West
Baden Springs, July 12, - Special
-
 The time
has come when it is due the
people of Indiana that they know
of the condition of affairs that
exists at this place. It is
called the "Carlsbad of
America." The "Monte
Carlo of America" would be a
more appropriate name, for there
never was a place in the United
States where gambling was
conducted with freer license than
at West Baden.
Roby,
with all its infamy and the
disgrace it brought upon the
State, was mild in its worst days
as compared with this place. It
is a different sort of gambling,
perhaps, but of a more
demoralizing nature than the
worst ever instituted at Roby.
The race track is wanting and
there is an air of gentility here
that perhaps was wanting at Roby,
but this makes the matter all the
worse and the effect upon society
more marked. Roby was published
to the world, its evils were told
and expatiated upon until
finally, when the local
authorities failed to put an end
to it, the State stepped in to
save her fair name and Roby is no
more.
But here
at West Baden has sprung up an
institution that is far more
disastrous in its effects than
Roby ever world have been had it
continued on the lines originally
marked out and followed until it
closed. Here it goes on as a sort
of a refined pastime and is as
open as any line of legitimate
business. Roby was an evil
because of the element it brought
into the State from Chicago. The
gambling which these people
indulged in could never have hurt
them. They were gamblers for the
most part and no influence which
the existence of Roby could have
exerted would ever have caused
their degeneration. But the State
objected to being made a dumping
ground for the vices of Chicago
and the institution was broken
up.
At this
place all is different. There are
no great crowds of gamblers and
toughs flocking in here on
account of advertised races and
gambling institutions. But the
gamblers are here and their work
is of an insidious nature that is
hard to counteract. Their work if
ruin is such that it not only
results in the fleecing of many
an unwary visitor, who has come
here for health or pleasure, but
tends to create a demoralizing
influence upon the residents of
the place and upon the visitors
who come here in such large
numbers during the summer months.
Women and children are as
susceptible to the influence as
men, for the gambling room at the
hotel is just as open as a dining
room or parlors.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES INACTIVE
It seems
that the local authorities will
do nothing to suppress the evil.
The people have ceased to
importune them and have now
turned to the people of the State
for relief. If the thing must go
on it must be with the full
knowledge of all the people of
the State, for the respectable
people of Orange County will not
longer bear the shame and
disgrace of it alone.
West
Baden is in Orange County about
115 miles southwest of
Indianapolis and fifteen miles
from Orleans and the main line of
the Louisville, New Albany and
Chicago Railroad. The county
itself does not boast of the best
reputations, for the reason that
here whitecapism originated. But
whitecapism in its pristine
meaning was not the lawlessness
that it has since become The
original white cape of Orange
County were law-abiding and
organized for the purpose of
ridding the county of such
desperadoes as the Archer
Brothers, whose gang was such a
terror to the good people of the
county about ten years ago. The
people are of average
intelligence and are as
law-biding on the average as any
people of the State. The country
us rough and hilly and thinly
populated and there is
consequently reason for the
lawlessness which have formerly
existed where there could be
little restraint.
But times
have changed. West Baden had
become a noted health and
pleasure resort, and during the
summer months thousands of people
from all parts of the United
States visit the place. Crime has
also changed in form, and instead
of the former raids of the Archer
gang, in which robberies were
committed in true frontier style,
the thefts are committed by a
gang of genteel parasites in the
form of a lot of gamblers
imported from Chicago. Close to
the Springs is erected a large
four story hotel. it is very
rough in its construction and
uncouth in its arrangement. True,
there are electric lights in
every room, but they burn only
until 10 o'clock at night and are
then replaced by candles, and in
the hallways and corridors
kerosene lamps burn all night.
With this arrangement, when it is
considered that there are many
drunken men among the guest and
many are compelled to be about
the corridors at all hours of the
night, the probabilities of a
disastrous fire are great.
GAMBLING ARRANGEMENTS
This,
however, is immaterial to the
story. This hotel as well as the
lands adjoining and the Springs
are owned by Lee W. Sinclair and
E. B. Rhodes and these men leave
nothing undone which will bring a
dollar into their already
overflowing coffers. One of the
most profitable of their many
institutions is the gambling
privilege. In the most
conspicuous room in the house are
the gambling devices. The room is
almost in the center of the house
on the lower floor and more
accessible than the dining room.
The house is made of two main
buildings joined together with
three wings on one side and one
on the opposite side of them. The
room devoted to gambling being in
the center of the main building,
is approached by corridors from
almost every direction. Here are
fitted up almost every device
known to gambling- roulette,
faro, 'old Hy', stud poker, draw
poker and dice games.
Outside
of the building and near the walk
between two if the springs is a
tent in which another gambling
device is rigged up to catch a
certain element which the other
games fails to fascinate. This
consists of a race track with six
imitation horses and a mule. The
horses are painted two colors and
are numbered from one to six and
the mule is called "Orphan
Boy." A crank and geared
attachment spins these animals
around a small race course and
the betting is on the results of
the race. Five to one are the
odds paid for picking the winner;
two to one for a place and even
money for third. That is if a
wager is made that a certain
horse or the mule will come first
in the race the better, of his
horse wins, will be paid $5 for
each $1 wagered; if he bets that
his horse or the mule will come
out either first or second and
wins he is paid $2 for each $1
wagered; if he bets that horse or
mule will get either first,
second or third place and wins he
simply gets $1 for each $1
wagered, or even money can be bet
on color. The house in this
institution always has "a
mule" the best of it and
with the number of possible
winners so small this is
decidedly an advantage.
EVERYBODY PLAYS
There are
few people who stop at this hotel
who do not either play at some of
the games offered or visit the
rooms where they are played. The
privileges are enjoyed by Joseph
Cook, Ed Randall,
"Mickey" Woodruff and
Joe Metriss, all well-known
Chicago gamblers, who pay a fancy
price into the Sinclair-Rhodes
coffers. It is said on good
authority that these gentlemen
pay no less than $2,500 for the
season and besides this agree
that they, their wives and
friends and a score of employees
and their wives shall board at
the hotel and pay a fair price.
The women
who are supposed to be wives of
these men cut a big figure in the
gambling at this place. There are
half a dozen of them and they are
of the average intelligence and
good appearance and dress always
in the best of style. They are
therefore easily taken for the
wives or daughters of the
respectable people who visit the
place by the thousands during the
summer. These women loiter about
the gambling rooms and act as
cappers to inveigle men and women
into the places and they are
wonderfully successful. The
novelty of seeing a woman betting
at the "wheel" will
attract the attention of men who
in turn will take a hand at the
game. Women, too, seeing these
women in the rooms will not
hesitate to enter. They have seen
these women and believe them to
be perfectly respectable. There
is a feeling that this must be
the "proper" thing at
West Baden and into the gambling
room they go, very often taking
children with them. They, too,
are drawn on by a desire to
speculate and very often they
will lose large sums of money on
the first visit to the room. One
trip creates a desire for another
and so it has come about that the
gambling rooms at the hotel at
West Baden are rarely without
women players.
THE WOMAN GAMBLER
This
woman gambler element at West
Baden has a terrible effect upon
the social conditions. A place of
this kind is usually a place of
meeting during hot weather of
society people. And it is true
that many such people are here
now and will continue to come,
but not more than once after they
see how |
|
things are going. During
the past few weeks there more than
once after they see how things
are going. During the past few
weeks there have been many of the
most prominent citizens of
Chicago and Northern Illinois
here, anyone of whom could,
perhaps, buy the entire county.
They are men of the world, who
have seen things in the world as
they are and who are yet members
of the very best society. A
general surprise was in store for
them when they saw how things
were going here, and there was a
general avowal among them that
they would not allow their
families to visit the place. Of
course, many of the best people
coming here do not mingle with
the gamblers and their women, but
many others equally as
respectable and occupying as high
positions in society are thrown
in with them before they know
their character. They are bound
to meet in the dining room and
parlors. The fact that the guest
are transient and that there is
consequently a disposition to
tolerate most anything for a
while is all that has prevented a
general uprising of the guest.
This fact has also, perhaps,
saved the gamblers the position
they occupy. It is not because
they have not reaped a harvest
from the many victims they have
made during the summer that there
has been no loud protest against
them. Far from it; they have
skinned the guest of the hotel
day after day and night after
night by the score and hundred
and have made a small fortune out
of their business. But the guest
are transient and feel like they
are strangers and a protest would
be useless in a place where the
gambling is such an open
industry. Then, too, there are
among the victims persons who
occupy such positions at home
that they cannot afford to let it
be known that they have been
gambling there. Others are too
proud to acknowledge that
somebody got the best of them.
These circumstances, coupled with
the protection received from the
county officials, render the
gamblers pretty secure from
molestation and they realize full
well their security.
THE "SURE THING"
GAMBLER
Another
and more dangerous element of the
society of West Baden Spring is
the "sure thing"
gambler. He flourishes at the
hotel and is allied very closely
with Cook and his partners. Not
that the latter are not sure
winners; they have a big per cent
the best of their patrons and
cannot fail to win, but there is
a bare possibility that their
games may be beaten. Not so,
however, with the other element.
The many who falls into the hands
of the "deacon" and his
gang has no more show than he has
of flying. This gang has a room
over a restaurant east of the
railroad, where they have fleeced
many a man, among them several
Indianapolis men. A few of the
leaders of this gang are Dan
Levy, Q. A. Birch, "Scarface
Mike" and the
"Deacon". This latter
gentleman's name is John Miller,
and he is commonly called
"Doc" by his friends
and by the guest at the hotel who
are acquainted with his game he
is called the "Deacon."
He has the appearance of a very
pious man and would easily be
taken for a circuit rider or the
superintendent of a country
Sunday School. His appearance is
his stock in trade, and on the
strength of it has he been
enabled to "steer" many
a poor "sucker" up
"against" the "big
unit".
These men
all stop at the hotel and cannot
be distinguished by the newcomer
from the hundreds of other guest.
Their game is the old confidence
racket. They play for persons who
will not get snared by the open
gambling tables in the hotels. A
man's confidence once won, he is
accidently escorted to the room
over the restaurant, where a game
of stud poker is in progress. The
stakes are enormous and a bet of
a hundred dollars is not at all
infrequent. The
"steerer" is invited to
take a hand, and says the dealer:
"Will your friend join
us?"
BREAKING THE VICTIM
The
steerer accepts the invitation
and if the victims accepts he
very soon finds himself
"broke," and here is
the way it is done. He gets an
ace full on kings; another man,
called among the fraternity,
"the silent hand," gets
four trays. One of the trays,
however, is the "hole"
card and is not exposed to view
as the other four cards. Of the
four cards exposed to view one is
a queen and the other three are
trays, but one of the trays is so
covered as to look like an ace,
and it invariably happens that
the dealer in throwing the cards
manages to cover the tray of the
suit of which the victim has not
the ace. Here then is a player
with four trays, but to the
observer who dies not know the
trick it does not appear that he
can have more than three trays,
for there appears to be only two
in sight. On the opposite side of
the table sits another player
known as the "kicker".
He has three queens in sight. As
the betting proceeds all the
players but these three drop out.
The victim sizes up the
situation, and is confident that
he cannot be beaten. He has an
ace full (two aces and two kings
in sight, and an ace buried) and
the best the man on the right can
have is a queen full, for the man
at his left has one queen. The
man on his left apparently cannot
have a better hand than three
tray. The ace full is, therefore,
the best hand, and it is rarely
that a man who will sit down and
gamble at all won't bet on it for
all he has. The man with the
three queens does all the
raising, the man with the trays
simply calling as the bet goes
round. It is, therefore, with no
little surprise that the victim
finds that he has been betting
against four of a kind.
If the
victim is ushered into the room,
he refuses to play, the
"friend" asks him to
wait a few minutes until he plays
a few hands. The
"friend" plays and is
very lucky. In the course of a
few deals he wins several hundred
dollars and generously shoves a
stack of checks over to the
victim with the remark:
"Play
these for me and you may have all
you win. I guess I'm lucky and
can afford to divided a good
thing."
This
friendly proffer and a chance to
get into the enticing game
without risk is more than most
men, who will go to the place,
can stand. The victim generally
gets in and then when he gets the
"big mit" he will bet
all the checks and all the money
he has on it.
The most
successful "steerer"
that has been at the Springs this
season was the notorious
all-round confidence man, Bill
Trailor, alias Col. Taylor. He
was so successful in his work and
succeeding in robbing men so fast
that there was a general uprising
among his victims and he was
compelled to leave the place. But
he has an able successor in the
person of the "Deacon".
THE SHELL ROAD
This
latter class of gamblers also
populates the "Shell
Road", as the road between
West Baden Springs and French
Lick Springs has been called on
account of a number of grafters
and shell workers that frequent
the road.The road is a very
popular walk; almost everybody
who visits either of the two
resorts walks over to the other
and back. It is along the road
between the two places that the
shell-workers lay for their
victims and they find them, too.
Just a day or two ago a Hebrew
gentleman and his wife were at
the hotel and the former, with
his native fondness for gaming,
was in the habit of playing the
horses; but his wife would
unbraid him most severely for
losing a dollar or two. The other
day they started to walk to
French Lick and on the way met
"Scarfaced Mike" and a
confederate who was acting as a
capper. The capper was just
posting his money for a bet that
he could pick out the shell under
which lay the ball when Jake and
his wife came upon them. The two
gamblers were greatly excited and
the two pedestrians stopped just
in time to see the capper pick
out the ball and win a handsome
bet.
Again
were the shells manipulated and
Mike offered to accept any bet
that the ball could not be
located. Now, Jake could see from
his position and so could his
wife, just where the ball lay. In
fact, Mike had been careless
enough to let the shell rest on
the ball and the latter could be
seen plainly.
I'll bet
you," cried Jake, and his
wife was as eager as he was to
get a go at the good thing.
"All
right. How much?" was
Scarfaced Mike's obliging answer.
"I'll
bet you $30 - all I've got - that
its under this shell." and
Jake clapped his hand down upon
the shell before the ball should
disappear while with the other
hand fished up his roll. In her
excitement, for fear they should
not get the benefit of such a
sure thing, his wife clapped her
hand on top of his and watched
the shell while Jake put up his
money. They the shell was raised
and the ball - wasn't there. Jake
lost with his wife's consent and
approval on an iron clad cinch.
There are
a score of these games going on
every afternoon along this road
and the victims number into the
hundreds. Sunday is the favorite
day, this being the day when more
excursions are made between the
two resorts. There is no Sabbath
at West Baden Springs. One day is
like another there. The gamblers
flourish just the same and the
suckers are fleeced just as
openly. It is one continual round
of joy to the gambler and the
landlords of the hotel - but what
is it for the victims of their
numerous snares? |