Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of The Lady Was a Gambler:
True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West
“In a bet there is a fool and a thief.” Ancient Proverb
A covey of cowboys, tinhorns, and miners clustered around a faro table at the National Hotel in Nevada City, California. A pristinely dressed dealer gingerly placed a suit of spades across a brilliant green felt game cloth. Somewhere behind him a petite voice called out, interrupting the sound of shuffling cards and clinking chips. All eyes simultaneously turned to face the starling beauty making her way through the men towards the table, “Excuse me, boys,” the woman announced. “I’ve got a feeling this is my lucky day.”
Nineteen year old Jenny Rowe sashayed through the activity, smiling cheerfully as she went. She was lithe and slender and adorned in a sky-blue gingham dress that gently swept the floor when she walked. Her big, brown eyes scanned the cards on the table, and after a few moments she turned to the dealer and grinned. “Serve ‘em up,” she invited. The man nodded and encouraged the other gamblers surrounding the game to place their bets. A frenzy of hands tossed their chips onto the spades across the felt.
Jenny deposited a stack of chips on the green in between the numbers. “You sure about that?” one of the cowhands next to her asked.
“I don’t know a better way to put my money into circulation,” she responded kindly.
To learn more about Jenny Rowe and other women gamblers read
The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West
