American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1913-02-06

You have been a good loser: I'll put in with
you and play a hundred thousand against your
claim"
The prospector lost the claim.
Now l will play you for your services tomor.
row to show me where the claim is and where to
open the ore. For that l will consider that you
have five thousand on the table"
The prospectpr lost that.
The next day he traced out the lines Of the
claim for the winner, who organized a company,
with a stock Of one million, the shares of which
went for sixteen dollars each!
Millions were taken from the mine within a
Few years. 1t became one of the most famous
in the entire Rocky Mountain country.
In the early days of the Comstock Lode, in
Virginia, Nevada, some men made money SO fast
that they did not know what to do with it. Those
who were not making it spent their time devising
ways and means to talk the others out of a por-
ton of their wealth. Gamblers were in full evil
dence, and there were some big stakes; but it
remained for a bunch Of Mexicans to play for the
largest stake on record in the United States
without the use Of cards.
One Of the many claims, located in the midst
OF the district, had not shown any ore. Even the
men who had millions hesitated to sink a shaft
on it. The people were in a fever of excitement
The Mexicans owned practically nothing. In fact,
the "greasers" could not get a look in" Alto
gether 1t was very discouraging-to them.
Ihen 1t occurred to some bright genius to
capitalize the labor of the Mexicans. Gathering
a bunch Of them together. it was proposed that
they sink a shaft on one of the well-known
claims. which was twelve hundred feet in length.
For each foot you sink, we will give you a
one-foot surface interest in the claim" they were
told" provided you sink to ore."
In other words, If they abandoned the work at
any time before reaching ore, they would get
nothing. and the owners would have the shaft.
1t looked like a cheap way to prospect.
The Mexicans pow-powed and jabbered at one
another for half a night and then started to
work.
Everybody laughed. They were comparatively
poor men. They could ill afford the expense they
were undergoing. They drilled by hand, fought
the hard granite. and gradually lowered that
shaft. They bailed water that flowed in so fast
that 1t threatened to drown them, but they stuck
to the work with desperation.
At three hundred feet they uncovered the rich
est portion OF the world-famous silver deposit.
and, from the vein they opened, more wealth was
taken out than from any other portion Of that
richest single mile of ground in the world.
Inc Mex1cans' share was one-quarter. Nearly
one hundred million dollars came out of the hole
they sank! 1t was a gamble pure and simple.
Ihey played for high stakes-and won.
In the Occur d'Alene, Of Idaho. when that min
Ing region was the center of the earth, there were
some big games The story is told of one man
who conceived the idea that he could make
money in gambling faster than he could take it
out of the ground. 1t was so much easier. With
what cash he had. after selling his mine, he could
count up to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
He had evolved a wonderful system.
Il simply can't lose" he told his friends.
His plan was to play steadily for sixteen hours
daily, and, by a complicated series Of bets, to
retrieve when he lost.
Everything went along swimingly for the first
few days. AT times he was as much as twenty
five thousand to the good.
Nine days after he started top lay he suddenly
found that he was just where he had started
when the cards anne a certain way, which would
involve, according to his system, betting the en-
tire amount OH a single turn" He played the
queen to win, and the tickle creature played false
to him.
Women are the cause of all trouble, anyway"
he muttered. as he rose from the table. II ought
to have known better than that, for that was the
queen OF spades, and l should not have made that
bet except when all the queens except the queen
of hearts was out"
1t was the irony of fate that. when the queen
of hearts came out of the box. 1t so happened
that 1t won.
In the days when Cheyenne. Wyoming. was the
headquarters for the cattlemen of the northwest.
gambling ran wide open. When the COWBOYS
came to town they made things hum. Money
grew on trees. The gaming spirit was in the air.
A dealer standing behind a roulette table one
night suddenly motioned the proprietor. A few
moments later he was paid of. It il customary
to pay . gambler his salary at the end Of each