Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-10-25
OLD GAMBLING DAYS OF NEVADA
Strenuous Times Made Immortal by
Bret Harte and Mark Twain.

ar fare was dealt in Carson City on tn
night of September 80. They looked ol
sardonically, no doubt, as the roulett
wheel spun for the last time. Lonl
after gambling has been forgotten II
Carson City-if such a consummatiol
can be conceived-"Mr. Hamlin" ant
"Mr. Oakhurst" will be rememberet
J by delighted readers of Harte.
| For the first time in more than hal
century, the gambling places Of Ne
vada have been closed by the law. !
recent act of the legislature went int
effect on October l, and the authori
ties talked as though they meant bus
mess.
At the time when the Jeffries
Johnson prize fight found refuge II
that state the newspaper editors ant
preachers throughout the country al
took the occasion to drag out their at
lases and rediscover Nevada; then tt
write editorials and sermons sayini
that its admission to the Union hat
been a mistake. One newspaper ever
went so far as to suggest that, mas
much as Nevada seemed perfectly
willing to take care Of prize fights anC
divorces, it should be set aside as
sort of national "Tenderloin, II
which all the vices which every Other
state prohibited might be freely al
lowed in segregation.
Whether the Nevada legislature fell
some such aspersions coming to th'
state. and decided to reform, or
whether 1t was merely getting In line
with the abolishment of gambling, es
pecially race-track gambling, the
country over, deponent sayeth not
but, whatever the motive, the act l:
revolutionary, as much so as when rea
prize fighting was abolished in New
York. For the Nevada gambler Is
character in literature, and Bre,
Harte was his prophet. And the sur
roundings Of the Nevada gambler, ir
Carson City and the mining camps ol
the Sierras, have been made famous by
Eret Harte and Mark Twain.
Boards were largely in fashion In
those days. The illustrations in Mark
Twain's "Roughing It." show mostly
men with long, shaggy chin append
ages. Safety razors had not been in
vented, and the men of the mining re-
cions we're not so particular of their
appearance. But not so with the gam
bier. He wore a clean-shaven chin
and a black mustache. 1t was part OF
his calling to be neat. Jane, the hir-
ed girl, at John Ryland's ranch, was
willing to go a long errand through
The rain to oblige Jack Hamlin; and
she asked bitterly Of Rylands, after
Mrs. Rylands had sent Hamlin away:
Did she tell you that the poor
stranger was young and pretty raced,
vi h black mustaches? That his store
clothes must have cost fortin, say
Ing nothing of his old-lined, broad
cloth sarrapper?'
And 1t was Oakhurst who put a
very beautifully embroidered ladies'
handkerchief into the collection that
was taken up when the Luck Cf
Roaring Camp" had come into the
world and stood sorely in need of IL
nancial support in lieu Of the pos
session of a mother.
They were audacious and self-pos-
sessed, ready to return winnings TO
person who could not afford to lose,
but unredenting toward the ones who
could. Like most persons or worldly
experience, they had scorn of hypo-
crisy or an undue zeal to observe the
outward forms Of Righteousness.
These gamblers never drank, them
selves, at least not in the semificti-
tious tales of Bret Harte. 1t inter
tered with a profession which requir-
ed coolness, impressiveness, and pres
ence of mind" Yet the gamblers fell
in the classifications Of those who were
run out Of town whenever a spasm or
a NJ nn LII n
of the embroidered handerchief-was
one of the outcasts Of Poker Flat.
Until the virtue spasm, the gambler
would be high in the esteem of the
citizens. When their temper mad
been aroused by horse thefts and 9TH
er lawlessness. they would have a
use-cleaning and ship the gambler
out of town in company with the Wo-
men Of doubtful character and such
drunkards and thieves as had escap-
ed hanging.
1t was in such a company that Mr..
Oakhurst proceeded when he left Po-
ker Flat. Oakhurst eXpounded the
gamblers theory of chance to The
Innocent of Sandy Bar" on that oc-
casion, apropos having "often been a
week without sleep
Doing what?" asked the Innocent
Poker" replied Oakhurst. when
l man gets a streak Of luck-nigger
luck-he don't get tired. The luck
gives in first. Luck is a mighty queer
thing. All you know about 1t for GER
tain is that it's bound to change. And
it's finding out when it's going to
change that makes you"
Oakhurst behaved like a man on
that ill-fated expedition, and died like
one after he found that all his at
tempts to save his companions from
freezing were futile. At the head OF
the gulch on one Of the largest pine
trees, they found the deuce of clubs
pinned to the bark with a bowie
knife 1t bore the following, written
in pencil, in a firm hand:
BENEATH THIS TREE
LIES THE BODY
OF
JOHN OAKHURST,
WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD
LUCK
ON THE 23d OF NOVEMBER. 1850
HANDED IN HIS CHECKS
ON THE Sth OF DECEMBER, 1850.
And pulseless and cold, with Der
ringer by his side and bullet in his
heart. though still calm as in life, be-
meath the snow lay he who was al
once the strongest and yet the weak
est of the outcasts Of Poker Flat.
In IF ughing 1t" Mark Twain gives
a description of Carson City in the OLD
days. and it may be taken as typical
of the country in which the gamblers
of those days worked.
I'm Nevada for time he says,
the lawyer, the editor, the banker.
the chief desperate, the chief gambler
and the saloon keeper occupied the
same level i'm society, and it was the
highest"
Twain tells Of his introduction to
the Nevada capital as follows;
I'VE arrived disembarked and the
stage went on. 1t was wooden
town: it's streets consisted of four or
five blocks of little white frame
stores. which were too high to SIT
down on, but not too high for various
other purposes: in fact, hardly hlgh
enough They We're packed close to-
ge;her. side by side. as II room were
scarce in that mighty plain. The side
walk was of boards that were more or
less loose and inclined to rattle when
walked upon. In the middle of the
town. opposite the stores, was the
plaza which is native to all towns
beyond the Rocky MOuntains-a
large. unfenced, level vacancy, with
Il liberty pole in it, and very useful as
II 1,