Far Western Gamblers

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part four of the American Far West seven mid nineteenth
century Views from Abroad by anonymous This libribox recording is
in the public domain. Part four Far Western Gamblers. In
Far Western society, it is no longer reputable to be
known as a professional gambler. Yet men who remember the

(00:23):
days when everybody played will be apt to look lightly
upon the vice. It is not uncommon, therefore, to see merchants,
especially American, having a social game of cutthroat monty ucre
or poker with piles of gold before them. In the
mountain towns, it is still worse, and the ante rooms
of the Nevada and California legislators used to be a

(00:46):
perfect carnival of gambling in the evenings and even during
the day when they were not intent on gambling in
the public wheel. The tolerance of gambling and the widespread
habit of bedding show through many of the slang phrases
in general use on the coast. Continually you will hear
men and even women and children, sometimes adding, after making

(01:07):
some positive assertion, you bet, or you bet your life,
or you bet your bones, while to bet your boots
is confirmation strong as wholly writ in the minds. At
least a minor is always particular about his boots, their
form and durability, and they are a common subject of
conversation in the places where diggers most do congregate. Again,

(01:32):
nobody in the Northwest will have any hesitation in telling
you that such and such a statement is played out
when he means to convey an imputation that you are
somewhat beside the truth, or that the proposals you may
be making to him are not suitable to his ideas
of things right and fitting. If he further informs you

(01:52):
that this has been played out since forty nine, he
means that since the first colonization of the Pacific coast
by smart men, such a thing was never believed. In
eighteen forty nine, being the year of the commencement of
the Californian gold digging, a vote being taken on an
important measure in the Indiana Senate, a grave and reverend

(02:13):
senator who had not been attending to the busit and
did not know what the question was. When his name
was called by the secretary. He looked puzzled for a moment,
and then rapping the desk with his knuckles. After the
manner of card players, said, I pass. An audible titter
ran through the hall, and the President of the Senate

(02:33):
took it up. A divine in a far western state
visited a distant town for the purpose of preaching the
dedicatory sermon in a new church. Court was in session,
and on Saturday, the judge and lawyers congregated together in
a room and amused themselves by card playing and story telling.
The divine, at the request of a lawyer, visited the room.

(02:56):
He came into the room so suddenly that they were
unable to hide their cards in whiskey. The divine looked
on awhile and then politely invited the gentleman present to
attend church next day and hear him preach. This they
agreed to do, and Sunday found them judge and lawyers
seated in the amen corner. The sermon over, the minister announced, friends,

(03:20):
the citizens of this town have built a fine church.
There is still fifteen hundred dollars due. We propose to
raise the money by subscription to day, and eyeing the judge,
I go one hundred, imitating the style of the gamblers
of last night. The judge, glancing at the lawyers, slowly responded,

(03:40):
I see your hundred, Thank you, brother, said the divine,
will anyone raise it? Looking at the same time at
attorney number one. The lawyer saw that he was in
for it and quietly replied, I go a hundred blind,
and so on through the list. The Divine raked down
both the bar and their money, until the scene closed

(04:02):
by a sharp, shrill voice announcing I see the last
hundred and call you. The astonishment of the congregation can
be imagined. I venture, however, to think that these lawyers
will not soon invite the Divine to witness another social
game of uker, when men see each other go it
blind and call the hand. I can vouch myself for

(04:24):
the exact truth of that story the next I tell
you from hearsay, and don't answer for But as I
have seen something very like it, I believe it may
be true. At a far western court, the case of
Smith versus Jones was called up. Who's for the plaintiff,
inquired the judge impatiently. May it please the court, said

(04:44):
a rising member of the legal fraternity, Pilkins is for
the plaintiff, But I left him just now over in
the tavern playing a game of poker, he's got a
sucker there, and he is sure to skin him right
smart if he has only time. He's got everything all
set to wring a cold deck, in which case he'll
deal for himself four aces, and his opponent for queens,

(05:06):
so that your honor will perceive that he must rake
the persimmons. Footnote a Southern fruit, but here, of course,
applied to money. An expressive Western phrase is the longest
pole will knock down the persimmons, i e. The longest
head will win. End note. Dear me, said the judge,

(05:28):
with a sigh. That's too bad. It happens at a
very unfortunate time. I am very anxious to get on
with this case. A brown study followed, and at length
a happy idea struck the judge. Bill said, he addressing
the friend of the absent Pilkins, who had just spoken,
You understand poker about as well as Pilkins. Suppose you

(05:49):
go over and play his hand? And Bill did it.
We have another phase of the gambling spirit in the
extraordinary bets, which are now and again recorded in the papers.
An old jew miser in San Francisco being irritated on
one occasion by jests at his love of money, proposed
that the man who was baiting him should go with

(06:10):
him in a boat into the middle of the bay,
where for every twenty dollar gold piece the jew should
toss overboard, the other should toss over five dollars, and
let them see who would be first to cry hold,
both being excessively purse proud. The bet was accepted, and
the seam was witnessed by hundreds. The Jew's opponent was

(06:30):
the first to save his dollars. The gridly sack of flower,
which became glorious about the time of the American Sanitary
Commission for the benefit of the wounded soldiers in the army,
was the effect of a bet, and the story of
its sale and resail is thoroughly illustrative of this wild extravagance.
There were two candidates for the meyrality of the village

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of Austin in Nevada, a city in the wildest part
of the desert and not then too years old, but
with five thousand inhabitants. Each candidate had agreed, if defeated,
to carry a sack of flower on his back from
Austin to a neighboring village in broad day. Accordingly, when
mister R. G. Gridley lost his election. He prepared to

(07:16):
fulfill his engagement. Headed by a band of music in
a wagon, leading his little boy, clad in the national
uniform by the hand and with a sack of flower
on his back. Followed by a mongrel procession of miners
and citizens, mister Gridley took up his foot journey to
the appointed place. Arrived there, the thought struck him that

(07:37):
the gay spirits and patriotic feelings of the crowd, which
grew as he traveled, might be turned to humane account.
He instantly proposed now to sell the sack of flower
for the benefit of the sick and wounded in the
army to the highest bidder. The humor took the sack
was sold and sold again, netting five thousand dollars, the

(07:58):
amount realized fire the ingenious Gridley, with resolve to make
the most of his lucky idea. Accordingly, he started for
a journey of three hundred miles to Virginia City with
the sack of flower in company, Arriving on a Sunday,
and finding a Sanitary Commission meeting going on in the theater,
he proceeded to the place, got admitted to the stage,

(08:19):
and there, telling his story to the audience, sold the
sack to the audience for five hundred and eighty dollars.
The next morning, having procured a band of music, he
proceeded to make a tour of the neighboring towns gold Hill,
Silver City, and Dayton, selling the sack wherever he could
find bidders and adding the price labeled on the face

(08:41):
of this more than fortunatus purse. At gold Hill, the
sack sold for five thousand, eight hundred and twenty two
dollars fifty cents, at Silver City for eight hundred and
thirty dollars, at Dayton for eight hundred and seventy three dollars. Finally,
returning to Virginia City again, the sack, putting forward all

(09:02):
its attractions, won a prodigious subscription of twelve thousand and
twenty five dollars. Mister Gridley, pursuing his successful way, arrived
at Sacramento just as a sanitary Commission picnic was in progress.
In the midst of the festivities, he marched into the crowd,
a band of music leading the way, a stalwart Negro

(09:24):
walking by his side, carrying the sack and an ex
tempore procession following him, which grew larger every moment, and
presented himself for new conquests to the officers of the
day and the President of the Commission. Notwithstanding the stimulus
of patriotism and Champagne, the sack did not fare so

(09:45):
well here as before. But here several supplementary wrinkles of
humor were suggested by the sack, among others, a good woman,
finding a small island of a few rods square in
the swamp, had erected a bridge of one plank, and
established such a rate of toll that to see nothing
there cost the curiosity of some hundreds a half dollar each.

(10:08):
Then the President of the Commission was invited to shake
hands with some hundreds of the company, who bought the
privilege at from fifty cents to a double eagle ten
dollars a piece, making his hat his till until it
was literally half full of silver and gold. Carried thence
to Sacramento, the sack was sold again at a public

(10:29):
lecture by the Reverend Doctor Bellows for several hundred dollars,
and finally transported to San Francisco. It added moderate gains
to its enormous harvest, even at that comparatively stayed community.
Six months later, the sack, with its irrepressible owner, arrived
in New York en route for the Great Fair at

(10:49):
Saint Louis. He did not stop there, and I believe
the sum realized by the subscription given in this odd
way to the sanitary fund was not much short of
forty thousand dollars or eight thousand pounds. Closely allied to
the spirit of gambling is the reckless and mercurial temperament

(11:10):
of the Western man. When Sacramento was being destroyed by fire,
and many a man saw his whole worldly substance going
to ruin, some of the merchants managed to save some champagne,
and going outside the town drank better luck next time.
This is a great country. Next day a tavern keeper

(11:30):
had a space cleared among the ruins, and over a
little board chanty hastily run up was this inscription, Lafayette
house drinks to bit Who cares a darn for a fire?
What energy these people have? I know a carpenter who
arrived at a village one morning with his wife and
child and chest of tools, but having no lumber. Would

(11:53):
he pawned most of the tools to buy some. He
then obtained the privilege of building on a vacant lot,
and commenced a three o'clock in the afternoon. At five o'clock,
the house was enclosed. At sunset, his family moved into
the house, and in less than an hour afterwards, the
good wife had supper ready. The family slept in the

(12:13):
house that night. Men who can work like that believe
in work and have no fear of busting up. A
young English nobleman, heir of one of the richest peers
in England, while waiting at a remote country station one day,
entered into conversation with one of the neighboring settlers. Been
in these parts, considerable, stranger, Yes, for some length of time?

(12:35):
How long, hay? I been here? A few weeks? What's
your business? I have no business. What are you traveling for? Then?
Only for my own pleasure? Don't you do any business?
How do you get your living? Then? It isn't necessary
for me to work for my support. My father is
a man of property and gives me an allowance sufficient

(12:58):
for my wants. But suppose the old man should die.
In that case, I dare say he'd leave me enough
to live upon. But suppose he should bust up here.
The conversation ended, his lordship walking away, apparently struck by
a new idea. Travel is safe on most far western roads,

(13:18):
where there are no hostile Indians about, yet partly through
old habit, partly as a precaution absolutely necessary. In some places,
nearly everybody goes armed. And it is wonderful how many
pistols will flash out when a street fighter rises in
a Western town, or even in San Francisco itself. A
San Franciscan who is justly proud of having helped to

(13:42):
rear up so polite a town in a comparatively short time,
is very jealous on this point. He continually impresses on
a stranger that nobody sir carries weapons nowadays, and he
would perhaps convince you of this abstract doctrine. Did not
one of the chilly four or noon winds blow up
Montgomery Street and expose a neat colt at the waistband

(14:05):
of his trousers. I saw a man kneeling before me
in a certain church in San Francisco, and as his
coat tail divided, the handle of a huge navy revolver
showed itself. The knowing men, however, carry derringer pistols in
their coat pockets. You can always know a shrewd old miner,
explained to me when a man has a pistol in

(14:26):
his pocket by the way he sits down in a chair.
If he plumps down, he's safe. But if he sits
down cautiously and looks arder his coat tails, he's on
the shaya. Certainly the same with a knife. Horsemen, when
traveling carry it in the boot, and the footmen down
the neck. Hence a bowie knife is popularly known as

(14:47):
a Kansas neck blister. But as for the far western rowdies,
Montana and Idaho territories are at present the only regions
in the North Pacific globe where they have anything like
full swing for their playfulness. In Idaho region, I heard
of a man who came rushing down the one street
of a mining village on a Sunday morning. He had

(15:09):
been attracted by a noise and came on shouting, what's
the matter. Presently his excitement abated, Oh, only a man shot?
Why athart? It was a dog fight? In that locality,
they used to ask at breakfast in a careless, unconcerned way,
with their mouths full, who was shot last night, and
they generally had a dead man to breakfast. Nevada has

(15:33):
become rather more peaceable since it was elevated to the
dignity of a state. But at one time, and in
some places, yet, if one gentleman riled another, it was
the correct thing that the gentleman who was vexed at
him should ask, in a piquant tone whether he was healed,
and if he replied yes, why then it was etiquette

(15:54):
to tell him to turn loose. An official went to
a certain nameless state and inquired of one of the
leading men for the sight of a copy of the
state laws. The leading man was very polite, went to
a drawer, and, producing a bowie knife about a foot
and a half in length, most sentitiously replied, here, sir,
is a complete addition of them. San Francisco was now

(16:18):
a very peaceable town, and no longer would you, when
taking an airing in front of your door, be startled
by a bullet whizzing past your ear, and a gentleman
emerging from the dark to apologize for disturbing you, having
mistaken his man. In the old days, a culprit was
hung for stealing an ounce of gold but was only

(16:38):
fined heavily for killing a man. A rowdie would take
a bet that he would bring down a man on
the other side of the street. If the man shot
had no friends, and if there were enough hard swearing
a bribery, it was almost certain that the murderer would
get off with slight punishment. These were the days when
Ned mc gowan was judged than whom no greater scoundrel

(17:01):
was ever expelled San Francisco by the Vigilance Committee. Still,
street fights are not over. Only recently a man was
publicly shot down in San Francisco, but his murderer got
off because several witnesses swore that they saw the assassinated
man put his hand behind as if intending to draw.
In the same street, the most fashionable and crowded thoroughfare

(17:24):
in San Francisco, there was a fight lately described in
this cool, matter of fact way by a morning paper.
There was a serious shooting, a fray in our principal street, Montgomery,
which resulted in the death of four persons. It seems
one Bill Davis, a noted gambler who resides in Whyrica,

(17:44):
was interested in and drove a horse race which came
off at Placerville on the fifteenth instant and throwed the race,
making four thousand, five hundred dollars by it. Hank Stevens, Ball,
dutch Abe and Spanish Bob four Sports backed Davis's horse
and got broke. Swore vengeance, killing at sight and so forth.

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On the eighteenth they all came to this city except Davis,
and publicly said they were going to shoot Davis on
sight and so forth. On the twenty first, Davis came
in town and at two pm was getting his boots
polished in a blacks adjoining the Fashion, when Ball and
dutch Abe came to the door and looking in exclaimed
here's the dirty thief now, and drawing their revolvers commenced shooting.

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Davis jumped out of the chair with one boot polish
and drawing his revolver, fired and Ball fell dead across
an iron grating. Davis then jumped out on the sidewalk
laughingly saying you've made a mistake, and fired at dutch Abe,
the ball taking effect in his right breast. He fell
when Davis ran and caught the revolver from Ball's hand,

(18:54):
saying as he walked to the door of the Fashion,
where's the rest of your murderers? Now? Blood was running
down Davis's left hand from the arm and also down
the right cheek. As he was on the point of
entering the door, he was met by Stevens and Spanish Bob.
When Davis raised the revolver and fired twice, Stevens fell

(19:14):
and Spanish Bob jumped over him on to the sidewalk
and fired. Davis staggered, but recovering, they Davis and Spanish
Bob commenced in good earnest, each striving to fire a
deadly shot. Davis was laughing. Then they commenced, firing at
each other about twenty feet apart. After Davis had fired

(19:35):
two shots, he threw the revolver at Bob and changing
the revolver he took from ball into his right hand.
He raised it and it snapped three times. The fourth
time it went off and Bob fell. Davis had fallen
before this and was lying with his face on the banquette.
Davis threw the revolver into the street with blasphemies duly reported.

(19:58):
He then pulled a derringer, and both having one shot,
each began crawling towards each other on their stomachs, When
about five feet apart, they both raised partly up and
fired simultaneously. When Bob's head fell and he remained perfectly still,
Davis then said, crawling towards Bob, he's gone. I've cooked

(20:19):
his goose, and then partly turned on his side and
tried to rise. On examination, Ball and Spanish Bob were dead.
Dutch Abe and Stevens mortally wounded, the first having been
shot through the right lung, causing internal hemorrhage and so forth.
The latter was shot through the left breast. Spanish Bob

(20:39):
had four wounds on him, two in the right breast,
on the right arm, and one between the eyes. Ball
had a ball in his heart. Davis had six wounds,
two in the right leg, one in the right breast,
one in the left shoulder, one in the left wrist
through and one on the right cheek where a bulle

(21:00):
had struck the cheek bone and glanced off, cutting out
a piece of flesh of the size of a ten
cent piece. Stevens died on the twenty fourth, at forty
minutes past ten a m. Dutch Abe died yesterday. Doctors
say Davis will certainly recover end it used to be
at one time, and is yet in the rougher places.

(21:23):
A signal for shooting if a man refused to drink
with another, whether an acquaintance or not, or whatever his character.
Behind the bar of a hotel at Rhys River in
eighteen sixty three was the following announcement. All guests in
the house to be up by seven o'clock. All in
the barn by six o'clock. Every man to sweep out

(21:45):
his own sleeping place. No fighting at the tables, no
quarts taken at the bar. Any man violating these rules
will be shot. Sociability may, like hostilities in the Far West,
be carried too far. I was once called an unsociable
sort of a beggar by the landlord of a roadside

(22:06):
hostelry in British Columbia, because, after having had a general
layout on the floor with four gentile miners, I objected
to the company of a fifth companion in the shape
of a jew peddler. But the far Western instinct recognizes
that the line must be drawn somewhere. There was once
a Western governor named Powell, famous for chewing and spitting,

(22:28):
of whom somebody remarked that he was a very sociable man. Sociable,
replied the individual addressed. I rather think he is darned sociable.
I was introduced to him over to Grayson Spring's last fall,
and he hadn't been with me ten minutes before he
begged all the tobacco. I had got his feet up
in my lap and spat all over me. Don ned sociable.

(22:56):
End of Part four