The Faro Debt That Put a Gambler in Court

The suit of the A. P. Houghtaling Company, of Puget Sound, against E. W. Way, M. M. Way and R. W. Way & Co., to foreclose on the contents of the old N. A. Moss saloon, which has been pending in the superior court for some time, had a new development yesterday when the defendant R. W. Way filed an interesting and rather sensational answer, in which he claims that he was the injured one and asks for a judgment against the plaintiff in the sum of $1,350, alleging that the plaintiff several years ago, when the defendant was running a gambling den, secured that sum from him by false representations which were not discovered until last summer.

In the first part of his answer Way alleges that the fixtures, goods and merchandise of the saloon mentioned in the complaint, worth about $500, were transferred and sold to him without any contract of sale. The debt of the defendant to the plaintiff, it is claimed, is not yet due. The complaint then gives the details of an alleged gambling deal in which both the plaintiff and the defendant figured and in which the plaintiff got away with money belonging to the defendant. It states that in 1893, while the defendant was conducting a faro game, the plaintiff came to him and represented that his cashier and bookkeeper, Harry Lewis, had embezzled $1,800, which he had afterwards squandered away on Way’s faro tables. The plaintiff at that time strongly denied the embezzlement of the $1,800, and Way was not sure, but believed it to be true, so made good the amount demanded.

In May last Way claims to have become satisfied that the plaintiff had made misrepresentations to him: that Lewis had not embezzled the money alleged and that he had never gambled at his tables. For that reason Way says that the plaintiff owes him $1,350 and he not only asks for a judgment but prays that the case be dismissed.