The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-10-27

| tions. Hundreds of times I have mo- ticed tricks about persons face or ex-
 pression that led me to know that my
 immobile and stolid poker opponent was slightly nervous or joyous as his hand, but l have lacked courage to back my knowledge up with gold coin That is another illustration why I real ly do not know which to say Is the more requisite for great poker player courage or judgment of human na-
 ture
 T was in Leadville in 1880, when
 games in which there were fifteen thou sand dollars and upward were some
 times played, and also in Virginia City
 in 1873, when the Comstock mining
 kings had games which made some men
 twenty-five thousand dollars and thirty
 thousand dollars richer, but l never
 saw them. l once saw game in Lead
 vile in which the chips were twenty
 dollars each, and in which four miners
 United States Senator Tabor among
 temp handled twenty-seven thousand
 dollars between D. m. and 1 a. m. I
 believe Denver man named Peters started in that game with twelve hum dred dollars In his pocket that night and came away with sixteen thousand
 dollars. The longest succession of big
 games of any town l have ever known in the west Were those at Cheyenne, when the cattle kings became famous from 1875 to 1882. Millionaires abound ed there then and many men who were poor cowpunchers in 1870 had bank ac- counts of four hundred thousand dol lars in 1SS0 besides herds worth twice as much more. These men were very prodigal with their cash, and all were conceited enough ca believe they knew all about everything poker included. They were pust meat for professional gamblers. Then there was also a small army of young Englishmen who came out west to go into the cattle business. The English who have money and who think they are poker players are exact ly te men that the fraternity seeks. There were at one time twenty-five big poker clubs and twice as many cheaper ones. People used to say that no other town of the size of Cheyenne had so many gambling places. I have known young Englishmen to land In Cheyenne with fifty and seventy-fve thousand dollars 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 Englshmen who had spent large for tunes in faro or poker. Wash Bray mer was the king bee of the gambling fraternity in Cheyenne for several years. He owned faro roulette and keno layouts and four poker clubs. He used to have an income of fifteen thou sand dollars a month, He was a fine poker player and many night he won jack pots that ranged from four to six hundred dollars each. But he took to drink, lost his ability to play a close game, and the first he knew he was meat for the other gamblers. In a year he changed from man with one hum dred dollars worth of property to a bum player in games of five-cent antes. He died year later and was buried by the charity of the profession. When the cattle ranges began to be divided in farms and the cattle barons lost heavi- ly by the freezing winter wea ther, Cheyenne began to decrease in popula- tion and her rich men became poor. The gorgeous gambling houses closed one by one, and In 1888 there was hard ly one eft.'-NeW York Sun,