It was a great sight at that time around the old Gem Theatre, which was a big dance hall and gambling house. There was no law prohibiting minors from going into those places and I sure got an eyeful! The first unusual sight I remember was seeing a woman with a black and swollen eye. And in most of those dives there were women dealing faro bank and poker—and I was fascinated with the names they went by. There was Big Gussie, who was Bed Rock Tom’s common-law wife. She was considered a very capable gambler and would take and pay all bets as cool and calm as a bank teller—and just as accurate. I used to admire those old characters. There was Colorado Johnny, Tom Allen, Deaf Jimmie and several others ... I have forgotten their names. Those men were all faro dealers—and wore long whiskers ... and the barbers sure got well paid to keep those whiskers in perfect style—and the fine clothes and jewelry they wore must have cost a small fortune. As I remember there was 28 legitimate faro banks in town about that time, besides several questionable ones. Those games had a limit in the amount you could bet on the turn of a card, which was usually $12.50 and $25.00, but one or two houses had $125.00 and $250.00 limit—that means you can only bet the low limit where there is only one card left in the deck to act. You can bet it to win or lose. Most everybody played faro them days—but I believe the Chinaman was the greatest gambler of them all. About 11 o’clock at night was their favorite time to start out to gamble. They would put on their best clothes—which was the very finest of goods them days—white socks, silk top shoes, and they would leave Chinatown for the white man’s game. I have seen 25 of them, dressed this way, one behind the other heading for the faro game—and they sounded like a bunch of geese honking to each other in their talk. They liked to all get around one gambling table and if one of them seemed to be lucky, the rest of them would follow him with their bets. In fact, it seemed to be a kind of a system they had—and often they would win several thousand dollars in a night. While we were living in Deadwood, there was an old man kept a little grocery store close to where we were camped, and an old Irish woman kept a boarding house nearby. It was hard to get white sugar most of the time, and the people had to use brown sugar, which came in barrels, and when the weather was damp and rainy that sugar seemed to draw moisture and got quite heavy. And each time the old lady got sugar she accused the old man of putting water in it to make it weigh more. One morning he saw her coming. He got a bucket of water and was standing by the barrel when she walked in. She ran up to him and stuck her first in his face and said, “I caught you at last—I always knew you were watering that sugar!” She didn’t make much fuss about it afterwards. She seemed pleased to know she had caught him and that her suspicions had proved to be right.