The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-12
A WOMAN'S LUCKY
Tried Roulette In Western Mining
Camp.
WON A HANDSOME FORTUNE
81, HER AGE IN YEARS, PROVED
TO BE A REPEATER.
The Little Woman Had Dreamed of
the Place and Must Try Her Luck
Her Nerve Was Steadfast and
She Played the House Out of
$41, 800.
(Chicago Inter OCEAN,


1T is not often that you see a re-
spectacle married woman playing rou-
lette in this country" said a man who
was a prospector for gold years ago.
as he chatted with a party of friends
the other night, but 1 was a witness
once of such an occurrence. The We
man was gambling because she needed
the money, and it made every locker
on happy to see her stick tho bank for
more than it had won during the month.
Hiram Dickson, an old miner, who at
terward made fortune in the gold
regions of the west, was the husband
OF the woman gambler, and il was be-
cause of the hard luck which had come
to him that his wife went out one night
alone to make a stake to carry them
on to the gold fields. Dickson did not
know of the gambling until his wife
got back with the money, and he was
so overjoyed that he could not scold her
for mixing with such a crowd.
II was hunting for gold in those days
myself continued the old miner. and
we had been having a hard winter. A
new camp had been established near
Black Gulch. and we called it Little
Heaven. Wild stories had been told of
the riches to be found there, and crowds
of people came in rushing to dig for
the hidden wealth. One or two claims
had panned out well. and the owners
got rich, but the vein was small and
short, and every particle of the precious
metal in the neighborhood was mined
on these few claims. There was little
village at first. and this was growing
into booming town, though it was a
wild, reckless place, for some of the
worst characters from the gold mines
came in TO make up the population.
Jim Blodgett's Woman Customer.
TT was a typical mining town. A
vigilance committee was organized for
general protection, but two of the men,
bers were killed in trying to keep or
der, and the committee quit the field.
At night the gambling places were wide
open. The largest establishment was
run by Jim Blodgett, a nervy gambler,
who had made a double fortune by fol-
lowing the miners. and every month he
shipped money east to be banked, He
had big layout. There was every kind
of a game known in those days, and
Jim had a large force of men to help
him. Many murders around Blodgett's
had given the house a bad name, and
few tenderfeet ventured in. A man
had to be a dead game sport. quick with
the gun. if he wanted to try his fortune
in that shop.
"One night. L remember it well, the
snow was falling and the weather was
fierce. The saloons were selling hot
drinks as fast as the barkeepers could
dish them out. and large crowd of
rough miners was gathered at Blod-
gett's. All the games were running.
At each of these the luck was going
with the house. as usual. and the bank
ers were raking in the coin. There was
the usual crowd of rubber-necks. made
up Of men who were not playing be-
cause they were broke. but were anx-
ious for chance to try their luck just
the same. Blodsett made big profit
that week and his money was in the
safe waiting to be shipped Jim was
standing by pokerstable when a man
rushed up and said there was a woman
at the door,
Now. the female population at the