Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-31
LID rs ON IN DEADwooD.
No More Gambling in the Famous
Mining Town.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
1.-The folks that don't believe the world is
gettin' better ought to drop in on little old
Deadwood one O. these days." said Peter
English d-time gambler and faro dealer,
as he came out of ticketS brokers' Office,
where he had been to price transportation
to Denver. For the first time since I've
been In the hills the proprietors of the luck
mills have been scurrying around trying to
find the keys to their front doors The lid
is on all right, and l guess We'll have to
move on"
This summarizes the situation in Dead
wood today so far 1t relates to gam
bling. For twenty-seven years open gam
bling has been the rule in this city. Six
big and four little joints have been vide
open, each class catering to certain ele-
ment of the population.
Deadwood was one Of the first gold
camps in the hills after the excitement of
1876 and 1877 got under way. Life was
held very cheaply then, and stable govern
ment was a long time coming. Now
committee of citizens and the states attor-
ney have come to the conclusion that open
gambling is a bad thing for business as
well as morals, and they have bolted the
lid down. They notified the gamblers that
their limit had expired, and they were told
to shut up and move on. 1t was big
surprise all around.
faTkeT, the states attorney. Is an Ola
weSterner. He came here In the staging
days and was one of the lawyers who de-
Tended the freighters in the days of the
bullwhackers' strike in the early eighties.
He has lived here for twenty-five years.
II closed up the joints" he says. mot
because of any wave of public sentiment
or because they were getting too much of
the wealth. l simply came to the conclu-
sion that the town had passed the mining
town stage and 1t was time to move up
into the decent city class.
Gambling has been a public institution
for so long that the order to close came
a distinct shock. More than 81 900
month revenue was received by the city
for the joint licenses and this sum paid
a considerable portion of the tax budget.
Seventy-eight professional gamblers not to
mention porters and walters, were en-
ployed In the places. and the most of them
moved to Denver, where the lid is tilted
a little.
Deadwood is a city of about 5000 peo-
pie 1t is situated just where a narrow
gorge in the hill widens a little, and its
houses mostly cling to the sides of the
steep hills. Down its center runs a brawl-
ing mountain stream. Out of the hills all
about gold Is still being dug. More than
hale the men in town work In the mines
and in the cyanide mills and chlorination
works. The rest live on the workers
The open-arm policy toward gambling
res ulted in some curious mix-ups. The
gambling den and the dry goods store the
grocery and the faro layout were to be
found next door to one another in the main
street. One was regarded much legiti
mate institution as the other. The only
difference was that the dry goods store
and the grocery closed up Sundays. There
was no attempt to conceal the character
oS the business going on. The window
blinds We're up and the doors open, and he
who passed might know.
One man in every twenty in the town Is a
Chlnaman. Some of them work in the
mres, few run laundries and others off,
ciate cooks They were all inveterate
gamblers and they are now the most dis
consulate fellows IN town. Fantan was
open TO them, but they generally passed 1t
up for poker or faro. 1t has long been
story here that the Chinks were nearly
all employed by a company that financed
them salary and a share when they won
which they did more often than they lost
To get paid for playing poker was a thing
that made them the envy of not a few
white men.
Deadwood has been the scene of many
a big game. 1t is just on the edge of the
hills, and cattlemen from the country to
the north-men who have money enough
to buy up a town or two and still have
capital left to start a tank-often dropped
in and they boosted things to the limit.
Sometimes they broke the bank oftener
they went broke themselves Only one rule
was laid down for the gamblers in recent
years That was that all games must be
run on the square. The dealer was enti-
tied to his percentage, but no more. If he
tried TO run brace or deal crooked the
place was closed and stayed closed