Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-26
wards, but was. then pardoned out by
Winston Churchill, ,.r
Starts a Niaht Club.

Well, that was the sort you ran into
in Joeburg in those days. | drifted
into the life and started up night
club of my own The club itself
would rent out tables in it to other
men who would run poker, faro bank
roulette-oh, every game there was
even stuss. Joeburg was full OF jews
They wanted stuss, while the poker
games were run mostly for the
| Americans.
Those were the days when they
ran sanded card decks.,they would
roughen an edge of a card with sand'
and q crook with sensitive finger-tips
could pick those cards out as he
dealt like a flash. Oh. they did: every
crooked trick you ever heard of, there
in Joeburg!
1t was great sight every night,
with the miners trooping in to gam
BILE their coin and crowding up at the
bars. None of 'em brought in mug
gets or gold dust. because the law
wouldn't allow raw gold to be taken
out that way, but now and then there
was mine robbery in spite Of the
guards. / remember one miner VINO
smuggled out 600 ounces OF gold-it
was worth 20 Ishillings an ounce, so
he had about $S,4OO worth-and buried
it in the sand. They got him, and he
did twelve months; but when he got
out he dng up his GOLD and came into
Joeburg to gamble it. He lost the
whole lot in one night, and three OF
us passed the hat to get him to Cape
Town.
In a town like that, with dozens
and dozens of night clubs, the play
ran awful high at the big clubs. My
place was a little one in comparison,
although I've seen $4,000 on the
table at one time in q poker game.
That's a fair sized pot, isn't 1t?
shot a man in my club one night.
Dropped Bully
He was q rough who had a gang
with him. There in Joeburg there
were a number of such gangs who
used to live off tho proprietors of night
clubs, promising them protection" in
return. They ,called themselves "bul-
lies" I knew this fellow. He couldn't
protect anybody.
But he came into my place one
night and demanded EGO. I'm the
bully of this beat" he says. told him
to get out. With that he swung at
me with a blackjack, but just grazed
my head. l fired without taking my
gun from my pocket. 1t broke his
collar bone and went through his
shoulder and he dropped.
But he was more of a man than
Eddie Guerin turned out to be, at that.
He didn't call the police, as Eddie did.
Even while he was on the operating
table he wrote out a statement saying
that I wasn't to blame. He got well,
l ran that night club for five years,
until 1907. / could tell you thou
sand. stories about life In Joeburg in
those days. Then the gambling law
was changed and we all lost our IL
censes. / had saved up about 96OO.
I thought would take look at Lon
don.
Meets "chieaso May"
I sailed on New Years Day, l9O7'
I remember l got to London on jan
29. Two or three nights after l got
there-I had been spending my money
in all the swell hotels and bars--l
drifted into the Holborn Restaurant.
AS sgt there drinking lady came in'
She was toll woman. Her. eyes
were blue, and her hair was gold.
thought she was mighty handsome. l
spoke to her, and we got to talking.
| told her about South Africa and the
night life in Joeburg and the gambling
I'd seen there.
After while she said: do you
know who / am"'
mo" I said, "but you look good to
me-" She was thirty-one then, and
I was twenty-six.
"I'm Chicago May" she said.
knew who she was then. I'd read
The papers. Chicago May Churchill.
she was. I'd read how she and Eddie
Guerin and their little gang had. tap
ped the American Express Co.'S SAFE
in Paris for 100000, six years before
that. Guerin had got "life" on Deviis
Island, and May had got five years.
She had finished her time and had
been in London for six months or so.
Her real name was May Latimer.
She told me how she had been taken
to America by her folks when she
was nine years old-she had been
born in Ire!and-and how she grew
up in Omaha. She met Eddie Gucrin
when she was eighteen, after she had
drifted to Chicago.
Became Friends.
Well, we went on drinking ana
| talking together. She was still pretty
although her five years in prison and
her life with Guerin had told on her.
Her American talk and her trace OF
| soft Irish accent sounded awful good