In Virginia City, you will see boldly lettered signs for two attractions: the Bucket of Blood Saloon (a name over-promising what you'll see), and "The Famous Suicide Table."
The Suicide Table is in the Delta Saloon, past the slot machines in the rear. It's an old Faro Bank Table dating from the 1860s, claimed to be responsible for the deaths of three of its owners. Large signs explain the game of Faro and tell the fatal furniture tale. The first casualty of the Suicide Table was said to be "Black Jake," who lost $70,000 playing cards one evening and shot himself. The next victim is an unnamed second owner who was "unable to pay his losses," so the official record doesn't verify whether he committed suicide or was cashed in by his angry creditors.
The table was "stored from some years because no one would Deal on it" (but apparently too much of an investment to outright destroy). In the late 1890s, someone converted it into a "21" table, and its cursed history seemed to have been forgotten, "until one stormy night."
A drunken miner wandered in and had a wild streak of gambling luck. $86,000, "a team of horses, and an interest in a gold mine. Everything the owner of the table had in the world." So the owner promptly departed this world for the next....
Author
Topic: Through the Sierra's to Reno - Street Vibrations, 2012 (Read 10495 times)