The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-15

Times reporter would have proved, he
would have taken his fair companion
to MI. Richard Canfields club house and
there have given her formal intro
duction to small cold bottle and
full-grown hot bird. ITO the club
house?" 1 hear the fair reader ex-
claim; "can women go to the club
house? Is not that where they gam
bic? Or was she fast, and is 1t such
who go there?" How many questions
women can ask! Reporters also ask
questions with some volubility, but it
can only be because their mothers were
women.
No, the club house is not where
they gamble" in the same sense as The
race course is. And, if it comes to
that, where don't they gamble? At the
the table at which l sat in one of the
great hotels my neighbors gamble ALI
through the meal on each others
weight on whether the waiter will
bring two things correctly out of six
that have been ordered, on the even
ing's polo game, on the next days
weather-on everything on earth and
in the water under the earth and in
the heavens above 1t. At the famous
club house 1t is Mr.. Canfield's estimate
that only one visitor in ten ever risks
any money there. The other nine go
to look on. The club house is at the
same time the principal and best rest
aurant in the village. All the hotels
serve meals on the American plan
which is a beautiful plan if you like
1t, or as long as you can stand it, or
If you don't mind what you say.
The truly great John Morrissey, pug
Hist, politician, congressman and gam
bier planned the club house as 1t is,
and what John used to say" and
what John used to do" are still the
guides to shrewd and successful deal
ing with the public in the minds of
all the older villagers who knew him
John started the restaurant in the club
house and John made ladies feel at
home in 1t; John invited all who cared
to look on at the games to come and
go as freely as If it were a railway sta
ton, and John treated all his patrons
and visitors as If they were in their
own home when they were in the club
house. That is the deepest, truest rea-
son why the club house fastened it
self inextricably upon the village and
the life of the summer visitors. And
what John made of 1t remains I'M
changed to-day.
Mr.. Garfield says truly that there is
no better barometer of the condition
of the country that such a house. He
studies the restaurant bills daily, TAX
ing $50 checks, summing up the total
VI WHdl LDCy ICpISScIl, anu uiVlulnS
this sum by the number of checks.
The result Is as follows: 1900, 500 per
meal; 1901, $2S 1902, $40. What ne
means is that the average expenditure
of each diner at the club increased 40
per cent. last year over the year 1900,
and has increased 100 per cent. this
year. Then, again. 1t costs $25 to MAKE
one bet-to buy one chip-and yet the
betting increases.
ioh
the main parlor of the club. There
had been too much high-rolling play
at the races, and the betting men
needed the evening to recuperate. I
saw the man who lost the most wan
dering around with some ladies, drink
ing the waters and listening to the
music. Mr.. Gates went to a directors
meeting in New York. For the mo-
ment every one was tired of high play
and was resting. But the previous
night-that of Monday-was a good
one on which to visit the club. The
restaurant was crowded. the ante
rooms were gay with ladies beautiful
ly gowned and peering across the
crowded cafe to the great parlor,
where the players thronged before the
tables. All was as quiet and orderly
as II we were at the Metropolitan Mu-
scum of Art on a paying day."
o.
who had bought $500 worth Of
chips, were seated at the rou-
lette boards playing that game
of pure chance which requires no
skill, no brain. nothing but money and
dumb luck. The great silent spinning
wheels revolved. the little marbles
plunged and bounced along the num-
Der frames with that whirring note
which is music to so many ears, and
the players and croupiers put on and
took off the stacks of chips whenever
the play began, or ceased for the mo-
ment. One missed the high-keyed
chant of the French croupiers an
nouncing nothing more goes" where
a similar game is the favorite. Here
there was no noise-only a word pass
ed in an undertone from player to
player or from player to croupier.
The men in the room were of many
sorts-city handles in evening dress,
racing men in business suits, portly
men of business or of sport in sober
black, hatchet-faced, hot-eyed gam
blers, marked chap who looked like
locomotive engineer. who had run
straight from his engine cab to the
club with no delay except to wash his
hands. The parlor is a noble cham
ber greatly admired by architects be-
cause of its just proportions, and dec
ora ted after the manner of the early
seventies with black walnut furniture
and great mirror frames lined with
gold. The entire heart of the great
reach of softly carpeted floor is unin-
numbered. and here stood a hundred
men, among them. the quiet, stocky.
smooth-faced proprietor in a dinner
coat loose skirt. evening waistcoat.
black trousers. and stiff straw hat.
with no ornament of ring or min or
even watch chain. visible. He was
talking about Chinese ceremonies. He
had on his hat. and so did every other
man. In that respect it was like a
scene in the House of Commons.
The faro games attracted the great
players and the high play. 1t was
difficult for an ordinary man VINO
earns his living by the sweat of his
hands or his brow to comprehend that
sums of money were represented by
the chips upon these tables A great
Wall street operator sat in a Napole-
onic attitude, with head down on his
breast, hands folded on his stomach.
and hat tilted over his eyes, at he
head of the table with n half dozen
idlers behind and beside him one an
employe OF the place, on a high stool,
watching all that went on And this
Stock Exchange nabob was one of the
men who were playing. The stacks OF
ivory lozenges in front of him iepre-
sented 81 900 for each pile. The case
keeper, with his little Chinese frame Of
ivory markers strung upon wires. tall
lied each card played by the dealer cp-
posite. who dealt in the most leisurely
manner stopping n rake in or pay on
the bets and taking. sometimes, seven
minutes between deals. There comes q