One of the noted gamblers of his time in this country passed from
laboring on the docks into the prize ring. When his ring work was
ended the gambling house was an easy step onward in illegitimate
fields. On the docks his reputation was not above a bit of "strong
arm" work in separating a man from the money which the dock walloper
wanted. Naturally, under the Queensberry rules, there were things in
the ring which he could not do in overcoming an antagonist, and he
learned to make concessions to fairness--which was education.
Opening a gambling house that was adapted to the wants of a rich
clientele, it was a necessity that he preserve this educational
regard for his patrons, and that he should add to it. Soon he was
in a position where it was imperative that his reputation for fair
dealing be kept intact. He became the "gentleman gambler" whose "word"
carried all the accepted concomitants of his gentleman's business. In
the course of events he attained a high legislative office under the
government. But it may be said for those who knew the man as a man,
not one ever ceased to regard him at heart as the dock walloper, with
the inherent and unreconstructed disposition to regard other men as
legitimate prey. Had other conditions and circumstances made a card
sharp of him, he would have held to the promptings of his nature.
In the conduct of a gambling house of the first class, the gambling
king needs for himself and for his patrons the assurance of
uninterrupted play. Men of money and position will not go to a
house where there is menace of a police raid. The small gambler may
subsidize the policeman on the beat in which his house stands, but he
cannot placate the whole Police Department. And even when it is
thought that the gambler king is impregnable in his castle someone may
break over the barriers and raid the place in the name of the law and
order.
[Illustration: (Gambler passing card to partner by foot)]
[Illustration: (Man getting caught passing card)]
Within a few years New York has given to the world some of the inside
working of the gambling business. When Jerome raided the place of
places which had been considered immune, the proprietor of the house
was considered worth a million dollars. Before the litigation was done
and the fine paid the gambler king was out $600,000, his "club-houses"
were closed, and he had been branded officially as a common gambler,
pursued in the courts for payment of lawyers' fees, which he
designated as outrageous and a "shrieking scandal." Yet this man was
of the type whose word had been declared as good as his bond.