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Collection: Books and Periodicals
Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)
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Page: of 423
THE GAMBLERS. 63
sibility. Ihave seen one betting so high at a monte
table that a crowd collected round to watch the result.
After winning a large sum of money, he finally staked
it all on one card, and lost, when he exhibited less
concern than many of the bystanders, for he merely
condescended to give a slight shrug of his shoulders
as he lighted his cigarita and strolled slowly off.
In the forenoon, when gambling was slack, the
gamblers would get up from their tables, and, leaving
exposed upon them, at the mercy of the heterogeneous crowd circulating through the room, piles of gold
and silver, they would walk away, seemingly as little
anxious for the safety of their money as if it were
under lock and key in an iron chest. It was strange
to see so much apparent confidence in the honesty of
human nature, and, in a city where robberies and violence were so rife, that, when out at night in unfrequented quarters, one walked pistol in hand in the middle of the street, to see money exposed in such a way as
would be thought madness in any other part of the
world. But here the summary justice likely to be
dispensed by the crowd, was sufficient to insure a
due observance of the law of mewm and tuwm.
These saloons were not by any means frequented
exclusively by persons who went there for the purpose of gambling. Few men had much inducement
to pass their evenings in their miserable homes, and
the gambling-rooms were a favourite public resort, the
music alone offering sufficient attraction to many who
never thought of staking a dollar at any of the tables,