The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-03-20
HIGH RoL9EEs OF
lANfE-BELLUM DAYS

| uuEns Jdmes BUCHANAN Term. Inc
most pretentious. gambler OF them all
4 was Joe Hail. whose midnight suppe rs
! Lucullus would have made haste to envy
| could he have tasted the canvas back
duck, stuffed with ches tnuts, and the
side dish of Virgihia hominy done brown,
| in butter, garnished with bacon from
| Accomac, fed ON acorns.
There were no clubhouses, so called, in
the ante bellum days of 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
Pendleton's green baize table, on Penn
| sylvania avenue, all on pleasure bent,
they "let silence like a poultfce fail and
heal the biows' OF political strife.
! Joe Han. who died very poor, In Balti-
| more, during the war, was in the last
| generation the most munificent and most
continuously successful thigh roller
among the CHANDELIERS" OF America
His horses, with gold tipped harness,
| We're the cynorsure of all eyes and the
| admiration OF the golden youth of Balti-
! more.
In Philadelphia he ran a gambling
| house over DIR. McClellan's office, in Wal
nut, above Eleventh, North Side, from
1856 till the war broke out Here Thad-
deus Stevens, the great conIDoner OF
Pennsylvania, hobnobbed with James A.
Bayard, OF Delaware, and the handsome
Ellis Schnable, who, with "Bill" Witte,
was the best all r6Snd stump orator OF
whom the Keystone Democracy ever
boasted
Here young attorney who had never
seen card table before, introduced by
Mr.. Whitney, an accomplished Member
OF Congress from Delaware. won So 900
in single night, and in ten mon tbs lost
that and $40 900 on top OF it in trying to
make another winning from the false and
tickle goddess of faro
An old babitue 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
had never witnessed anything Ike it in
forty years full practice before the green
baiZe.
Joe Hall had another game with the
ten stone dogs before the doom in Broad
way, New York city, opposite the Metro
politan Hotel, from 1853 to 1860. This
SPOT was the favortie clubhouse of Southern
sporting gentlemen politicians, who set the
pace among the jeunesse doree OF New
York city
such a thing as 'limit" was unknow n,
as Joe Hall was prepared for ali corners
up to $4,000. The limit at Monaco ~ 10,-
600 francs So, 00O.l, but any gentleman in
good standing could enter his check for
$50, 000 On double card or a case card,
and it would go like current coin of the
realm. | have seen Gen. Wald b. Burnett,
who was the recipient of Gen. JacKson's
gold snuff box, given by his win ito the
bravest man. when the "'blear-eyed gam
bier would turn the silver box over and
close the gamefor thenight generally about
B a. n. open snap game" the general
becoming banker for the players, 1ud put
ting up $500 as the bank roll, play till day
light.
Faro and cotton were in these days both
kings Albert Pike, whose Hymns To the
Gods first published in Hackwood's Mag
azine. in Edinburgh, were translated into
dozen languages, was an habitue of Joe
Halls Washington game.
Albert Pike once received IniIlion dol
lars when he lived at Little Rock. Ark,
and praeticed law, as single fee IN the
Cherokee land case. but most OF this the
DOtA-id yer P1uiCu Oui dh d 'hilie HUI
ton to the tickle goddess Of fortune at
Joe Halls and George Peudleton faro
rooms in Washington There was only
the most friendly rivalry between Hall
and PendIeton; the latter was the real
arbiter OF eleGantiarum tarbiter of ele-
gaDceD among the faro kings OF this eoun-
try. He was a Virginian, and a cousin OF
''Gentlenan'' George, as George H. Pen
President, was called.
Tie last game ever saw at Pendlet,n's
was "A memorable one A few nj gifts before
Sergeant s. Prentiss, that brilliant and
lovabIe Wing orator and member of Con-
gress, IA New England man. resident of
Mississippi, and a lifetime enemy of jeff
Davis, had first won $4,000, then, in
one night, with half a basket OF cham
payne under his shirt, he kept on playing
till the man behind the table-the dealer
had recouped the $4,000, and had i'll his
coat pocket deeds for four warehoG ses in
Natchcz, Miss, on the river, late the prop
erty of the great Wing orator. That was
Prestiss' last great game.
Albert Pike, who died at eighty-five.
was a man Of great phi sical pulchritude and
always wore an immense gray heard. he
lookedlike Norseking. Thaddeus Stevens,
was playing moderately at the same table;
SO was James A. Bayard, hut these states
men only played for amusement, and 1
have nkown had Stevens to go away with
ST., 400 won at single sitting, with a
stake of only $40 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 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 1.-The
fly or some other ID contingency eat
I'D his cotton fields before the staple got to
market t.
Pike came in humming his own song
about 1.-THE Fine Old Arkansas Gentle
man." and was much amused to see Sena-
tor Green parallel bet of 81 900 blue chips
on the pot" as the space is called be-
tween the six, seven and eight spots.
Green permitted his pile Of ''bluefish," So
called, to remain on the table till the ST 900
had increased TO $4,000 in two turns. Il
reckon I've got enough for one night"
said the saturnine Missouri Senator, cool
as a cucumber, as he cashed in his chips
and placed four crisp, new 81 900 bills in
his inside pocket
II can beat that, L think" said the author
of The Hymn to- the Gods as Albert Pike
laid down a 81 900 bill bet tween the six,
seven and eight spots This was only per-
mitted to favorite players, usually; chips
must be bought before the gambler made his