A Terrible State of Society—Gambling Scenes in Helena.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Omaha Republican, writing from Helena, Montana, referring to the gambling hells of that place, says: ’Tis no disgrace, so considered here, to visit these dens; for there it is you find your most intimate friends—judges, lawyers, doctors—everybody, in fact. But you try and imagine yourself at my elbow, and that accomplished, we will “swing around the circle” just far enough to get a glimpse of the kind of life one is able to find in these hell-holes of chandeliered crime. Here is a long, low, rough-appearing, frame structure with port-holed windows along the sides, double doors in front, just outside of which a band of screeching horns are poisoning the air with unhealthy sounds. We enter the hall, now brilliant with rows of burning candles—for remember it is night—and jammed with drunken miners, the respectable element of the community, others who are cut-throats, some who are professionally nothing more nor less than handy tools for any and all villainous purposes. Every man, we were careful to observe, had a fine-looking pistol buckled to his side—never used, we understand, only when it becomes actually necessary to shoot a friend. There are twenty-three tables in the room, or hall, which is, perhaps, 200 feet in length; some of these tables are large, while others are small. This however, is all the same, for the superintendents of each are alike contemptible to the eye of a decent man. There is a game of “Faro,” around which are assembled the friends of both winner and loser. Five thousand dollars in gold-dust is lying in a sack upon the table. The unfortunate loser is fired with “gambling rage,” and is just now cursing a song by note; the lucky “dealer” and his infamous “cappers,” are alive with exultant spirits. Here again is a “keno” stand, seemingly well patronized; there a “three card monte” trap at which a Roman-nosed Jew is operating the tricks; here one thing, there another, all and each a baited net to string the unwary foot. It is safe to say that one thousand men have returned poorer for the visit, others have been fed on a baited hook, that they may be the more easily caught hereafter. Probably $20,000 have changed hands in this one place to-night, and there are dozens of such sinks in town.