Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-10-26

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who ran the biggest gambling place
In town. He told me Jim Rocket"
Jim Rocket" l echoed He's the
man | was to leave change for my
gold slug with
Rocket keeps the Ell Dorado, next
door in the tent. He impressed me as
very quiet. direct. square sort of
fellow. The best type of professional
gambler in matters Of this sort gen.
orally is.
81 am looking for a man., said l,
| who has a little idle money, some
time, no gold mining fever, plenty Of
nerve and broad mind. Can you
tell me who he is?
''He thought minute and then az
swered direct, as I knew he would.
"'Sam Brannan,' he said.
"'Tell me about him.
Ito take up your points, said Reck-
ct, checking off his fingers, he came
out with a shipload of Mormons as
| their head, and he collected tithes from
them for over a year. That's your idle
money. He has all the time the Lord
stuck into one day at a clip. That's
your "some time He has been here
in the city since '4S, which would seem
to show he doesn't care much for min
ing. He collected the tithes from those
Mormons and sent word to Brigham
Young that if he wanted the money
to come and get it. That's for your
nerve AS for being broad minued-
we'll. when q delega ton of the Nor
him Solemnly to say that they were
going to refuse to pay him the tithes
am more, even if he was the Califor-
nia head of the church, he laughed
them off the place for having been so
green as to pay them rs long as they
had
Il found Sam Brannan finally at the
bar in Dennison's Exchange.
what was he like?" asked Johnny
eagerly. IN bet 1 heard his name
fifty times today"
''He is thickset, jolly looking, curly
headed fellow, with a thick neck, a
bulldog jaw and a big voice." replied
Talbot "Of course he tried to bully
me, but when that didn't work he
came down to business. We entered
into an agreement.
"Brannan was to furnish the money
liked the idea. When we had settled
it all l told him my scheme. He
thought it over awhile and came in.
Then we rowed off and paid the cap
tains Of the ships. 1t was necessary
now to get them warped in at high
tide, of course, but Sam Brannan said
he'd see to that He has some sort OF
a pull with the natives, enough to get
days labor, anyway"
warp them in?' / echoed.
certainly. You couldn't expect the
merchants to lighter their stuff off in
boats always. Well beach these ships
at high tide and then run some sort OF
light causeway out to them. There's
no surf, and the bottom is soft. It'll
cost us something, of course, but Sam
and I figure we ought to divide three
thousand clear"
wv
said I. whats to prevent the mer-
chants doing this same hiring of ships
for themselves?'
Nothing" said Talbot. latter the
first month"
"And what prevented Brannan, after
he had heard your scheme, from going
out on his own hook and pocketing all
the proceeds?'
"You don't understand, Frank" said
Talbot impatiently. "Men Of our stamp
don't do those things"
"Ohw said |.
"This," said Johnny, made it about
2 o'clock, as 1 figure your story. Did
YOU then take q needed rest"
Quarter of 2" corrected Talbot. Il
was going back to the hotel when l
passed that brick building-you, know,
on Montgomery street. l remembered
then that lawyer and his $3.50 for
hole in the ground. 1t seemed to me
there was Il terrible waste somewhere.
Here was a big brick building filled
up with nothing but goods. 1t might
much better be filed with people.
There is plenty Of room for goods in
those ships, but you can't very well
put people ON the ships. So L just
dropped in to sec them about it. l
offered to hire the entire upper part
of the building and pointed out that
the lower part was all they could pos
sibly use as a store. They said they
needed the upper part as storehouse.
l offered to store the goods in an ac-
cessible safe place. Of course they
wanted to see the place, but wouldn't
let on, naturally, but left it subject to
their approval after the lease was
signed. The joke Of it is they were
way overstocked anyway. Finally l
made my grand offer.
look here said I, you rent me
that upper story for decent length or
time-say a year-and I'll buy out the
surplus stock you've got up there at
decent valuation They jumped at
that Of course they pretended not to,
but just the same they jumped. III
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