Show NEGRO KING Of POKER tj I Experiences Experienc s of Barton the Boss of Black Gamblers I I HAS WON A FORTUNE I FORMER SLAVE LAVE VE WHO BAZ MAS MASTERED DETAILS OF OP POKER BOXER I 4 i Chicago Inter Ocean Los Angeles Cal Aug Auff Charles Wa Washington Barton who wiio Is probably t the richest professional proCessional negro gambler in Jn the southwest and aud Is one of ot the roost most famous In the fraternity In the United j States Is spending a row few days at the thel l seaside resorts re orts in southern California C He has been In the City of ot Mexico and ard Monterey Max Mex for nearly a year yeal where he has participated In some Borne of ot the th biggest PuL pol pr r games ever known In the republic H 1 will ivill go to the Paris exposition In a few fv weeks and return to Mexico for another winter of ot gam gamIng gamIng am Ing mg He Ie speaks Spanish as easily as ashe ashe J he does English He owns a tract of ot I valuable land In the suburbs of ot San Francisco he has a block of stock In Inthe in inthe 1 the water company at San Antonio Tex he owns one of a brewery at t St Joseph Jooeph Mo where his wife and children make their home hom Roughly estimated he Is worth The Mexicans are the greatest gam gamblers gamblers gamblers In the world said he the other day Even Evea the most Ignorant peons down there seem to know the permutations permutations and probabilities of ot sets of ot cards better than thoughtful Intelligent p peo o ople pIe in the United States Monte and faro aro are their great games and thou thousands thousands sands ands of ot them set apart a certain part put of their weekly earnings for tor gaming every Saturday night and Sunday J The women are the greatest H gamblers of their sex anywhere Everybody down there loves to take chances chancos of winning 0 money and the most roost exciting games r I ever saw were those about the monte and taro faro tables in Vera Cruz and the City of ot Mexico Thousands of ot business men spend a certain number of hours ho each day 1 gambling and one of the first questions they are asked a upon going coing home is how they fared at the green table that day d y In all the large Mexican cities clUes there arc are several big gambling games that are run as regularly as a national bank Is Js in the United States The game gamo opens pens each week day at a certain hour and closes exactly on time no matter whether hether the game is running in favor of or against the house On Sun Sundays Sundays Sundays days the length It of ot the game is doubled but it is all regularly conducted and has been for years yearn One game at Monterey has missed ed but three days In years and a game In a great gaudy han hall at Guadalajara rt has been opened and closed at the same hours for tor forty years except In times timos of o political l ns and public ca calamity calamity Calamity lamity Several of the big gamblers In are strong political p leaders and andare andor andare are or the most esteemed citizens of their cities Greatest of Gambling Places i iThe Ir t r The greatest of all Mexican gam gambling j hung bUng is done at Tacubaya a suburb of i the City of Mexico I doubt If any gambling in the United States ever j equaled that at Tacubaya Tacuba a The spot is a beautiful one and tens of ot thou thousands thousands thousands sands of ot dollars have ave been spent In Ini i 3 beautifying It with art architecture I and landscape gardening The monte game there Is practically limited That ThatIs Is It Is limited to the sum the dealer of or the hoUt e han hac in front of him Often Orten these stacks or of gold run as high as a 2 In value You know that at i Monto Monte Carlo all that a man roan can win I Iby by a successful coup Is 1300 but at i Tacubaya the limit is the ceiling i Americans are always impressed by the I politeness s of ot Mexican professional I gamblers The old hidalgos down there I are arc line sports Each Bach of ot them is out for a good time In the capital each is Isi i clad in the typical rich Mexican cos costume costume costume tume and each is accompanied by a at t couple of d peons who trundle red wheel wheelbarrows wheelbarrows I barrows harrows about half halt the size of ot the i American barrow In these are rou you of silver sliver dollars with leather or tarred ta canvas canyas on the outside and tightly sealed with black wax at the ends The Th wax bears always the Im un Impression Impression df the hidalgos seal lie Ho seats himself opposite the dealer and anda a D space is cleared for tor him on either hand liand players drop slightly to the rear because they know that a auel auel uel luel is on The dealer decorously bows Ills his head md ard says I wish you good fortune senor The hidalgo says With all my mf heart I wish yours The red have ben placed on each cach side of the Ithe player He takes from one of them a rouleau and lays it upon a cyd crL d In Th his dark fa there Is only a mild mUd interest The battle will con cott I until all the are gone or some thousands have been taken from tram the gamblers pile Whether Wb ether ther win winning ning niP or losing the old hidalgo never I forgets targets his politeness ess He asks par don when he Is slow In placing his wagers and he thanks the dealer when I he gets sets his winnings I Hows gambling in the western states nowadays Very Ye dull dult except in i I Montana Mon na and San Francisco There are ae areno areno aeno no big games anywhere In the Union nowadays except occasionally in New I Orleans I have recently talked with gamblers who have been everywhere I here in the west wes t seeking places 1 la ces where big games are a played and they all say j the stagnation that has come cone over the western gaming fraternity Is the most general and complete they have ever knowd The same thing obtains In the eastern states I know personally of hundreds of the gamblers who are broke and cannot get even a chance I at a foothold to climb into easy circum I stances again Bartons Schooling In Poker I How long have hav I been a gambler Practically all my life Ufe I was born a slave on the farm tarm in south southern southern ern ecu Missouri about 1846 1246 but I had an indulgent kind master ard mistress who spoiled me by leniency I had an unusually good common school education tIn tion probably the best tuition that any negro boy had had in that region of Missouri My master proposed making m me his bookkeeper per or business manager among thE colored folks on the farm when he was away selling his crops But I was not taught to do hard work and to know va ue i patient toiL I knew how to play cards when a mere toddler Mr used to have me called to his house hous from our cabin to show his visitors how skillfully I T could play several games of solitaire That must have been when I was wa about 7 years old 1 learned poker from watching the games that my master and his planter friends used to play day after day for tor or a week at a time at the farm I 1 must have been about 12 years old when I had a fairly correct idea of at how poker was played When the civil war broke out I waa was about 15 years old and my master hav hay having havIng ing log gone into the confederate army I Iran Iran Iran ran away and finally got to Chicago There I worked In a aloon saloon and my m talent for tor cards soon became known knorn I worked for tor 53 3 a to week for Cor just two months Then with a backer who agreed to give me 50 a month for a year and share halt half my profits I be became became became came a professional poker player pla er The fact that I was black and had a better education than a good many of the theburn burn bum gamblers whom I met mt m t about the green table gave me a reputation That was what I wanted I l had clerks book bookkeepers bookkeepers bookkeepers keepers and sam gamblers bIers hunt me up In those days and make dates with me for a game I used to have haye superstitious gamblers by the way all gamblers have some particular super superstitions come around and beg me to have a game with them because e they had been playing In hard luck for a ase season se son They thought that If It they could win from a black gambler they would have a decided change in luck Before I was wa i 18 although lack of sleep and my nervous exciting pursuit made me look loo several years older I was playing Ir In games in Chicago where a jackpot frequently contained and The very day the Chicago news newspapers newspapers newspapers papers published the news that Lincoln had hai signed the emancipation pro lama tier and I was a tree free man I figured up my cash and personal assets which were Had I been a afree free man a afew afew afew few years before I might have then had double that capital but I was con constantly afraid some find out outI I was a slave nd take all my money m ney on a threat of sending me rue back to old Missouri and I never cared much touch to accumulate wealth Great Games In Chicago The most wonderful days I ever knew for poker playing were in the first ten years after the war The sol aol soldier soldier dier boys came home from army array and camp life expert poker players and the game had an extraordinary revival I believe tt it was about 1870 that General Robert C Schenck of Ohio made the game famous in Europe The poker rooms in Chicago and St Louis multi multiplied multiplied multiplied plied fast and all did a smashing sma hing bi big business just after the war The Alca Alcazar Alcazar Alcazar zar club on Madison street in Chicago was Vas run by three officers and andI I had some stock in it In 1867 and 1863 1869 a total Investment of there yielded a year clean profit The Morrison club on Polk street was a gorgeous affair and I know personally that Its net annual profits were over per pcr cent on the investment From Prom Chicago aGo I went west I was in Virginia Pity City In the marvelous days when men sprang from mining laborers to multimillionaires In a year Then Thea I went to San Francisco and since 1875 I have played for weeks and months In every town of ot or more population population tion In the west The fact that I am ama a black man roan has been the greatest fac far factor factor tor in my success for over a third of a century Every day I have people come ome up to me and say they have haye heard of 1 me I know if I had been white I would not be remarked among the army of in the west I have made several long tours among the gambling clubs In the eastern states but shall ahaU go there no more A prejudice exists among the poker play players players ers era there against sitting in a game with witha a colored man and I cannot canno do my best when I feel that every winning I make Is not net n t looked upon as it would be beIt if It taken by b a white man manHave manHave manHave Have I found poker generally played honestly Yes in the professional sense of ot the phrase phrae but not in the strict oral sense I mean that poker is the art of deceit and moral playing But the most honorable men I have ever known knoO so far tar as their word and conduct go outside of gaming are pro gamblers The older I 1 grow and the more I play poker the more I Iam Iam Iam am sure poker is the least known of any game of cards It is the young fellow who is having the th usual begin beginners beginners ners lurk luek who knows all about poker Generally poker Is played far more honestly nowadays than twenty or thirty years ago A man who has played the game in all the western towns as long as I have must necessarily necessarily necessarily have been an honest player or he would not be alive Poker a Scientific Game The scientific playing pl of poker is the greatest school of human nature ever invented I once lost by bv an opponents Opponent s observing a very minute fact In my nature at that time It was fifteen years ago at Leadville I Iwas Iwas Ion was on the Santa Fe railroad one day going from Trinidad to La Junta Junto Colo Cob Colonel George Gucker and several other professionals prof were along Some Someone Someone Someone one found Cound that we could not make con connection connection connection at La Junta Colonel Colone Gucker casually noted that in my worry about missing close connection I lightly lingered the buttonhole of my coat with my mJ left hand It was several weeks later that Gucker and I met In a game at Leadville There were six of ot us around the table tabb The jack pot Dot ot had swelled to about 1200 I had SOO in It I finally called Gucker and he won on three sevens I had three fives He told me some time after that when he saw me m put my fingers lingers in my button buttonhole buttonhole buttonhole hole that my stolid countenance was a mask for a somewhat worried feeling at a rather poor Door hand Buffalo Bill once told me that In a big game at Omaha an opponent observed him Bill bite his mustache the least bl bit The nent had noted that as Bills un an unconscious conscious con trick when a little nervous about a hand On the strength of that observation Bill Bm was called after a dozen raises and he dropped several thousand dollars in a few minutes uI I was In Leadville in 1880 when wh n games in which there were and upward were vere sometimes played and also in Virginia City in 1873 when the Comstock mining kings had games games which made some men m n and 30 richer but I never saw them I once saw a gr me in Leadville In which the chips were wele 20 each and in which four miners miner United States Senator Tabor among them handled be between between between tween 9 p m and 1 a m I believe a Denver man named Peters started In that game me with 1200 1260 in his pocket pock t that night and came away with The longest succession of big games of any town I have ever known in the west were those at Cheyenne when the cat cattle cattle cattie tle tie kings became famous from 1875 to 1882 Millionaires abounded there then and many men who were poor cow cowpunchers cowpunchers cowpunchers punchers in 1870 had bank accounts ac of in 1880 besides herds worth twice as much more Great Gambling in Cheyenne People used to say sa that no other town of the size of Cheyenne had so many gambling places I have known young Englishmen to toland land In Cheyenne with and for the purpose of going Into cattle and they never did dida dl di l la la a thing until they had gambled away every dime There were two suicides in one week along in the summer of ot 1878 ISiS of young Englishmen who had spent large fortunes In faro or poker Wash Vash Braymer was the king bee of or orthe the gambling fraternity In Cheyenne for several years He owned faro fare rou roulette roulette roulette lette and keno layouts and four poker clubs He used to have an income of a month He was ws a fine poker player and many manya a night he won jack jackpots jackpots pots pote that ranged from HOO to each But he took to drink lost his ability to play a close game and the first he knew he was vas meat for the other gam gamblers gamblers bIers In a year ear he li h changed from n a aman 1 man worth worth of property to a bum playing in games of antes He died a year later and was buried by the charity of the profession When the cattle ranges began to t be di divided divided vided In farms and the cattle barons lost heavily by b the freezing winter weather Cheyenne began to decrease In population and her hor rich men be became became became came poor The gorgeous gambling houses closed one by one and in 1888 there was left |