Gilpin observer., 1900-07-19

phhs table. People nowadays can
have no idea Of how the mania for
gaming possessed their venerated and
princely fathers in those days.
The gamblers of the last ten years
previous to the civil war were the
greatest sports the world has ever
seen; but they got too avaricious. be-
came dishonest and brought about the
downfall of profession that one need
not be ashamed of as it was once con
Quoted. Whew! What elegant fellows
and what spendthrifts the Mississippi
river gamblers were when l came on
the stage of operations. A hundred
dollars didn't bother them any more
than cigar would one of us now. And
clothes! They were all dressers. They
wore soft black hats, black clothes,
high -heeled boots, low-necked shirts
and big, loose collars, and, ties with
frilled bosoms. Each had solitaire
breastpin and big solitaire ring, and
one of those big long gold chains CO.
ing about the neck three or four times
and hanging down over the chest.
They didn't drink anything but wine,
and they would ride across the streets
in hacks rather than get mud on their
shoes. They were fine fellows-edu-
Gated men, who could talk to any one
about anything, and very polite. oh,
there are no gamblers alive now like
the ones We used to know. Look at
the specimens that call themselves
gamblers now! What are they? Why,
mere kids-two-bit players. They have
harmed the profession that was once
not reproach to member of 1t. Since
I've been living here among the Or
anges I've been thinking of all the old
gamblers such as l used to know and
deal with. and there's precious few of
them left now. There are about nine
of the first-class ones so far as can
remember them. All but two of them
are broke and hustling for meals Poor
fellows! But my, what big days they
used to have in the palmy days of
steamboating on the Mississippi river.
Take it twenty-five year ago. when the
gaming began to fall off. There never
will be days again like them in these
United States. All, but those were the
days, my boy-great days for the town,
with thirty-six steamboats, at the wharf
all at once. the levee covered with
drays and every sport with stuff in his
pockets, and lots of good clothes.
There were fully 500 men who worked
the boats between st. Louis and New
Orleans, and there's no telling how
much money they did pull off the trav-
elers. 1t was dead easy money, too, all
the time. Everybody who travelled had
lots of stuff, and everybody was will
Ing to bet and bet high, so that when
fellow did win he won right out of
the hole at once. Those southern
planters just used to lusc money like
fun, and were skinned right and left.
Occasionally they caught on, and there
was shooting match, but the boys
didn't take much chance of being plug
ged. I've seen forty gamblers on one
boat. That was in October, 1857, when
the officers at Natchez cleaned all the
gamblers out of town. The whole gang
met the boat at the wharf and started
to come aboard, but the captain
wouldn't let them unless they promised
not to play card aboard. They prom
ised and he took them on and the boat
came on up the river. You never saw
a tireder looking lot of gamblers in
your life. They hadn't anything to do
and some of them looked as il they'd
just as soon jump overheard as not
OF course that class of gamblers had
to do something to take chances on,
and the passengers with money were
just as anxious to have some sport in
vented for them. The gamblers had
promised not to touch cards on the
boat, so necessity gave us the incentive
to invent new schemes, for helping the
passengers from plethora of gold and
silver. Deadsure games thereby came
about. For instance, when we landed
at woodpile and while the deckhands
were loading the boat up with fuel, the
gamblers would get the moneyed pas
sengers off on the bank to engage in
various skin games. The gamblers art
about running jumps. and, CT course,
the passengers dropped into it, So
they'd run a gangplank up to tree
to jump. when the first gambler would
say Hello, what's here?' and stop.
Behind the tree one of the gang had
been throwing three-card monte while
the others got up the jumping scheme.
The gamblers won Just to make the
game good, and the way those fellows
skinned the passengers was horrible.
The captain got on to the scheme, and
when the boat started off up the
stream the whole gang, forty OF them,
were Just marooned there In the woods
on cold night. But they took tho
next boat up. or down. and worked
their way up or down to New Orleans
THAT wasn't gambling; 1t was rob-