The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-08
Man About
Manhattan
Bv GEORGE Tucker


RENO, New. April This is just
like N other solid, comfortable
western or midwestern town with
the exception that it's night life is a
sort of trading post Coney Island in
chaps.
Being a.. newcomer, I find it,
little incongruous, and at the same
time fascinating, to see a squaw
with a papoose strapped on her back
standing next to a man who is her
antithesis in every thing he thinks
and does, placing $50 and $500 bets
on a little bouncing ball with no
more ado than if he were laying
down complimentary books of paper
matches.
You get off the train, and the first
thins you see is a long line Of we'll
lit gambling casinos where a man
has his choice of everything from
roulette, keno and chuck-a-luck to
faro, craps, black jack and probably
two dozen other games of chance,
including slot machines. And with
this, he has his choice of playing for
a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter,
a half, or a dollar. There is no linn
it in Reno beyond a mans judgment
and the Nevada sky.
I heard a man ask about the limit
in the Bank Club, and the croupier
said, ''There is no limit. If you want
to place a bet of a thousand, the
house will be glad to cover" He
didn't place this bet while I was
there, but if he had, and if he had
won, the house would have paid him
$50, 1000.
After seeing a thing like this, 1t
seems sort of incongruous to walk
into a drugstore where people are
gambling right and left, and all
sorts Of liquor is on display, and be
told that you can't buy cigarettes
there because it is against the law.
But if these things surprise. it is
because most visitors here are
caught by the sheer open
h~andedness of things. In Reno, it is
legitimate enterprise. In New York
and elsewhere, you go behind locked
doors.
Because I had read so avidly of
this place and because my imagina-
ton has a trick of magnifying
things all out of their proportions,
I think I was a little disappointed in
the gambling clubs at first. Most
people think of Reno in terms of
Monte Carlo, or rather in terms of
E. Philip Oppenheim's novels, al
ing tall young men in brocaded blue
waistcoats gambling dangerously
while mysterious but beautiful young
women move serenely from table to,
table, wheedling state secrets from
visiting Balkan princes.
Instead, you find that most clubs
here look suspiciously like recondi-
toned Five & Dime stores and jam.
med with hundreds of Mr.. Average
Citizen, and also with Pajute bucks
and Washoe squaws. You see house
servants and Hollywood actresses
gambling at the same table, and this
is as it should be. Freedom of the
gaming tables in Reno means free.
dom for all.
The towns conservative element,
and it is in majority, is not too en-.
thusiastic about the emphasis the
rest of America has placed on the
dice and quick divorces. They like uo
think Reno is like any other Ameri-
can city of it's size, and that gamb-
ling is fundamentally an industry,
like automobiles in Detroit and pol
itics in Washington. The revenue
therefrom provides lots of Jobs and
takes up plenty of slack.
One of the things that fascinates
you here is that everyone gets paid
off every day and always in big
round silver dollars. There appears
to be some smart reckoning behind
this practice. If a mar is handed a
lot of paper money, he naturally
puts it into his pocket. Conversely,
silver makes a very pleasant jingle
when you have it in your hands,
and there are always the eternal slot
machines to attract you.