The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-23
IN DEADWOOD THE
 LID IS WELL ON
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIRTY YEARS THERE IS NO GAMBLING IN NOTED GOLD TOWN THAT SPRUNG UP OVER NIGHT.

Deadwood (s. D.) Cor. Chicago Inter Ocean.
 | For the first time in thirty years there | Is no gambling in Deadwood. The most | picturesque feature of life in the most noted gold camp in the world has been suppressed, and every gambling joint in | famous old Deadwood is now closed-all | because a city official suddenly went good" and decided to enforce the laws which have been on the statute books for twenty years. Never since the grand
 rush in 1876, when in a single day Dead
 wood became city of 5000 men and half
 a dozen women, has there been minute
 when the little ivory ball was not revolv- ing around the roulette wheel; when the |, click of the chip, the roll of dice and the cllnk of silver and of gold has not been loud in Deadwood gulch--but all Is now stilled. The "profesh stand around in groups on street corners and discuss the situation. So great Is the sudden reform that even all chairs have beeen removed from the saloons and curtains from the windows. When a man drinks In Dead wood now he must do so before any one who pleases to glance through the clear windows as he passes. There was time l in Deadwood when people didn't care who saw them drinking, but under the new l order of things public opinion counts. There are rows and rows of closed rooms | on Deadwoods principal street now, where | formerly gambling went on. There are more saloons in Deadwood than all other business houses combined. And formerly nine out of every ten saloons had gam | bling joint in connection, but they don | any more
 | There are men In Deadwood who haven't done a lick of work in thirty years, ex- | cept so far as dealing faro, playing poker | or roulette, or some other game Of chance | Is work. But they have to go to worK now or leave the country.
 | There have been some famous old gam | blers In Deadwood, and some great games have been played here. In the earlier days, when gold dust, instead or cash' was the medium of exchange, there were games when pounds and pounds and bags of d,,st and nuggets were cast on the ta lie and won or lost on the turn or card. Numbers of the older gamblers have died with their .'boots on," and the cemetery on a hill overlooking the town is sprinkied with the graves or those killed in gambling joints. Among some of the great gamblers who nave nveo m Deadwood and made the game famous here were "Wild Bilr' Hickok and Jack Mccall. his slayer; "Lank' and Charley Keys. brothers, gamblers, stage robbers etc: Lame" Johnny. gambler and stage rohher. Bill Hale, Dick Rankins, Billy Gay. Lengthy Johnson and host or others. some dead and others living And the gambling fraternity was not confined to men alone. There were num- her of women gamblers in the early days, and Calamity Jane, who died last year, and other pioneer characters, would slt in n game and win or lose with the same eouanimity as dld the gamblers or the opposing sex .x most spectacular things in the history or the gold discoveries of the west. seventy five miles below Deadwood gulch was the town of Custer, with some 1000 inhabi- tants. Gold had been discovered In the neirhborhood. and Custer was tho first | town in the Black Hills.
 One night in the latter part or June lSlb. came the report of the big find of gold In Deadwood eulch. Events proved the | find very rich, but the reports made 1t vet richer. It was said that dust could be tust shoveled up from the little | stream.
 Before daylight the next morning the I stampede began. Horses sold Tor any price not less thon $500 each. Most or the | r,an went on "footback for want of
 other means Within twenty-four hours C,,ster was deserted by all but women
 1 and cbildren-and even a number of wom- an made the journey to the new El Dora do Another twenty-four hours and new town had en-Deadwood-in the north,
 ern hills. Those on horseback reached the place after one days travel The root, men struggled in the following day, ana Deadwood had 1000. inhabitants, all nv'ns
 in tents and in the open air. Two barrels l ,.-,th a slab across constituted the sa- looms and drinks were sl each. The next day the gambling houses opened. and
 remained open--days. night and sunday
 for twenty-nine years
 But Deadwood without gambling Is Ike
 | a river without water. The people don
 know what to do, and every enort IS so'
 | ,n~ to he made to induce Mayor McDon-
 aId to rescind his closing order and per
 init the joints to open again.