Show r n IRON NERVE AND HORSE SENSE MADE I LUCKY BALDWIN AN FRANCISCO Tho death of old Lucky Baldwin huts tAN ed many stories of the man who easily ranked as the boldest speculator and d gambler of California Not that Baldwin was a plunger on the turf in the way that finally ended Riley Grnnnnns career or a speculator specula-tor in tho sense of a man who bucks the market on his general observation observa-tion of the trend of prices Baldwin nearly always carried on his big deals on the basis of secret Information Occasionally ho was misled by his enthusiasm over a horse that he fancied fan-cied but nine times out of ten his most spectacular plays were made on a sure thing What he did have was an Iron nerve and the horse sense to know when to get out of a deal with tho maximum of profit How his lean form endured the excitement ex-citement of his life for 80 years Is one of the marvels which IID doctor can explain Ho lived hard and during 15 years that ho kept the Baldwin hotel he seemed never to get any sleep Any one who wandered around to tho barroom or the card room of the hotel In tho early morning hours would be sure to see the old man circulating cir-culating about or taking a hand in a game of poker And If you visited tho hotel at seven a in when the place seemed as dead as a mausoleum the chances are you would find him pacing up and down the long vestibule looking look-ing as fresh as though he had gone to bed with tho birds the night before Fortune from the Comstock The Comstock silver mines made Baldwin a millionaire Like Flood and OBrien he had no special education in mining Ho began life in San Francisco Fran-cisco as a hotel keeper In a humble way and It was from a chance guest at his place that he secured his tip on the great richness of the ore in tho Ophlr and Sierra Nevada mines on the Comstock Baldwin never trusted to secondhand second-hand Information He dispatched a practical miner whom he could trust to Virginia City and had this man secure se-cure work in both mines The man found that the ore was richer than reported Then Baldwin lost no time In getting into action The first reports of rich ore had sent Ophlr stock up many points but insiders spread rumors that the ore vein had pinched out Then there was a slump as every one tried to get out Baldwin went In then and bought right and left and before tho insiders knew what he was about he had received enough stock to make him several times a millionaire On a stock market mar-ket that registered fluctuations of sev p i F t t I i fi Y t1 I 1 II I 1 I 1 a IYFrSIa EyFWoa urv7 r 1 F P1fr 1AHr E F I 4rr i I I Ail k h < rt 4 t Ll9hY 28Er8YoaoP lryo ts BFArs flii eral hundred dollars a share in a single day a speculator of Baldwins nerve had a great chance and ho never missed an opportunity to add to his fortune Presided with a Six Shooter One of his most spectacular coups was in Sierra Nevada Baldwin had secured the majority of tho stock but the formal transfers of this stock had not been made on time books so tho old directors called a meeting and planned to elect on old proxies aboard a-board of directors for a year and thus keep Baldwin out of the rftrnagesont Baldwin hoard of the scheme and promptly had his lawyer Reuben 41 Lloyd prepare an Inlunctlon against the old directors forbidding them togo to-go on with the election rime meeting was set for Monday at nine a in At the last moment Lloyd rushed Into Baldwins olllco with the news that It was impossible to get his Injunction papers signed until ten oclock Veil said Baldwin after a moments mo-ments pause you go up to court and as soon as you get the judges signature signa-ture come down allylng In a hack Ill keep the directors from holding that meeting Baldwin sauntered jauntily over to the meeting and endured calmly the guying of those who thought he had been euchred Ho was seated In the room as a stockholder when tho president pres-ident of the company arose and announced an-nounced the call for the annual election elec-tion Baldwin then got up and entered a formal protest but tho president ruled him out of order Old Lucky miidc only two or three strides to the presidents side and before tho astonished official knew what had happened ho was lying under un-der the table and Baldwin was presiding presid-ing in his place with n six shooter in his right hand lie swore ho would shoot any man who interfered or who tried to leave the room and for half an hour he bulldozed all hands until Lloyd broke In with the Injunction papers pa-pers and the day was saved His Breach of Promise Cases Horses women and music all interested inter-ested Baldwin With horses he scored a great success but with women ho certainly didnt have tho same luck Ho was regularly married three times but his Irregular relations were numerous These relations generally with young women still in their teens brought him often Into the courts and twice subjected him to pistol fire One woman who pretended to be his niece Verona Baldwin tried potshot pot-shot at the old man In the Baldwin hotel one night and a bullet hit him in the wrist She declared that ho had promised marriage and then refused to keep his word Tho case was hushed up and the woman got a pension pen-sion In another case brought by Lena Ashley also for breach of promise her sister shot at Baldwin In the courtroom court-room but the bullets went wild and the girl was overpowered In tho last breach of promise case Brought against him Baldwin actually pleaded that the girl should have known his general reputation and not have trusted his promises A Queer Funeral Baldwin was as original In his funeral as in his life He provided in his will that no religious services should be held but that an orchestra should render at the cemetery operatic pieces as well as two musical compositions com-positions by his favorite daughter This programme was curried out in full except that tho numbers from Ia Bohomo were omitted perhaps > us too frivolous for a funeral But tho Miserere of Trovatoro and the grand march from Aida were tendered assoil as-soil as Handels Largo There were no signs of grief at the funeral Most of those present were old tirno friends of Baldwin who swapped reminiscences reminis-cences and told curious tales Two of these old friends as they came up to take a look at the thin sot face of the dead gave the best summary of his character Game and fighting to the last said one Never asked anything never gave anything paid for erythlns ho got but wouldnt be held UIII That was the eulogy of the other Lucky Baldwins Two Side Lucky HnldwInH nature was a 1 peculiar pe-culiar mixture of parsimony mid open liniidednesa but these two Units did not crop out In him synchronously He was until might ho called streaky Individual For months at a stretch ho would exhibit a lavlsliiioxa of personal expenditure ex-penditure that dazzled oven tho top of samples but ho was too honest a man to think of hypothecating any of his firms stuff in order to get himself out of the mcHs In addition to the cash ho dropped the faro bank l had his markers for 1500 The salesman was due to return re-turn to New York He had overdrawn on his expense account and didnt dare to wire his firm for another dollar but he had to go home and he had to take tip his 1500 In faro bank markers before leaving San Francisco He didnt know Lucky Baldwin except ex-cept In a casual way He always stopped at Baldwins hotel had been Introduced to the old man was on nodding term i with him in tho lobby and that was all The salesman pretty I well worked up over his tioublcs strolled into the bar before breakfast one morning to get a supporting snifter Lucky sifted In about halt a minute behind him The two exchanged nods Called the Tenderfoot Saw you playing some pretty fool I bank a 1 couple of nights ago Baldwin remarked The salesman hadnt seen Baldwin nt the faro bank Fo6leat bank I ever saw the old man wonton wont-on You jimlppiH from the oust havens have-ns much Idea of pla > ltig the bank asa as-a 1 mountain Him linn of playing Ihe harp They took you of course The Haltsmall teplled that limey nun had taken him tiiKcn him bad Not In any kind of n 1 mesa over it are you ouiigHler Inquired Baldwin Whereupon the New York milosiuan opened up and told tlaldwln just the kind of muHS he was In fifteen hun drOll In bank markers to pay nc money to niUun to New York nc chance to ask the firm for more coin 4 c v i I 1 y I I y 1 1 r f IlLfJlIII1flfflJ ONA BALD 11I1 A flYE 19UYDNFD JLLIR 8LL6 rOryE lRIEf LUCK THE 5q F MN RrrNEO I1I1N notchers among the high rollers and big spenders of the coast He would respond to every touch without a murmur mur-mur I When these prodigal fits were upon him he would gamble like a Charles James Fox often winding up after continued days and nights of play by walloping San Franciscos leading faro banks to a standstill Although never a deep drinker he would while thus in tho spending mood stand at the far end of his famous Baldwin hotel bar and order basket after basket of champagne to be served to casual bar patrons men ho had never seen before From such money tossing orgies Balwln would all of a sudden and without with-out notice or warning become a tightwad tight-wad of the first order a closeroll from whom a dollar couldnt be extracted by any other method except the use of dynamite It wasnt that his bundle was given out It was simply that it was Luckys nature to curl up completely com-pletely after a high spending fiesta and suddenly to turn Into a man with the mucilaginous mitt and the soldered sol-dered fist Penurious to an Extreme While in this state of mind ho would promptly turn his back even upon his closest friend who In temporary tem-porary straits for money asked him for a 1 small temporary lift Hed cutout cut-out the gambling completely let his 1 horses run for the purses and for Sweeney and hang on to a twobit piece so long that the eagle on the coin would begin to moult Then after a period of this sort of penuriousness penurious-ness presto Lucky vlluld get his spending habits on again all of a sudden sud-den and once more hc d proceed to make Coal 011 Johnny and Death Valley Scotty look like pikers A very sedate Now York traveling Jewelry salesman who didnt use to be so sedate tells a story to Illustrate Baldwins varying moods as to tho spending end of it Nearly twenty years ago tho jewelry salesman then traveling for a Maiden Lane diamond house went up against a San Francisco faro bank and got himself cleaned down beneath the pelt He was up against It He had his tens of thousands of dollars worth without giving himself dead away and soon Baldwin listened with his wide sardonic sar-donic grin then dug for his roll and skinned off six 500 bills and handed the money to tho salesman Take this and make good and then get back with your snow shovolers ho said to the salesman the oldtime Slopers still call eastern folk snow shovelors In contemptuous allusion to the rigors of the easts winter climate Dont play any more bank until you learn something about it Banks a grownup mans game You stick to mumbletypeg son and you wont got trimmed The salesman would only take 2000 of the money and had some trouble in mollifying the slightlyoffended Lucky when he insisted upon returning two of tho 500 bills which ho didnt need Ho quit San Francisco for Now York that evening paid Baldwin the 2000 back in instalments Inside of six months and was so grateful for getting get-ting out of the mess thus easily that he hasnt made a dime bet ever since Bluffed Charlie Fair There are men now living who remember re-member how one afternoon at the In glesldo track about sixteen years ago Lucky Baldwin made so high flying a gambler as the late Charlie Fair killed in Franco In an automobile accident I ac-cident some years agodraw in his I horns Baldwin and Fair both had horses entered In a stake race to be run off at Inglcslde that afternoon There was a sort of chafltng rivalry as to their horses between Baldwin and I Fair Lucky liked tho young man who at that time was the main high I roller of tho sons of Senator Fair which is saying a good deal Neither Baldwin nor Fair expected his horse to win in tho stage race because be-cause there was a horse entered for the event that seemed to outclass the field but Baldwin was dead sure that his horse would beat young Fairs horse while tho latter I was equally confident that his nag would beat Baldwins Baldwin was mooching around on the lawn halt an hour before the race when Charlie Fair grinning walked over to him Im not going to win I think but I sure am going to show that skate of yours up said young Fair to Lucky Baldwin grinned in his saturnine way and bit Into his unlighted cigar Not a chance young follow ho said to Fair Ill tell you what Ill do Charlie Ill bet you 500000 my I horse beats yours A lot of high notch betting folks were standing around Young Fairs Jaw dropped and his smile faded Bet you half a million son that my nag beats yours repeated Baldwin Bald-win munching his smoke Oh behave that pop said young Fair and ho walked away Baldwin had topped even his limit Charlie Fair must have been tho sorest man from Juneau to Callao a few minutes after that He had swallowed swal-lowed a bolus in front of folks Ho had quit for tho first time In anybodys knowledge He had permitted the old man to chase him to tho chap paral Young Fairs horse not only beat I Baldwins but won tho race by ten lor lhs pulled to a trudge J |