A Fargo newspaper reporter played a very fortunate game of pinochle on this day in 1910. The newspaper man, L. W. Brooks, had formerly worked with The Fargo Forum and The Call, but had left the city of Fargo to seek his fortune out west. News and rumors of Brooks’s successes poured into the city after the man’s departure, but none was more sensational than the true account of the man’s lucky gambling spree. While travelling through the state of Idaho, Brooks met Harry Moore, the owner of a weekly newspaper in the small mining town of Wallace, Idaho. Brooks and Moore began a friendly game of pinochle on this night, but decided to up the stakes by wagering a bet. Brooks, having no possessions of high value on his person, put in a box of cigars, while Moore placed his weekly paper, The Dividend, up for stakes. Brooks won the game, and because of a game of pinochle and a box of old cigars, became owner of his own newspaper.

Source:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). January 22, 1910: p. 4.

--Jayme L. Job

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