The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-16
OLD FARO AND POKER
Veteran Dan Kimbalrs Memories of
Big Gambling Games.
EFORE-THE-WAR STAKES
DAYS WHEN MEM OF FAME
VOICED DAME FORTUNE.
Even the Popular Clergymen Were
Not Afraid to Lay Wagers on Horse
Races-story of Young English
mans Tragic Death After Defeat
at Poker.
Chicago Inter-Ocean.l

Santa Ana, Cal.-Daniel Kimball, Who
died in this valley last Monday, was
one of the best-known survivors of the
Mississippi river gamblers of ante-war
days. When called upon by census
enumerator or an assessor to give his
occupation, he always replied: Retired
| gambler" and for several years he had
! been known from San Diego to- Los
Angeles as the old-time Mississippi
river gambler In 1892 he and his wife
came from St Louis to Southern Call
fo-ria to live, and it was then that he
abandoned his vocation. He had saved
few thousand dollars from his VIM
nings at the card table in his last
years, and with this money bought u
| little home in an orange grove. His
abandonment of gambling was COM
| plete. From that time he never touch
ed cards again-never, IN fact, had any
in his home.
Kimball was probably the best known
faro dealer and round-table noiler
player there was on the Mississippi
river steamers in tie last half dozen
years previous to the civil war. The
late Attorney General Garland once
! said that the originator of many OF the
fundamental principles of draw poker
as it is known today was Dan kimball.
/ y
gambler. He was prodigal in his liV-
| ing, ready to bet on any proposition,
| quite abStemlOuS in his habits, cour-
teous to women, seldom excited, acd
never ashamed of his calling. he often
registered himself Daniel Kimball,
gambler" at hotels. He was as famous
for his reckless extravaganza as for his
unusual winnings in his younger days.
! He never Cuarreled, and seldom raised
< He a
meager schooling and his bad gram
mar; he was particularly we'll inform
ed, on the other hand, on the history
of his country and the affairs of the
day. He knew personally all the lead
ing men of the day who Travelled to any
degree forty years ago. He used to
narrate anecdotes of games of cards In
which Henry Clay and he were both
participants in 1913 and 1S49, when
Kimball was beginning his career as a
gambler. He made $50, 600 in 1857 by
gambling on the Mississippi river, and
there We're a number of years when his
winnings aggregated $12,0 900 and $1,000
| in twelve months. But he spent his
money with reckless hand. He had Il
crowd of friends constantly about him.
and he was always giving $40 and S100
to less fortunate gamblers. In his old
age he put his teeth together and saved
$4,000 or $4,000 by dealing faro, and with
that he came and dwelt cheaply in
southern California for the rest of his
days. To a group of friends he chatted
reminiscently as follows a fortnight
before his death:
THE most wonderful gambling days
this country has ever known were
from about 1880 to 1860. That wa when
poker and faro became the games they
are in America, and when poker was
developed. Literally every man except
clergymen in the Mississippi river val
ley used to gamble in those DAYS, and
| have known reputable clergymen at
that time to bet on horse races. All the
statesmen and orators of the west and
south gambled to some extent then. l
have seen all the political idols of the
south of forty and fifty years ago, eX
cept Jefferson Davis, about a gambling
table. People nowadays can have no
idea how the mania for gaming pos
sessed their fathers in those days.
DISHONEST GAMBLING.
THE gamblers of the last ten years
previous to the civil war We're the
greatest sports the world has ever seen.
but they got too avaricious, became
dishonest, and brought about the down
fall of a profession that one need not
be ashamed Of as it was once conduct
ed. WheW! What elegant fellows and
what spendthrifts the Mississippi river
gamblers We're when ! came on the
stage of operations. a hundred dol
lars didn't bother them any more than
cigar would one of us now. And
clOthesi They were all dressers. They