or fifty-dollar piece, with real or well-feigned indifference as to the result. Now and then the games were momentarily interrupted by the crack of a pistol, and the louno-ers became a little demoralized as the ball whistled past their ears and lodged in the wall. If a man was killed or wounded he was taken out, but the nature of the affray was left to be learned from the morning papers, and in a few moments all was as before. Some of the saloons were open day and night, and paid enormous rents; six thousand dollars a month was paid for the El Dorado. There were also many private clubs or suits of rooms, where the players were more select and play ran higher. Nothing but gold coin was used in these places, and the stakes ran into the hundreds and thousands. A bet of any sum less than five dollars was regarded as contemptible. These rooms were often graced or disgraced by the presence of beautiful women, and sumptuous suppers were served, with the best of wines, all free to the patronizing visitors.
Like those of the pretty-waiter saloons and dance cellars of later times, the band may be an orchestra of regular musicians, a company of negro minstrels, a quartette of Mexican guitars, a piano, or if the room and counters be celestial, a Chinese scrape, squeak, and slam-bang.
Gambling from 1849 to 1852 was followed in San Francisco as a regular business, and there was no disgrace attached to the profession. Among the dealers of gambling games at that time were some of the most influential and talented citizens. But they were a transient race ; they have gone forever. As a more refined civilization crept in and overwhelmed the low, the loose, and the vicious, gambling sank into disrepute. Law drove it behind locked doors and into windowless rooms. Then the gay gamblers of the olden time left the profession to a different class, and sought out new fields of distinction, perhaps in politics, law, or speculation.
