to the good. with the prospects excellent for his
winning . great deal more BY tho time fokoha-
ma ..s rsashed When arrived in ISkoeesMas
Francisco had cleared him $1,000;
conhdentiaIly. and after a couple Of trips down
the coast TO Panama and one TO Australia I'm
going to give the steamers up and take to legiti-
-Tnever saw vanbrugh after leaving him in
Yokohama but three years later the purser Of
draw. told me Of the cleanup vanbrIagh had
ness that came near settfns him into trouble.
Four wealthy Australians, who had been on
a 1 tour T ct Eq5SRe In Il, e tSs T,r Msrs p aSs5 tSs
steamer left San Francisco for Sydney, and the
i've men got into a poker game by the time the
was against Vanbrueh all the way to the
Hawaiian Islands, and This fact resulted in the
rlCh AAtlpOGednS FORMING n GUARANTEEING Lik1u8
for the stranger with whom they played-for an
Engitshman, you know. becomes quite patron
izingly fond Of the man whom he beats
at a game Of chance. yanhrush, the pur-
ser told me. did not appear to be worried at
all over his losses. which were heavy. The
and the ave men took advantage OF the wait to
run up on the small steamer to Hilo, on the
main island OF Hawaii. whence they rode up on
horseback TO the burning Lake Of kilauea. at the
foot Of the volcano OF Nauna Loa- They had
continued their game at the Volcano House, it
seems, and it was there that Vanbrugh win
ming streak set in
When the men returned TO Honolulu to re-
sumo the voyage to Sydney Vanbrugh was al
most even with the game: The run from Homo
lulu to Sydney takes fifteen days, and Van
brugh's luck. which had come TO him under the
shadow of Mauna Loa. stayed with him from the
day the Mariposa pulled away from the Island
of Oahu. The game grew hotter all the time,
and the 500 limit was removed on the third
day out from Honolulu. Bythat time Vanhrush
had not only reeouped his losses Of the beginning
ahead Of the game. He was habbergastsd
that were dished out TO him, and
when the limit was removed he bot n
thousands, scarcely ever losing. One of the
Australians was also a heavy winner, all three
"a - nrkap pIavaru hainD ~av hahipH md nraa