The San Francisco call., 1910-07-03
RENO'S LID
Lost, STOLEN
OR STRAYED
Sky Is Only Thing That Holds
Down Gamblers in Neyada's
Gay Town
Plain Man Is Out of Place
Among Novelists, Muck
Rakers and Pugilists
By EDWARD F. CAHILL
Continued From Page As, Column 4

out bunch of pencils in demonstra
ton of the fact that they are business
men. The whirr of the roulette whee
and the call of the dealer are heard or
every corner and between the corners
The generous etiquette of the gam
bling table i'll quieter times is aban
doned. 1t used to be in Reno tha
when passing train stopped for five
minutes at the station adventurous
spirits on their way would rush acros:
the street to hit the roulette wheel
Always in those days the regular:
would make way for the passing strain
ger There is nothing gambler likes sc
well as new money" in the game, and
so the traveller was given full swing
for his brief whiri. 1t is different now
The players are stacked up in fever
1sh crowd about the table, waiting for
! their turn to go against faro, craps
roulette and other ingenious pastimes
the grass, beca use of a rooted objection
to play another mans game.
HOOKS AND WALLOPS
Do not run away with the idea that
this is gay crowd. Indeed, they are
serious minded folk whose conversa-
tion is of hooks and wallops. They
speak a different language, and, like
the beggar man on the corner, prefer
to be classed as businessmen.
An idea somehow had got abroad that
the lid was on in Reno, that gambling
was to stop and the cake and ale put
on the top shelf Well, the report is
true. there is a lid in Reno. It is
the sky, which in Nevada seems to get
farther and farther away as you climb
its blasted hills. To be sure. there was
some promise of an early lid for Reno,
but for the present at least it is rele-
gated to the category of good resolu-
tons, chiefly useful for pavement
1t was my fortune to visit Ska gway
in the height of the Klondike boom,
and 1t struck me that when hell was
frozen over it would be like Skagway.
Well, Reno in fight week is good deal
Hosea Bigelow insisted that the ten
commandments would not bulge he
showed an imperfect acquaintance with
conditions in contemporary Reno. The
golden rule here is, do the other fellow
before he does you"
SINS SADDLED ON RENO
Let me not be misunderstood. 1 am
not speaking of the real Reno, the
fundamental Reno. which is nice,
friendly town where quiet people live
on elm shaded avenues and the motor
man on the streetcar knows every pas
senger that boards his machine and
greets him with a CHEEKY "Howdy" or
Morning, John" 1t is imported Reno
that appears to be saddled with the
sins of all North America for the mo-
ment.
met a contractor today He was in
despair He could not get tack driven
or a hod of mortar carried until after
the fourth. 1t is long time now since
the Shasta route was opened, and the
recollection comes back to me of a
fourth of July morning in Sisson 1t
was a new lumber town at that time
and scarcely one house in town had
been painted That year the fourth of
July fell on Monday and Sisson started
in celebrating on Saturday Keeping 1t
up all Sunday. AS I passed through on
the train early Monday I found the
town unanimously drunk at Z o'clock
in the morning. Present Reno condi-
tions appear to forecast a like result.
ALL ARE EXPERTS
Sitting in Reno newspaper Office
this afternoon 1 listened TO the tele-
phone operator. "The sporting editor?"
she asked the man at the other end or
the wire. you want the sporting ed
itor?" Then putting her hand over the
mouthpiece she called the office boy:
Here. boy, you'll do
Most any Office boy IN Reno knows
enough to be a sporting editor and is
wise in the cult of the caulif1ower ear.
WRITER'S FROM EVERY CLINE
A census of the newspapermen here
would make an interesting exhibit.
was introduced today to the special
correspondent of the Paris Figaro The
London Daily Mail has a special COR
respondent here in the person of Hamil-
ton Fyfe, who sends long dispatch
every day. The London Times is spe-
cially represented and a man is here
from Australia to send the news and
the gossip for the Sydney Referee.
Besides these of course, every news
paper in America has one or more rep
resentatives, and there are, in addition,
the regular staffs of the news agencies.
Of course, the place is turned topsy
turvy by it's floating population, and
the real Reno is obscured by the in
vaders, who Ere painting the town in
carmine Reno does not know itself
and is standing on her head in amazed
perplexity. scarcely knowing what to
make of town where the potatoes are
good and cnly man is vile.
There is to he a fight on Monday, a S
you know. 1 confess / don't
know much about it but one learns
from eso1cric sources that there is a
of trouble about The selection
of referee.
SUGGESTION AS TO REFEREE
If suggestion from a rank outsider
in the relation might be tolerated. it
would be that the embattled pugflists
take Judge Pike, the most accom-
plished referee on this continent. Judge
Pike holds the American record for.l
Indifferent justice between
man and woman from the Reno bench. |
He knows better than any man living |
when to tell the domestic combattants |
to break away.
What more can the referee of any !
prize fight do?
Let this be my contribution to the |
fight stuff. For the rest. 1 am more |
Interested in the fortunes of town in |
the hands of the Philistines.