The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-03-26
LUCKY BALDWIN
WAS VERY QUEER
FLUNG MONEY AWAY AT TINES;
TIGHTWAD AT OTHER PERL
ODS-WAS THE KING OF HIGH
ROLLERS.

Inc tate LUCKY bdluWlH ud-
ture was a peculiar mixture of par
simony and open handedness. But
thes two traits did not crop out of
him Simultaneously. He was what
might be called streaky individual.
For months at a stretch he would
EXHIBIT lavishness of personal ex-
pendhture that dazzled even the top
notchers among the high rollers and
big spenders of the coast. He would
respond to every touch without a
murmur
Amy kind of hard-luck story genu
inely grounded or framed up would
cause Lucky's dig-up hand to seek
his roll. Sometimes he would dou
BILE the amount named by the touch
er. On several occasions he quad
rupled it.
When the prodigal fits were upon
him he would gamble like a Charles
James Fox, often winding up after
continued days ana nights of play by
walloping San Francisco's leading
faro banks to a standstill Although
never a heavy drinker, he would
while thus in the spending mood,
stand at the far end of the famous
Baldwin hotel bar and order basket
after basket of champagne to be
served to casual patrons, men he had
never seen before
From such money-tossing orgies
Baldwin would all of a sudden and
without notice or warning become
tighwad of the first order, a close
I'd from whom a dollar couldn't
bB eXtracted by any other method
except the use of dynamite. 1t wasn't
that his bundle was giving out. 1t
was simply that it was Lucky's ma
ture to .curl up completely after a
high spending fiesta and suddenly
turn into a man with the mucilagin
GUS mitt and the soldered fist.
Wins $500, 900 at Bank.
Exaggerated stories often are writ
ten of the b igmoney wagers of fam
GUS gamblers, but nobody ever had
much of chance to overstate the
size of Lucky Baldwin's plunges
when the old man had his plunging
clothes on.
Nearly 80 years ago he won a
100000 parcel of eKarney street
real estate in San Francisco on the
turn of card. 1t was the building
in which Fred McGregor "a noted
Slope gambler in his day, then was
running the leading sky-limit faro
hank of San Francisco
Baldwin had got virtually all of
the chips in McGregor's rack one
night. and McGregor went nervous,
or reckless, or something, Perhaps
the persistency with which Lucky
had been playing the ace to win for
va or six hours and beating it nearly
all the time had something to do
with McGregor's state of mind. Bald
win was between 100000 and s7O.-
600 winner and about ready to cash,
when McGregor said to him:
Lucky, you're a kiftynitch bank
wan fer all right, but it isn't figures
that YOU can do it all the time. That
winning ace thing of yours has got
me- on the raw, and I'm admitting it.
I'll stand a tap that the ace doesn't
win again
whats the tap?" inquired Lucky
carelessly.
.My building here" replied Nc
Cregor. "Set a figure on it and I'll
deal a fresh box for you myself. If
the ace wins first out it's your build
ing If the ace loses I'm in the price
that you appraise my building at"
RECKON this building an dground
ought to be worth couple hundred
thousand?" said Baldwin.
LET it go at that" said McGregor.
you're on" said Baldwin. Rat
tie 'em"
McGregor took the dealers chair,
shuffed the box pack and began to
ease ths cards out. Baldwin leaned
hack in his chair with his hands in
his trousers pockets, the frazzled butt
of a cigar in a corner of his mouth.
re ace showed until more than half
= Feck had been slipped out. Then
ace of diamonds came out on the
winning side.
buildings yours" said McGregor, /