Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-27

Their place was frequented by the most
noted men in the whole land. They were all
men OF excellent education. devoted TO and
lavish with their families. good neighbors.
citizens filed with civic pride. willing tax
payers. men who never dreamed that there
would come time when their names would
De marked back to as individuals who lived
without the pale and trocha of respecta-
bility. Nobody living at that period ever
thought of associatfng them with the SIMS
ter class.
Washington was as full of lotteries ar
that period as IL is hand books today, but
the lottery proprietors never had to endure
the aslant gaze of their neighbors. There
was no disgrace then in running a lottery.
Ii was, IN brief period when gambling
was rather the fashion than otherwise
The greatest men in the land gambled pub
ieiy and necessarily here IN Washington
without the least sacrifice OF reputation
Thad." Stevens, for example, never let a
day go by that he didn't do a little ''piking''
at the faro table. Cole Martin acknowledges
with sorrow that Stevens was a most hope
less piker, but Stevens wanted some kind
OF action on the few chips he bought every
weekday OF his life. So IL was with scores
OF prominent statesmen who tenanted seats
IN the Capitol at that day. And they were
not all pikers, either. Cole Martin recalls
some OF the huge plunges of some OF them
Green of Missouri, Humphrey of Ken
lucky. Edmouson of Virginia. for example
that are not often duplicated at faro banks
OF the present day. Martin has seen dozer,s
OF the statesmen OF that epoch bending over
time, ana the big stories of their winnings
occasionally got into the letters of the
washington correspondents. The constit-
uents OF the high players among the states
men were rather pleased than otherwise
when they read of the nervy high play of
their representatives.
How Times Have Changed.
Witness the difference the swing OF The
pendulum of public opinion with the chang
ing times: The late Senator Ed wolcott
VINO died only year or so ago was
mighty gambler. and one of the most gigan-
TIC faro bank plungers of his time But
Wolcolts gambling gave him a black eve
with The conservative people the United
States over, and especially with his Colo
rado constituents When Colorado folk re-
sent big gambling on the part of one of
their representatives at the national capital
tnen indeed has the public view of gambling
changed. Woicotts prestige was Slapped
steadily for years by the stories that leaked
out about his high play at the gambling
table, and IL at length unquestiona bly, led
90 ms complete undermining in politics.
"oicou should have lived in an earlier day
in the early day of Cole Martin in Wash
lnSton for example. Then he would have
peen one Of the many. He would have
Deen on a pleasant parity with sews and
slathers of gambling colleagues and his
play would have attracted attention only
on account of its size. AS it was, he stood
alone as the one noted statesman of his
time who was sufficiently contemptuous Of
public opinion TO play for big stakes in pub
lie places when he felt like it, He paid the
penalty and took his medicine like man.
out ne would not have had to swallow the
bo1us had he lived in that earlier day
The swell gambling houses of Washington
In that early day of Cole Martin did the
thing up right-and Mrs. Todgers knew
how in that day. They served three reg
'.lar meals day for their patrons. for in
stance, and 1t Is needless to say that they
were rich and bountiftA meals The faro
hafar fha-
to open at 10 O'Clock in the morning Pic
ture a bunch of solid men of the present
period walking into gambling shop at 10
o clock in the morning and beginning to
attune their ears TO the clink and clatter OF
the chips, The breakfast would be served
shortly after o'clock. and then the men
OF leisure the chaps with whom gambling
was a continuous performance fever got
busy right after breakfast They passed
their chips back and fro until l O'clock
when the swagger luncheon would make it's
steanfng appearance. Immediately after
luncheon they would get busy again, with
new players drifting in all the time. The
men from the Capitol would begin to arrive.
along toward 4 o'clock. 1t was no uncom-
mon thing, when there was nothing of I'M
portance on hand in either house of Con-
gresS, for both bodies to adjourn a little
before o'clock, to give such wanNd to
avail themselves OF the delight the oppor-
tunity to sit down at the regular o'clock
dinner comprising all OF the delicacies of
the season. that was spread in all of the
the record of the proceedings. of course
that the two branches of Congress were
adjourning for that purpose, but that was
the answer, all the same The statesmen
would play on until midnight All of the
big gambling houses OF Washington closed
promptly at midnight at that ante-bellum
period. Not all of these games were for the
general public. Ned Pendletou's game, for
example, was exclusively for the patronage
and accommodation OF the legislators and
other men high in official life.
congressman Interested in Faro Plant.
Public liberation for the gambling carnt-
walls that went on in Washington really en-
dured for many years after the civil war.
Nothing unusual was thought of 1t, for that
matter. when a member of Congress himself
ran a Washington faro bank. Associated
with Cole Martin and man named Parker
in the management and profit of noted
gambling establishment that was going in
the latter sixties was no less a man than
John Morrissey, that eminent prize-hghter
M. c. from New York. Everybody knew
that Morrissey had q big slice OF this
plant while he was a representative In the
lower house, and nobody thought there was
anything unusual about 1t.
The man whom Cole Martin-who is not
given to enthusiasm-regards as the might
lest gambler that ever lived in the United
States, or in any other country at any
epoch in the worlds history, was a mem
Der of Congress. - He was Ben Wood a
brother of Fernando Wood. also a member
of Congress, ana mayor OF new 1Ofk
some time before the Tweed days. Martin
calls Ben Wood the Chesterfield of gam
blers'' and declares that he had any man
who ever sat in front of a faro layout
dashed TO the mast and asleep at the switch
when it came to nerve, address. sang froid.
and the most excellent affability in losing
o. winning.
But the old order changeth. Cole Martin
has outlived every one of that old guard.
over whose tonlbs the grass has been wav-
ing for many a long year. And here
Cole, strolling around the sunny streets OF
Washington on the fine days, overhearing
the brave talk of the pikers and the ba-ad,
wicked boyish would-be gamblers. As he
hanks back TO that swinging day when men
whose fame for brains and eloquence was
worldwide used to stand for hopeless ruin
alton on the turn of a card. or, II they won
spend their winnings in a kind of rioting
that had in ii the touch OF their genius,
we think we hear Cole Martin chuckiing
b,t sardonically In his white beard
The Devil.
From the Universalist Leader
Dear. guileIess old wanderer from the
land of long ago. gentle old visitor from
ora nd well