By William Daugherty in 1891.
Bodie, California, Kathy Alexander.
Joe Potter was one of the old-time sportsmen who is still remembered in nearly all the mining towns of Nevada. He died in Bodie, California, some ten years ago, and without intending any offense to his memory, the following anecdote illustrates his bluff manners.
Joe lived in Eureka in 1871-72 during the smallpox epidemic. Just before the outbreak of the dreaded scourge, Joe had fallen behind on his rent to his landlady, whom he reminded several times. She waylaid him so often that Joe was, if ever in his life, really distressed in his desire to pay, but he could not raise a dollar to spare for that purpose, and he was at his wit’s end when smallpox broke out in camp.
Joe’s room was in a little house by itself, and he immediately hung out a yellow flag. He never saw the landlady for the months that followed during the epidemic. After a long siege of chipping on borrowed checks, he one night won a hundred dollars and left the faro table to spin around the block and catch his wind. The strikers were lying for him, having heard by a telegraphic system peculiar to themselves that “Joe won a hundred.” Before he got out of the faro room, three or four struck him for $5, $2.50, and a dollar, and knowing how it was himself, he handed it out, but when he reached the door, he was surrounded by a half dozen opium fiends with further requests for a half dollar to hit the pipe.
At this, Joe straightened back with a blunt refusal and some profanity. He pushed them aside and said, “Go to h–l. Do you think I’m a post office?”
Cyrus Noble Whiskey Ad showing Faro Players.
By William Daugherty, for the Reno Evening Gazette, March 13, 1891. Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated April 2026.
About the Author: William Daugherty, who wrote for the Reno Evening Gazette in 1891. The Gazette was first published on October 12, 1876, and continued for the next 107 years. In 1977, it was merged with the Nevada State Journal and continues to exist today as the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Note: The article is not verbatim, as spelling errors, minor grammatical changes, and editing have been made for the modern reader’s convenience.
Also See:
Pioneers on the Nevada Frontier (Reno Evening Gazette)
Tales of the Overland Stage (Reno Evening Gazette)
Nevada Mining Tales (Reno Evening Gazette)