"'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after."
The next day I visited another club-house, where they had keno
going at fifty cents a card. I had seen it before, and took a
great fancy to the game. I inquired how much an outfit would cost.
They said they had two keno sets, and if I wanted one they would
sell it to me for $250.
Now came the tug of war--how to get the keno. I at last thought
of a plan, and that was to borrow the amount of one of the dealers
who had won the $2,000 from me. So I made a bold front and told
him what I wanted to do, and he gave me $300 in cash, saying at
the same time, "Pay me when you are able, as I like to help a young
man who tries to help himself." I bought the keno set, and had
$50 left, which paid all my debts and started me in business.
Cole Martin, one of the men who loaned me the money, said to me:
"Now, after the faro bank closes to-night, at my house, if you
bring your keno over I will help you get up a game." "All right,"
I said; so I took it over, and opened on the billiard tables, and
he brought all of his players into the room, and said, "Let us
start this young man's game." They commenced playing at $1 per
card at twelve o'clock, and at six in the morning they were playing
at $20 per card. I was taking out 10 per cent. They all got stuck.
That night my receipts amounted to $1,300.
The result was they put the carpenters at work to fit up a nice
room for me, and in eight months my part of the game was $33,000.
Then I began to think I was a blooded boy, and soon began to take
the girls out riding and to wine suppers, and to play the bank
higher than a cat's back, as the old keno game was a great producer.
About this time the town of Winona was looking up. There were but
two or three little frame houses, but a great many people got off
there, going back in the country. So I went down there and bought
a raft of great lumber, hired carpenters, and put them to work
building houses. They soon had five or six done, and in about a
week after they were finished, you could stand outside and throw
a big dog through the cracks. But they were full every night at
$1 per head, bringing their own blankets and sleeping on the floor.
I sent and got another keno set, and opened a bar room, and was
making money like dirt, when one day a man walked in with a bucket
of water, and commenced pouring it on one of my billiard tables
that I got in Chicago, and which cost me $500. I walked up to him
and asked him what he was doing? He told me to go to h--l. I let
fly, caught him on the neck, and down he went, and he lay there
for some time. Finally they took him to where he and his wife were
stopping, and that night he died. Then I commenced to think about
getting out of that hot box. I got together what money I could,
and carried a canoe to the river, and started for Dubuque. There
were no telegraph lines at that time. I had been there but a few
days before the news came to me that the doctors had held a post
mortem examination, and decided the man had had delirium tremens,
and could only have lived a short time. They sawed open his skull,
and found his brain a jelly in the center. So I went back and
found his wife, gave her one of the houses which I had built and
$700 in money.
I then put a man in charge of my business, and went back to St.
Paul, where my keno games were still going on. But the man I left
in charge of my business at Winona sold all he could and skipped
out, and that was the last seen of him till I went up the Missouri
River two years after, when I found him in Kansas City. At that
time there were but three or four houses and a hotel down at the
river bank. It was a great point for the Santa Fé traders.
I became acquainted with a man named McGee, who owned the largest
part of Kansas City. He was a great lover of the game of "seven-
up," so we commenced to play at $10 a game, and I beat him out of
five lots (as he had no money), which I afterward sold at $10 a
piece. Twelve years ago, as I passed through there, I saw those
same lots bringing $600 per foot.
I went from there to St. Joe, Omaha, and Council Bluffs, and broke
a great many fellows playing poker. I then settled down at dealing
faro in St. Joseph, Mo. After staying there one year I went to
St. Louis, where I remained two or three months, and then went to
New Orleans. I landed there in 1853. The yellow fever was raging,
there being 300 deaths per day. Then was the time, if there was
any fright in the young gambler, for it to have shown itself; but
I made up my mind that if I had to go I might as well go then as
at any other time.
I was taken down with the fever, and nurses were scarce; but I got
an old colored woman, and told her to stick to me, and I would give
her $25 per day as long as I was sick, and if I handed in my checks
she might have all I left. In twenty-three days, by the grace of
our good Maker, I was up eating chicken soup. They watched me so
close I could get nothing else.
During this time I got an answer from a letter written to my partner
at St. Paul, telling him to sell out as best he could, and to send
me my part, which he did.