The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-08

Il
Pat. who's the biggest gambler in
this country?"
Hes right here in Saratoga" was
the prompt reply, and his name is
DICK Garfield He's not only the big
Gsst gambler in this country, but he's
the biggest gambler in the world. He's
in class all by himself, and every
gambler in this country knows it,
You except, of course, those who run
Monte Carlo remarked the friend.
I except nobody" answered Sheedy,
strengthening UP and indicating that
he was becoming interested in his own
talk There's nobody in his class. as
L said before. Every gambling house
in Europe is run by 4 corpora ton. In
dividusls are not willing to take the
gamblers risk There are a score.
maybe 100. stockholders in the Casino
at Monte Carlo, and companies run the
houses at Ostend and Budapest and
Homburg, while in Paris the so-called
clubs take no risk whatever. Tney pro
vide the paraphernalia and take the
kitty for their profits and their ex-
penses. The Frenchman is mighty care
full Of his skin.
Now, how is it with Garfield? He is
the one man back of the Saratoga, club.
one of the biggest gambling houses in
the world. He takes all the profits, to
Of him to stand the losses. And he alone
knows that those losses include. No
one but he and his confidential man
knows of the bad checks that are
handed out to him during q season.
When a gambler gets a bogus check
he's up against it, There is seldom any
recovery for him, and about the most
he can do is to charge the amount to
profit and loss. In this particular the
American gambling house differs from
any in Europe. There is no credit there
and no payment is accepted except a
payment in cash. The king of the Bel
gians couldn't gamble on credit at Os-
tend.
''Of course there are the ordinary
gambling losses besides the losses from
bad paper, but Notwithstanding them
ali, he offers the highest limit, all
things considered, of any gambler on
the face of the globe. Compare, if you
please, roulette at the Saratoga club
with roulette at Monte Carlo. The per-
centage against the player is a little
hlSher here than at Monte Carlo, but
that IS made up to Canfield's players
in other ways. The percentage against
the player at his place is 5-19 At
Monte Carlo it is 1851, because on
the wheels at Monte Carlo there is no
double zero. The limit at Monte Carlo
on the even money chances, that is
the colors, odd or even and the num-
I bers from one to eighteen and from
nineteen to thirty-six is $1,24O. The
! limit at the Saratoga club is $S75.
Remember. however, that the limit
OF 1878 is that set by one man. while
the limit of 81 ,240 is that set by big
corporation. The limit at Monte Carlo
is stationary. No inducement that
could be offered could get it raised. Go
down to Canfield's some night with
fat bank account and play in hard
luck and see what happens if you ask
that the limit be lifted. 1t is seldom,
rNT ftaTaN
will want the limit raised. He's salts
fed to let well enough alone. Let
loser, known to Garfield to be able and
willing to pay his losses, ask for rails
ing of the limit and the barrier at
Monte Carlo will look like the stakes in
Thompson street crap game Garfield
will poke up the limit to any altitude to
suit his patron on an occasion like that.
He would set it at three or four or six
times S1,240 if the request were made.
"A gambler who will do that is the
daddy of them all. Why, boy, all the
gamblers on this footstool are picay-
unes and pikers compared to Garfield,
and the ducks here who are fighting
him are like dogs barking at the heels
Of IN elephant
The Hon. Patrick Francis looked re-
lieved after he had thus eased his mind
of its opinions. and the four Young men
who had been listening walked away to
ruminatc. There are other remarka bic
things about Garfield besides those that
awakened Sheedy's admiration. There
is not a gambler of any pretenSionS
whose face is not better known to the
public than CanfieldS. He is particu-
larry exclusive about the friends he
makes and for this reason is more cor
daily disliked by the majority of the
men in his calling than any other gam
bier in the United States.
The son of a Quaker mother-she was
Miss Rowland, q name historic among
Rhode Island Quakers-and born near
in 7e.1d -aGI
a Quaker His father was the editor
of country paper and a man of much |
learning. 1t has been often stated that !
Garfield was graduated from Harvard |
He was prepared for the university at |
the Boston High school but never ma |
circulated.
When he was old enough to go into |
business he became a hotel clerk. Then |
he became the manager of summe-
hotel at one of the New Jersey resorts. |
This work gave him his winters to him ]
sell, and spending them at Providence /
he became infatuated with poker and !
faro. Few were SO skilled at either /
game as he But it did not take him .
long to appreciate the fact that I'll
money at gambling was not made on
the players side of the table. he was
and is an expert accountant, and after /
figuring on gambling percentages he |
concluded that he could make more |
money in running a gambling house /
for himself than in managing a hotel |
for somebody else.
He opened a place in Providence and /
made money. he removed to New
York, opened a house there and made I
mere. Later he acquired the Saratoga /
club and a house in Newport. He runs /
both Of these in summer, making his |
headquarters at Saratoga. In winter 1
he divides his time between foreign
lands and New York, where he has the |
finest city gambling house in the world. /
After talking for an hour with Can /
field, a stranger VINO did not know his /
calling would be rather a a loss to de-
termine whether the man was an art !
critic, a man of letters or a hnancier. |
He will talk ceramics and pictures and !
tapestries with the art lover; he viii
discuss the PHILOSOPHERS Of Kant and
Hamilton or the theories of Darwin
and Of Huxley or the historical conclu-
siCns Of GibbOn and Hume and Froude
and Green with the man of letters, and
reveal an intimate knowledge of liter
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