The Notorious John Morrissey by James C. Nicholson

Author:James C. Nicholson [Nicholson, James C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, General, Political, Sports, History, United States, 19th Century, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), Sports & Recreation, Boxing, Animal Sports, Horse Racing
ISBN: 9780813167527
Google: M7vRCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2016-05-20T03:03:02+00:00

6

Impresario

When his second, and final, congressional term came to an end in March 1871, Morrissey was happy to be free of his legislative responsibilities. As he made his way down to New Orleans for the race meet at the Metairie Racetrack that spring, he told a reporter that his time in Congress had cost him “not less than half a million” in foregone gambling opportunities.1 While in New Orleans, Morrissey made up for lost time by purchasing a horse named Defender and placing a bet against him in the horse’s next race that yielded a $30,000 profit. At the conclusion of the Metairie meet, Morrissey headed to Saratoga, where another recordbreaking tourist season was expected.2

Saratoga had hosted more than one hundred thousand visitors the previous year, and many of them had spent time in Morrissey’s lavish new casino called the Club House, a stately Italianate mansion adjacent to the Congress Springs Park. Called “a gorgeous, gilded, glittering, trap-door to perdition” by one clergyman, the casino was the finest in America and “furnished like a palace.” Guests were met by an elegantly dressed doorman, and Morrissey, still quite physically imposing despite having left the prize ring more than a decade earlier, added an air of decorum as he quietly presided over the activity in the gaming parlors and dining hall, where extravagant dinners were served nightly to the patrons.3

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