The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-13
(New York Press.)


friends in one corner of Jacks res
taurant little before dawn, watching
with mild amusement as three walters
were hustling five belligerent custom
ers outdoorS-"thirty years ago little
old New York was a blame sight diff
ferent from what IT is now, as is only
natural. And yet, when you figure il
down, IL was the same sort OF a place.
We didn't have just what we do now.
but we had what stood for them. We
didn't have the leg shows at the Casino
and the New Amsterdam, but we had
Oenman Thompson and his Female
Bathers over on Greenwich avenue.
and Robinson Hall just out of Union
Square. and we'd only just got over
the pretty waiter girl'' saloon, where
the performers wore Casino costumes,
the difference being that they sat with
the audience instead of dancing on the
stage.
We didn't have lobster a la New
burg in plate glass palaces in those
days, but we had green turtle at Suth-
Nerlanc's and read saddle rocks at Dor
lon's-the original Dorlons, l mean.
We didn't have nk-buggies to go
round town in, but we had red stage
sleighs running up and down Broadway
two or three months every winter
They weren't as fast. but they didn't
III,
was good deal more than thirty
years ago, but you get what / mNan
There were no such places an gan
held's then, but don't you believe tsere
was no chance for sporty man to risk
his money. The legislature had not
then discovered that an act which is
permissible in one place is a crime I'm
another. so you could buy Paris mu-
tuals on the races as openly as you
hITxr hot
chance there were numerous well-ap-
pointed parlors. not quite so public as
the poolrooms, but readily accessible
The three that come to mind most
prominently were No. IS Broadway
over Jackson's mourning store;' Nor
ton & Murray's, in Eighth street, and
Petrfe's, next door to the old Star, in
Lispenard street. Norton? Yes. big
Mike Norton of Norton's Point, Coney
Island, and state senator at Albany.
He kept gambling house and made
his money there. Why not? Didn't
John Morrissey, bigger gambler than
Mike, go to congress from New York
City?
They played all sorts of games at
all these places, but keno was the leadk
ing favorite at the Eighth street place.
faro at No. Is and short-card games at
Petrie's. 1 don't think poker was
plOJCu dS uluCn III Tic east as IL was
in the west at that time, but there was
always poker game to be had at
Petrie's If you wanted 1t. He played
stiff game himself when he sat in,
but his favorfte game was cribbage.
They tell a good story about the
way he did UP Ben Wood at cribbage
one night Wood was one of the best
card players that ever lived. 1t was
said that nobody could beat him at
casino, for the reason that he knew
every card that was out in the last
Enthusiastically kept cases on the whole
fifty-two. as they were played. He
was fond Of cribbage, too, and was a
fair match for Petrie. though Petrie
won large sum from him the night
/ spoke of by a trick so simple that it
seems absurd. Perhaps it was the sim
plicity of ii that enabled him TO work
it without detection. All he did was
to sneak a couple of deuces and a cou-
pie of treys out of the deck and get
them out of the way.
ANY cribbage player will realize in
a moment the advantage that gave him
over an antagonist who did not sus-
pect that the deck was foul. Wood dis
carded without knowing and, of course,
at a great disadvantage. Anyhow,
Petrie beat him. and. like a fool, told
long afterward how he had done II.
There are times. as 1 said, when
there would be stiff game of poker at
Petrie's, and some pretty well known
people would sit in. You remember
Steven French, at one time police
commissioner. don't you? And you re-
member, perhaps. what Harry Hill, the
old-time sport, said about him on the
witness stand when he was having his
big fight with the police force. Harry
got tired sending the profits of his
business around to Mulberry street,
and when he quit doing that they put
him out of business altogether.
'Wen. when he was testifying they
asked him something about French,
and Harry said: He's the best short
card player 1 ever knew
French was in the game. and so
was Shed Shook, who ranked very high
as a poker player also, though he usu-
ally played at the Morton House, where
his headquarters was. Then there was
Ben Wood. who played poker. as he
played almost any known game, though
1t was not his favorite. Petrie him
self took a hand. and there was a man
who was new to New York. though he
was as well known as any sport in the
city before the winter was over
He called himself Brady, If / re-
member right, and said he came from
Cincinnati, but whether he did, or II
that was his name, don't think any
body knew. What they did know was
that he qualified as a billiard sharp
at the expense of several suckers in
Chris O'Connor's billiard room the day
he made his appearance here, and aft
er that went up against every game he
could find that had any money in II.
And whether II was luck or skill or
both together that accounted for IT,
he was a large winner every time he
played, till he left New York after a
couple of months with a wad that
made the New York gamblers gnash
their teeth to think about.
st can't pretend to give the particu-
lars of that game of poker for I warn't
there, but Petrie told me about II aft
erward, and l reckon the story Is true.
If it is, the game certainly must have
been an interesting one.
They began with a dollar ante, and,
as the custom was in those days, there
was no talk of limit. A man could stay
for his whole pile If he declared HIM
self all In, but excepting for that he
was always liable to be raised out un-
less he was prepared to back his hand
to any extent. And II he lost his pile
- voc o11t of the game He cOuldD't