The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11


 The Montgomery Exchange was com
 bination of boarding house, gambling
 he'll and grog shop. It was a disrepu-
 table place from the beginning and soon
 came to be occupied exclusively by
 lewd fellows of the baser sort-profes-
 sional gamblers
 | The civilization of Alabama and Mis- sissippi at this time was the civiliza. tion of the frontier. After the Indians
 were removed a tide of people flowed In of all sorts-good people and bad peo- pie. Many lawless characters came;
 many who had committed crimes in the | older States came, fleeing from justice | as hunted wild animals fly for refuge to preserve as to place of safety. Montgomery, Mobile, and Tuscaloosa, in Alabama; Natchez, Vicksburg and
 Yazoo City in Mississippi. and numer- ous other towns became cities of ref 1 uge" for these outcasts. The Mont gomery Exchange soon became a nuis-
 ance to the better people of the town.
 Here the gamblers drank and quarrele l
 and fought and slept by day. and spent
 the livelong night in gambling. Art | less and inexperienced countrymen and | even somo townsmen who must have | known something of the dark methods
 of the professional gamester. were | treated with liquid refreshments at the l bar of the Exchange, and, when they | were we'll under the influence of the strong waters, were invited as jolly good fellows to try their luck in the | rooms above with poker and roulette, | but especially with that seductive game
 of chance which, an unauthentic legend declares, was invented by one of the | old Pharaohs of Egypt several thous- and years ago. From these rooms, 1t | Is said, these rustic simpletons and | vcnturesomc city often emerged at early hours of the morning with en- larged experience and empty purses. | It was worse than a nuisance. Often | four or five of these roysters. with arms 1 interlocked, would march abreast up
 up and down the sidewalks of Market Street (now called Dexter Avenue), ltrolling bacchanalian songs and jostling | peaceable citizens off the sidewalk in | to the street. just for the fun of the
 thing. as they said. They backed the | proprietor of the Exchange, John little, l in his refusal to pay the license fee fixed by law for the retailing of spirit
 ous liquors. When the town marshal | came to collect the license money, they | chased him away with drawn pistols.
 The Mayor of the town at this time
 was John H. Thorington. prominent 1 lawyer. The whole police force con- | sisted of one man, the town marshal.
 whose name has not been handed down.
 Quiet, law abiding citizens were some | times assailed in the streets by these
 rapscallions for little or no cause
 | One well-remembered incident may
 be related here to show the lively cir
 cumstances under which good people l maintained existence In those exciting times. One of these gamblers had | grossly maltreated Squire Robert Par ker a quiet and inoffensive gentleman | by striking him with his fists. There was young merchant, named JACK l Thorington, a younger brother of the Mayor, and a member of the mercantile firm of Wyman & Thorington. who kept store in the old wooden building on the southwest corner of Perry and Market Streets, where now stands
 Vests brick drug store. Jack put pair of pistols in his pockets and went out in search of the ruffian who had maltreated his kinsman. He found the bully standing in front of grog shop assailed him with his fists, and admin
 istered to him a much stronger dose of the same bitter medicine that the row.
 dy had given to Squire Parker.
 The property of good citizens was
 destroyed at night, sometimes in spirit of wantonness and pure deviltry;
 sometimes as a warning that their madcap pranks, overbearing insolence, and constant violations of law and or der were not to be interfered with. The Mayor who had tried by all law full methods to suppress the disorders but with small success, at once became the object of their btterest resentment.
 One night they went secretly to his stable, brought out his fine carriage
 dragged 1t down Commerce Street and threw it from the top of one of the high bluffs near the steamboat landing and demolished 1t. A few nights after this
 the Mayor was sitting after supper in
 the back part of his law office, small one story frame building that stood on
 the west side of Perry Street between
 Washington and Market (Dexter Ave-
 nue), just below the alley. He was en- gagged in writing. Suddenly there was a flash from the outer darkness of the
 street in front. a pistol shot rang out;
 but the bullet that was intended for Colonel Thorington missed its mark and imbedded itself in the wall just behind his head. It was a narrow es- cape. At the moment when the shot was fired, 1t is said. he had bent for ward to pick up pen which had fallen on the floor and this slight movement of his body at the critical moment was all that saved his life. Exact dates are lacking. but this must have happened about tho last of December. 1885, or in the early days of January, 1S36