The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-20

tonight, looting the Silver club gaming
room of about $500, in the presence OF
about % men. They then made their
escape. The affair happened at just
- minutes before midnight. according
to one of those who. hands in the air,
stood facing the clock while the money
was being secured.
There was a good crowd in the room
and the play was rather heavy. John
Smith, the proprietor, was dealing at
the faro table, and Poker Charlie
Kessler was at the crap table. Be
tween the two is roulette table, but
the roulette man was at lunch; me
place is right in the business district,
being on Twenty-fifth street, about
midway between Washington and
Grant avenues.
The robbers came up the stairs from
Twenty-fifth street, and the small man,
who had big pistols, stopped at the door
opening from the hallway into the
room. His station was thus ABOUT op-
posite the crap table, and he imme-
diately covered Kessier with the weap-
ons and ordered him to throw up.
Charley threw up, as did dozen or so
of men standing around the table.
Meanwhile the other man had
stepped briskly down the room, and
when near the faro table, he jerked
made him, with those about his table,
hold up their hands, crowd over into
the southeast corner of the room and
be good fellows.
The bandit then proceeded to SCOOP
the wealth from the faro table into
black bag, and laying his guns on the
table meanwhile. Next he passed to
the roulette table and gathered in the
coin The money box had less in it
than appeared, as what appeared to be
two rows of stacked coins, dollars and
halves, were only coins of that denom-
ination inlaid one deep behind real
stocks of such pieces. However, the
fellow quietly picked these out with
his knife, and when one halfdollar
rolled to the floor. he picked it up, lay
ing a gun down to do so.
When the fellows first entered the
room the little man struck up whistling
the tune "Rock-a-b bye-baby- -On-the
tree-top' and he kept it up all the
while. When one of the men, named
Parker, standing with his back to the
wall, tried to relieve the situation by
joining in the air. the robber gruffly
ordered him to shut up and was
obeyed.
The big fellow was going to loot the
till of the crap table. but the little man
said come on, there's nothing there. ="
AS matter of fact there was very lit
tie.
On reaching the door, after making
the circuit, the big man, now burdened
with $500 in gold and silver at about
the ratio of 16 to 1, passed one gun to
his partner and away they went down
stairs and up the street. Smith went
to the front window and shouted for
officers and some one suggested that
the fellows would shoot from the street,
and about half the room full of men
promptly lay down. The robbers went
up Twenty-fifth street to the alley and
thence off north into the middle of the
block Billy Lee, of the opera house
stage force, met them at this place and
accosted one of them, who simply
showed two guns at him and said
"Huh?" Billy stepped back and the
fellows raced up the alley. Lee was
fresh from the performance of the
Queens Lace Handkerchief" and was
not taking bandits seriously. His dog
chased the fellows and Billy chased the
dog, but both soon lost sight of the
men.
The large man had black cloth over
his face. The mask of the little man
was a dirty white color. Both wore
overcoats. Two men in the crowd used
crutches, and could hardly stand with