Pencil drawing of Civil War soldiers sitting around a campfire
This Civil War-era engraving shows soldiers playing chuck-luck, or chuck-a-luck. The game has been around for a very long time.

History Knox

Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a History Knox column each Saturday morning on Knox Pages.

MANSFIELD — I love finding quaint slice-of-life stories in old area newspapers. But one I stumbled across this week left me scratching my head.

It’s about a run-in between a Mount Vernon man who had opened a shooting gallery in Mansfield, but was charged with misconduct by a traveling salesman with the name Cook Walt.

That much I could figure out from the report that ran in the Mansfield News Journal on May 7, 1891. But beyond that, I was a little lost. 

Chuck luck was a game of chance which involved betting on which numbers would turn up on the three dice in the tumbler. Odds for getting one weren’t bad, but it was 30-to-1 against getting all three.

Cook Walt apparently had the run-in with Marvin Irvine while he was in Mansfield working as a traveling salesman, and took his complaint to the newly-elected Mansfield official, Mayor Newlon.

Newlon took the matter to his court, even though Irvine had some prominent connections, as he was the brother of a judge in Mount Vernon.

Mr. Walt claimed that he had entered the shooting gallery, but was tricked into playing a game of “chuck-luck,” where he ended up losing $8.40, the equivalent to losing almost $300 in today’s money.

He further accused Irvine of running a “hieronymous outfit.”

When Mr. Walt accused Marvin Irvine of running a “hieronymous outfit,” what did he mean? Hironymous is a word that means “sacred.” Was Irvine wearing some hieronymous outfits like this?

I don’t know about you, but I was lost with these terms. Turns out, “chuck-luck” is a dice game sometimes still used in casinos, where players bet on the numbers that will turn up after being shaken around in an hourglass-shaped wire cage. 

If you get one number right, your win is small, but if you get all three, you can make a pretty good bundle.

But a little further research tells me that if you encounter this game, you should probably avoid it, unlike Mr. Walt, because it is statistically one of the hardest casino games to win. 

Cook Walt apparently could confirm that, if he did in fact lose what amounts to almost a week’s wages in Irvine’s establishment. But that was only his contention.

Not only did Marvin Irvine and his wife hotly deny that they operated a chuck-luck game in their establishment, they claimed that Mr. Walt was so staggeringly drunk when he came in to take a few shots in the shooting gallery, he couldn’t even hit the target.

And as for the “hieronymous outfit?” Well, I think we were all stumped on that, then and now.

When Mr. Walt accused Marvin Irvine of running a “hieronymous outfit,” what did he mean? Hironymous is a word that means “sacred.” Was Irvine wearing some hieronymous outfits like this?

The meaning of the antique word refers to something sacred, and it is known to be the Latinized version of the name “Jerome,” and it’s also known to be the name of a medieval painter of strange and startling paintings, Hieronymous Bosch. 

What on earth was Mr. Walt accusing the Irvines of? Wearing religious robes? Pretending to be named Jerome? Or maybe he was so drunk, he hallucinated that he stumbled into a Bosch painting.

It appears that Mr. Walt was unable to articulate what that charge was even about, and he offered no proof nor any witnesses to back up the gambling charge. So much for Mayor Newlon’s bold plan to start his term by cleaning up the city. 

The charges against Marvin Irvine were dismissed and Mr. Walt was most likely advised to keep on traveling.

If there was something going on, Irvine got away with it on this occasion. It is interesting to note, though, that he seems to disappear from local records shortly after this.

Perhaps he put on his sacred robes and took his dice game off to parts unknown.