Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-04-06
Where Dame Fortune
Held Nightly Revel
nizDah Saloon, Scene of Many a Tourney
atCdrdS, Passes Into HiStOry--WdS First
Building Constructed in TOnOpdh--GiveS
WdV for Handsome Modern Structure.

There passed Out VI eAiSIchOe d AS"
.rs ago n of the landmarks of
Tonopah, in fact the Oldest one. The
I'D Mizpah saloon, the first build
~ m have been finished in the
.omp. has passed into history. The
main part of the building was hauled
ort Of its resting place and taken
N TO its new location in the south
erp part OF the city.
If only those walls could have
,olked as they were trundled along,
what stories they could have told,
etories of Joy, of pleasure, stories of
s.dnes and tales of romance. Many
fortune was made and lost in a
night. for the Mizpah a onc the
Monte Carlo of Nevada. Any kind
If a game was to be had there,
from pinochle to poker, from craps
u bank" from stud-horse to rou-
lete.
The Mizpah was a paradise for
the early leasers who made their
money hand over fist, and sometimes
II was hell. Day and night the rou-
lette ball was spinning, and it was
hard to get through the crowds to
get a glimpse of the table, let alone
cot a play at the wheel, AS soon
AZ the graveyard shift was over down
from the hill tripped the miners
eager to WOO dame fortune at the
wheel or the bank. There were big
runs Of luck at faro, and a fortune
vent glimmering, or was won in the
turn Of a card. Many a time has
the roulette ball dropped a small
fortune into the pocket of a lucky
gambler, and many a time has It
dropped his all,
II was a cosmopolitan crowd that
thronged the rooms OF the Mizpah
in those good old days when every
body had plenty. and expected
to see hard times again knocking at
the door. Women f%requented the
games as well as the men, and the
gayly decked out c%ourtesan stood
side by side with the miner, and
was fanked IN the other side by the
city gent. who had come from the
far East to buy a mine.
Champagne "a mor plentiful
than water in those days, for water
had to hauled a long way, and night
after night the floor was slippery and
sloppy with wine. There were gay
crowds, there was merry singing
crowds and there were merry, mad
fighting crowds. But the gun play
was lnfreQuent. for with all the hard
characters that found their way to
the Western and woolly frontier
town, there were enough good men
to keep them in check.
Tonopah in her swaddling clothes
acquired a reputation for good char
acter that has chung to her ever
since, The bad" man was spotted
as soon as he got bad. and a sug-
gestlon from a committee of citizens
to move along" found one bad man
the less in the camp next morning.
The leasers were making great
money in those days. They gouged
old Mount oddie until she groaned
under the force of hammer and drill
ana pick and the ripping OF the
blast, and was forced to yield her
treasures to these energetic men who
were not to be denied.
Men who had never known what
II meant to have a thousand dollars
az one time, yes, a hundred in a
pie suddenly became so rich that
lney couldn't count their money, and
u was sport for them to gamble II
away at the wheel. fritter 1t away at
craps or trust 1t to the turn of a
card. There was no other diversion
y me camp, but the allurlng glare
q the gambling saloon.
There was music, there we're won.
w. the click of the dice, the whirl
" the roulette ball, the songs Of
'ne upsy, the shouts of the winners
ee curses of the losers. There was
.ne red and b%lue-shirted miners, tht
Se''er dressed foremen and superin
''nuents, and the man from the cit!
WIN his store clothes. 1t was {
picture full of life and color ant
'afmth, and small wonder that th'
SAMPLERS crowded In there out of tn,
,O'u OF the night, and hung on til
vus after the suns rays had slanteC
N'ss Mount oddie and tinted tn,
"ousher and Butler mountains.
biggest winning made in on,
~en' on the wheel was $22,0 900
s'er mind who made 1t. He was
~ IN those days, but in the civil
e'uon which has come to Tonopal
WY Just as well that such thing
Oe forgotten. From tho Gran tabl
$4,000. Nv"