Hide Article Text (OCR)
UN^E 11, 1901.PRICE, ONE CENT.of the West Is Now Located InPoker and HorseV.Races.faro and SlotHEAVY GAMES ARE THE RULE AND PLAYERS FROM CHICAGO, LOUISVILLE, DETROIT, CINCINNATI AND NEW YORK HAVE MADE ANOTHER ROBY OE THE NOTED INDIANA RESORT.- rEST BADEN. Ind., June 11.—(By a staff correspondent.)—Things are said to be a little dull just now atBaden Thatis to say, there is a period of quiet at the springs hotel, which consti-; tutes nine-tenths of the town and is j practically the only industry, and when j things are “quiet” at the hotel, the gambling which makes West Baden the Monte Carlo of the west is correspondingly quiet. March and April are said 1 to be the good months for the games, just why, it is not explained.There are now about 1100 guests in the hotel and, though it is looked upon as ! a “dull season,” yet the games are run, night, day and Sunday. And, notwithstanding the alleged dullness, every game has been making money—from the live-cent slot machine to the 5500 faro table.The West Baden gambling is under the direct control of Ed Ballard, a young man raised in the vicinity. Common report around the hotel is that Ballard pays 5300 a month to the hotel company for the “privileges.” The games are ■ mostly in a room on the second floor of the “opera house” building and directly ' over “Number 3,” the spring prescribed for kidney troubles. The signs on the outside indicate that there are pool and billiard tables and bowling alleys upstairs, as in fact there are. Immediately ' up stairs, however, the visitor encounters three ttve-cent slot machines, which are liberally patronized. The -writer ! watched a man play the center machine I for about 20 minutes, Sunday morning.; He spent almost $2 worth of nickels and won 30 cents. Nothing higher than a ten-cent winning was recorded by the i needle in winning was recorded by the needle in that time.The actual gambling-room Is separated ; from the pool and billiard-room by swinging doors, lettered “W. B. club.” This is supposed to mean “West Baden club.” and is intended to give the place an air of privacy and exclusiveness. As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as the “W. B. C. club,” so far as the writer was able to discover. On the walls of the main room in which Ballard’s principal operations are conducted are long blackboards similar to those recently ruled out of Tron’s saloon in Indianapolis. On these boardsdaily books are made on the St. Louis and Chicago races.“We give you the same prices they do at the tracks,” explained Charles F. Turner, the fat attendant of the roulette table. “Oh, when it’s a six-to-five shot at the track we usually give about seven to five, or something like that, you know.”“I tell you there are some ‘cinches’ there for Monday,” he said, as he ran his eye over the “form sheet,” copied on the board. “A man that can’t win, Monday, certainly ought to stay off the turf.”The bookmaking went on briskly, Saturday afternoon, but Mr. Ballard explained that the horses don’t go on Sunday and he couldn't make a book.In a little room to the right are “hazard tables,” but they are not doing muchbusiness. The bulk of the business is done on the roulette table and faro bank. The roulette table was kept fairly busy, Saturday night and Sunday, though the management complained that things were a little “easy.”“Fourteen cn the red; 11 on the black; IS on the black,” chanted the attendant, in monotonous tones, as he whirled the little white ball and kept the cup-shaped receiver slowly moving.“Ah, will you have another dollars worths ’Hon. Lee W. Sinclair.“Yes, 18 on the red; the one pays the other,” chanted the man, as his willing victim happened to play a winning snot. But he had another chip on a losing spot, and so it went. A handsomely dressed woman sat before the tablo for some time, Sunday morning, ancl watched the chips for which she had spent dollar after dollar slide noiselessly back as the polite and oily operator raked them in with his flabby hands. Women are sail to play this game for hours at a stretch, moving their fascinated gaze alternately between the little white ball and the disappearing chips which represent their losings.The percentage of losses Is mo ridiculously above the gains that it seems strange that the guests play the board, but they seem to care little when they lose, and play recklessly and silently.The faro bank did a poor business.. Sunday.--Jt is said, however, that when the season was on, about a month ago, it was one of the most popular games ot the room. Thu usual limit” restrictions are not placed on the faro table, and the pace' got so warm at one game that 5300 wan involved. There is no record, however, that the “hank” was ever broken.•The game which hover stops at West Baden is the Inevitable poker. “Dollar limit” is what it is supposed to be. One player was surprised, Sunday afternoon, to find that the ante” was $2. The ordinary “sweetened” pot is the usual form played. The sweetening” is frequently carried so far that the pot” is worth many dollars. The visitor can And this game on at almost any time in Ballard's room. Strangers are usually asked to “sit in.” If they decline they are permitted to look on if they are guests or the hotel. Six or seven usually “sit in” in every game. One fine looking woman “sat in” on a game, Saturday night, and was in and out of the rooms all day, Sunday.The hotel rules declare that no games will be permitted in the rooms. Nevertheless. three women and two men played cards openly for stakes, Saturday night, in one of the public writing-ropms.The West Baden springs hotel is operated by Lee W. Sinclair, E. B. Rhodes and J. F. Persise. The gambling is with the direct and open countenance of the management. A hotel clerk told the writer that none of the “country people are allowed in the room. Nobody but guests of the hotel arc- permitted, he’said, as the room is an institution maintained for their particular benefit.At least one-half of the guests are from Chicago and Louisville. A few are from Detroit, Cincinnati and Dayton, while others hail from all parts of the country. Only a small number of jndianapolis people reach West Baden.The gambling is considered to be a necessary evil for the prosperity of th«i place. Charles Turner, the jolly roulette man, says the company has to allow it.“Why, I was in Hot Springs,” he said a few v. ceks back. They passed a lav: putting us out of business. Our hotel had C00 guests - In a few days there were only 200. They went there for the gambling.”Mr. Turner’s remarks did not go su far as to say that people went to West Baden for that purrpose. but the implication was there.French Lick Springs, a mile west, where Mayor Taggart is seeking to establish a hotel, has no gambling. The French Lick visitors come over to West I laden in large numbers and patronize Ballard's games.The authorities of Orar.ge county i.evei molest Mr. Sinclair and his institution. It is not probable that any movement to stop the games could ever originate in West Baden or the vicinity. The population of the village consists almost entirely of the attaches of the hotel and tradesmen and laborers whose living is in the leakages from the liberal purses oi the guests. The minister., of the vicinity have sometimes raised their voices against the evil, but there were few sympathetic ears to listen. A fine-looking catholic church is now being constructed on the hill back of the hotel. The chimes are already completed and every 35 minutes they sound out seemingly in protest against the iniquity going on below.Men who have been losing at the game*E. B. Rhodes.say the chimes bother their consciences. Winners are not affected by them. Thisis the way the chimes are regarded at the hotel. Placards posted about the grounds, Saturday and Sunday, announced catholic services at a church in the neighborhood. This was one of the odd contradictions of the place.There is one paper in West Baden, the Journal, a pitiful sheet, devoted principally to the reproduction of the hotel register. AY. J. Prow is the editor. As a. matter of fact, Mr. Prow is an employe of the springs company, and the company owns the paper. It is published in the “opera house” building, within 50feet of the gambling-room. Naturally its voice is silent or. the gambling question.A redeeming feature of the springs ia the fact that no liquor is sold. This ia due to the character of the waters, which “hold such enmity” to liquor that they “tear up Jack” w een brought together in a man’s stomach. Liquor can be obtained, however, in the village.
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis Sun
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Tue, Jun 11, 1901
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
UT, USA 05 Jul 2019
Other Publications Near Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis Daily Sentinel
Indianapolis Republican Convention
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel
Indianapolis Indiana Democrat
Indianapolis Press
