The morning news., 1897-03-18
FARO AT NATIONS CAPITAL.
HIGH ROLLERS WHO GAMBLED
THEIR MONEY AND CROPS AWAY.

the Turn al "a Single N"EN ~
Last Game at PcndIeto 5.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Faro was king at the national capital
during james Bu5hauan's term. The most
pretentlous gambler Of them all was Joe
Hall, whose midnight suppers Lucullus
would have made haste to envy could he
have tasted the canvas-back duck. stuffed
with chestnuts, and the side dish Of Nir-
giLia hominy done brown, in butter garn-
ished with bacon from Accomac' fed on
acorns.
There were no clubs house, so-ealled
in the aute-bellum days of Washington
And here, up to the fall Of Sumter, the
south and north no matter how acrld
the days debate in congress, when the
members met before Joe Halls or George
Pendleton's green-blaize table on Penn
sylvania avenue, all on pleasure bent
they "Iet silence like a pouluce fan and
heal the blows" of political strife.
Joe Hall, who died very poor in Balti-
more during the war, was in the last gen
Grafton the most munifcent and most
continuously successful "high-roller'
among the CHANDELIERS" of America. His
the cynosure of all eyes and the admira-
ton of the golden youth of Baltimore.
In Philadelphia he ran a gambling house
over DR.. McClellan's office, in Walnut
above Eleventh North side from 1896 ull-
til the war broke out. Here lhadaeus
Stevens, the great commoner OF Penn
svlvania. hobnobbed with James \. Bay
ard of Delaware and the handsome Ellis
Schnable. who, with Bill" Witte, was
the best ail-round stump orator OF Whoh
the Keystone democracy ever boasted.
Here a young attorney who had never
seen a card table before, introduced py
Mr.. Whitney, an accomplished member
of congress from Delaware, won $1,000
in a single night, and in ten months lost
that and $4,000 on top OF II IN trying 10
make another winning from the raise ana
Tickle goddess of faro.
An old habitue of Joe Hairs 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 had never witnessed anything ike
ii in the forty years full practice beIore
the green baize.
Joe Hall had another game with the
ten stone dogs before the door in Broad
way, New York city, opposite the Metro
politan hotel from 1853 to 1860. This spot
was the favorite club house OF southern
sporting gentlemen politicians, who set
the pace among the jeunesse doree OF Ne"
such a thing as a limit was unknown,
as. Joe Hall was prepared for all comers
up to $4,000 The limit at Monaco Is
1000 francs (S2,O00). but any gentleman in
good standing could enter his cheek 'or
$4,000 on a double card or case card,
and It would go like current coin or the
realm. I have seen Gen. Wald b. Bur-
nett who was the recipient of Gen. jack
sons gold snuff box, given by his will ITO
the bravcst man." when the "blear-eyed
gambler would turn the silver box over
and close the game for the night-gener-
ally about a. m.-open a "snap game
the general becoming banker for the play
ers-and, putting up $500 as the bank rol,
play till daylight.
Faro and cotton were in these days both
kings. Albert Pike (whose Hymns TO
the Gods first published in BlaclSwoods
Magazine in Edinburgh, were translated
into a dozen languages) was an habitue
of Joe Halls Washington game.
Albert Pike once received 81 100000 when
he lived at Little Rock, Ark, and practic-
ed law, as a single fee in the Cherokee
land case, but most of this the poet lau-
reate poured out, as a willing libation TO
the tickle goddess of fortune, at Joe
Halls and George Pendleton's faro rooms
in Washington. There was only the most
friendly rivalry between Hall and Pen
dleton. The latter was the real arbiter
elegantiarum (arbiter of elegance) among
the faro kings of this country He was a
Virginian and a cousin of Gentleman"
George, as George II. Pendleton, the dem
ocratic candidate for Vice President, was
called.
The last game I ever saw at Pendleton's
was a memorable one. A few nights be-
fore Sergeant S. Prentss, that brilliant
and lovable whig orator and member of
congress, a New England man resident in
Mississippi and a lifetime enemy of jeff
Davis, had first won $4,000. then, in one
night with half a basket of champagne
under his shirt, he kept on playing till
the man behind the table, the dealer, had
recouped the $4,000 and had in his coat
pocket deeds for four warehouses in Nat
chez, Miss, on the river late the prop
erty of the magnificent whig orator. That
was Prentiss' last great game.
Albert Pike, who died at So was a man
of great physical pulchritude, and always
wore an immense gray beard. He looked
like Morse king. Thaddeus Stevens of
Pennsylvania was playing moderately at
the same table; so was James A. Bayard,
but these statesmen only played for
amusement, and l have known Thad Ste
vens to 80 away with 81, 400 won at a
single sitting, with stake of only $50
gold coin.
But men like Prentiss and Pike of Ar
kansas and Senator Green of Missouri
like Wolcott Of Colorado used to be, were
always plungerS' at the faro table. This
evening Pike was in royal feather
1t was at Pendletons game Pike found
the original type Of his "fine old Arkan-
sas gentleman" who played away his
cotton crop al the faro banks in Wash
ington and New Orleans every winter un-
less the fly or some other d-d contin-
gency" eat up his cotton fields before the
staple got TO market.
Pike came in humming his own song
about THE Fine Old Arkansas Gentle
man." and was much amused to see Sem
ator Green parallel a bet of $1,000 blue
chips on the pot" as the space is called
between the SIX, seven and eight spots.
Green permitted his pile OF ~bluehsh." so.
called, 70 remain on the table till the
1900 had Increased to $1,000 in two turns.
Il reckon I've got enough for one night"
said the saturnine Missouri senator, cool
as cucumber, as he cashed In his chips
and placed four Grips new $1,000 bills in his
inside pocket.
Il can beat that. / think" said the au-
thor OF The Hymn to the Gods" as AL
bert Pike laid down a $1,000 bill between
the six, seven and eight spots. This was