Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1881 — Heartaches and Remorse. [ARTICLE]

Heartaches and Remorse.

“Yes,” said a well-known gambler, in answer to an interrogation from a Chicago Morning Newt reporter, “Chicago is one of the greatest gambling centers in the United States.’’ “But.” he continued, “it isn’s now so muck as it was six or seven years ago. I tell you the ‘boys’ had a good tune here when Jake Rehm was chief of police, and Joe Medill and Colvin mayors.” “How do the gamblers manage to get on their feet after they have once been completely and irretrlvably broke,” asked the reporter. “Well, you see, they borrow from one another, and then they pay back when they make a winning. A professional gambler when he does win generally wins a large amount; but it is a fact that majority are broke twenty-ninodays in every month. I remember some five years ago that two waiters, who worked st the Commercial hotel, went in one evening to a game on Clark street known as- the ‘Combination.’ The extent of their assets was twenty five cents, and they wished to make it a half dollar to enable them to purchase two oyster stews. The game was faro, ana No. 1 sat down aud soon ran the up to $5. No. 2 was then given a stake, and they both went in and soon had S2OO out. Not yet satisfied, they laid down their money, and at 6 o’clock in the morning they had won between them $2,800. Being inclined to be sports, they took the money and opened a faro bank of their own, in the Nevada block, corner of Washington and Franklin streets. Everything ran along smoothly for a couple of weeks, untilone night a drunken brakeman from one of the railroads went up and won the roll. The men then went back to their old business, and though they often tried they never could strike it again.

“There is a great deal of cheating done at faro ain’t there?” “Yre; at the time of which I am speaking the West Side was filled with brace games, especially Halstead street. They usually had men steer victims to the game. For instance, a man meets another on the street, enters into a conversation, treats him, and- then insinuates that he is going up to a faro-bank to try his luck ana asks his friend to accompany him and look on. They go up, the ‘capper’ buys a stack of chips, with money which, of cours ♦, belongs to the bank; he stakes the victim, and they both play. For a short period they are allowed to win, and then they commence to lose, ‘capper* apparently losing as much as the victim. It generally ends in the ‘sucker’ losing every cent, and after he has departed the ‘capper’ gets forty per cent, of the winnings, the dealer ten, the remainder going to the bank. A good ‘brace’ dealer commands a large salary in gambling circles.” ’‘Who has made the largest winnings In Chicago at a legitimate game?” “Well, there is a well-known member of a liquor firm here who drew out some $12,000. Al. Smith won $5,000 once in this town. And speaking of losses, a capitalist from England passed through this city four years ago on his way to Colorado to purchase land. While here he became acquainted with an obliging young man who talked about England to him and took him up in the Kentucky block, where he finally lost over $30,000. It is needless to remark that he did not buy any land in Colorado.” “What is your opinion, anyway, of gambling as a profession?” “It is a profession of heartachesand remorse. If a man is in another business he had better leave gambling alone, for in the end he will come out a heavy loser. A man out of business, who has nothing to lose and all to gain, who is sharp and shrewd, may manage to live by gambling, but it is a very precarious existence.”