Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-03-29
LUCK IN GAMES OF CHANCE
1t Comes and Goes Inscrutably-Faro
Is the Popular Game of the Gam
blers.

For the first time in my experience,
1 have seen published the statement
that man has lost money in bucking
a faro game at Hot Springs. Ark. You
usually hear detailed and circumstan-
tial accounts of winnings, but you
mighty seldom hear of the losings, vet
as the modern disciples of King Phar-
aoh are not dealing the bank from san
itary or philanthropic motives, it is evil
dent that the losers at the game must
be considerably more numerous than
the winners.
In the current instance one D. ]. Fair
child is credited with contributing s20,-
900 to the bank roll of the Kentucky
club between the hours of 10 p. M and
a. m. May be he did, but if he did h.,
must have had enough bad luck to sink
a ship or else w. T. Shannon, who owns
the establishment must have taken off
the limit and allowed Pilgrim Fairchild
to slather checks all over the layout in
the hope and expectation that he would
cork himself-as he seems to have done
At any ordinary limit it is a pretty hard
job even for man out of luck to lose
1000 in six hours, and 1 am disposed
story full credence.
Luck, however, is inscrutable. Whel
it comes ones way there is no telling
where it will stop, and when it is clear
ly against man he might as we'll tie
a shoestring around his roll and cash
in his stack-if he has any left to cash
inland sleep before he woos the tickle
goddess again. All the stock devices
oh
hunchback's hump or giving money to
beggars are useless. Luck is not to be
propitiated in that way. 1t comes I'M
sought and it stubbornly remains aloof
from those who seek it. The beauty
about it is that now and then it will
come to man in coal scuttles, and il
that man be game enough he can start
in with a carpet tack and win out
rolling mill.
The biggest faro gambling 1 ever saw
was on this order. 1t was in Leadville in
the days when Harrison avenue was
about the most fervid throughfare on
this continent. When what Bret Harte
alliteratively described as the "petulant
pop of the pistol was familiar sound
and there was the choicest assortment
of faro experts in the vicinity that ever
has been rounded up anywhere. Every
body played faro except Cinnamon. The
reason Cinnamon didn't play was be
cause there were no Cinnamon in camp.
The Confucian brother was not allowed
within the gates of Leadville in those
days, and 1 believe the exclusion policy
is still in force.
Old Governor Tabor-"Nightshirt"
Tabor as he was afterward designated,
because of his tastes in the matter of
81 900 robes de nuit-used to Saunter in
to a gambling house occasionally and
drop a few thousand merely to main
tain the reputation of the camp as 4
financial center. So did the little Dutch
shoemaker who located the Little Pitts
burg-I have forgotten his name. Eev-
erything was faro, for roulette had not
attained the popularity that it now en-
joys. And that reminds me that can't
for the life of me understand why the
latter-day gambling house keeper IS
continually squaking about the poor re-
turns from the bank" and as contin-
ually plugging for the wheel.
1t used to be thought that faro
game with good play was about as
good thing for the man behind the
layout as a passport to the United
States treasury with nobody watching
you. Nowadays you will hear the citi-
zens who run clubs" talking about
chucking the faro layout into the sewer
and forcing the speculative gent to take
his chances on the fall of the little mar
BILE. I am inclined to think the latter
day gambler has imbibed the trust idea
and wants everything in sight and 10
per cent more for his trouble in picking
it up.
The episode which 1 started to relate
took place in the Texas house." which