Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-10-04

off the table into his hat and took his
friend in charge.
Butte's Famous Games
Most famous of Montana towns for it's
gambling resorts was Butte, and the
places in operation there in the eighties
and nineties were not alone those cater
ing to the wage-earning miner. One
Butte man conceived the idea of an ex-
elusive gambling house somewhat on the
order OF those then to be found in Lon
don, Paris and other European centers.
He therefore leased a richly furnished
building on Granite street. Here he was
accustomed to entertain the society folks
Of the huge mining camp n the high
est rollers of the mining world at elab-
crate dinners. He is said to have import
I'd q French chef to whom he paid a
salary Of $500 a month. The rarest of
French and italian wines were served,
as were the finest liquors that money
could buy. His guests smoked Havana
cigars at a cost of 81 apiece.
In the reception rooms of this salon
there was no evidence of gambling para
phernalia; but after the dinner had been
served and the diners were then in a
mood for an evenings diversion, serv-
ants entered and deity transformed what
AAeN oS11l AA appear IN AAplaiy IdblGD.
into faro layouts and roulette wheels,
while cards were produced and a poker
game started for those who preferred to
woo the goddess of chance by that
method.
One of the frequenters or this exclu-
sive gaming place is sale to have been
Fritz Augustus Heinze, then in the zenith
of his career as copper king, and quite q
noted gambler in his time. There were
also other princes and kings of the cop
per world to be found there occasionally.
Quite often, too, magnates from New
York, London and Paris, in Butte on bust
ness, were introduced at this place. The
stakes often ran into huge sums as the
wine flowed and the players warmed up
to the spirit of gaming.
One Chip for 500
An oft-repeated story has to do with
one of the elite Butte gaming institu-
tions. 1t is said that Marcus DAILY was
seated with some friends in a quiet game
when a salesman representing o large
Boston house, entered the room. Seeing
the game in progress and being possessed
of none too much knowledge of the
world, or tact, he essaYed to take a place
in the game. Producing a one hundred
dollar bill he fiourished it and said. Let
me have a hundred dollars worth of
chips, please"
Marcus DAILY, looking up from his hand,
said to the man acting as banker, Give
the gentleman a white chip" 1t was
a fact that the white chips in that game
had a value of 800 apiece.
With the industrial and commercial
development has come convention. Mon
tana is no longer the wide open" from
tier. The open burg" has passed. The
underworld has lost heart n dives are
closed. Beggars' hangouts are now passe
Con men have laid away their gold bricks
for more conventional pursuits. Card
sharps and tin-horn gamblers have ceased
rubbing their hands in anticipation. The
satellites n patrons of the redlight
world no longer parade through the
night, free and frolicsome and bent on
flaming pleasures; the district below the
dead line, one time blatant, boisterous,
blazing, hilarious and devil-may-care,
has disappeared. The milkman ON his
morning route today rarely sees the last
OF a group OF roisterers weaving his I'M
certain way homeward, feet grass gated
from the effects OF liquor only remotely
related to filtered river water. A new
public opinion holds sway IN the Did
frontier n vice has been pushed into
widely disseminated secret places. The
fact remains, however, that to gamble Is
inherent with mankind, and convention
will never be able to produce a formula
OF legal device which can subdue mans
inclination to firt with the Lady Luck.