The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-18


= L PAso, Tex.-Juarez on Sun
GO) day morning. To what might II
be compared? Te Royal street
in New Orleans while gambling and keno
held full sway? Well, no; not exactly
for the players are of different nationals
ties, types, sexes and ages. The staid ma
tron with her liege lord and master be-
side her sits at the keno tables with rows
of cards in front of them. Pretty young
wivesl with their husbands laugh and
chat. Young girls sit smiling, yet inn
mersed deeply in the game, placing the
little pasteboard discs on such numbers
as may be called.
Then there can be seen courtesans sit
ting elbow to elbow with the yirtuous and
decent of her sex, keno being the leveler
which knocks down the barriers. Men in
overalls hob-nob with tho gentlemen in
broadeloth. Such is the scene that can be
witnessed nightly from the twilight to
midnight, and on Sundays. Sunday is the
gamblers harvest day, for all day long
his salon is crowded and his employees
swelter In the heat of the room while at
~
them.
There are two keno rooms in Juarez,
ono operated by an American and the
other by a Mexican. Both are well pat
ronized, but the American keno hall Is
nearly always crowded. The numbers are
called out In both English and Spanish
and the managers endeavor to maintain
the best of order Signs warning patrons
that no pickering or quarreling will be
allowed and no intoxicated persons per-
mitted In the room are consnicueusly dis
played and enforced, for keno is a profit
able game to the owner of the resort and
in oredr to enjoy the privilege granted
him to operate he Is expected to preserve
good order. Lemonade and cigars can be
purchased from walters, but no intoxi-
cants are dispensed in the keno room,
although 1t is but few steps anywhere
in the business section of Juarez to a
saloon.
To give an idea of the patronage en-
joyed by these keno rooms, one of the pro-
prietors stated that an average of $500
is paid out nightly in pots" that is to
the winners, and on Sunday the average
is $3.50.
Cock fighting is another sport well
patronized in Juarez. The game cocks are
highly trained, and when ready and armed
for the fray, each bird is equipped with
steel spurs three or four inches long, and
sharpened to such a point that hair
dropped on the edge of cone of these
spurs is severed. If the edge is not of
sufficient keenness to accomplish this,
the spur is cast aside and another and
sharper one brought forth and tested until
one which answers all the expectations of
the owner of the bird Is found The
spurs are bound firmly to the leg of the
rooster with fine but strong linen or silk
thread, and the champion Is ready to meet
his adversary. A cock fight does not
take long. A rush, leap with out
stretched wings, a stroke. and usually it
is all over, and another fight Is prepared
for
Then the market. This is without ques-
ton a place well worth a visit by the
curious. The butchers and hucksters are
all Mexicans. and Spanish is the language
spoken. very few of the dealers being able
to talk English. and some of them don't
understand 1T. Purchasers point to the
article wanted, and the Mexican states the
price. The articles exposed for sale, and
the prices demanded. would make an
American housewife almose expire with
surprise.
For every kind of vegetable offered in