Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-24
RECKLESS GAMBLING

rounds of the papers recently recounts at
some length the stories Of some noted gam
blers of the past two centuries and their
most tremendous wagers, but there was no
mention of the colossal gambling that went
on out on the coast in the early days of the
gold discovery" said hale and hearty
member of the Forty-niners' Association
who lives in Washington. But for utter
recklessness I don't believe there ever
were gamblers to equal those fellows of the
SOS in California.
There was one rough-and-ready Gus
toner flying high in San Francisco in those
days named Jim Tolman. who had been one
of the earliest to get rich out of lucky
strikes He had the nickname in San Fran
cisco of 'Tune-up' Tolman, because OF an
expression that he always used whenever
he fell to bucking the tiger. 49,
Just tune up the seven for me, Will
your Tolman would say to a faro dealer:
And the dealer, who knew Tolman, would
understand what that meant
1.-The dealer would request the regular
players around his table to suspend opera
lions for a while. Then he would take a
fresh deck of cards and slip them out or
the box three or four times. while Iune-up
Tolman would watch the conduct or the
seven or any other card that he wanted 10
nave tuned up Then, after imagining
that he had got line on the card that
he had picked out. he would begin to buck
that card for 5000 a twist.
II saw Tune-up Tolman do this at rom
Mayhews faro bank. the Napa CLUB one
night when he lost $45o00 in less than M
teen minutes. He Kept the copper on the
seven for five turns. and 1t won nve times
running. Then he fiicked the copper on
and the seven lost four straight times.
That made him sore on the seven for the
night. He wrote check for $40.OoO ana
handed it to Mayhew-he always cleaned up
his losing account on one caro- DeIore he
began to bet another one.
Nov tune me up the ace. Tom. he SAID
to the faro man. and after watching three
or four boxfuls slip out Tune-up roman
went after the ace.
He picked it right. open and coppersd,
for half a dozen deals. and was $30,OOO 10
the good when he quit. In the long run.
however. that tune-up system of Toiman
tuned him up for his whole fortune. and ne
knew what it was to work again with PICK
and shovel after having been millionaire.
"In those days most of the bonanza men
with homes in San Francisco used to own
houseboats on the San joaquin river up
around Stockton. and they'd spend the DUCK
and snipe-shooting season on their houss-
boats. George Mulvey was the gambler
who first tumbled to the possibilities Oh tnls
situation.
He had a magnificent houseboat built Ia
San Francisco, rugged it up as faro bank
and general gambling plant ana hao ~
towed up the San Joaquin alongside the
houseboats of the bonanza men. 1naJ
couldn't be shooting duck and snipe all the
time, George knew They welcomed MS
floating gambling plant with enthusiasm
and gave him their play.
"Mulveys floating gambling hell hadn
been anchored in the San Joaquin near
Stockton for a week before all or me
sbonanza mems households were huddled at
anchor around it. and from that time on
the ducks and snipe alighted fear1essiy on
the houseboats. They had nothing to fear
The owners of the Households We're too
busy bucking the tiger on Mulvey's faro
bank boat to think of their guns:
"Mulvey cleaned up $o0OOOo before the
Stockton authorities put stop to his game
on the ground that he was diverting money
from the town by annexing all OF the DO
nanza mems velvet himself. One AFTER
noon during that season Fred Norton VINO
had made his great pile in dealing In min
ing options, had his houseboat poled along
side of Mulvey's floating hell
GEORGE said Norton to Mulvey. do
call the turn for $4,000 or not?'
Depends on your luck whether you 90
or not Fred replied Mulvey, cody. Game s
open for you to try it on, if that's what you
mean.
That's what mean said Norton, and
Mulvey went in to preside at the box MINI
self.
Norton lost out on his $4,000 call. He
sat down quietly at Mulveys desk, wrote
check for $4,000 on the Bank of California
and handed it to Mulvey.
Its a case of all in with me, George,
Norton said without any visible excite
ment, and then he stepped back on to his
houseboat, locked himself in his cabin, ana
put a bail In his brain. -
'Mulvey went down to San francisco
from Stockton on the stern wheeler that
same evening. He found that Norton's ac-
count at the bank consisted of just $50 OOO
and some odd He cashed the check. drove
out to a convent just outside of San Fran
cisco, in which Norton's only daughter and
living relative was getting her education,
and placed the money in her hands.
There's no fun for me in money that
takes a mans life along with it, was his
explanation to his friends of this generous
deed-and he didn't mention a word about
it. either, until they had found it out.
Flood, one of the Big Four of the Com
stock used to have frequent faro lunches,
and when he couldn't get action on them in
any other way he played them by wire One
day he was down in San Quentin visiting a
former friend. who had been imprisoned in
the big California penitentiary for a series
of forgeries. Flood happened to arrive at
the prison in time to see three Mexican
murderers hanged in row He immedi-
ately telegraphed from San Quentin to
Blake McFee, the proprietor of the Sonoma
Cuba gambling institution-of San Fran
cisco:
Three knaves, coppered, at 5000 the
turn
"McFee understood He had received faro
kilograms from the bonanza man before.
He called in couple of Floods friends and
dealt the cards. The jacks came out right
for Flood three times in succession, and
when he got back to San Francisco on the
following morning he found the check for