The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1898, Page 22

22 Epecial to The Call-Herald. HINK of a dinner party in a dungeon—the menu served with such aecompaniments as clank- ing chains on ponderous doors, great iron-barred windows, and swarthy, low-browed attendants in prison garb stalking in and out with the steaming viand: It makes you shudder, doesn't Yet just such dinners e to be quite the jolliest of the winter season, If the few. in which society has already indulged may be accepted criteria. “The Jolly Dungeon”—for such the scene of th g some festivities, is designated—has been known to New York for only a few weeks, It is quite the nove For weird- ness it eq hing in the old world. Just now it affords a lot of fun to the man_who enjoys spring- ing surprises on his friends. OOOGOOOG000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GAMBLERS’ TRICKS ON THE SLOT MACHINE. HE little saloon-keeper vod be. fore his own bar, careless and at his e, apparently engaged in a friendly conversation with a customer. But in reality he had his weather eye open, and was keenly scrutinizing the doings of an individual who worked the gam- bling machine. It was one of those big, ornamental affairs which have become so common of late in San Francisco saloons. These machines, which come from some mys- terious factory in Chicago, are similar in size and shape to an old-fashioned eight-day clock, such as the one which stopped when grandfather died. The only difference is that.the face, instead of indicating the hours, is divided in numerous different colored sections. ranging in value from 10 cents to a dol- lar. There are five colors which may be played. You put a nickel in one of the slots, give the handle a strong push, and the dial revolves with great rapid- ity, so that all the colors seem blend- ed. If it stops on a winning number the machine, actuated by some hidden mechanism, which is almost human in its intelligence, performs the opera- tion technically known in the afkot of the saloons as ‘“‘coughing up.” It makes a peculiar noise, something be- tween a sigh and a sob, and drops the sum won into a pocket at its base. It is easy to understand the machine's grief at yielding up any portion of its ill-goiten gains, and the ingenious in- ventor did well in providing it with the means of giving expression to its sor- Tow. rhe visitor who stood before the ma- chine, though young in years, bore the word spieler written all. over him, from his flashy clothes and cheap jewelry, to the cunning wrinkles round his sensu- ous mouth. He played the game with the determination of a practiced’hand, put- ting in three or four nickels at a time, while the machine. coughed up with alarming frequency. - At last he went away, a dollar or so ahead, and the saloon-keerer looked relieved. “1 am sur® that is the man who has been putting slugs in,” he said. “but I watched him too closely this time.” "“What slugs?” I asked. THMVUSICAL CPRANER"® Fm 1 o MVSICA NER - FPla | swings back and he solemnly bows his | Bt i | on thin, square pieces of bread, and are guests in. There is more rattling of | chains and the monstrous key has He asks |locked the door behind them. A series | The air is musty. ! a score or more to dine with him at the-| Waldorf, mayhap, and when they come he bundles them, one and all, into a | rickety stage coach and whisks them away to the dungeon. | Arrived at Twenty-fourth street, on | the sunset side of Fifth avenue, they are led through a long, dingy passage- way toward a flickering light, which is seen on coming nearer to be set back in a recess, half hidden by cobwebs. | The dull, half dead- ened echo of footfalls makes the flesh creep. The men wonder what is to come | next, and their feminine companions | are nearly frightened out of their wits. | Then the host fetches forth a mon- | strous ke nd coolly fits it into a pad- lock, the like of which was ne’er seen | before, when clang! the great iron door | “‘Oh, any old kind. See here?” Step- | ping behind the bar he took from a drawer a handful of imitation coins of all sorts. They were all, it was no- | ticeable, actly the size and shape of a nickel. Some betrayed their origin plainly, being brass checks stamped with the name and address of the maker, and sold in the first instance for perfectly legitimate use in the tele- phone. 1t Is easy to see how they be- came diverted to their present knavish usé. Others were simply plain, flat disks of white metal, obviously manu- factured for the purpose, for it is dif- | ficult to understand how they could be put to any other use. As nearly every saloon in the city has a gambling machine of one kind or an- | other, a 'véry large number of those dumps can be put in circulation daily and probably a good manv rogues make a dishonest living by cheating this il- legal machine. Still we need not waste any sympathy on the machine. 1t has | no legal status and really has no right | to exist. The game is a perfectly safe one, for even if detected the spieler cannot be | prosecuted. The machine is outside | the gale of the law, and the worst the | gambler need expect is a vigorous kick- I ing when caught. The player, to avoid suspicion, generally purchases two or four bits’ worth of nickels to start the | game with. If watched, he -lays only the genuine coin, but he soon finds an opportunity ‘when the bartender js busy, to slip in some slugs, and of course stands a certain. winner. The proprietor of a large number of these machines told me that most of | the slugs came from a certain saloon | on Bush street, but probably. the | | | swindlers would soon change their base of operations. The internal con- struction of thé machine renders the game particularly easy. At the start the machine is stocked with ninety-six nickels, or $4 80. These, of course, must be genuine coins. Whatever | money- goes into the machine beyona this amount passes into the overfiow bag, and it is from this receptacle that the dumps are taken in such numbers. It is a strange comment upon our an- tipathy to the Mongolians that, though the heaviest play on this machine takes place in a Chinatown saloon, few if any slugs are found in it. The Chinese are heavy gamblers, but théy always play fair, and the Caucasian trick of using imitation money has not yet been adopted by them through a crevice in one corner. | canoes down to the water. THE SAN FRANCISCO -CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER - 25, 1898. FRom of “Ohs!” from the ladies, intermingle with “Great Scotts!” from the men. s what next. They would be in total darkness except for two straight shoots of light from bull's eyes opposite and a faint green gleam At the farthest end great iron bars loom dimly, and in the red light from be- yond are glimpses of dusky figures in conviet stripes walking to Low, weird music, as of muffled voices, sepulchral in . their dirgelike chant, seems to come from under ground. A moment for all this. Then an elec- tric switch is touched and the place is flooded with light. Such a commotion! In one breath the ladies declare they are frightened to death and in the next that it is “perfectly jolly.” “But what on earth is it?” they ask. A real, true dungeon? My, but those s make me shudder!” ‘“We can't have dinner place ¥s another. no tables and chairs.” . “What is that wire thing over there in the corner?” a third wants to know. Some man explains that it is a rat- trap, and everybody shrieks according- ly—and from that moment Bedlam reigns. Opera wraps and top coats are gotten rid of, and every one enters into the spirit of the occasion. It's a jolly lark, and they like it immensely. Butcher's aprons are passed around, and there is a lot of fun in helping one another get into them. Then the beefsteaks came on and the colored attendants in convict garh whisk to and fro. First they bring in a tr of cocktails, of the old-fashioned The beefsteaks are then served in such a taken directly in the fingers, for there are neither plates nor forks to be had. *This is shocking!” the feminine nov- ices in Bohemianism declare, “but it is also delicious.” And they are served again and again. The guests are seated on benches built into the wall. A rickety wooden box stands in front of each, and on it ——I AN EVENING PARTY PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY FALK, N.Y. and fro. | “Why, there ara | a’'stone mug and a clay dish filled with salt. The kitchen is separated from the revelers by a formidable looking door of iron bars—the same through which the red light had gleamed upon their entrance. Tempting whiffs and sput- ters from English chops and the beef- steaks cavort through the opening. | _The cook peers out every now and then. Sometimes he is greeted with cheers and shouts of “Long live Bennie, king of the dungeon!” He is short and ! rotund, with a face as red as a Christ- mas apple. Ale flows like water from |a cask embedded in the wall, and a | great part of the fun lies in the draw- | ing of it. | ™A toast to the jolly dungeon!" a pretty woman laughs, and it is drunk with hearty good will. ‘A toast to our fair companions!” some masculine voice proposes, and ‘it is given again and again, There is a piano over in one corner, {and some one plays a rollicking tune, the boxes are set aside and dancing is begun. Never were gleaming shoulders set off by weirder background—the dull gray stone of the walls, roughly hewn, and scattered over with rusted flint- locks, old carbines and grewsome im- plements of murder and war; a pair of handcuffs that hayve bruised wrists for | half a century, slave shackles from “Afri('nn horrors, queer blunderbusses | of Revolutionary days. Along the raft- | ers overhead are beer mugs of every | | make and mold. Between the dances there are songs | and chorus The banjo and guitar are taken from the colored attendants, who have twanged out their racial melodies | during the. early evening, and the | dungeon echoes with the merrymaking. Tt is late, quite late, when the rickety stage coach finally rolls away and the great iron door, ngs on the deserted dungeon, and New York society folk feel well assured that they have been thoroughly bohemian and have had no end of a good time as well. A youth who much desired to wear the matrimonial yoke had not sufficient courage to “pop the question.” On in- forming his father of the difficulty he labored under, the old gentleman pas- sionately replied: “Why, you great booby, how do you suppose I managed when L got married?” ‘‘Oh, yes,” said the bashful lover, “you married mother. but I've got to marry a strange girl.”—Tid-Bits. OO0000000@0000000000OO00000000000000000000000000000 MYSTERY OF THE SEA OF WORMS. Professor Woodworth of Harvard Has Just Arrived Here dAfter a Careful Study of the Curious Freak of Animal Life. HE palolo, a tiny, thread-like sea worm, is one of the unsolved mysteries of the great Southern Seas. There is nothing like it known in the whole world of natural history, and scientists have hitherto been at a loss Yo solve the problem of its brief existence. It ap- pears only in Samoa and Fiji, and then but once a year, just before sunrise. Its brief existence is limited to the space of an hour or so at the most. To the Samoans the Palolo day con- stitutes a feast of the utmost imvort- ance, followed by a morrow of sorrow and dyspeptic repentence. ~The worm always comes to the surrace on the last day of the third quarter of the moon in October or November. If it does not appear on the first month, then it is sure to be seen on the sccond. T re- member, when I was living on Manono, attending one of these great fishing ex- peditions. For days we had been pre- paring for the event. We had made closely woven baskets for holding the palole, and elaborate hand nets for scooping them out of the watér. Be- ing a foreigner, I used mosaquito net- ting for my scoops, but the natives, not being inclined to extravagance, were contented with finely woven matting, Long before dawn on Palolo morning the whole village was astir. Men ran hither and thither, carrying huge cocoanut torches, by the light of which they dragged their little outrigged Women and girls bustled about, carrying the necessary paraphernalia down to the boats, and soon we were off, steering, 1 could not tell where, ‘through the blackness of a tropic nicht. -It was a long pull across the silent. glassy lagoon to the Falealili Passage through the reef, where palolo were to THE PALOLO, BEFOREIT IS THROWN OFF. The palolo, a tiny, thread-like sea worm s one of the unsolved mysteries of the. great southern seas. There s nothing like it known in the whole world of natural history, and scientists have hitherto been at a loss to solve the problem of its brief existence. It appears only in Samoaand Fiji, and then but once a year, just before sunrise: It brief existence is limited to the space of an hour or soat the most. be found in the greatest numbers. We found hundreds of other canoes. gathered from all the surrounding vii- lages, at the rendezvous, and pleasant greetings, mixed with good humored chaff, were bandied from boat to boat. But all the time the party scanned the surface of the water with serious in- tent. % The moments of suspense seemed hours, until at last, looking out over the surface of the waters, I caught sight of a tiny floating worm about six or eight inches long and as thick as a plece of packing twine. The chief sit- ting beside me caught sight of it as soon as I did, but said nothing. He only sat still and watched, until an- other worm and then another and then dozens more appeared on the surface. A chorug of delighted approval went up from all the canoes, “Hurrah, hur- rah,” the palolo has come. Soon the lagoon was thick with the shimmering blue and gray mass; the worms were literally countless in number, and we were all hard at work baling them up into the boat as fast as we could. It does not do to delay making your catch. The palolo is not long for this world. As the sun rose above the horizon.and cast its golden rays over the wateJB(he worms dissolved, as If melted by the heat. In a few minutes not a speci- men was to be seen. i We hastened homeward, anxious to reach the shore before the heat of the tropical sun made rowing an unbeara- ble task. In the cool shade of the thatched houses the women and girls divided the haul into. little leaf cov- ered bundles, while the young men and hoys heated great piles of stones for the oven. The favorite native way of preparing the palolo is simply to bake it, well wrapped in leaves, In the national oven, the oldest kind of cooking appliance known to man. - The food is placed on a bed of hot stones, is well covered up with leaves and more red hot stones are piled on top. until the whole is per- fectly inclosed. Then in the space of an hour or more, when the stones have grown cold, the meal will be found per- fectly cooked. In Fijl, where they call the worm the bolole, a--slmélar event tigkes plnge ev- ery year, ut strangely en , o= Where elss docs this remarkable eria. TR ture appear, and scientists have long been puzzling their brains to account for the phenomena. Macdonald, who first discovered this curious marine creature, christened it, for iack of a better name, Palolo Viridis, but ha failed to assign it a definite place among the genera of tropical waters. Various other natural science investi- gators have made casual investigation into the palolo mystery, but it has been left for Harvard University to achieve anything like definite results. So a few months ago Mr. Woodworth was dispatched to Samoa, with orders to solve the problem at all costs. - He returned to San Francisco recently on the Alameda and is now preparing a IT'S CALLED THE v JOLLY DUNGEON,” AND HAS GREWSOME SURROUNDINGS, CLANKING CHAINS AND PRISON-GARBED WAITERS AND OTHER EFFECTS TO STARTLE CUSTOMERS. | report which will enlighten the world Lof science. | .“I spent six weeks in Samoa,” said | Mr. Woodworth, “living at a chief's |house in Falealili, waiting for the palolo to come. I made the most ex- haustive inquiry into the whole subject, and as far as I can decide .the worm |18 simply the tail or a portion of the living organism of a creature which |lives in the crevices of the dead coral. |- “No, It has nothing to do with the ceral insect which so laboriously builds up the reefs. It-is a different animal | altogether. The palolo worm may | possibly belong to the family FEu- | nicea.” : J. F. ROSE-SOLEY. HHO+24040404043404 94040404 04040404440 bosos o+l + 2 DESIGNED BY AN EXPERT PSP OHOHOPO P4 strain carefully; mineral water, sherry wine, dry; slices fruit to taste. When mixing this ly. This punch may be ‘When served warm, very carefully, then add come a syrup. glassful of maraschino, . sherry wine brandy. in thin slices. champagne. duct in equal quantities, glasses at once after Into a goblet with fine before dinner. -WOW” B R el S8 SCR SCR SR RC OB AR 2R B A B ALt TWO SOUL STIRRING NEW YEAR'S PUNCHES CONSUMPTION The Punch of “Victorie.” Into a large bowl put the tWo pounds of loaf sugar, two quarts of two bottles of one bottle of Chabiis wine, five or six large bottles of claret, French If desired, add two sherry glasses full of maraschino, also one pint of good Jamaica rum. punch see that you do it thorough- made either hot or cold heat your glasses'first. Champagne Punch. Into a two-gallon bowl strain the juice of six lemons one pound of pure loaf two quarts of mineral water. Mix this lo, Add slowly one quart of pure @ shy wine, two quarts of pure Moselle wine, e two sherry wine glassfuls of cy- racao, one sherry wine glassful of chartreuse, yellow; two glassfuls of benedictine, After joining let this stand for ten minu Vvery ripe oranges in thin slices: als ek To make it perfect e ldn should be borne in oul e cold as ice; that all ingredients as ice before using. Irl:laeslred xf:e e alen L B or vice versa. mixing. An Excellent _pretlzar. ice put half a dash of 3 . three dashes of orange bitters, hamthe half of vino vermouth, Marti no. WW'M’MOQO#QQ“Q ® EXPRESSLY FOR HOLI pay juice of twelve lemons, Rhine wine, one bottle of or California; cut up in thin sugar, ng enough to be- one sherry wine one pint of very old 0 SIX very ripe bananas put four quarts of mind that the wine a lump of ce and de- Serve in sauterne halt of dry sherry wine, Mix well and serve just § : § : : 0 § : i