The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-15
OLD DAYS IN WASHINGTON.
WHEN CONGRESSMAN PATRON
 HEED BIG FARO GAMES.

Time When the Lid Was or in the Na- tiOnal Capital Public Gambling l Houses, in Some of Which Members
 of Congress Were Interested-some
 Big PIungers.
 Every year the lid is being more firm iy soldered on the city of Washington. The nations capital has gradually be- come one of the most rigidly regu- lated cities in the country. The town is closed as tight as drum at mid night, says the Washington Star.
 The man who remembers more about the time when it wasn't than any other now alive is Josn c. Martin-Cole Martin. Martin remembers the lidless Washington and all it's garish glory be- cause for great many years, dating back to 1857, he was one of the main chancetakers in the Washington game. He was most of the time behind the box. It is true, and there are some modern gamblers who maintain that the man who deals his, own game can't be beat But in the zenith of the day that Cole Martin remembers the men who ran the game really did take chances, for the sky only was then the limit of most of the Washington faro games and the big players had their chance to get it all back at one turn,
 Cole Martin is one of the oldest pro- fessional men of hazard living He's IS now but he's pretty chirky yet and probably strolls over more miles of Washington streets in the course of a fair day than most Washington men of business. He is willing to talk about the Washington that used to be. The pot was bubblihg and the steam was mounting high when he got to Wash ington, more than three years before the opening of the civil war.
 You could gamble in Washington then just as easily as you could buy a pound of pork chops Even then there was a. law on the books against gamb- Hing within the precincts and confines of 1 the District of Columbia but the beauty of that law, from the gambling house proprietors' point of view, was that the penalty was so severe that few jurles could be found to convict and when one of the juries did convict, the President of the United States could generally be relied upon to pardon the sentenced man.
 For example, the first man ever con victed in the District of Columbia under the old time anti i-gambling law was g man named Marcus, who ran a fare bank. and who wasn't Gin good wltf the authorities. Marcus was tried fol his offence and sentenced to two years in prison. No less an individual thar Arabam Lincoln pardoned Marcus, or the stated ground that the punishmen was as he deemed, far too severe fol the offence. When Lincoln pardonei Marcus the gambling house people easily perceived that they were going to have a cinch of it for long time t( come.
 I The penalty as spread on the book' was of such severe character, talk ing into consideration the spirit witt which gambling was regarded by virtu
 ally all hands at that era, that the, knew juries couldn't be mustered tha
 would convict men accused of running gambling establishments. And tn | gambling house proprtetors had it dea'
 right. There wasn't another man sen
 fenced for running a gambling house il
 the Distrlct of Columbia until lS6s
 This man. too was given prison sen tence. but he. like the man before hin was promptly pardoned this one b.
 President Grant.