The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-15

 proprietors of gambling houses and they went out of business in sets of fours. There has never been a public gambling house maintained for even a brief space of time within the limits of the District of Columbia since then. The anti-gambling law that was then passed made the running of a gambling house or the setting up of gambling table a misde- meanor instead of a felony, as it had been before. Big fines and jail sen- tences were provided for under the new law. Juries would promptly convict gamblers of misdemeanors where they would never convict them of being felons, and when that twist was given to the District anti4gambling law the end arrived for the big games of Washington.
 When Cole Martin first came to Washington a little gambling was just about as much part of the aver age mans daily game as eating. All hands gambled There was no disgrace attached to it. No odium attached even to the professional gambler. The proprietors of the big establishments were considered men of the best repute, and, far from suffering social ostracism they were cordially received every where that other men of business on an equal plane found welcome,
 Ned Pendleton, for example, ran one of the mightiest faro banks and roulette games in Washington. His establish ment was on Pennsylvania avenue, a few doors below the old Globe building, Pendleton was looked upon as a gentle man and a scholar in his day, and his wife. an extremely lovely and accom- plished woman, was welcome in the highest social circles of the Washington of that day and was often welcome guest even at the White House.
 Joe Hall, who ran a big game over what is now shoomaker's, was another i of the well regarded gambling house 1 proprietors of Washington. He was a cultivated man, and he met the greatest men in the land on the easiest imagin- able terms, not only when presiding at his own establishment but elsewhere.
 kinson and Good-ran a huge game on Pennsylvania avenue between Four and a Half and Sixth streets. Their place was freouented by the most noted men in inc whole land. They were all men of excellent education, devoted to and lavish with their families, good neigh bors. citizens filled with civic pride willing taxpayers, men who never dreamed that there would come time when their names would be harkeo back to as individuals who lived With ont 4he pale and trocha of respectabili l tv. Nobody living at that period ever thought of associating them with the sinister class.
 Washington was as full of lotteries a that period as it Is of bank books now but the lottery proprietors never had I to endure the askant gaze of theil neikhbors There was no disgrace ther in running lottery
 It was, in brief, period when gam hing was rather the fashion than other
 wise. The greatest men in the lant gambled publicly and necessarily hert in Washington without the least sac I rifice of reputation, Thad Stevens, fol example, never let day go by that ht didn't do a little piking at the faro ta-
 hle. Cole Martin acknowledges witt \ sorrow that Stevens was a most hope
 less piker, but Stevens wanted som
 kind of action on the few chips h
 bought every weekday of his life. St
 if was with the scores of prominen
 statesmen who tenanted seats in tn
 Capitol at that day. And they wer
 not all pikers, either.
 cole Martin recalls some of the hug
 nlunges of some of them-Green ot Ms
 souri Humphrey of Kentucky, Edmon
 son of Virginia, for example-that ar
 not often duplicated at faro banks 0
 the present day. Martin has sec
 dozens of the statesmen of that epocl
 bending over the faro tables, keepinI | cases at the same time and the bl
 stories of their winnings occasionall
 eot into the letters of the Washing ol correspondents. The constituents Q inc hieyp players among the statesme were rather pleased than otherWis when they read of the nervy high pia
 of their representatives
 The swell gambling houses of Wash ington in that early day of Cole Marti
 aid the thing up right and Mrs Tod gers knew how" in that day. The carved three regular meals a day fo their patrons for instance, and it
 needless to say that they were TIC and bountiful meals. The faro game | in those before the war times used |
 onen at ten o'clock in the mornin'
 Picture bunch of solid men of tn
 nresent period walking into gamoiin
 shop at ten o'clock in the morning an beginning tos attune their ears to U II elink and chatter of the chips!
 | The breakfast would be served shor Il 1v after nine o'clock, and then the me \ of leisure. the chaps with whom gan
 hling was continuous performance f N yer got busy right after breakfas N They passed their chips back and fort N milf one o'clock, when the swaggt N luncheon would make it's steamlng al N naarance. Immediately after lunf N they would get busy again, with ne II nlayers drifting in all the time. IT N men from the Capitol would begin Il arrive along toward four o'clock. N was no uncommon thing when the N was nothing of importance on hand II either house of Congress, for both bo II ies to adjourn a little before fo' III o'clock to give such as wanted to avg