The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-02-01

You have been good loser; I'll put in with
you and play a hundred thousand against your
claim"
The prospector lost the claim.
Now will play you fer your services tomor-
row to show me where the claim is and where to
open the ore. For that will 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 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 1t spent their time devising
ways and means to talk the others out of por-
ton OF their wealth. Gamblers in full evil
dence, and there were big stakes; but it
remained for bunch Of Mexicans to play for the
largest stake on record in the United States
without the of cards
One of the many claims, located in the midst
of the district, had not shown any Even the
men who had millions hesitated to sink shaft
on 1t. The people were in fever Of excitement.
The Mexicans owned practically nothing In fact,
the "greasers' could not get look in" Alto
gether it was very discouraging-to them.
Then 1t occurred to some bright genius to
capitalize the labor Of the Mexicans Gathering
bunch of them together. II was proposed that
they sink shaft on one Of the well-known
claims, which was twelve hundred feet in length.
For each foot you sink will give you a
onefoot 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.
Ii looked like q cheap way N nrosnect
The Mexicans pow-powed and jabbered at one
another for half 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
The Mexicans' share was one-quarter. 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'Aene, 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 so much easier With
what cash he had. after selling his NINE he could
count up to 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 complicated series of bets to
retrieve when he lost.
Everything went along swimingly for the first
lew days. At times he was as much as twenty.
five thousand to the good
Nine days after he started top lay he suddenly
round that he was just where he had started
ne had one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
When the cards came a certain way which would
involve, according to his system, betting the en-
tire amount OH single turn" He PLAYED the
queen to win. and the tickle creature PLAYED false
to him.
women are the cause of all trouble ANYWAY"
ne muttered, as he rose from the table 81 ought
10 nave 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 oueen
or hearts out"
IL was the irony of fate that when the ouee,
or hearts came out Of the box II so hannonod
that It won pPeu
In the days when Cheyenne Wyoming was tho
heaoquarters for the cattlemen of the northwest
eamolng ran wide open. When the covhbvs
came TO town they made things hum Money
gre" on trees The gaming spirit was in the .ir
A dealer standing behind roulette table ona
nisht suddenly motioned the proprietor A faw
moments later he was paid off. II is ci,stom.rv
10 pay gambler his salary at the end n, a.cS