The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-03-23
STAkED HIS LIFE.
A True Poker Story With a Real
Thrill.

John F. Monohan, who died the
other day in dilapidated rookery in
Magdalena, N. NJ, was buried in pot
ters field. To the casual reader there
may be nothing interesting or out of
the ordinary in this bare statement;
and should l even add a limited
biographical sketch telling you where
he was born and when he came West
or what good man he was there are
tens of thousands of persons in Cali
fornia, Oregon and other Western
States where he lived would not even
bat an eye in perusing it. 1t is too
bad that such men as he must die
and their good deeds be buried with
them-in potter's field.
But the announcement of the death
of John F. Monohan is misleading.
For the benefit of the gray haired
pioneers of the golden West tottering
on the verge of the grave and yet
living fondly in the memory of other
days-the days when the Indian and
the cowboy, the miner and the gam
bier, the stage driver and the des-
perado held stern dominion over the
scattered settlements and lonely
highways of the plain and capon-I
feel that 1 should be more explicit:
so 1 will say instead: "Three-Finger-
ed Jack Monohan of Florence Dig
gins has cashed in his last chips"
The pioneers understand me. fan
cy now that in the eyes of some Of
chem there will glisten few tears
perhaps many of them-for his
memory.
''Three-Fingered jack" What
eventful epochs the mention of that
name recalls to the sturdy trail
blazers and prospectors of early
days.
Obscure, alone, forgotten, money
less, Jack Monohan breathed his last
a month ago among strangers and in
a strange land-in the one State in
the West wherein his name is not
entwined with the earliest history and
traditions of it's settlement. And he
was the last of the old school of his
profession.
| Jack Monohan was a gambler. I
feel that I owe it to the world to pay
him this trifling tribute, for the world
ought to know something about that
now extinct "species" of sport-that
pioneer school of far Western gam
blers whose habits, morals and char
acters were so strangely different
from the gamblers of the East and of
other lands. Three-Fingered Jack
was the last of them.
When I say that Jack Monohan
was a gambler l do not mean to i'm
ply that he was at all related to the
type so commonly condemned, for
Jack Monohan was a gentleman. He
could never be classed with the pres
ent day school of sharks, grafters
| and "tin horns" He denounced them
as vigorously in his day as any man.
| He was a card sharp perhaps, but not
| a card shark. There is a great diff
ference.
Jack Monohan also was miner,
prospector, a cowboy, a stage driver,
an Indian fighter, a scout, a trail
blazer. When his luck turned against
him in faro bank he worked in log
ging camps or in, quartz or placer
mines or on the cattle range. Men
ton his name to any of the old timers
in Siskiyou, Shasta, Trinity or Te-
hama counties in northern California
and they will tell you that Jack Mon
ohan was one of "the bravest and
most generous gentlemen that ever
crossed the Rockies" They will tell
you also that he had true religion;
that he abided by his faith in God
and in humanity; that he never rob-
bed a man or woman in all the
world out of a ten-cent piece if he
knew it, and with all that he was one
of the most dangerous men in the
West if he happened to be right and
the other fellow was wrong and Jack
knew he was-and the other fellow
defied him!
'Three-F Fingered Jack" came to
California in 1S47. He was consid-
cred the best card player in the
West. He dealt faro games in prac-
tical,y every notorious gambling
house in California, Oregon, Wash
ington and Idaho. Faro was his fa-
vorite game. He preferred to let the
other fellow do the gambling, to
make the bets, and that is why he
| devoted most of his time, when fol-
lowing his profession, to the game OF
| foro And he never cheatad He