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Show WHEBJE CONVICTS GAMBLE. "A few weeks ago, while sojourning In Carson City, the capital of Nevada. I witnessed wit-nessed a scene that struck me as exceedingly exceed-ingly curious, and which probably was never duplicated anywhere In this country'." coun-try'." said Mr. T. B. Gardiner of Chicago, at the Shoreham. "A friend of mine who was on good terms with the Warden of the State penitentiary peni-tentiary took me to that institution on a Sunday afternoon, and there I saw all the convicts, numbering several hundred, assembled as-sembled in the long dining-room of the structure, playing poker, seven-up, monte, faro and nearly all the gambling games known to Western sports. Don t think for a minute that these men were merely playing for fun; they were betting chips which stood for sure-enough money, and the play was just as serious and as much on 4he level as though it were taking place in a regular gaming establishment "This gambling, my friend told me, was never allowed on any other day but Sunday, Sun-day, ths idea being that as the State laws licensed it, there was no valid objection to the inmates of the prison engaging therein. there-in. Every convict was Issued checks showing show-ing how much cash there was to his credit, and If he chose to lose these checks representing rep-resenting his money at cards. It was his own affair. While the men played, which they did with all the fervor of free gamesters, game-sters, a couple of guards sat watching them with loaded Winchesters In their laps, ready to put down the slightest outbreak out-break or least indication of disorder with a form of argument that scarcely ever falls to persuade." Washington Post. |