The Arvada enterprise., 1913-01-30


you and play hundred thousand against your
claim"
The prospector lost the claim.
Now | will play you for your services tomor-
row to show me where the claim is and where to
open the ore For that viii consider that you
have five thousand the table"
The prospector lost that.
The next day he traced out the lines OF the
claim for the winner. who organized a company.
with stock of one million, the shares of which
went for sixteen dollars each
Millions taken from the mine within a
few years. 1t became 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 fast
that they did not know what to do with it. Those
who were not making 1t spent their time devisng
ways and means to talk the others out OF por.
uon of their wealth, Gamblers in full evil
dence, and there some big stakes but It
remained for 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 hestated to sink n shaft
on II The people were in a fever of excitement.
The MeXicans owned practically nothing In fact.
the "greasers" could not get look in" Alto
gether 1t was very discouraging-to them
Then 1t occurred to bright genius to
capitalize the labor Of the Mexicans Gathering
bunch of them together. it proposed that
they sink a shaft on one OF the wellknown
claims, which was twelve hundred feet in length.
For each foot you sink. will give you
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 cheap way to prospect
The MeXicans ow-powed and jabbered at ono
another for half a night and then started to
work
Everybody laughed They were comparatively
poor men. They could i'll afford the expense they
were undergoing They drilled by hand Tough,
the hard granite. and gradually lowered that
shaft. They bailed water that flowed in so fast
that It threatened to drown them but they stuck
to the work with desperation.
At three hundred feet they uncovered the rich.
est portion OF the word-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
The MeXicans' share onequarter Nearly
one hundred million dollars came out OF the hole
they sank. 1t was a gamble pure and simple.
They 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
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. II was much easier With
what cash he had, after selling his mine, he could
count up to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars
lie had evolved n 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 swIminEy for the first
fow days At times he was as much as twenty.
hyc thousand to the good
Nine days after he started top lay he suddenly
found that he was just whore he had started
he had hundred and fifty thousand dollars
when the cards came certain way, which would
involve, according TO his system. betting the en-.
tire amount single turn" He played tho
queen to win. and the tickle creature played false
TO him
Women the cause OF all trouble anyway"
he muttcrod. ho from the table 81 ought
to have known better than that, for that was the
queen OF spades and should not have made that
bet except when all the queens except the queen
OF hearts out"
It the irony OF fate that when the queen
Of hearts came out Of the box. it so happened
that Il won
In the days when Cheyenne Wyoming was the
headquarters for the cattemcn 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
\ dealer standing behind Il roulette table one
night suddenly motioned the proprietor. few
moments later he was paid on II is customary
to pay n gambler his salary at the end OF each