Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1900-06-02
KLONDYKE GAMBLING
COMPARED WITH THE FIERCE
WOOINC OF FORTUNE.
That Was the Regular Thing when
virginia City Was Loaded With Gold
La Oidsn Days-Much More Tame
Than In Years Gone BY. D

There is no such gambling In the
Klondike as there used to be in the old
diggings in the states" said Sam
Wood. Wood is an old-timer. He has
followed the hunt for gold ever since
he was a boy, and now his hair is gray
and his shoulders stopped. He return
ed from the Klondike last month.
Wood has two claims in the new land
OF gold. He is just as certain that
these will pan out as he has been Of
hundred others that he has staked
out, but from which he never took
enough to grub-stake him for the next
prospecting tour. There's gambling,
sure enough, but it is not as it was in
the old days. l guess people have
more sense, or maybe the work is done
more on business principles. The
heaviest gambling / ever saw was in
Virginia City. New, in the early '70's.
Most OF it was done, too. by men who
had little more money than they
gambled with. They were the days
when gold flowed like water and the
|
millionaire of tomorrow. The famous
| Comstock mines, which made million
aires OF Flood, Mackay and Fair. were
| yielding $50000 a day clear profit. Men
| who a few months earlier had been
| glad to get laborers' wages were build
ing palaces and drawing incomes of
500, 900 to $4,000 a year. Some men
had balances in the banks running in
to five and even six figures. There is
little wonder that money that came
so easy went just as easy, and that
men lost as much in single nigh. es
would have kept them in luxury Tor
the rest OF their lives. Virginia City
bristled with gambling saloons, but
none could compare in elegance with
that of Hiram Sentry and Dan Crit
tenden. II was nothing but frame
building. rough on the outside. hut
inside it was a dream. The bar was
of onyx and the floor was of colored
marbles arranged in mosaic. Mirrors
ran all around the rooms from ceiling
to cellar. framed in solid silver, orpa-
mented with gold. The drinking YES
sells were of solid silver or u cut glass
nearly as costly, and the decanters be-
hind the bar cost 5000 in Paris. The
gambling rooms were furnished SINH
larry, and il was common to see a dir
ty, unkempt miner, mud from head to
, heel. walking on carpet that cost $40 a
, yard. Champagne flowed like water
and the proprietors spent $4,000 a
: year in entertaining their guests. They
could afford 1t. More than once have
seen a rough miner, whose entire out
, fit would have been dear at dollar
walk in with bag of rust that weigh
ed up for more than $4,000 lose it in
, half an hour and walk out whistling
, as unconcernedly as though it had
, been 80 cents.
There were others, however, be.
g sides the rough miners. One room al
Crittenden's was set apart for United
!, States officials, senators and represen'
! tatives. Here the play ran high.
have seen poker games that lasted
for "a hours without a stop. and the
chips cost man from SIS to 500 each
q | MOIt IMAM ouNc man "ouiu eNs VI
from the table. after playing all night
richer by $4,000. and winnings o.
IS. 900 and $4,000 were common. One
particular game began at 7 O'Clock
one evening and lasted until O'Clock
the next morning. The smallest chill
cost $1,000, and the jack pots helt
{ anything up to $4,000. Money wa.
u changing hands at the rate of $4,000 ;
minute. Senator Sharon was one o
II the players, and at the end of tn,
game he counted up $4,000 in win
l. nings. Three fives won $4,000 tina
night. and once the senator scoopet
5 in $4,000 as the result of three min
) utes' play. One of the richest ani
most sensible gamblers was Jack Sill
verwood of Detroit, who won $780, 900 IL
' two weeks, and then quit the gam
and Virginia City for ever.
!, There is nothing like that in tn
Klondike, and from all appearance
!, there will not be. Gamblers. profes
: = SIGNALS. are coming there all the time
:. but they do not get the encourage
ment that they got in the gold field
in the states. There will never be
Virginia City up there-and l guess
is best for all concerned"