The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-19

any promises for myself. but I've about
concluded that my last professional game
was played in New Orleans two years ago
last month. My ~nephews look to me as TO
their father. l am proud of II. III i do my
best for them and steer them into modern
business pursuits l cannot keep up the
skill IL takes to play a successful game
with big stakes. Then. too. gambling has
fallen into such ill-repute In the last 20
years that i don't want my nephews to
have anything to do with IT,. I've made
a large circle of friends among church
and literary people in the last few years.
and / rave learned some things. | never
knew when 1 associated constantly with
the profession how our work is regarded
by many people. Why, ! have been invited
I'm the last few weeks by tourists TO visit
them next summer at Bar Harbor. Nara
gansett and Savin Rock. and IL those peo-
pie were old what games ! have sat In
for 30 years they might fear shat I might
disgrace them by accepting their hospi-
tally.
'How did I become a gambler? I drift
ed into IL as naturally az the stereotyped
duck gets into water. j was a bellboy In
the famous old st. Charles hotel In New
Orleans I'm 1853 and 1854. I saw the idols
of the South. the high and mighty men I'm
the state and nation. playing poker and
faro there. l heard my father and mother
at home extol these same men. and IL was
natural that "A boys ambition should
have been inspired TO play for stakes
the same way they did. Gambling was a
common avocation of men and women of
means In the South. especially In New Or
leans. TO a degree which Northern people
of these days cannot conceive. / knew
how TO play a sagacious game OF poker
before I was 20 years old. I won 1000
clean money at poker the year | reached
Is. and you can easily imagine how little
use a youth who could make money like
that would have for hard work at small
wages. Among the early poker players
I remember having seen at the 81. Charles
when I carried fancy drinks 10 the party
were such men as judah =. Benjamin.
then United States senator. and after
wards secretary of state In the Confed-
eracy. l.. -. g. Lamar. who died a justice
of the United States supreme court: Ser
geant s. Prentiss. the most wonderful OF
all Southern orators. and even blum old
Sam Houston Of Texas. l have stood be-
hind the chair of Senator william l.. YAM
cey "A dozen times In my boyhood with a
g.sss OF whiskey on a tray waiting until
a hand at poker had been played and the
idol Of Alabama was ready for his re-
eshme Is IL any wonder ! became a
gambler and learned no other pursuit for
a livelihood?
Like all the young men OF New Or
leans who gsmbled professionally. 1 went
on the boats on the Mississippi river. I
was there until the war broke out in
1861. Then I served two years In the con-
federate army. After the war was over
] went to st. Louis and opened a private
5000 gambling place In the Southern no.
tel building. Then ! went back to New
Orleans. I was In Virginia City In the ear
~ EOS. and went from there to Chicago.
then TO Denver. then to Leadviile. and
then to San Francisco. l have played POI
ker with all the famous players of Amer
lea and faro with the Frenchmen In Paris.
! played two months in the summer of
1875 at John Morrissey's place at Saratoga
and | came In contact with some men In
New York and Philadelphia who were