The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-10-28
THE TEN H0USANDTH MAN
HE OWNS STEA1IBOATS NOW AND
GAMBLES NO MORE.

GH4HBlES NO MORE.
He Broke Bank in Spokane and Another
in Portland and Then Quit Play for Life
"A Game of Stud Poker That Turned on
n Case of Simon-Pure Nerve and Bob
Flush.
Washington, Oct 9-"About one man
in 10000 is level-headed enough to quit
when he pulls big stake out of some
other fellows game" said Frank Nc
Gonigle, an Idaho sheep man, to a par
ty here the other night. 1.-THE ten
thousandth man was out my way a
couple of years ago. He was Joe Gill
bert, a conductor on the Spokane
Northern. Joe had the run between
Pendleton, Ore, and Spokane. He
brought his train. the flyer of the line,
from Pendleton to Spokane every other
day. He always managed to dress and
eat and drink pretty well when off du-
ty, and he never lacked a few dollars
to go up against the Spokane tiger. Up
to the time am going to tell you about
he never managed to do much more
than hold his own at the game, and it
used to surprise his friends that he
even did as well as this, for he was a
reckless and erratic player.
"Joes game was faro and he played
it in Spokane at Goetz & Baers Occur
d'Alene' | believe the Occur d Alene'
is the biggest institution of it's kind in
this country You can get anything
you want there-a shave, meal, a
drink, lodging, or fortune, IL you
have the luck The faro bank is the
mainstay of the house The game is on
the level, and it has several times been
cracked pretty hard by professionals
who journeyed from Denver and Chey-
enne for the purpose. But the Occur
d'Alene' faro box had never been turn
ed until Joe Gilbert made them turn it,
The rule of the house was that when
the tiger had been baited to the extent
of $4,000 the box should be turned and
play should cease for the night. This
rule had never been put into practice
until the night, two years ago this fall,
when Joe Gilbert struck Spokane with
what gamblers call a 'hunch' and a bad
light in his eye.
There are several faro layouts at
the Occur d'Alene'-tables for the
chubbers who sweat short stacks, lose
hard and then go up against it for meal
tickets, and two or three tables for the
play men, who slap stacks of blues
and yellows all over the cards. Gilbert
picked out the swell table of the lot on
Il; .|-l,t 10 t,rrn s-f, a1y Of ,nl
lows for the 5000 he had brought along.
He was one Of those players who never
use pencil or paper, and he had as
much use for systems as he had for no.
boes on the blind baggage. He split
his stacks and planted them on the
first case cards to show in the box on
this night, and the luck was his from
the fall of the flag. J never saw such
absolutely unbeatable luck. When the
deal had gone on for fully half an hour,
with scarcely q word being spoken at
the table, the man in the blue uniform
had lost only six bets in the whole play,
and he was nearly $500 ahead of the
bank The dealer became mighty I'M
easy He changed the deck half doZ-
en- times. and switched the lookout
Twice. Iut IL was ITO go. NIHUeIl kept
right on winning, all of the time play
ing what any sane man would consider
the most utterly fool faro that could
be studied out by mathematician.
One minute he would copper about all
the cards on the table, and the next he
would brush all the coppers off and play
the whole table wide open. Yet he
couldn't lose. The other players made
bets only here and there, they were so
absorbed in the conductors play, and
it looked like a deal for Gilbert alone.
Finally Gilbert asked the dealer to
open the 500 limit. The lookout gave
the word and play was resumed. With
out winking an eye the 800 month man
piled his 500 stacks all around the lay
out. Every deal for three solid hss.rs
saw his row of chips swelled by several
stacks. In less than that time he had
all the yellows out, then the blues and
finally made inroads upon the larger
number of whites. He won ten bets
where he lost two. New dealers, more
new cards, different lookouts, other
deal boXes-the house tried everything,
but all of the schemes failed to break
the spell of Gilbert's phenomenal luck,
The conductor tossed IS chips to the
fellows standing around who had club
bed in their last tWo-bit piece, and, odd
ly enough, nearly every man whom he
so favored picked up a good roll at one
of the other games.
cat 2 o'clock in the morning. after
Joe had been at it for just five hours.
the dealer turned over the box and an
nounced the game closed for the night
all the checks out and the bank broken
wide open. The house paid Joe his $1o,-
900 without counting the chips. Gill
bert handed me the money and asked
me to keep it for him until he had
had a nights sleep and chance to
think
you'll sleep just about thirty nights
before you get a centavo of this roll
back, joe said 1, and I meant it. But
when Gilbert came around the next dav
and told ME that he must have the &c.
he still had his 'hunch' with
him and couldn't afford to neglect i'll
handed it out to him.
You'll be broke in twenty-four
hours said I.
Not much, 1 WON'T he replied.
Come on down to Portland with me-
1 wanted to go to Portland on bust
ness, anyhow, and so I went along with
Gilbert feeling that he would need a
friends consolation when he dronned
nil