Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-07-17


the past week has been too much for
Jimmy Wakely, wac is % years old
and no longer is the two listed MAJ
he was in the days when Jimmy was
OF John l.. Sullivan and
could clean out single handed the
brawlers in his famous barroom at
the northeast corner Of Sixth avenue
and Forty.second street. In those
DAYS of a generation ago Jimmy
Wakely was as well known from
ocean to ocean to followers OF rae.
ing. pugllism and indoor gambling as
any man in the country, and at times
he was worth perhaps a quarter OF a
million dollars one day and a shade
over or a shade under the next, as
gambling luck went.
Jimmy is broke now and very i'll.
II is said that if all the gambling
markers owed to him around the
country were paid up now he would
be worth about s200,000 again. Mike
Minden was Jimmy's first bartender,
and Mike. so Williamsburg, where
Mike is now a power. will tell you to.
day is said to be worth half a million.
Franz Farrell succeeded Mike behind
slmmy-s bar and Farrell,s fortune
also is estimated in the hundreds OF
thousands.
Eddie Robinson followed Frank Far
rell as barkeeper for Jimmy. Eddie
Robinson very recently closed his own
saloon at the corner of Forty-fifth
street and Sixth avenue, sold the pro-
perry and now is living happily ever
after as a retired gentleman. The
proprietor of n OF the best known
and largest hotels in town to-day, it
was recalled tae other night by one
who knew, not SO long ago tried hard
while bartender at tine Hoffman
House to get a job for Jimmy and was
peeyish fer weeks when some else got
the coveted place.
Ear.y in the week. or just a day
or two before Jimmy dropped on the
sidewalk while coming out of a Forty
second street Turkish bath last We'd
nesday, Jimmy wandered into Jacks
restaurant late at night. The lean,
gray haired Wakely in the Happy
clothes and low shoes which of late
have been so suggestive of that slip
pered p%antaloon" line, caught the eye
of a clean cut, younger professional
gambler well known to the T~ender.oin
and the younger man called Jimmy to
his table. A heated discussion of
some sort followed, and Jimmy finally
left the table with the younger gamb-
Ter in pursuit.
"Oh, remember" the younger man
said yesterday when tne incident was
called to his mind. "The whole
trouble was over a fifty dollar bill.
| felt sorry for the old man and want
err him to let mt stake him to the
fifty. But everybody knows Jimmy's
pride. When l followed nim out that
time l finally got the bill into his
pocket. He went right up to the desk
and had it changed and insisted that
! take back $40. He expected money
tomorrow he said"
And | remember one morning some
years ago." spoke up VERNE Barton,
who was in tne group, coming home
along Six.n avenue about daylight
when Jimmy staked the entire Bry.
ant Park. Jimmy was standing in
front Of his saloon as ! came up look.
ing across at the benches filled with
homeless sleeDers.
Lets stake 'em to breakfast, Jim
my some one suggested.
Go on. | have more money than
you young lads said Jimmy. Wait
till | get some quarters and dimes.
He pulled out a roll of bills and
changed some tens into chicken feed
at the bar and then led the way into
the park. | was directed to go UP
and down the north side of the park
Jimmy had loaded me with a ton
Of the chicken feed-and wake up the
benches and deal out Jimmy's silver
while Jimmy did the same along the
benches from the middle of the park
southwark to Fortieth street. Every
man and woman in the park got al
least a quarter. Those were the days
when Jimmy would drop $4,000 often
at a sitting without turning a hair"
Still another nan present said ne
had seen Jimmy lose $4,000 one night
at faro.
HE was an expert dealer, WASN'T
he?" this man was asked.
II should say not" was the ans
wer Of the expert. Jimmy couldn't
play casino in his palmiest days"
Three years ago on top Of a string
Of lesser misfortunes Jimmy lost his
money, his wife died, a brewer dispos
sessed him from the little saloor
where he was trying to get on his
feet again a block above the famous
saloon where for years he had been
in glory at F~orty-second street, and
next his daughter dieo; and all these
troubles happened to him within
twenty-one days. A few weeks after
he was ousted from his last stand he
was laid low with pneumonia and fol
a long time he was dangerously Ill.
He has been Ill a number Of times
since then. Nevertheless about 4 O.
clock on the morning of February 81
last, while Jimmy was coming through
Fortieth street on his way to his home
at 108 West Fortieth street, where ne
has lived Of late with his young un
married daughter, Jimmy when put
to it showed that not all the old itme
fire had gone out. Two highwaymer
jumped from a dark doorway to rot
Jimmy. While one OF them was try
ing to pull him to the sidewalk Jim
49, cmochod rho other in the law with