The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-10
POKER AT VIRGINIA CITY.
PALATIAL GAMBLING PALACE,
WHERE FORTUNES CHANGED
HANDS.

That Contained $4,000 Before IL
Was Opened.
From the Philadelphia Times.
mo, have never had much experience
in playing poker with women" said the
gray-haired man. Il am firm in an opin-
ion, however, from what experience l have
had and from what can leaEn from pro-
fessionals who have played much with
women that women are naturally better
gamblers than men. Women are not such
bold, plunging players as men are, but
they are apt at dissimulation. know a
great many professionals who will not
gamble at poker with women A woman
who has been thrown on her own re-
sources knows how to tickle a mans van
ity' when to catch him off his guard, and
how to play upon him better than the av
erage man does. l could no more bluff
a woman in poker than l could take wings
and fly l have been used to quick, hard,
concentrated thinking in poker games for
a long time. but l can't think fast enough
TO follow woman in playing poker. The
richest professional gamblers are women.
There is Sonora Alamarez Of the City of
Mexico She pays taxes on 100000 worth
OF property. She may be seen gambling
at her house i'm the City of Mexico almost
any day in the year Then there was
Amy Cantine, the famous women of Vir-
gnia city twenty-five years ago She
made more money from faro than some
men did from rich lodges of bold-bearing
quartz.
The biggest gambling l ever saw was
III Virginia City, New, at the time the Bo-
nanza Lodges on the Comstock were being
developed That was along in 1872 and
1916 There are multitude of gamblers
nowadays who are mcredulous of the
truthful stories of the game PLAYED every
night in the week for about year from
June, 1872 TO July, 1873. | confess | some
umes wonder whether l was really a oar
tcipant in those golden days in gaming.
or whether l have dreamed all that | rec
ollect about them. When / was in Eng
land few years ago l heard Of some big
games in Australia along In the sixties.
put none compared with those we had in
Virginia City
You remember that for months the out
put of gold from seven mines on the Com
stock yielded together $50. 600 clear profit
every day. John w. Mackay, James G.
Fair and James Flood became multi-mil-
Honalres in fourteen months while Sha7
dozen other men leaped from poverty to
millions in the same time. Common labor
ers and camp cooks of few years be
fore had Incomes from mining stocks of
$l50 and $500 a day for two years. Lots
of mining daborers who could not read
or write had bank deposits of $4,000 and
$4,000 l have seen hundreds of men in
cheap red shirts and grimy overalls haul
out bucksl1in bag of $1,000 or so with no
more heed to its value than when one ro-
duces 81 nowadays. SO you see what an
extraordinary field there was in the town
for gambling. ! never saw gambling so
common and so open as in Virginia CITY.
There were forty or fifty gambling games
running there day and night Poker was
too slow and required too much thought
for most of the suddenly rich men, Rou-
lette and faro were most popular.
THE most superbly appointed gambling
place | have ever seen outside of France
and Austria was there. 1t was not so
large as Morrissey's at Saratoga, or as
Lynch's in New Orleans, but it must have
cost thousands of dollars more than eth
er of these 1t was owned by Hiram
Gentry and Dan e. Crittenden. They were
both men of education, and they planned
20 establish a Monte Carlo there. Crit
tenden was a nephew of United States
Senator CriGenden of Kentucky. They
were backed by Senator's Sharon and Nye
William G. Ralston and one or two other
miliionaires. They had credit at the CAL
ifornia Bank, in San Francisco, for $780,
600. For about a year their daily depos-
its averaged 5000. The building was
frame-like all others In Virginia City
Downstairs there were four large rooms,
and upstairs there were three One room
was especially devoted to Nevada and
California state officials, senators and
congressman. Another room was for
miucls and cattlemen. Stin another and
larger room was general gambling room
for men of small stakes, who played 10 a
$50 limit every night There were poker,
roulette and faro rooms, and connecting
with all these was a most elaborate bar
room. The tables and chairs were of ma
hogany, the carpets were the finest that
money could buy in New York. / have
seen cowboys and miners in great, rough,
muddy boots, with pistols Tapping at their
hips and spurs at their heels, come stalk
ini5 across velvet carpets there thai cost
$40 a yard in those days and throw
their feet on polished tables worth 800
each. The windows were of the finest
French stained glass, and represents Bac-
chanalian and Roman scenes The bar
was of solid onyx, and the floor of Italian
colored marble. The lamps were solid
silver set off by gold Mirrors Of heavy
plate glass reached from floor to ceiling,
and were held in place by hooks of solid
silver. There were goblet5 of solid silver,
and the delicate drinking vessels of glass
and gold. The pyramids of cut glass de-
canters and bottles at the back of the bar
cost $4,000 in Paris. Then the expensive
manner of running the house was proba-
bly, never equalled. In the exclusive
poker rooms bottles of champagne were
opened at the expense of Gentry & Crit
tenden whenever a jackpot was opened.
/ have seen a dozen bottles of champagne,
that cost in that mining town So a bottle,
served free to an assem- blage because
some one told a funny story or because
a new rich vein had been struck down
at the mines. The house used to reserve
SO 500 a month from its profits for the en-
tertanment of its guests. On the occa-
sion of the visit of the Duke of Suther-
land to Virginia City, the bonanza firm OF
Mackay, Fair, Flood & O. Bren must have
paid for 500 bottles of champagne drunk
and poured on the carpets in one day and
night al Gentry & Crittenden's house.
81 have sat in games of poker in the
house many a time when the cheapest
chip was $50. 1 once played for a few
hours when the chips ranged from $50 up
ward but 1t was too big for me 10 play