values was thrown away amid
wilder scenes at night. Those, too, were, indeed, the flush times for
the professional gambler; for men were not content unless they burned
the candle at both ends. Day faro banks were open everywhere around the
Exchange, and enormous sums were nightly staked in the uptown games.
These were everywhere--all protected, and the proprietors invested their
money for rent, fixtures, etc., with as much confidence, and kept their
doors open as freely, as if embarked in a legitimate speculation.
Hundreds who spent the business hours of the day in the mad excitement
of the Exchange flocked around the green cloth at night, devoting the
same intensity of thought and brain to the turning of a card which
earlier in the day they had given to the market reports of the world.
Small wonder that death cut such wide swaths in the army of brokers.
Statistics show that it was more fatal to belong to that army than to an
army in the field.

Ed loved to have me with him, and I used to accompany him to a game,
then quite famous, run by John Morrissey, who later became a member of
Congress. At this time I never ventured a single bet, and did not like
to visit the place. But Ed would beg me to go, and always promised
faithfully not to remain more than twenty minutes. Of course, his twenty
minutes would lengthen into hours. Frequently I would take a chair into
a corner and go to sleep until he left the game, that being almost any
hour between midnight and morning. As usual, in such places, an elegant
supper was served free at midnight. The proprietor was always rather
attentive to me, and, to give him the credit due, seemed anxious that I
should not play. At supper he always reserved the chair next to himself
for me. One night while standing beside the roulette wheel, no one was
playing, and the dealer was idly whirling the ball, a sudden impulse
seized me, and the ball then rolling, I pulled a $20 bill from my pocket
and threw it down on the red remarking, "I'll lose that to pay for my
suppers." Unhappily I won, and, laughing, turned to the dealer and said:
"Here, give me my money. I am done," and a moment later went out with my
friend, fully determined never more to gamble. But, being in there the
next night, I, of course, ventured again. Again I was so unfortunate as
to win, and within a short time staked and lost or won nightly. But
something worse than gambling was ahead of me, just at the very door.

CHAPTE