The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-07
NEW STORIES TOLD
 OF GATES AT PLAY Barbed Wire Magnate Is Certainly an All-Around
 Sport.
ALWAYS GOES LIMIT.
Made Texas Cowboys Admit His Fence Was Bull-
 Proof.

Outside of Wall street and other financial centers John w. Gates is best known as a millionaire gambler" who could enjoy his cigar while fortunes slipped away from him. There is not race track gambling resort of any prominence in the country where he is not known and few that he has not visited.
 Faro, roulette, poker, 'the ponies"- all held charm for his speculative" nature, his only complaint when play ing being that he could not get "the house to take off the limit"
 When the plunger was asked his views on the possibility of suppressing gambling, his answer was characteris- tic. He said Suppress gambling? You may as well try to do away with the wind. Men have always gambled, and always will. If I had my way I'd license gambling as saloons are licens- ed. I'd rather do this because l think it's right. Marshal Field once told me AilcLL llt diMCgh lEiEu NQ BG IA5Hl o1 PSA cent of the time. There's lot in that. The fellow who makes up his mind to be right all the time will be busted, in the long run, by the man who insists oh being right 51 per cent. of the time"
 MT. Gates was true to his beliefs in bringing up his boy" Charles G. Gates, and made no effort to hide the fact that they often played together.
 I've got boy, he said, and l play golf with him, and tennis, and ping pong, and when he wants to play poker I play poker with him and get stung good and hard every now and then. If he wants to 80 somewhere and try his luck at some other game of chance I go with him, if he wants me to.
 T want my boy to feel that his dad l dy is not only his best friend but his chum. I believe that's the right way to bring up boy"
 Several years ago, when gambling was at it's height at Saratoga, Gates indulged in a fve-hour seance at a faro table and quit $S5,0OO behind the game.
 During the entire play he begged the dealer 10 give him $2,0OO limit in- stead of the S250 fixed by the house rules His pleadings were in vain, but when he left the table he expressed re- gret that he had not been allowed to lose more.
 During the session he was the most unconcerned man in all the crowd that gathered around the plunger's table to watch the play.
 When John Drakes horse Wyeth ''also ran" at the old Washington Park track in 1902 MT. Gates was said to lhave lost a fortune, but in the next race recouped by plunging on Henry of Trastamar Wyeth went to the post 4 4-2 to l, and got away with fly i ing colors, but finished in the bunch behind the third best horse.
 MT. Gates, contrary to his usual cus- tom, never would tell how much he lost on Wyeth, and the only answer to inquirers was that he finished ahead on the day
 American Tobacco company Is con- cern in which Mir. Gates held-and possibly still holds-a large block of stock.
 When Miss Lucy Page Gaston began a crusade against cigarette she ap- pealed to him for support.
 "The whole scheme is fraud" said MT. Gates when the matter was pre- sented to him. You may as we'll quit now. What can you do against the men who are making millions in the tobacco business? The dividends oi the American Tobacco company are in. creasing from to 10 per cent. an, nually What Is the use of fighting to- bacco, anyway? Cigarettes are tht most harmless things in the world Look at me. I began smoking when was seven years old. What is thC matter with me?'
 His propensity for betting gave MT Gates a big boost among the cattle men of Texas when he went to Sar Antonio to sell barbed wire for fenc ing.
 When he told some stockmen he wal selling a fence that would turn tn, widest long-horn steer in Texas hi was laughed at This fired hIs Sport ing blood and he wagered every cen of money he had with him that h would build a fence that would hold al the wild animals that might be put il
 the inelosure. And he got good odds He built the fence and twenty COW boys tried to drive bunch of steer
 through it. MT. Gates won his bet and took orders the same day fo
 more barbed wire than the plant h
 was interested in could turn out in si. months.
 MT. Gates fondness for "quie game" is well known in Birmingham
 Ala, where he has large iron interest
 When he visited the southern city t inspect some of the properties unde
 development a few business men go , together and arranged faro layout
 to entertain the visitor.
 But the faro game was one featur
 which was omitted from the pro gramme. The men behind the schep
 sounded MT. Gates Automatically, ah learned that bets of $5O0OO were abou his "size.'
 As the roll they accumulated wa only $S5,OOO flat, they dropped the sub lject
 Mir. Gates has peculiar" ideas abou
 bankers who borrow from institution } with which they are connected. | Soon after the crash of bank sai l to have ben due to It's presidents acti } he said:
 This habit of some bank president ) of receiving other folks money throug . the teller's window and lending to con