Glory Hole

Nevada last week celebrated the 68th anniversary of its admission to the Union. No celebrant, however, was lank Governor Frederick Bennett Balzar, onetime railroad conductor, onetime six-shooting sheriff of Mineral County. He was in Washington, D. C. begging the R. F. C. to lend Nevada $2,000,000. Most of the banks of his arid State were at an impasse. When the loan did not come through, Governor Balzar communicated with his Lieutenant Governor Morley Griswold. As a result of that communication, Nevada's 91,000 citizens awoke from their celebration to find' 19 of their 26 banks closed, $20,000,000 of their $30,000,000 in bank deposits tied up. Lieutenant Governor Griswold had proclaimed a 12-day moratorium on all obligations except taxes, had urged every bank to take ad vantage of it. The seven banks which decided to face all comers included Reno's First National which sent to San Francisco for $1,500,000 in cash and announced it stood ready to pay $3,000,000 over its counter. When this halted an incipient run President Richard Kirman beamed at depositors and cried, "Come and get it tomorrow, there is plenty of it!" Also open were two banks in busy Las Vegas. nearest railroad town to the Hoover Dam operations.

Not one of the twelve banks owned by George Wingfield opened. It was this chain's weakness which precipitated all the trouble. Banker Wingfield is a tall, powerful man with a shock of black hair shot with grey. He was born in Fort Smith, Ark. in 1876, the year of the Custer Massacre. Before he was old enough to enter a saloon he struck out for Nevada. In Winnemucca he learned faro, poker, bird-cage and 21. He was soon called "The Boy Gambler" and banked his own faro. He was in Goldfield during the 1906 boom, made a million dollars in mining stocks. His contemporaries in those days included the late Tex Rickard, who was running a gambling hall, and Charles Victor Bob, engineer-promoter. His gambling halls grew so large that his cashiers began handling $5,000,000 a year. Nevadans regard him as one of the best friends their sagebrushy State has ever had, for he remained there after having grown rich on its resources. The Nevada-mined fortunes of John W. Mackay, James G. Fair. George Hearst, James C. Flood, William G. Sharon and William S. O'Brien were mostly spent and banked in other States.

For many years Mr. Wingfield had business affiliations with Senator George S. Nixon. The fame of the two men spread to San Francisco where they often dropped in at the popular St. Francis bar. Upon the Senator's death in 1912 he was appointed his successor, but refused the office. His banking interests increased until he was regarded as the State's foremost tycoon. He has large real estate holdings including Reno's leading Hotel Riverside. He controls Tonopah Consolidated Mining Co. Although Mr. Wingfield has renounced gambling and does not even play poker with friends. Nevadans are convinced that he has an interest in the cryptically named corporations which own the big Reno gambling halls.* Last week Banker Wingfield blamed his troubles on agricultural conditions, said that every cent he owned (and he was once believed to own ten billion cents) would buttress his banks. The R. F. C. sent two bank examiners to Reno by airplane to investigate. Nevadans took the shock calmly, jestingly. Lieutenant Governor Morley jingled $17.10 at newspapermen and said, "I forgot to see if I had any money before I issued the proclamation. This came out of the baby's bank and it has to last two weeks." Gambler William ("Curly Bill") Graham said, "We'll get the dough and play the hosses tomorrow." Miners spoke of the Wingfield banks as "glory holes"--rich pockets which suddenly are played out. Police chiefs warned citizens against thugs and offered station house safes as temporary banks of deposit. Most divorce-seekers continued to draw checks on Eastern banks; 15 actions were filed the day of the proclamation. Some merchants accepted checks on the closed banks. The gambling halls (betting is the only form of gambling illegal in Nevada), where $100,000 in silver dollars is often in play, were willing to tide their good customers over. The sentiment of the State was that when onetime Gambler Wingfield checked up he would find himself even better than his books and his banking wheels could spin again.

* Biggest of these is the Bank Club, backed by Jack Sullivan, still in full blast last week. Lesser halls include the Northern Club, Waldorf Bar and Gambling Club, and the Louvre Club. All speakeasies have gambling concessions and silver dollars are in play nightly at the Sign of the Ship & Bottle, the Mine Winehouse and the Cowshed. The Cowshed, about four miles from Reno, was started by Belle Livingstone a year ago and is not to be confused with the Bull Pen, notorious honkytonk. Burned to the ground last summer was the Willows, a roadhouse with elaborate gambling rooms.

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