GAMBLING-SALOONS. 241 



with a man who at supper the night before had said that 

 C( this place was only removed by the thickness of a sheet of 

 writing-paper from a certain hot place/' which shall be name- 

 less. The swells were the gamblers, who seemed always to 

 have plenty of money, with which they were continually treat- 

 ing their friends, and they generally drove a fine pair of 

 trotting-horses and had some good dogs. We had met many 

 of them in St. Joe when fitting out for our various trips, and 

 had always found them very civil, giving us many invitations 

 to " drop in and see them some evening," for which we 

 thanked them, but did not take advantage of. As there were 

 some four thousand men working on the railway and getting 

 good wages, never less than eight shillings a day, and as, 

 being the terminus of the railway, all miners from the moun- 

 tains when on their way home for the winter were obliged to 

 come there to take the train, there was a great deal of money 

 to be made by these gentry, many miners bringing in several 

 thousands of dollars, and losing them all in one night, working 

 at anything they could get till spring, and then beginning 

 again. Nearly all the saloons had some attraction to tempt 

 people to go in long-distance walking-matches against time 

 being the craze when we were there, most of the saloons having 

 some such notice as the following, in a transparency : " Walk 

 in, gentlemen, and see John Smith, the champion long-distance 

 walker of the world, who is doing one thousand miles in one 

 thousand hours, and is now fresher than when he began last 

 week. N.B. Don't be taken in by the shams at the other 

 houses." The said John Smith when you went in to see him, 

 paying one shilling for doing so, looked wonderfully fresh, 

 which was not surprising, as he went comfortably to bed on 



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