PASSING OF THE "HOUSE WITH THE BRONZE DOOR"

Evening Star, Issue 16627, 9 January 1918, Page 7

PASSING OF THE "HOUSE WITH THE BRONZE DOOR"

_ One of the largest charitable organisa- j tions now doing notable relief work among British soldiers at the front was founded with a fortune Won in a few hours' plav at the roulette table in the Monte Carlo of Manhattan, the notorious —in some respects famous—" House with the Bronze Door." Many of the tales told of the fortunes won and lost in that Temple of Chance read like romances, but none is more striking at this time than that of the Englishman who, as a guest of a New Yorker -with the entree to the palatial gambling-house in West Thirty-third street, struck a "run of luck' in the big arched room on the second floor. The New York ' Sun ' says : While strolling down Fifth avenue with his host in the cool of a June evening in 1898 the talk drifted to games of chance. The New Yorker suggested that they try their luck at the wheel, and they turned into Thirty-third street and walked down to the "House with the Bronze Door." When the. Englishman left the place that night he had won 166,000d01, so the j story goes. Being a rich man with large ] interests in the goldfields of South Africa, ! the winnings were not greatly weeded. Stories in the papers the next morning of the sufferings of our soldiers following the capture of San Juan Hill gave him an idea, and he turned his winnings of the night before, with 35,000d0l out of his own pocket, into a fund for relief work. He has added considerably to this charity in subsequent years. It would, indeed, surprise England if it were known that the initial fund of this organisation was won at a roulette wheel in the big arched room on the second floor of the Monte Carlo of New York City. The " House with the Bronze Door" that for 26 years provided entertainment for wealthy New Yorkers and their visiting friends with a disposition to " buck the tiger," and which successfully defied the laws, the police, and the District Attorney of New York, is closed now. About 10 years ago the police managed to gain access to the place, and the ' Sun ' says : ♦That was the night Jerome launched his famous raid, in which he smashed his way into Canfield's and a half-dozen other fine gambling-njaces in the city. On this night the impregnability of ih'e place was discovered. Jerome smashed at the door, but he might have been beating the air with his big steel mauls, so little effecthad they on the doors.

After he had battered a while a cour- | teous servant in evening clothes, and with I the deportment of the' best-trained butler in the city, opened the door to the raid- | ers, and they swarmed in, to find nothing more than the finest fitted-tip gamblinghouse that they had ever entered. The place was all illuminated so that the visitor from -Rutgers street, where Judge Jerome made his headquarters while District Attorney of New York, and the police from the Thirtieth street station admire the splendors. On the walls were oil paintings which cost a fortune. On the floors were the finest examples of the art of the great rug'makers of the East. The floors were of hardwood, the work of experts. The ceilings were frescoed as only the homes of the rich could be.. Tho stairway which the police raced up from the entrance hall to trap the players was guarded by a banister held up by carved figures of wood, the result of two years of work on the part of 10 Italian wood-carvers. Sixty thousand dollars is said to have been expended on this stairway. In the roulette room on the second floor was evidence of big playing, but there was nothing tangible by which Mr Jerome could bring anyone into court.' In fact, he- found no one there to arrest, but the courteous servant who had let him in and one or two others. It was not until several years later, when the adjoining house was removed, that the gamblers' "get-away" was discovered in the shape of a tunnel leading into the "House with the Bronze Door." While the District Attorney and the police I were searching 'the five floors of the gam-bling-house for the men they were confident were in the place when they entered the players were safely located in the house next door. Had the. District Attorney been able to break into the nlace before these men got away, says the ' Sun ' :

I _He would have had to arrest some of ,J*e\v York's well-known citizens. He Jwould also have seen three men playing at a roulette wheel on which were stakes totalling 125,000c101. One of the players, n member of one of America's wealthiest families, is now engaged in .manufacturing war materials for the allied armies. At the time of the raid he had just bet on the turn of the wheel when the blows on the door sounded. He and his friends scurried to the " get-away," but the man at the wheel remained 'to watch where the marble stopped before he made his escape with the 125,000d01. He paid over the money to the young winner when all got to the place of safety in the next building. The honestv of the man so surprised the lucky gambler that lie handed the game-tender 10,000dol as a reward. The attendant bought a fine home on Long Island with the monev the following week. Stakes of this size, though large, were not unusual in the " House with the Bronze Door." Folks who were close to the business side of the establishment for ™ an v - vears Ilavo said that an average of 50,000d0l was lost and won in the place night after nieht. At times the stakes totalled more than 100,000dol. Fair play and courtesy were the keynote of the place. The word of the player was always accepted without question. He was usually known by name, and by hi 3 financial standing also. A man whose income was his salary, even though it was a substantial one, was not invited to the " House with the Bronze Door' more than once. Men employed by _ banking, institutions or who held positions in which they handled trust funds were not desired, and were politely told to find another place to satisfy thensporting instincts. In this wav the house avoided' much scandal and "police animosity, since no one was permitted to play who coidd not afford to lose. While many large fortunes were won in the Monte Carlo of New York, it did not always go the way of the player. The 'Sun' tells the story of a lawyer "who made a name and fortune by saving the neck of a rich young man charged with murder, and who .won another fortune and then lost both in the "House with the Bronze Door." The fortune apparently was his undoing, for the first thing he tried to do was to. break the bank of the " House with the Bronze Door," which men will say was as big a job in those days as breaking the bank at Monte Carlo. He succeeded for a time. His success was nothing short of phenomenal. In two nights' play the lawyer had taken 210,000d0l from the house. It seemed so easy to win that he apparently thought that in this direction laid lis fortune. Instead of making gambling an occasional pastime he made it a business. Even then fortune remained with him, and he won. Eventually his luck turned, and .it remained turned until he had lost all he had won from the house, several hundred, thousand dollars, it is said, and 80,000dol in addition. The gambling-house at the start was not so well furnished. It was opened in 1891 by an association of gamblers and race-track men who purchased the house, which was then the only one that could be bought in the block.with the WaldorfAstoria. The following summer the services of Stanford White, the famous architect, were "engaged to remodel the place at a cost of 500.000d01, and, says the writer in the ' Sun ' : Mr White was not limited, as to what he was to spend, and the result was that he went to various corners of the world for the things which he thought would fit _ in with the scheme of decoration which he had planned. For instance, the bronze door at the rear end of the entrance hall was found in Italy, and its history shows that in 1498 it was swinging from the entrance to the wine cellar of the Doges' palace in Venice. The price which the gamblers paid for the door varies in reports from B.ooodol to 28.000d01. I The door at the entrance was of wrought ' iron weighing several hundred; Dounas, and it. too. bad a history. The

large reception room at the front oEthe' street floor was of gold, and the floor was covered with red velvet carpet. Back of this was the foyer hall. On one side was the famous stairway which took 10 Venetians two years to complete. On the other side was what looked like a large oak box. By pressing a button a door slid back, and one found within a small electric elevator to the gambling rooms on the upper floors. On the second floor front was the large roulette wheel room. It was arched,with the ceiling covered with paintings. On this floor • was a bath with a marble reclining slab and other apparatus which is said to have cost the owners 2,000d01, a sum sufficient to buy a cosy home in tlie suburbs in those days.