The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-09

up to me and say they have heard of
me- know if I had been white I
would not be remarked among the
army of professionals in the west. I
nave made several long tours among
the gambling clubs in the eastern
states, but shall go there no more. X
prejudice exists among the poker play
erS there against sitting in a game with
a colOred man, and 1 cannot do my
best when / feel that every winning I
make is not looked upon as it would be
II taken by white man
Have 1 found poker generally played
honestly? Yes, in the professional
sense OF the phrase. but not in the
strict moral sense mean that poker
is the art of deceit and moral playing.
But the most honorable men 1 have
ever known, so far as their word and
conduct go outside of gaming are pro-
1esSlonal gamblers The older I grow
and the more L play poker the more
am sure poker is the least known Of
any game OF cards 1t is the young
fellow VINO is having the usual begin
ners luck who knows ali about poker
Generally poker is played far more
honestly nowadays than twenty or
thirty years ago A man who has
played the game in all the western
towns as long as 1 have must neces-
Sar1ly have been an honest player or
he would not be alive.
Poker a Scientific Game.
"The scientific playing of poker is
the greatest school of human nature
ever invented l once lost $500 by an
opponents observing a very minute
TACT IN my nature at that time. 1t
was fifteen years ago at Leadville.
was on the Santa Fe railroad one day.
going from Trinidad to La Junta, Colo
Colonel George. Quicker and several
other professionals were along Some
one found that we could not make con-
necuon at La Junta. Colonel Quicker
casually noted that in my worry about
missing close connection / lightly
fingered the buttCnhole of my coat with
my left hand. 1t was several weeks
later that Quicker and met in a game
at LeadVille- There were six of US
around the table. The jack Dot had
swelled to about $1,000. l had $500 in
1t. ] finally called Quicker and he won
on three SeyenS I had three fiveS. He
told me some time after that when he
saw me put my fingers in my button
hole that my stolid countenance was a
mask for somewhat worried feeling
at a rather Door hand. Buffalo Bill
once told me. that in a big game at
Omaha an opponent observed him (BiID
bite his mUstache the least bit. The
oDDonent had noted that as Bills un-
conscious trick when a little nervous
about a hand. On the strength of that
observation Bill was called after a
dozen raises and he dropped several
thousand dollars in few minutes
Il was in Leadville in 1880. when
games in which there were $4,000 and
upward We're sometimes played, and
also in Virginia City in 1873. when the
COmstock mining kings had games
which made some men $25, 900 and $780,
600 richer. but ] never saw them. I
once saw a gs me in Leadville in which
the chips We're $40 each. and in which
four miners Omitted States Senator
Tabor among them) handled $4,000 be-
tween 9 D. m. and ! a. m. l believe a
Denver man named Peters started in
that game with S1.200 in his pocket that
night and came away with $4,000 The
longest succession of big games of any
town I have ever known in the west
were those at Cheyenne, when the cat
tie kings became famous from 1875 to
1882 Millionaires abounded there then
and many men who were poor cow
punchers in 1870 had bank accounts of
S4OO. 900 in $780, besides herds worth
| twice as much more
Great Gambling in Cheyenne.
people used to say that no other
town of the size of Cheyenne had so
many gambling places. have known
young Englishmen to land in Cheyenne
with $50, 900 and $50. 900 for the purpose
of going into cattle, and they never did
a thing until they had gambled away
every dime. There were two suicides
| in one week along in the summer of
| 1878 of young Englishmen who had
| spent large fortunes in faro or poker.
| Wash Braymer was the king bee of
/ the gambling fraternity in Cheyenne
! for several years. He owned faro, rou-
| lette and keno layouts and four poker
! clubs. He used TO have an income of
| $4,000 a month. He was a fine poker
| player and many night he won jack
| pots that ranged from $500 to $500 each.
| But he took to drink, lost his ability
/ to play a close game, and the first be
! knew he was meat for the other gam
| blers. In a year he changed from \
man worth $4,000 worth of property
| to a bum playing in games of scent
antes- He died a year later and was
/ buried by the charity of the profession.
| When the cattle ranges began to be di-
| vided in farms and the cattle barons
| lost heavily by the freezing winter
| weather, Cheyenne began to decrease
/ in population and her rich men be-
came poor. The gorgeous gambling
| houses closed one by one and in 1885
/ there was hardlyrOne left"
In receiving some Americans the
other day, King Oscar of Sweden said
| II welcome you as Americans and
therefore as fellow mOnarchs."