The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-07
WIDE OPEN IN SEATTLE
ITS GAMING TABLES STOP KLON.
Dixie PILGRIMS
leo Ned"-One Man Who Won
yorite Game-The Pilgrims Man.
nre to Lose n Good Deal of Money.

Seattle Correspondence New York Press.
IF the miners will insist on gam
bling" say the city rulers solemnly, ut
is better for them to gamble here-it
is soothing to the conscience that they
do gamble here-rather than In those
ungodly rival Quitting towns Tacoma,
Portland and Vancouver. Let us, there
fore, get the little good that we may
out of a great evil, and raise our
rents" Whether the citizens wink at
one another and grin over their bank
accounts.
All the seven gambling houses flour
ishing at this moment have been estab-
lished within month. They are con-
Quoted as openly as the meat shops, AMI
will be as orderly, say the city rulers.
Another month will see more than twice
seven if the gentlemen of the velvety
hands, who arrive with each incoming
train, can find vacant Easements or at
tics which can be had for rental
within the bounds of reason, profit and
a square game"
Scarcely a night passes that some
front door does not blossom with the
lights OF q new resort, arranged with
the spasmodic haste of the very lust of
wealth. Dance artists from San Fran
cisco, Denver and other towns OF
The Mining World,
who have eaten humble pie during the
hard times, are summoned by tele-
graph back to the full Of dissipation.
which Is to them prosperity, back to
a theater with rows of implanted pri
vate stalls and no gallery, constructed
in a day, which is their arena. Once
unlighted streets have become loud and
glaring. Once dark Railways throw
out suggestive streams of light upon
the slouching figures who enter. Seattle
is booming" again, after five years Of
depression.
If Klondike is the Mecca, then Seattle
is the port to the Mecca, and the pleas
ures of the port are cutting short the
Journey of more than one pilgrim.
Fifteen thousand Klondikers are living
in town of 10000 people, and they
have made it theirs. So great a num-
Der was not expected so soon. AS the
gentlemen of the velvety hands, already
feeling the old thrill that warns them
when their claws are upon q fat prey,
fleck the ashes off their cigars, they ex-
change representations on the oppor
tunities which the charging pilgrimage
of March and April will offer.
With the Apprehension
of experience they shrug their Shout
come to Seattle, as it has come to all
good hunting grounds of their time.
Then they will fold their tents and
steal away to more fertile fields. Mean
while they make hay. The extent of
the gold fever has surpassed their ex-
pectations. They are also surprised by
the number of their competitors.
All the world is to come to Seattle.
Bill of Butte" and Cripple Creek
Tom" Chicago Ed and all the ilk of
nicknames meet for the first time in
years to relate stories of chilling frosts
In many towns, of bad cuisine in peni-
tentiaries, of outfits which have been
Put in storage, even in pawn, while
they had to give up exalted proprietor
ship to become sleight-of-hand en-
ployes. Brethren wish brethren sue
cess as they think of the fieeces of the
sheep going to and fro in the streets.
In the small hours of the morning
when the gamblers only companion in
his gambling hall is stale tobacco
smoke, he reckons the amount Of his
days profits as to many men QUILTED
for the Klondike.
The Cost of Cheap Outfit
is from $500 to $500; of reasonable one
$500. 1t is not the good fortune OF the aver
age Klondike pilgrim to have the money for
more than cheap outfit. Too often he hopes
to get on with little less. He leaves his
home with excellent intentions. But eau
tiousness has never been a redeemng quail y
OF the gold-seekers. He spends more than
he anticipated on the journey to the Pacific
coast. Arriving here. he finds freight and
passenger rates to Alaska have been in
creased since the printing of the attractive
circulars which induced him to try for his
fortune.
In the streets he is jostled by the other
pilgrims. banded about between rival out
hitting stores, and between representatives Of
Canada, who tell him he will have to pay a
tariff equal to the value of his outfit once he
leaves the territory of the United States and
representatives of Seattle who say IL he buys
his outfit in Canada he will have to pay a
tarin to the United States. That Is enough to
make him dizzy before he enters a gambling
house out of curiosity, to wander around the
room with the lookers-on.
Money is free" cries the gentleman Of
velvet hand, who twirls the roulette wheel
money is free! To risk is to have"
The Pilgrim Risks,
and, as a rule, he departs the loser of
enough to make journey to the Klondike
impossible and leaving him to choose one Of
two alternatives. II he is weak and sensible
he will return home. II he Is game and
foolish he will go on to Skaguay to Join the
thousands who have trusted to luck to see
them through. Luck has left them beggars
at the foot of the Chilcoot But they still be-
lieve in luck. They have nothing else to be-
heve in when no drafts arrive from home
for the hundred VINO lose at the gaming
table there is the one who wins-there is the
six feet Of Scandinavian manhood who came
into New Mexico Ned's" place the other
night. This modest visitors face was quite
inscrutable-a vast expanse Of putty with
tiny eyes, and surmounted by tiny felt hat.
1t has no more beard than a woman. and
never would have more. Perhaps the good
Lord was so surprised at the size of what
He had made that he took compassion on
the BARRIERS. VA
The Scandinavian walked around the room
and was finally fascinated by the wheel
made OF one, two, five, ten, twenty and fifty