The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-12

have the price of necktie in cash that
belonged to him, and that if he happen
ed to be called upon to pay in coin of
his own for the soling of his soes, he'd
probably have to go barefoot
Some of the men around the table
We're beginning to regard Mr.. Witherby
with manifestly distrustful looks, but
he went on:
Il guess about a million is the figure
this man has accumulated and has got
the use of, although he doesn't now
own any of il any more than you fell
lows do. 1t belongs to his wife. No,
he didn't transfer il to her in order to
avoid the payment of debts or anything
of the sort. He's a dead square man.
and his word has always been as good
as his bond. And he didn't marry
wealthy woman, either, for as I've al
ready said, he earned every peseta of
the pile himself. 1t WAS simply this
During the past four years this man
has been playing poker with his wife.
and she has been cleaning him ont from
the go-off. She broke him in less than
two years after they started the game.
and she has kept him fiat broke ever
since. He hasn't got II cents worth
of stocks or bonds in the world, he's got
no personal property except his clothes
and his watch and chain-his wife has
won all the rest Of his jewelry. though
she lets him wear it: he doesn't now
rough board shack out OF the hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth Of real
estate that used To stand in his name.
His wife has got ii all. Yet they ale
the happiest couple in the Northwest,
go everywhere together. and are genu-
inc chums and sweethearts. It's
queer business. I'll admit, and I'll have
to give you the details before you'll he
able to understand ii.
Up to about four years ago, as most
of you know, Butte was probably the
warmest gambling town in this country.
There were half a dozen games on every
block, and they weren't smothered up
on the top floors, either, nor perforated
with peepholes with a house man at
every hole to size up the proper people
or the dangerous ones that tinkled for
admittance They were run full blast
ON the ground floors, and the CHATTER of
the chips and the rattle of the wheel
marbles Were just as common sounds
in the ears of pedestrians on the main
streets of Butte as the moan of the Ia
male man is on the streets of San
Francisco. All of the joints We're called
clubs, and there was a very wide gamut
between the best and the worst of
them.
''At faro bank you could get anything
YOU wanted in Butte from a twobit
limit to no limit at all. and all the rest
of the games, from mustang TO fly loo
and stud poker We're run on the same
scale to accommodate the purses of
both punters and performers. There
was no municipal supervision of the
games at all The only eXaction was
that every layout should be run strict
ly on the level. and this was not a
municipal exaction but was rule that
the proprietors Of the big Institutions
took in hand and enforced. If the
manager Of a punting game got caught
in the most Venial sort of crooked work.
his place would be closed up in jig
time by the chief of police and no ex-
PLANTATION would be given why this was
done. but the big bank propretors
would know why il was done.
We'll. this wealthy man of Butte.
now without a cent Of his own. was
one of the most profitable patrons Of
the high-Class games until the reform
administration came along. about four
years ago. and swept about eight out
Of the ten banks out Of existence and
forced the surviving institutions. the
leading ones IF the town, 10 carry on
business strictly on the quiet. He
made most 81 his money in working
Montana's gem fields, and he was a
shrewd investor and a rafting good
business man. But he was one 81 those
fellows the like Of whom you OCCASION