The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-08-25
MONEY THAT BURNS.
Ways in Which Sporting Men Get Ria
of Their Wealth.

Il
said New Yorker, who is not an easy
mark himself, but sometimes finds use
in his business for easy marks, Il would
hunt for him among the sporting men,
particularly if / were in hurry. Talk
about sporting men being shrewdii
Why, they can't get rid of their money
quick enough to suit them. This is es-
pecially true of sporting men in New
York. Sporting men in the country
hayseeds, you call them-have harder
heads till they come to New York and
their heads get swelled and softened
like the others.
Il suppose il comes of handling mon-
ey in big sums and lots of it. I've no.
ticed the same thing about banks and
bank clerks. They get accustomed to-
handling money just as carelessly IS
dynamite-maker handles the explo-
siye. See the story of all defalcations
and entertainments; its pretty much a
matter of taking the trouble to cart the
stuff away from the bank. The banks
get in the rut of expecting you to rob
them in certain ways. and if you just
GO about it in new, simple way, why,
everything's thrown open to you. It's
the same way with sporting men. They
get to thinking that nobody but them
selves knows enough to put up Job.
Mighty few know enough to salt awax
their money.
Another thing they don't know
enough to do is to stick to one thing
and get rich. A man may be mighty
fine poker player. If he's gambler
and you want his money all you have to,
do is to match pennies or play old maid
or some other game that you can beat
him at. The chances are that he won't
know enough to stick to his own game,
and will buck up against what hs
thinks is your luck till his last cents
gone. Why do you see so many broken
down faro dealers walking about town
looking for the price of a meal? Be-
cause they can't help blowing in at
policy or some other skin game the
money they make at their business.
They might be as well off if they knew
as much as the business men they look
upon as chumps.
Its funny, the round the money
makes. The business man earns il and
blows it in on faro. and the faro dealer
leaves it in at policy, and the policy
dealer leaves it in Wall street or real
estate, and so l suppose the business
man gets it again. Some of the money
may stick to the business man, but
none to the others. They don't know
enough to keep it. There's a man in
this city who has made a million dol
lars easy, l suppose, at gambling. He's
always been interested in one of the
biggest and best gambling houses in.
this city.
The game goes right along. reformed
police or unreformed police. Money
flows into it steadily. Now, for 25 years
this man has been watching what
cursed fools men make of themselves
You would suppose he would learn some
sense in that time, wouldn't your
Well, often his bank roll is so low that
a run of luck little out of the ordinary
would close the house. Gamble? Not
he. He thinks he knows too much for
that. No, he just puts his money into
grain or wild cat mining stocks. Either
will do the business quicker than gam
bling. And he'll be lucky if he leaves
enough money to bury him decently,
although his gambling house brings
him in thousands
1T seems as though they had to get
rid of their money somehow or bust
There's another man who kept a gam
bling house. He had fine family and
maintained them in luxury. He
wouldn't gamble or speculate, either.
But he had the money and he had TO.
spend it somehow. He got interested
in church, and spent so much money
on it that one day when the game went
against him he hadn't money enough.
to put up, and so his snap busted.
When saw him last he was getting
S25 week as sheet writer for book
maker, and glad to get it.
"a man must have good sound sense
to be able to pick the winner day after
| day in horse races. / know a man who
is genius that way. He never was a
plunger, but was content to win
couple of small bets every day or so.
He must have cleared money at the rate
of $4,000 year at it during the periods
when he gave his attention to it. Well,
he would save so much, say couple OF
thousand dollars. and then he would
stop playing the horses and put the
whole amount on a prize fight or an
election, or something of the kind, and
would lose every cent.
That's the way with all of them
1 don't believe they really knew any
more about the value and the nature OF
money than child. 1t is simply some
thing that changes hands. It's true
with them that the next best thing to
winning at cards is losing. You hear
lots about come-ons who get robbed all
over the country. If you don't hear so
much about sporting men who gee
robbed it's simply because they don'E