The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-28
At WASHINGTON
sTATEsMAN's GAME RACED
DURING B~UCHANAN's TERN.
Gambling lens of Joe Hall and PEN
Lose 100000 I'm n Night.
Askalon. in Boston Herald.

ltOuS EdUOltI Oh lutii oil NdS JUG man,
whose midnight suppers LucuIlus would
have made haste to envy. could he have
tasted the canvasback duck. stuffed with
chestnuts. and the side dish of Virginia
hominy done brown. I'm butter, garnished
with bacon from Accomac. fed on acorns.
Silver goblets like motley were the only
wear for champagne. There were no
~clubhouses. so called. in ante-beIlum days
IN Washington. And here, up to the fall OF
Sumter. the South and North. no matter
how acrid the days debate in Congress.
when the members met before Joe Halls or
George PendeIton's ~green-baize table. on
Pennsylvania avenue. all on pleasure bent.
they let silence like a poultice fall and
heal the blows of political strife and
sound
Joe Hall. who died very poor. in Balti-
more during the war. was in the last gen.
Grafton the most munificen. and most con-
%tinuously successful 'high-roller," among
Che CHANDELIERS" of America. His horses
with gold-tipped harness were the cynosure
of al; eyes. III Philadelphia he ran a gam
bling house over DR.. McClellan's office on
Walnut above Eleventh. north side, from
1856 till the war broke out. Here Thaddeus
Stevens, the great Of Pennsyl-
1~AAAes WI EAA-A(R - Log NNNs
of Delaware. and the handsome Ellis
Schnable. who. with BIZ White. of Phil
a~deIphia, made two of the best all-round
stump orators of whom the Keystone De-
mocracy ever boasted. Here a young at
torney, who had never seen a card table
before. introduced by Mr.. Whitney. an ac-
compIished member Of Congress. from Del
aware. won 5000 in a single night, and In
ten months lost that and 500 00 on ton or
IL, trying TO make another winning from The
false and tickle goddess OF faro.
An old habitUe of Joe Halls saw that
game in which the tyro at gaming won
fifty straight bets. without losing one. and
said such luck was so phenomenal that he
mad never witnessed anything like it in the
forty years full practice before the green
baizei
GEN. BURNETT AT FARO.
Joe Hall had another game with two
sculptured stone dogs before the door, in
Broadway, New York city. opposite the
metropolitan Hotel. and this game was in
full glory from 1856 to 1861. This spot vas
the favorite clubhouse of Southern sport
ing gentlemen politicians. who set the pace
among the j~eunesse doree OF New York.
Hall was immensely popular among the
young politicians. for he was a very model
of department" with his frock coat 'all
buttoned down before Such a thing as a
limit was unknown, as Joe Hall was pre-
pared for all corners, and betters up to $780,
600. The limit at Monaco is 10000 francs,
but any gentleman in good standing could
utter and publish his check for $4,000 on a
go like current coin of the realm. | nave
seen Gen. Ward h. Burnett, of New York
twho was the recipient of General jack
sons gold SnuffboX, given by his will Ito
the bravest MANI. when the ''blear-eyed
gambler" would turn the silver box over
and close the game for the night. generally
about 3 a m. General Burnett would open
n snap game" (the general becoming
banker for the players). and putting up
the daylight did appear. and till the brave
general or the other gamesters had lost
their bottom dollar.
FARO and cotton were in those days both
KINGS Gen Albert Pix the Arkansas
poet (whose Hymns to the Gods" first
published in ~Blackwood's Magazine in Ed
fnburgh, were translated into a dozen Ian
guageS), was an habitue of Joe Halls
Washington game. Albert Pix once re-
Rock. Ark, and practiced law. as a single
Zee In the great Cherokee land case. but
most of this the p~oet-lawyer poured out.
OF fortune. at Joe Halls and George PEN
oietons faro room in Washington. There
was only the most friendly rivalry between
ffail ana Pendleton; the latter was the real
arolter elegantiarum among the faro kings
OF this country. He was a Virginian and a
COUSIN OF Gentleman" George. as George
II: Pendleton. the Democratic candidate for
Vice President. was called.
Inc last game L ever saw at Pendleton's
was a memorable one. a few nights be-
fore. Sergeant S. Prentiss. that brilliant
and lovable Wing orator and member of
congress. a New Englander resident in
mississippi, and a lifetime enemy of Jeff
Davis, had first won $40. 900: then. i'm one
night. with half a basket OF champagne
under his shirt. he kept on playing till the
couped the $4,000. and had in his coat
pocket deeds for four warehouses in Nat
chez. Miss. on the river. late the property
Premises last great game.
LAWYER. POET AND GAMBLER.
General Albert Pike. who died at eighty
five in Washington. at the Masonic Tenn
pie, was a man of great physical pulchri-
tude. the soul of the wits of Buchanan's
day. and even later o.. and always wore
an immense gray beard. which added great
ernpressment TO his address. He might
have posed TO "A painter for a Morse king.
Thaddeus Stevens. of Pennsylvania. was
playing moderately at the same table, so
was James A. Bayard. but these statesmen
played chiefly for amusement. and nave
KNOWN Thad Stevens TO go away with s.. 400
won az a single sitting. with a stake of
But men like Prentiss. and Pike of Ar
Kansas. and Senator Green. of Missouri.
ROSSNSotO Win the U1aDOilCal afftatuS
OF the Sambolier, and. like Wolcott. of
colorado. used TO be before he married and
gave hostages to society that he would be
nave himself. were always 'pIungers" at
the faro table. This evening Pike was i'm
royal Ieather. / heard him say. Il can win
the stars from Heaven tonight
1t was at Pendleton's game Pike found
the original type Of his Fine old Arkansas
gentleman who played away his cotton
crop at the faro banks in Washington and
NeW orleans every winter unless the fy
or some other id contingency eat up his
kst. Pike came In humming his W song
ABOUT the fine old Arkansas gentleman"o
ana was much amused 10 see Senator
Sreen parallel a bet or 81 100 blue chips on
.ne pot as the space rs called. between
the 3. Z and : spots. Green permitted his
pile of blue fish, so called. to remain on
the table. till the s., 600 had Increased TO
S4,vVv IN TWO turns. Il reckon I've yo,
enough Tor one night" said the saturnine
missouri senator. cool AS a cucumber. as
ne casned In his chips and placed four
crisp new Sl.WO bills In his inside pocket
an beat that. L think" said the
author OF The Hymn to the Gcds' as
Albert Pix laid down a Sl.0O bin between
the SIN, seven and eight-spot. This was
only permitted 10 favorite players. usually
called his ''turn"). The canaiiIa ebad 20
buy chips. a fish blue or whiteNwhite si'
olue ~, yellow SIS; Sut a statesman or
poet. then as now. has privileges.
General Pike, with the utmost noncha-
fence. laid his $1,000 bill down In the pot"
plainly a game of make or break" he
tween the gambler at the box and the gen
tieman gambler at the table. Pike six
Feet two inches tall: in the very prime of
an adventurous manhood. looked like a
Greek god. His aplomb was magnificent
Achilles CnIIl6 not match Lf.r