The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1901-06-14
MAJ. NUFFurr,s MsMoRv

MAJ. MUFFuTT's MEMORY.
tFrom the Chicago Record Herald.j
Six men, an past the middle age.
and each worth a million, more or less.
were seated around a table at the
club. It was warm afternc51 in
August, and each Us slipping his fav-
orite drink while he recited or listeued
to tales Of days gone by
Colonel Paisley had just finished a
story Of the wild west. An Indian and
a cowboy. both drunk were gambling
at cards After the Indian had lost
all his money and firearms, as last,
desperate chance. he wagered his
wife against the entire wealth Of the
cowboy The Indian lost, and after
turning his squaw over to e cowboy
he picked up a pistol and blew out
bis brains.
Nov that's a true story" said
Paisley. who had been a railroa build.
er in the west for was there and
saw It ALL
Well, sai- laior Muffutt, putting
down his glass ahd liclSing the ashes
from his cigar "a story is never too
strange to be true. In proof Of which
III tell you a story that parallels the
colone's I'm some respects and brings
the characters nearer home. We all
know one Of the principals
What ! am going TO relate happen
ed In one Of our great cities twenty
years ago. may as well tell you the
name Of the city-it was Chicago.
Chicago twenty years ago was what
Ben Hogan. the evangelist, called it.
the wickedest city of the world. To
use his own words. 1T had more pol
ish than Butte. less than Paris, but
ten times the wickedness Of both com
bined.
THE greatest gambling house in
Chicago at this time was run by man
named Orville Spencer. The king of
gamblers they used to call him--but
that was wrong. Spencer was no
gambler; in fact, ne never sat into
a game that he did not lose But he
seldom played he was content to
manage his establishments.
Among the visitants of the Chica-
go gambling houses-in those days it
was not stylish to call them hells'-
were the best people-people whom
you might expect to meet anywhere
coming mllioraires and millirnaG
who had just come In those day p
Sheedy, who had made his mont 4
cards, was just as respectable as &c
Hutch, who made his millions in
wheat, or Armour, who made his in
provisions. It was all speculation;
every body gambled. from the million
aire to the laborer. The general few
er of speculation among all classes in
thosed ays is what gave rise to the
expression, The dinner pail brigade
Well among the regular visitors at
the 'Pandora's Box, as Spencers
place was called, was Tom Seabright
Seabright was really the king Of gamb-
lers, for never a game that he went
against that he didn't beat Pandoras
Box had also among it's patrons some
ladies' have seen ladies come in
there, thicSly vieled with some sporty
and gold laden youth for chaperone,
but most of the females were of the
demi-monde Demi-monde was a swell
expression; II was quite new to us in
those days besides it was Frenchy
and therefore popular 1t was laugh
able to notice with what happy famil-
iarty a man would speak of his asso-
Citations with the demi.monde.
Madeline Corliss was one of the
demimonde, that Is, such was the sup
position Every body called her
Madge in speaking of her; no one
ever spoke to herself She carried
about with her an atmosphere of aloof-
ness that no one ever dared to break
through. Although exhibiting none Of
the brazen effrontery affected by the
women of the calss to which she was