The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-08

stantly some thlrty-0dd years ago
through what IS now called. I believe,
the middle west" said the gray haired,
young-looking man, "the general drift
or things was very different from what
understand it to be nowadays
existence on this side of the Ale
gnanies was unquestionably larger,
7reer and less orderly than in the cities
OF the Atlantic coast; and one particu-
lar symptom of this was the openness
Win which gambling was carried on.
Don mean 60 say that there was any
more gambling done out here than
there was there but there wSs lesS
concealment or pretcnse of cOnCeaiTent-
As ] remember it. there were only
two games that were played to any
great extent I'm the ordinary gambling
house al that time. Faro and poker
were the staples And the poker was
sometimes Of a kind TO take your
breath away even if you were only
looking on
There was one game that 7 saw az
ia Crosse. Wis. that 7 never forgot.
u was for big money. but that wasn't
what fixed it I'm my memory.
II never played poker there myself.
Tor I had wholesome dread Of the
professional gambler, and knew
enough Of cards even then to see that
there was a lot of crooked play going
Ntt- A'Nl 4 uStN 10 emp lu rev unlldIS
0t faro whenever / was in La Crosse.
just 90 pay my footing, and then sit
around and watch the play If YOU
kept your mouth closed nobody would
object and there was generally some
thing worth seeing going on
The Game at La Crosse.
"A big man named Ben Willis was the
proprietor of the place They said the
landlord of the hotel was his partner;
but II he was he never interfered, and
seldom entered the room, so far as
Know. Anyhow. Willis ran the place
i had gone to La Crosse on this Oc-
casion that 7 speak Of with the ex-
recitation Of selling a tOlerably big bill
or goods To merchant named Dins-
more, who had recently set up In bust
ness. and who was rated at $4,000 to
$29OoO-a fair capital then for a mer-
chant I'm a place of that size. / had
only seen him once. but had been quite
IaForably impressed with his appear.
0ncc. and I knew that his reputation
was more than fair.
III was therefore. conSidera bic Of n
surprise TO me when ] entered the gam
ping room. after arriving on a late
train- and found Dinsmore playing
poker with four men. two Of whom I
recognized at once as professionals. It
was nothing surprising to know that
anybody played poker I'm this part Of
tho country in those days. but it struck
me that. for n business man who was
trying TO establish himself I'm new
community, DinsmoTe was not going
about it very sensibIy.
I learned atterward that he had been
q heavy poker player previously and
had quit fl for a time. but had been
playing pretty heavily for week before
saw him that night, and had lost con-
siderable money.
10 Sign of Recognition.
He saw me when I entered the room.
hut he made no sign of recognition,
end, as matter of course I did not
speak To- him while be was playing
slrolied over TO one of the faro tables
and bought S. stack. and began bet
ting, as was i'm the habit OF doing 81
a; time
ut happened that three or four other
men were playing at the same table
one Of them very heavily. That is. he
was betting fifty or hundred on every
turn, and ne was losing nearly every
bet
more fra a spirit of mischief than
anything else. 7 began coppering an his
uelS- As I expected. I won right along
but it was noe long before ! could sec
that he was annoyed. and 7 instantly
stopped. If it had been only the dealer
had 90 consider would have kept &c
mn. but ] wanted no quarrel So be-
at random after that tin r lost my
stack and then walked over toward the
poker table.
What I saw there was more surDrie-
ing THAN the first sight OF Dinsmore
Calvin and Foster. the two profession
aus / mentioned, were playing the other
three men for suckers more openly
ard boldly than L ever saw skin game
played before or since
"It seemed almost incredible that men
Is.
play it at all should be unable 90 detect
the crooked work, but those three
played on with no apparent suspicion
What j after'vard learned about one II
inc three made me suspect that two
We're stool pigeons and stayed i'm the
same only Co confuse Dinsmore.
so far as ] saw, they tried no funny
business with the cards. and. taking no
big chances. neither won nor lost any
great amount. Dinsmore, however. was
. losing heavily
Dinsmore's Winnings.
Just as I came up behind him he
asked Willis % cash another check for
lim, and Willis nodded. Dinsmore
ihereupon wrote his check and Willis
handed him $1,000.
''Fhe amount was startling. for had
Eot suspected the game was so large
hut they were playing no limit. and al
though the ante was only 81, / soon saw
that the betting was stinf.
The first deal after this check was
cashed was Dinsmore's Tt was Gal
WINS age. Foster came in the OF her
two dropped, and Dinsmore made it
five 90 play.
Calvin raised him ten and Foster
ttrdiled. Then DinsmOre made ft ten
r more. and they both stayed
on the draw they all stood pat Eos
yer put in a white chip and Dinsmore
bet hundred dollars. Calvin called.
and Foster dropped tt appeared that
DirsmOre had full and Calvin a flush
'Dnsmore had Only won a hundred
and fifty. but &c seemed to eIate him
greatly
" 4 believe the luck has changed he
said. and he looked at his next hand
eagerly
From where 7 stood I could see Gal
Yin stack the cards. and was not sur
prised to see Dinsmore raise fl again
when IL came 10 him. I should say that
they were not playing jackpots. The
Jackpot was not unknown then. but e
was not as commonly played as now
and In many houses was not played at
all
'It happened that there were two or
three other good hands out. as might
be expected when the cards were
stacked. and it was boosted back and
forth till there was over q thousand
or the table before the draw.
Again DinsmOre stood pat. Foster