Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-03
THE DAYS OF BIG GAMBLING.
When $4,000 In Gold Dust Was an
Ordinary Bet on a Card.

4
lost on the turn of a single card right
here in an Francisco" and old Dennis
blinked his eyes and nodded his head,
as if to say, Let that sink in under
your scalp"
| Dennis-George w. Dennis to give
him his name-is the aged negro jani-
tor known to everybody that passes
often through the ferry depot. He was
slave when he saw the fool and his
money so expeditiously parted a chat
tel, a piece of property, part of the
paraphernalia brought to San Fran
cisco in 1S49 by quartet Of gamblers.
Both Dennis and his mother had been
used as stakes on the gambling table
and more than once they had changed
owners on the turn of card, and per-
haps it was the knowledge that he
would probably go the same way again
If somebody came along and broke his
owners bank-a faro bank-that
prompted him to watch with unusual
interest the favorite and practically
the only form of entertainment in the
| San Francisco Of that day.
| Dennis had a story of his own.
He was brought out here a slave. His
owners gave him a chance to buy his
freedom. He bought himself, and with
his first earnings as a free man bought
the freedom of his mother. In the end,
the gamblers died or went broke, and
1t was left for the former slave to
give one of them a fresh start in life,
or, in the language of the days Of gold,
to stake him. That. however, Is an
other story and can wait a while.
| If you want to get a vivid picture Of
those careless days find Dennis in a
talkative humor, let him light his pipe
and he'll spin you yarns that will make
you see how San Francisco apeared
The particular gambling hall in
which Dennis gathered the material
for his story was known as the El Do
RADIO hotel or gambling hall. 1t stood
at the. corner of Washington and
| Kearney streets, the present site of
the Hall of Justice. Its first home was
a tent 30 feet wide by 60 feet deep.
The proprietors of this center Of
amusement were Andy McCabe, Jim
and Joe Johnson and Dennis Green.
They owned the tent and they owned
| Dennis. Andy McCabe was a silent
partner. AS Dennis says: He did not
approve Of gambling. He left that to
his partners"
The Ell Dorado was opened Septem-
ber IS, 1849, the day Dennis and his
masters landed from the steamer CAL
ifornia, in which they had Travelled
from Panama. 1t never closed, day or
night, until, again to quote Dennis,
Mister Coleman and the other gentle
men formed the vigilance committee"
The tent was filled with tables, at
which the visitor could get any kind
Of a game he sought. AS a matter Of
fact, however, most of the really seri-
GUS gambling was done at the faro ta-
| bles. If a man wanted diversion. says
Dennis he might sit down and play
poker for 30 or 40 hours, but when he
really wanted to gamble he chose the
| faro layout and he never dallied there
very long.
The gamblers Of those days did not
believe in making two bites of cher
ry.
1--WE seen men come into the tent"
said Dennis, covered with the dirt and
dust they had gathered on their way
| in from the mines. They had intended
to have a shave and a bath and q
good dinner. They had been looking
forward to enjoyin' the feelin' that
comes with clean clothes and shave;
they'd been goin' over in theirIminds,
as they swallowed dust on the road,
the things they would order for dinner
IT, Rpn 70 tn
have a haircut and a shave. But they
forgot everything when they heard the
music we KEEP a-goin' day an night.
In they'd come. Out they'd pull a sack
of gold dust, and, like as not, slam the
whole pile down on one card.
Sometimes they'd win. Usually they
stayed until 1t was all gone. I've
seen many of 'em lose 1t all on the
first card and that same day, without
haircut or shave, start back for the
mines to dig some more. I've seen
'em come back a dozen times"
Dennis remembers one Of these re-
peaters whose first loss was $4,000.
He went back to the mines, got some
more, brought it into the Ell Dorado,
lost 1t, back to the mines, back to the
Ell Dorado and once more back to the
mines. The last time he showed up he
was shaven and shorn and gorgeously
appareled in raiment fresh from the
store. On his head was a shiny silk
hat and from every pocket, like the
pickets of fence, were protruding ci-
gars.
II bin a fool" he explained. But
never again. Six times I've come down
here to get fitted out and cleaned up,
but each time I've been cleaned out
first. I'm going to be thrifty from now
on, and I'm always going to fit out fore
come here"
With this explanation he pulled out
buckskin sack containing dust worth
about $4,000, placed 1t on a card and
lost.
"S'long," he said, as he started back
to the mines that afternoon, "ye see, If
/ hadn't been thrifty 1 wouldn't had
this haircut and these clothes"
The music with which the FL Dorado
soothed it's patrons was contributed by
women musicians.
''They were French and Mexican
ladies'" says Dennis, land they did
some smart gamblin,' too. One of 'em,
a French lady, used to save up her
money till she had $4,000 an then she'd
play it all on one card. She was goin'
to quit Californy when she had $4,000.
She could have saved that in a year
If she'd left the gamblin' alone. But
l seen her she was dead broke"
The gamblers that owned Dennis
made so much money that, out Of the
fullness Of their prosperity, they de-
cided to give him a chance to buy his
freedom. 1t would have been more like
present day ideas of '49 liberality If
they had made him a present Of him
self. But then, as now, property was
property and Dennis, in the days of
gold, was just as much a chattel as the
furniture in the gambling hall. Den
his bears no i'll will, on the contrary he
remembers them with gratitude.
"They were shareholders and gam
blers,' he says, but l must admit that
better hearted or more liberal minded
men never lived"
And they certainly did give the black
boy every chance to get together the
sum necessary to secure his release
from bondage. They put him on sal
ary of $3.50 a month, allowed him to
rent faro table and gave him the
privilege of selling coffee, pies. apples
and boiled eggs to the patrons. They
also gave him all the Chicken feed
that came in over the gambling tables.
Ta,, ,,,,tc