Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-10
AMERICAS MONTE CARLO.
Only Place In the Country Where Pub
lie Gambling Is In Full Blast.

Only Place In the Country Where Pub
lie Gambling Is In Full Blast.
have just emerged with blinking
eyes from the one great, wide-oper
gambling establishment in the United
States, place which one is almost
tempted to write down as being under
the direct patronage of the state-a
place where one may buy chances to
urchin buys a penny's worth Of pep
permint sticks at the candy store or q
housewife buys calicoes, ribbons and
hosiery in the department bazar. A
place, too, counted as fashionable, as
that word is sometimes used; place
which excludes neither man nor wo-
man, youth nor age-a place organized
and capitalized and fitted and conduct
ed in each and every detail for the one
sole business and profit of gambling.
The place is Browns" If you like
| it by that name, or the West Baden
club, II that suits better, or just 1.-The
club"-the name has not the slightest
| Importance. It's the thing that counts
the establishment, with it's backing
Of men and millions, which, without
| fear and without doubt, has CONNER
cialized the unlawful in the sovereign
state of Indiana. 1t is an establish
ment which, to my blinking eyes, seems
to bear the relation to the common
wealth that Monte Carlo bears to the
principality of Monaco. 1t Is an ap-
proved part of the state.
Beyond this shall not ask why. Ask
| it yourself.
When I arrived in town the little
city twinkled in cold, drizzly twilight
Up the broad flight Of Club" stairs
passed into the bright parlors and to
an atmosphere of pink-lit fairy lambs
and perfumed frou-frou. I found my
self in the presence of a MWMSeY 81
young women of the stage, others wht
were harder to classify, still other:
who looked like young matrons seeing
life, as they call this thing, and, be.
sides, middle-aged women, with droop.
ing jowls tinted like cheap pastels, ant
men of all sorts, from touts and bar.
keeps on vacation to horsemen ant
gentlemen with pasts, and here ant
there a tourist and a case Of gout ol
rheumatism or kidneys. The game was
at it's height. Two young women ir
the center of a group were betting one
hundred dollar bills at the roulette
wheel, taking the money with perfect
| freedom from the pockets Of a grizzlet
and ruddy old sport in happy dotage.
| A race-track bunch" including ar
outlaw or two, gambled hard at table
near the corner, presided over by a re-
tired dealer from Charley Reeds ir
New York. Tourists were patrons a,
! the other games. At one a handsome
woman in mourning, who, not liking
her run of luck, declared a $1,000 banl
herself, which means that the house
sold her the privilege to conduct the
wheels operations for a given time
for fixed sum. They do this in Monte
| Carlo, too. Being a novice she turned
the wheel awkwardly The crowt
murmured for the regular croupier
and he came suave and smiling. The
ball thereafter fell like clockwork
Luck changed. The crowd buZzed gay
| ly.
| 1t is we'll to keep in mind that this !:
not a story Of Monte Carlo. 1t con-
Germs French Lick, place on the rail.
road map. Frisco, in it's top-boots and
chuck -a-luck days was never less eau
tious. Deadwood, when 1t was red
eyed and irresponsible, played stakes
with no less freedom. Bullnecked Johr
Morrissey, whose gambling house once
| fronted what Is now the shopping dis
trict of Twenty-third street, in New
York, never offered his patrons hall
the tempting bait that is spread ouI
here. Canfield's, in Saratoga, had
Puritanical atmosphere compared with
the license and limit Of the Lick.
Think of it! Fourteen tables run.
ming full time, with bank roll behind
each one; everything on the list
roulette, faro, hazard, Klondike. hyron-
omous, horses-everything.
| French Lick's gambling emporium Is
as free and open as the railroad sta
ton, or the little Catholic church
whose steeple and glided cross lay
warning shadows over the town witt
| the shifts Of the sun from east anC
west. There are no lookouts, no cap.
pers. You cross over from Tom Tag.
CARTS hostelry, following the crowd
walk right in, produce your roll anc
| gamble. Business-they call 1t bust
ness, which it is-begins at l p. m.
First, there is the speculation on the
results at the race tracks-playing the
ponies, as they call it. Returns are re.
ceived from all the important race
tracks in the country, and the crowds
who visit the rooms in the afternoon
devote all their attention to the pool
room charts. Occasionally some OF the
visitors will play the bookmakers
| WHeel-OuC VI lhS
of the gambling at French Lick-but
as a rule the gambling games do not
begin until after o'clock in the even
ing. About that time street cars and
buses arrive from West Baden, the wa
tering resort two miles away, bringing
the guests of the West Baden hotel and
the other hostelries in that vicinity
There used to be gambling rooms al
West Baden, but when the state au-
thorities made a pretense of stopping
the gambling at French Lick two years
ago it was abandoned, and now the
visitors at that resort have to journey
to Browns"
Shortly after 9 o'clock the lobby oil
the French Lick Springs hotel becomes
deserted. In groups Of fours and skies
| the guests don their wraps and cross
| the street to the brick building which
was originally built as a hotel and
which is still used for hotel purposes
when the season is at it's height and