Book ''Zj Z6> 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
But, Cards!— Well, it is cards that has brought out the sporting blood in us. 
 
JACK POTS 
 
 STORIKS OF THE GREAT 
 AMERICAN GAME 
 
 / 
 By EUGENE EDWARDS 
 
 can be played 
 
 but once a n/gAf 
 
 WITH OVER FIFTY ORIGINAL PEN AND INK 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 IKE MORGAN 
 
 I 900 
 
 JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO, 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
TWO COPIES HiiO.£iV t.J>. ^ 
 
 Library of Congr9i% 
 Office of tbe 
 
 r.fi^9 1900 
 
 Kagltter of Copyrl£fbt% 
 
 60028 
 
 Copyright, 1900 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO. 
 
 ScCJND COPY, 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. What is Poker? — Its Origin, and Why We Like It. 7 
 II. The Early Days of Poker — Steamboat Games — 
 
 A Mammoth Raise — Bowie's Good Deed 22 
 
 III. Poker in Washington — A Story of Henry Clay — 
 
 Cabinet Players — Mahone's Rule — When 
 Reed Was Called 36 
 
 IV. Poker in London and Paris — John Bull's Two 
 
 Pair — A Game with the Prince of Wales 53 
 
 V. Poker and Jurisprudence — Various Decisions by 
 Legal Luminaries — How the Judge Over- 
 ruled the Motion— The Sheriff Took the Pot.. 67 
 VI. All about Jack Pots — A $1,200,000 Jack — Didn't 
 Know Greenbacks — Won on Two Deuces — A 
 
 Boston Man's Narrow Escape 85 
 
 VII. The Scheme for a National Jack Pot— A Jack Pot 
 
 Without Cards 104 
 
 VIII. Women and Poker — Arguments to Show that They 
 Can't Play and a Story to Prove that They 
 
 Can 1 14 
 
 IX. Old Time Poker in the South— A Jack Pot of 
 
 Niggers — Colonel Rafael and His Honor 130 
 
 X. Poker and Hypnotism — A Young Man Who can. 
 
 Read Card.s — How Five Aces were Beaten — 
 
 The Man Who Laid Down a Straight Flush. . 148 
 
 XL A Life-long Game — The Great Morgan-Danielson 
 
 Betting Match — Four Hours to Open a Jack 
 
 Pot — Three Thousand Dollars for a Nap 160 
 
 XII. About Bluffing — $200,000 on a Pair of Tens — A 
 Bluff that Turned into a Flush — Major 
 
 Edwards and the Tenderfoot 174 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XIII. Tom Custer's Luck— A Girl Makes the Best Draw 
 
 on Record — How a Town-site was Won on 
 Two Deuces — Lucky Baldwin's Big Play i8g 
 
 XIV. Six Cards in One Hand — Two Games wherein Six 
 
 Cards Figured — What Became of the Extra 
 
 One 204 
 
 XV. Poker in the Centennial State — Big Betting on 
 Small Hands — How Three Klondikers Played 
 Cards 217 
 
 XVI. Children and Poker — Too Much Frankness — 
 Daddy and Dinah — How the Tom Fool had 
 
 them "All Alike " 230 
 
 XVII. The Police and the Gamblers— A Down East 
 Selectman — A Bunko Game at Los Angeles — 
 
 Story of the Short-Card Man 245 
 
 XVIII. Superstitious Players — Queens and Tens — Louis 
 Laid them Down — Euchre and Poker — An 
 Old Story 259 
 
 XIX. Reminiscences of William Hurt, Reformed — John 
 Dougherty's Bet of Arizona Territory — His 
 
 Adventures in Persia 271 
 
 XX. How the Bear Spoiled the Jack Pot — Touching 
 Tale of a Dog that Tipped off Poker Hands 
 to His Master 2S4 
 
 XXI. Practical Joking — How the Dentist was Fixed — 
 
 The Fresh Baseball Reporter and the Players 294 
 XXII. Crooked Gambling — An Expert Explains the Mys- 
 teries of Second Card, Paper Men and Hold 
 Outs 308 
 
 XXIII. Classic Tales of Poker— The One-Eyed Man- 
 
 Origin of the Looloo — Four Kings as Bank 
 Collateral — Jay Gould as a Philanthropist 317 
 
 XXIV. The Poetry of Poker— Ditties, Wise and Other- 
 
 wise, about the Great National Game 335 
 
JACK POTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT IS POKER ITS ORIGIN, AND WHY 
 
 WE LIKE IT. 
 
 All civilized nations love sport, but Americans 
 surpass all the world in that as in so many other re- 
 spects. That is because Americans are so little 
 conservative that they readily adopt all games 
 as their own. As in everything else, England is 
 shy of any but the customs that bear the mark of 
 her own breeding, and a game — out or indoor — 
 makes but slow progress in her affections. We have 
 been trying to introduce base ball into the 
 tight little island for twenty years, and although 
 we are told that there are clubs here and there 
 and hear dim rumors that some of the players are 
 crack-a-jacks, we never hear of any of our mag- 
 nates signing these phenoms, nor do we believe 
 there is in all Great Britain a boy who gets up in 
 the morning and makes a rush for the paper to see 
 the score before his father looks at it. 
 
 7 
 
8 JACK POTS. 
 
 On the other hand, we have taken up cricket, 
 which is so essentially English that it takes three 
 days to play a match, and we have fairly gone daft 
 over the Scotch game of golf. The Indian game 
 of Lacrosse had quite a run a few years ago, and 
 even now occasionally sees the light on our north- 
 ern frontier, and we have even brought the game 
 of polo from far away India. If any nation has a 
 game that has in it the least element of attractive- 
 ness, let it be brought along and it will certainly be 
 given a respectful hearing. 
 
 But, cards ! — Well, it is cards that has brought 
 out the sporting blood in us. There are people 
 who will not believe this, and point to base ball. 
 They say ''Look at the thousands who attend a 
 game!" All right; look at them. Then consider 
 that the game only lasts for two hours and that 
 a big league city gets only fifty-seven games in an 
 entire season, if every scheduled game is played. 
 And then consider that the thousands of spectators 
 are not taking any actual part in the game ; they 
 are not playing. Apart from the boys, hundreds of 
 the spectators couldn't catch a fly ball with a net, 
 and for every man looking on there are a hundred 
 who are willing to simply read the account of the 
 game in the next morning's paper. 
 
 But cards w^e have with us always. There are 
 a few^ men who have never played cards in their 
 lives and for some inscrutable reason are proud of 
 
WHAT IS POKER? 9 
 
 the fact, and a greater number who used to play 
 when they were boys but have no time for it now, 
 but the man who never in all his life fingered a pack 
 of cards is about as hard to find as the man who 
 never told a lie. Of course this would not have 
 held true thirty or forty years ago, when cards 
 were held up to scorn as the invention of the devil, 
 and all card players were placed but a shade above 
 a forger or pickpocket. We do not hear so much 
 of that wild talk nowadays. 
 
 In cards we are almost as radical as in out of 
 door sports. Faro, baccarat, rouge et noir, and 
 one or two others are decidedly foreign, and there 
 are more coming. Euchre is French, and seven- 
 up is our own. That is the country boy's game, 
 and many a hay mow has looked down on an ex- 
 citing game, when the old man had gone to town. 
 Euchre is the ladies' game because you can play it 
 any which way, and cheat and talk, and no one 
 will get very mad about it. Whist is never going to 
 be popular, no matter how many clubs are formed 
 or how many trophies are played for. There 
 is too much brain work about whist, pretty much 
 as in chess, and the ordinary man does not care 
 to expend more energy than would saw a cord of 
 wood for the sake of persuading himself that he 
 has had an hour's amusement. One reason whist 
 is played as much as it is, is owing to the idea in- 
 dustriously cultivated that the game is "respect- 
 
lo JACK POTS. 
 
 able." Perhaps this is due to the fact that the 
 Queen of England plays whist, but she also drinks 
 Scotch whiskey, so that would hardly do to take 
 as an indorsement. In English novels the vicars 
 and curates always play whist, so that may be the 
 reason. At any rate the game is eminently "re- 
 spectable," and a lady never alludes to her last 
 visit to the whist club without a touch of con- 
 scious pride. It adds to her social standing, or she 
 thinks it does, which amounts to the same thing. 
 
 When you shuffle up all the games, however, 
 there is one that stands out before and beyond all 
 the others, like a lighthouse on the sea coast or 
 a water tank on a prairie, and that is POKER. 
 
 This is not a history, but it seems no more than 
 proper that a brief inquiry into the origin of the 
 game should be given place. It is claimed that it is 
 a descendant of the Spanish game of primero, 
 although the proof is not very clear. According 
 to the people who delve into such things, primero 
 was elaborated in France in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury into ambigu, in which the straight, the 
 straight flush, three of a kind, and four of a kind 
 were introduced. About this time a game called 
 post and pair, derived from primero, was played 
 in the West of England, and from this came brag, 
 on which Hoyle wrote a treatise in 175 1. In the 
 . game of brag, each player said ''I brag" as he 
 raised another player. Another authority claims 
 
WHAT IS POKER? II 
 
 that poker is merely a variation from the Irish 
 game of spoil five. 
 
 If these explanations are true it is rather remark- 
 able that neither the Spanish, French, English or 
 Irish have a liking for the modern and 
 perfected game. Of course we know how 
 cordially Europeans detest innovations, but 
 that would mean that they would cling to 
 primero or ambigu, but they do not. In 
 spite of all temptations to belong to other nations 
 we must insist that poker is a thoroughly American 
 game, so much so that it has never taken root out- 
 side of this country, nor even in Canada, except 
 close to the border. General Schenck, our Minis- 
 ter to England years ago,- is credited with an at- 
 tempt to introduce it into that country for the de- 
 lectation of the natives, but what he really did was 
 to write a little manual of the game to relieve him- 
 self of the necessity of answering a thousand of in- 
 dividual questions. It was a passing craze, and we 
 cannot flatter ourselves that the great American 
 game has taken any hold of our British cousins. It 
 is a pity 'tis true, because they don't know what 
 they are missing. The Prince of Wales is the sporty 
 boy of the English speaking people, and if he had 
 been properly inoculated he would have set the 
 fashion and then there w^ould have been a grand 
 opening for an international show down. But 
 he is too old a dog to learn new tricks, and now 
 
12 JACK POTS. 
 
 we will have to wait for the Duke of York. The 
 fact that he' is married and settled makes no dif- 
 ference, as it is a notorious fact that married men 
 make the best poker players. 
 
 Therefore we may say with truth that America 
 monopolizes the game of poker, and it certainly is 
 the game that best fits our national character. To 
 be a good poker plaj^jer requires nerve, and we have 
 that to perfection. It requires money, and we have 
 more than any other nation. It is a draft on the 
 physical strength, and we are strong; the players 
 must have brains, and there is where we lead the 
 world. 
 
 In addition to this it is such a simple game to 
 learn. Anyone who knows how to play euchre 
 or seven-up can be taught the game of poker in 
 a half hour — and then spend the rest of his life 
 in learning it. That is the main beauty of the 
 game — you think you know it all after you have 
 played ten hands and then after a hundred seances 
 you begin to realize that there is something for you 
 to learn. There is so much human nature in it, 
 and human nature is so complex. 
 
 From these statements one would think that 
 Germans could play the game to perfection but 
 the fact that they don't shows that they can't. The 
 German is stolid, but he is too stolid. Chess just 
 suits him ; it is a game where he can take an hour 
 to a move, and everybody that looks on thinks he 
 
WHAT IS POKER? 13 
 
 is" thinking. Of course the players have to think 
 in poker, and theoretically the player is allowed 
 to take his own time, but if he takes more* than the 
 fraction of a minute somebody is apt to make a 
 few remarks. 
 
 Then there is the Frenchman. He is lively and 
 vivacious, is apt to back his opinions with a wager 
 and has none of the stolidity of the German, but 
 he can't play poker. He is too excitable, he talks 
 too much, he wants to gabble over the hands that 
 have been played, and quick as he is, the game is 
 too fast for him. 
 
 You might think that the Englishman would 
 make the model poker player, but he doesn't. It 
 w^ould be all right if it wasn't for the bluffing part. 
 Where the cards play themselves the Englishman 
 is there every time, and he is a fine loser, but he 
 can't get it through his hair that a man can win on 
 the poorest hand through sheer force of nerve. 
 
 In every other game the cards practically play 
 themselves, but in poker the man plays the cards. 
 
 For a crowd there is not a finer game on earth 
 than faro on the square, but after all it is mere 
 chance. Systems don't amoui.t to air^^thing; the 
 system player is always broke, and the mjn that 
 shuts his eyes and claps down his chips at random 
 is just as liable to w^in as the man who has followed 
 faro for years. You can't bluff; skill and experi- 
 ence count for nothing; you are playing against 
 
 / 
 
14 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 a box that has no feelings to betray its contents, 
 and after you have bucked up against it for ten 
 years y«u know no more than the man who has just 
 been introduced to the layout. 
 
 Then, unlike all other games, poker never ends. 
 When the hock card is in sight in faro, that is the 
 end of the deal; euchre and seven-up, and every 
 other game has a certain number of points and that 
 settles it, but a poker game can go on forever. The 
 hundredth deal around does not differ from the 
 first and a new player can come in at any stage of 
 
 the game, and have just the 
 same chance as the man who 
 has been sitting in all 
 night. However, 
 looked at in an- 
 other light, per- 
 haps that is one 
 of the drawbacks. 
 The man who is 
 behind does not 
 want to quit, 
 and the man w^ho 
 is ahead is 
 
 • Hello! It's Eleven, boys."' ashauicd tO pull 
 
 out, and between these tw'o feelings the game 
 sometimes drags on until the players have to 
 quit through sheer weariness. 
 
 It is amusing to see some coteries making up 
 
WHAT IS POKER? 15 
 
 their minds to limit the game. They sit down and 
 unanimously agree that they will not play a minute 
 after 11 p. m., because — well, for a whole lot of 
 reasons. When 1 1 p. m. comes along, it is let slide 
 by, and then at about half past eleven some one 
 says: "Hello! it's eleven, boys." Then they agree 
 to play one more round, and when that is done, 
 it is suggested that there be a round of jack pots. 
 After about six rounds of jack pots, then there is 
 one or two rounds of something else, and the end 
 of it is that the gathering scatters nearer to i a. m. 
 than 1 1 p. m. The only remedy for this sort of 
 thing is to have one of the players' wives send after 
 him, or for one man to get all the chips. 
 
 A good poker player would make a good actor. 
 He is compelled to do a lot of acting during a long 
 game. There are a few men who are gifted with 
 faces that have about as much expression as a lump 
 of dough and who never raise or lower their voices. 
 It takes a heap of luck to beat that kind of a man. 
 and most anybody would sooner play against a fel- 
 low wdio ripped and tore around occasionally. It is 
 a study to see the face of a man w^ho has just drawn 
 a filler to two pairs. As he picks up the cards ana 
 sees that it is just wdiat he wants, an expression of 
 deep gloom or utter disgust settles on his coun- 
 tenance, which then subsides into a state of resig- 
 nation, as if he might have know^n that he w^as too 
 unlucky to catch anything worth having. He ap- 
 
1 6 JACK POTS. 
 
 pears to be depressed and he sees the other fellow 
 fingering the chips, and it is with the greatest re- 
 luctance he sees the bet and just lifts it one or two, 
 making the muttered remark that his hand can't 
 be beaten all the time. It is only when he makes 
 the final raise that he comes from behind the mask, 
 and the other fellow^ realizes that he has been lured 
 on to destruction. Happy is the man that can 
 play a full house and a pair of fours in exactly the 
 same way — he has a fortune at his finger ends. 
 
 It is this acting and pretence and chafif that 
 makes the game so delightful, and when these 
 frillings are absent one might as well play chess. 
 It is only a quarter of the fun to play the cards, the 
 rest is in playing the players. And what a school 
 of control it is ! OfBcers in the army and navy are 
 always capital players because they are taught to 
 restrain their tempers and emotions in the line of 
 duty until it becomes second nature to them. 
 Look at Admiral Dewey's face and see a crack po- 
 ker player. Note the square jaw, the immobile 
 lips and dreamy indifferent eyes that seem to say 
 *'I haven't a pair in my hand, and I'm only waiting 
 for you to chuck in a chip and you can have the 
 pot." And then, without a change of countenance 
 you can see him elevate the pot until you wouldn't 
 call him under fours. 
 
 The man who loses his temper in a poker game 
 will also lose his money. He will always be called 
 
WHAT IS POKER? i7 
 
 when he bluffs, and when he gets a big hand he 
 will never get the value of it, because no one will 
 buck against him for fear of offending him by beat- 
 ing the hand. If he doesn't enjoy losing his money 
 he should affect indifference, or he is allowed to 
 indulge in sarcastic remarks, provided they are 
 witty as well. Nor does it do any harm to sympa- 
 thize with a loser if you are ahead. When he comes 
 to think it over afterwards, he w411 know that you 
 didn't mean it, but it does him good at the time. 
 There is another beauty about the game of poker 
 that I almost forgot to mention. The amount of 
 the stake has nothing to do with the pleasure of 
 the game. I don't mean to say that a high roller 
 who has been in the habit of making it ten dollars 
 to draw cards every time could calmly contemplate 
 five cent ante with a fifty cent limit with the same 
 crowd, but take him out of the environment and he 
 could. I have played penny ante with a ten cent 
 limit, and found myself getting hot around the 
 collar when I had a flush beaten for thirty cents. 
 When the pot has been fattened by two or three 
 raises before the draw and everybody is in, the 
 .excitement is something tremendous when every- 
 body stays, and the limit is bet the first crack. No, 
 I'm not the least ashamed of it. The three other 
 men could have lost ten thousand at a sitting and 
 never felt it, but they wanted to play poker just for 
 the fun of it, with no hard feelings afterwards. But 
 
1 8 JACK POTS. 
 
 that is true about the way you feel, and I suppose 
 is pretty much on the principle of hunting ; the boy 
 who is out after rabbits feeling his heart beat as 
 high as the man in the jungle lying in wait for a 
 tiger. 
 
 The "draw" in poker is an addition to the origi- 
 nal game. At first it was played ''straight," that 
 is, you got five cards and had no chance to better 
 your hand. Once in a very long while you may 
 hear of straight poker being played, but it is more 
 for the novelty than because it is liked. The draw 
 IS certainly the life of poker. There are such vast 
 possibilities in it; so many utterly barren hands 
 have blossomed into life under the influence of the 
 draw that the player is constantly being buoyed 
 up with hope. He is in the depths of despair in- 
 deed when he throws up his cards and won't draw 
 to a little pair when there has been a raise. To 
 do that and then look and see 'Svhat you would 
 have got," and find that you would have had the 
 winning hand, is one of the moments of anguish 
 few can bear without wincing. 
 
 Innovations in poker have been many, and it 
 would need a special chapter to describe them all,. 
 but the only one that has met with universal favor 
 is the jack pot. First introduced as a varient, it 
 spurred up many a lagging game, and made an 
 always exciting wind up to a night's performance. 
 From this it naturally progressed to jack pots on 
 
WHAT IS POKER? 19 
 
 any provocation, and finally on none at all — that is, 
 the game became one of all jack pots. This comes 
 under the head of the things that if you like them 
 they are just the things you like. The main objec- 
 tion to jack pots is that they are apt to prove too 
 expensive for small wads. While it is true that you 
 can play even on a couple of jack pots, it is also 
 true that you can go broke with equal facility, as 
 you must come in on every deal until some one 
 opens the pot, and then maybe you can't come in at 
 all. But, as revolutions never go backw^ard, the 
 jack pot and its brothers are here to stay. 
 
 Here it may be noted that it is only within the 
 last twenty years that straights have been played in 
 the Western States. And, of course, if straights 
 weren't played neither was the straight flush, so 
 that four aces was an absolutely sure thing. The 
 introduction of the straight flush was a good thing 
 because it took away the sure thing element, and it 
 allows a man to bet on four aces with a clear con- 
 science. It doesn't seem so much like highway 
 robbery when you know there is about one chance 
 ill ten thousand that your opponent has a straight 
 flush against your aces, although you would be 
 paralyzed if he had. 
 
 As said before — several times before, perhaps — 
 this is no history of poker, with the dates and the 
 names of the men who introduced this or that, and 
 when they did it ; neither is it an attempt to teach 
 
20 JACK POTS. 
 
 anyone the game, which no one has ever yet done 
 on paper or ever will; but it may incidently 
 straighten out some controversial points over 
 which men pull guns occasionally in certain locali- 
 ties, and in other places get black in the face talk- 
 ing over them. 
 
 There is no harm, however, in putting down 
 here, for the benefit of the reader who has only 
 heard about poker and never played it, the rank of 
 the playing hands, so that he may see how exceed- 
 ingly simple the game is. They run thus : 
 
 High card. 
 
 One pair. 
 
 Two pairs. 
 
 Threes. 
 
 Straight. 
 
 Flush. 
 
 Full hand. 
 
 Fours. 
 
 Straight flush. 
 
 Suit makes no difference; that is, a flush of 
 hearts is no better than clubs or any other suit; 
 only the rank of the cards is considered. Nor have 
 I put down here all innovations, such as kilters, 
 drags, blazes, and many others which are played 
 in various localities, because you have to learn 
 them when you run up against the men who play 
 them, and that is time enough. 
 
 However this is enough to enable those who 
 
WHAT IS POKER? 21 
 
 laugh the loudest at a minstrel poker joke to oc- 
 casionally have some perception as to what they are 
 laughing- at. It is a cold fact that the man who is 
 away u]) on poker generally preserves a stony 
 silence while the end man is describing his tribula- 
 tions with four aces ; it is the other fellow who has 
 his girl with him that is convulsed with merriment. 
 It is a good play ; it makes her think he is a devil of 
 a fellow when out of her sight. 
 
 However, that's neither here nor there. Here 
 goes. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER STEAMBOAT GAMES 
 
 A MAMMOTH RAISE BOWIE's GOOD DEED, 
 
 We do not think that there is any raih'oad in 
 this country where card playing is forbidden in its 
 coaches, but in the East and North gambUng is not 
 
 tolerated. Of 
 course, if two or 
 more players are 
 willing to put up 
 so much a corner, 
 and keep the cash 
 out of sight, that 
 is their business 
 and the conduc- 
 tor cannot very 
 well interfere, but 
 such a thing as 
 pla y i n g with 
 chips or money in 
 sight would be called down in short order. In the 
 West and South affairs are on an easier basis, and 
 on many roads card betting is an every day affair, 
 and creates no remark except from those inti- 
 mately concerned. It is not so long ago since gangs 
 of professional gamblers regularly worked all the 
 
 22 
 
 Playing with chips or money in sight would 
 be called down. 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 23, 
 
 trains west of the Mississippi River, with every im- 
 aginable device to deceive the unwary. So openly 
 was this done — and is still done on some roads— 
 that it conveyed an impression that the train hands 
 stood in with the sharpers, and got a whack at the 
 spoil. cl»wm)1 ^ :\ > \ - ....' . r 
 
 That, however, is not a necessary sequence. The 
 conductors and brakemen do not perhaps feel any 
 great sympathy for the victims, because they ought 
 to know enough to keep out of games with 
 strangers after all the warnings that have been pub- 
 lished. But the train hands would interfere, were 
 it not for the fact that they would get small thanks 
 from the suckers they saved and on the other hand 
 stand a chance of being assaulted by the sharpers. 
 So long as there is no rule of the company against 
 the practice, the train hands are justified in suppos- 
 ing that the passengers know enough to protect 
 themselves. 
 
 But, gambling in its palmiest days on the rail- 
 roads never began to touch the days when steam- 
 boats were the chief means of inter-state travel. 
 Before railroads criss-crossed the country in every 
 direction, the two main arteries of travel were the 
 Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Practically there was 
 no west or northwest before 1850, and the Ohio 
 and Mississippi filled the bill for south, southwest 
 and the middle section. 
 
 Those were the davs before the war when cotton 
 
24 JACK POTS. 
 
 was king. In those days the Southerners had lots 
 of money and spent it freely. As a rule they did 
 not even wait until the cotton was raised and baled, 
 they mortgaged their crops in advance, and if 
 money ran too short there was always a slave or 
 two that could be disposed of at fancy figures. 
 
 The boats were nothing like the floating palaces 
 such as now run on river and lake, but they were 
 considered grand affairs for those days, and no 
 doubt were comfortable enough, certainly more so 
 for a three or four days journey than a railway 
 coach is to-day. Here could be seen a group of 
 men with broad straw hats, duck or linen suits of 
 ample cut, sallow faces, fierce mustaches and keen 
 eyes; men who were addicted to mint juleps and 
 other fancy drinks ; who were suave in speech and 
 extravagantly polite, and who always carried re- 
 volvers and knives which they used on small pro- 
 vocation. 
 
 To such, card playing came as natural as drink- 
 ing and they did more of each than eating or sleep- 
 ing. It was nothing unusual for an open game to 
 be run in the saloon all day and night from the 
 time the boat left the wharf on the upper river until 
 she landed at her destination. Private coteries were 
 made up and played twenty-four hours at a stretch, 
 the deck hands had their games at intervals and the 
 pilot at the wheel took a hand when he was off 
 duty. In short, everybody played or looked on, 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 25 
 
 ready to play at the first chance, if they had the 
 money. Among friends, notes or I O U's would 
 go, but in an open game only money counted, and 
 it was "put up or shut up." 
 
 Here was the paradise of the professional poker 
 player, and no boat was without its complement. 
 They passed all their time traveling up and down 
 the river, cheating when they had an opportunity, 
 and playing a square game when they must. As 
 a rule, they knew their men, and did not attempt 
 any tricks on the planters who could lose a fortune 
 without a murmur, but who would carve a man 
 into bits at the least suspicion of foul play. They 
 w^ere loaded with money and won many a hand on 
 a bluff, where the game was without limit. If a 
 man demanded a sight for his money he might get 
 it, but the game would end right there. Generally 
 the man kept on until he had up every cent in the 
 world, and sometimes even the most reckless 
 Southern high roller would not hesitate to risk five 
 thousand on a pair of fives. 
 
 Sometimes these gentry were beaten at their 
 own game in this respect. On one occasion an 
 army paymaster was traveling down the Ohio and 
 dropped into a friendly game with three gentle- 
 manly sharpers, and incidently dropped about five 
 hundred dollars before he knew where he w^as at. 
 About the same time he realized that he was up 
 against it, and he settled down to get even. 
 
26 JACK POTS. 
 
 Being an excellent player, he held his own for 
 awhile, and even got a little ahead. His opponents 
 soon saw that the ordinary methods of cheating 
 would not answer with this man, so they resorted 
 to crowding him out of every good pot by a sys- 
 tem of raising each other. He tumbled to that 
 plan also, but could make no objection, and bided 
 his time. Presently it came. 
 
 It w^as his deal, so he felt morally certain that it 
 was fair, and he dealt himself three queens. The 
 age on his left lifted the ante, his chum helped it 
 along and the pot was pretty fat when cards were 
 drawn. The paymaster did not help his hand, but, 
 as he said afterwards he felt sure that it was the 
 best out. Then the betting began. 
 
 The man next the age bet ten dollars; the next 
 man raised it fifty; the paymaster called, and the 
 age raised another fifty. In turn he was lifted a 
 hundred, the next man ^raised a hundred and the 
 paymaster called again, only to be again raised by 
 the age. This sort of thing went on until it be- 
 came perfectly evident to the paymaster as well as 
 the onlookers that the paymaster was not to be 
 allowed to call. 
 
 This merry little game of freeze out went on 
 until there was $2,600 on the table, and then at a 
 preconcerted signal no doubt, the age raised 
 five hundred, the next man saw the five hundred 
 and raised it a thousand, and the third man saw 
 both raisers and lifted it five thousand. 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 
 
 27 
 
 The paymastei' looked on in apparent sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "Sixty-five hundred?" he said, inquiringly. 
 
 'That's what," replied the age briefly. Then he 
 added, as if overcome with disappointment, 'T 
 guess that lets me out." 
 
 The paymaster sized up the situation. The 
 money up represented the combined capital of the 
 gang, and if he drew out, 
 the raise would not be 
 called, and the five-thousand 
 dollar man would 
 b e allowed t o 
 walk off with the 
 pot without a 
 show down, and 
 the sharpers 
 would whack up when they went 
 ashore. He put in about two 
 minutes in some mighty heavy 
 thinking. 
 
 uc 1 >) 1 'tit A^ Now I'D give you fifteen 
 
 bee here, he said at length, minutes to raise the money. 
 w-ri ' ,1 1 •, T 1 or the pot's mine. 
 
 ihis rather hits me. I have 
 the money to call, but I don't want to risk it all on 
 one hand, as I tell you honestly I can't afford to 
 lose it. Couldn't you cut down the pot and give 
 me a show." 
 
 ''I could but I won't," replied the five-thousand 
 dollar man, with cool insolence. "You knew this 
 
28 JACK POTS. 
 
 game was without limit when you came in. 
 Now I'll give you just fifteen minutes to raise the 
 money, or the pot's mine." . 
 
 The paymaster turned to a tall, grave man stand- 
 ing by the table, a well known horse dealer, and an 
 old player. 
 
 *'Is that right, Mr. Shaw?" he asked. 
 
 "I am sorry to say it is," was the reply. ''At the 
 same time," he added, significantly, ''if you suspect 
 any crooked work" — . 
 
 "No, no," said the paymaster, hastily. "I only 
 wanted to know my rights in this afiFair. Fifteen 
 minutes, you said?" 
 
 "Yes; and no more." 
 
 During the entire game a young well dressed 
 man had been standing near the paymaster, watch- 
 ing with evident anxiety the progress of the game. 
 It was his clerk, although no one knew^ of their re- 
 lations and to the clerk the paymaster now turned 
 and said, "Charley, go to my state room and bring 
 me my valise." 
 
 The clerk who had been very red now turned 
 pale, and made an efifort to speak, but was silenced 
 with an imperative wave of the hand. He went 
 away and when he returned and placed a bulky 
 valise by the paymaster's knee, he was trembling 
 in every limb. 
 
 By this time the tension was tremendous. Every 
 eye was fixed on the paymaster, and the gamblers 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 29 
 
 began to realize that something was going to hap- 
 pen that boded them no good. The paymaster 
 opened the bag, and took out package after pack- 
 age of crisp banknotes and laid them on the. table. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," he said, pleasantly, ''since 
 you insist upon playing without limit I am obliged 
 to acquiesce. I will see your sixty-five hundred 
 and raise you fifty thousand !" 
 
 Two of the gamblers gave vent to an involuntary 
 cry of surprise, while the third fell back in his chair 
 with white face and clenched lips. The paymaster 
 put his hand in a casual way in his breast pocket, 
 his clerk did the same, and Mr. Shaw moved a step 
 nearer the table. But the gamblers were in no 
 mood for violence, especially as they saw no sym- 
 pathy in the eyes of the spectators. 
 
 The paymaster pulled out his watch, and in a 
 tone as insolent as the other had assumed, said : 
 
 'T'll give you just fifteen minutes to see the raise, 
 or ril take the pot." 
 
 The three men looked at each other in mute de- 
 spair. There wasn't a station within ten miles and 
 not a man on the boat that would have let them 
 have fifty thousand on four aces under the circum- 
 stances. They sat in moody silence for fifteen 
 minutes, as if hoping that the money would drop 
 through the roof, and at the end of that time, arose 
 and walked away with as much indifference as they 
 could assume. At the first landing they got off 
 
30 JACK POTS. 
 
 and the paymaster packed his money back in the 
 vaHse. It was Uncle Sam's money to pay troops, 
 and if he had lost it, he had determined to kill 
 himself; as it was he determined to never again 
 play poker with strangers — at least, without a 
 Hmit. 
 
 Another anecdote of the river days of long ago 
 brings to view a character that could hardly exist 
 now and be famous in the same way. The scene 
 is laid on the steamer Orleans, running between 
 Natchez and New Orleans in the fall of 1832. 
 
 A young man of Natchez, going North in sum- 
 mer on his wedding trip, had been commissioned 
 by a number of merchants and planters in his 
 neighborhood to collect various accounts due them 
 in New York and other places which he proposed 
 to visit. The young man was the soul of honor, 
 but not very strong in resolution; in fact, he was 
 rather an easy mark if worked in the proper way. 
 
 Unfortunately this became known to the ring of 
 gamblers who were working the rivers, and they 
 laid their plans accordingly. Some of their mem- 
 bers made his acquaintance in New York, and 
 learned that he would return South by way of 
 Pittsburg, where he was to take the boat for Louis- 
 ville, and after spending a few days there, take an- 
 other boat for New Orleans that stopped at 
 Natchez. In pursuance of the plan, one of the 
 gang met him on the boat at Pittsburg and intro- 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. $1 
 
 duced him to two alleged Louisiana planters who 
 made themselves quite agreeable. On the way 
 down to Louisville, several friendly games of poker 
 were played, in all of which the young man came 
 out a little ahead, so that he was in high good 
 humor when they got ready to pluck him in ear- 
 nest, which was on board the Orleans. 
 
 The game was played with a short deck of thirty- 
 two cards, the same as a euchre deck, which of 
 course was conducive to holding fat hands in al- 
 most every deal, and led to high betting. The 
 three confederates worked the cross lifting trick 
 on the victim, together with an occasional bit of 
 cheating, until the poor fellow had but a few thou- 
 sands left when the boat neared Vicksburg, where 
 it was the sharpers' intention to give him the shake. 
 The poor fellow was already nearly crazed w^ith 
 his losses, realizing that he was not only ruined but 
 dishonored, and his yoimg wife was in terrible dis- 
 tress over this unlooked for termination of their 
 honeymoon. Yet he kept on playing on the des- 
 perate chance of redeeming his money. 
 
 When the boat was within a half day's run of 
 Vicksburg there came on board a tall man with a 
 smooth shaven face, who looked like a preacher, 
 and he with others stood looking at the game in 
 the men's cabin. x\t midnight the last dollar of the 
 dupe had been raked in, and rising from the table, 
 he rushed wildlv to the side of the vessel, and was 
 
32 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 only prevented by his wife's arms from throwing 
 himself overboard. 
 
 Suddenly the clerical looking man made his ap- 
 pearance by the side of the distracted wife, and 
 
 said, quietly, 'Take 
 
 him to your cabin, 
 and watch h i m 
 closely until I re- 
 turn." 
 
 Going back to the 
 cabin where the 
 gamblers were hav- 
 ing a hilarious time 
 at the bar, the stran- 
 ger drew out an im- 
 mense roll of notes, 
 and asked the bar- 
 tender to change a 
 hundred dollar bill. 
 
 Was only prevented by his wife's arms from ^ ^ ^^^^ "-^ Oblige 
 
 throwing himself overboard. VOU but I Cau't " 
 
 was the reply. '' Perhaps some of these gentlemen 
 can do it." 
 
 One of the gamblers very readily made the de- 
 sired change, and also invited the stranger to have 
 a drink. They soon fell into conversation, and it 
 was not long until a game of poker was proposed, 
 and after some demur the stranger consented. 
 
 The ante was five dollars, and as there was al- 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 33 
 
 ways a straddle, it rarely cost less than forty dol- 
 lars to play, and the betting" ran rather high. The 
 stranger managed to keep a little ahead of the 
 game until near morning, and then came the 
 crucial hand. 
 
 The pot was fattened up to nearly five hundred 
 dollars before the draw, and then the betting was 
 fast and furious. Finally two ol the players 
 dropped out, leaving only a big whiskered fellow 
 and the stranger. As the bets rose by thousands 
 the gambler's face began to assume an anxious 
 look, while the other was pale and cool, rather 
 sleepy in fact, although he never took his eyes off 
 his adversary's hands. 
 
 At last more than seventy thousand dollars 
 were piled up on the cloth, and the stranger said 
 quietly, "I call you." Then he added sharply: 
 *'One moment, please." He laid his cards face up 
 on the table, disclosing four kings and a ten. 'This 
 is poker, and five cards constitute a hand. If you 
 can show four aces, and no more than five cards 
 in your hand, the pot is yours. But," and here, 
 with a sudden movement he drew from his coat a 
 long and keen knife, ''if you have more or less than 
 five cards I will kill you where you sit." 
 
 The gambler held his cards in his hands in front 
 of him, and it was noticed that they trembled per- 
 ceptibly. The stranger held the deadly knife in 
 his hand, and although he was still pale, and his 
 
34 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 voice had not been raised above its usual tones, 
 his eyes glowed like fire, and he looked like an 
 avenging demon. All three gamblers were armed, 
 but none made a movement to draw a weapon, and 
 they sat there for a minute the very pictures of 
 baffled villainy. 
 
 ''Come," said the stranger, smoothly. "Your 
 hand has been called; what have you got? Don't 
 
 take your hands 
 out of sight ; show 
 down the cards 
 just as they are." 
 The gambler 
 wavered, looked 
 at his compan- 
 ions furtively and 
 saw no encour- 
 agement in their 
 faces, and then 
 with a muttered curse, threw 
 his hand into the deck. The 
 stranger with his left hand 
 took off his large felt hat, swept the money into it, 
 and clapped it on his head, keeping the knife in his 
 right hand all the time. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," he said, suavely, 'T am 
 going to restore the money you have robbed to 
 the victim. It is fortunate for you," he added, turn- 
 ing to his opponent, "that you did not disclose 
 
 But! and here, with a sudden 
 movement he drew from his 
 coat a long and keen knife. 
 
THE EARLY DAYS OF POKER. 35 
 
 your hand with its four aces, because it had six 
 cards, and you wouldn't have been ahve now. The 
 next time you fleece a gentleman learn to have 
 more mercy." 
 
 As he turned to go after this little lecture, one 
 of the gamblers cried: ''Who the devil are you?" 
 
 "James Bowie," was the answer. 
 
 The voice was like velvet, but the sharpers 
 jumped as if shot. Bowie was known from one end 
 of the river to the other, and it was a surprising 
 chance that he had not been recognized by any one 
 in the cabin. But the name was enough ; the gam- 
 blers shrank away from this dreaded man who, 
 without another glance, made his way to the cabin 
 where the wife was still trying to soothe her hus- 
 band's grief. 
 
 Bowie emptied the contents of his hat before the 
 astounded pair, and in a few minutes the young 
 man was in possession of all that he had lost. 
 
 "Now, my dear sir," said the noted duellist, "let 
 me advise you as a man of the world to never 
 touch another card. You see how nearly it has 
 brought you to shame ; believe me it can never 
 bring you happiness. Before I leave you, let me 
 have your sworn promise." 
 
 The young man took the oath with tears in his 
 eyes, and then begged that his benefactor accom- 
 pany him home, but Bowie refused, and at the first 
 landing place, got off the boat, and they never saw 
 him afterward. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 POKER IN WASHINGTON A STORY OF HENRY^ CLAY 
 
 CABINET PLAYERS MAHONE'S RULE 
 
 WHEN REED WAS CALLED. 
 
 Washington is popularly regarded as the great 
 poker center of the United States, and there are 
 many reasons for the belief. There is a feverish 
 air about Washington life that conduces to card 
 playing. Public office is largely a game of chance 
 in this country, despite the strides made by the 
 Civil Service, and the man who goes to Washing- 
 ton in an official capacity feels that he will be there 
 to-day and home to-morrow. Very few of the thou- 
 sands of clerks regard their places as more than 
 temporary until they have been there at least five 
 years, and by that time they have contracted habits 
 of careless spending that they can hardly throw off. 
 
 Then there comes every two years to the na- 
 tion's capital a number of new congressmen who 
 feel flushed with wealth on a salary of five thou- 
 sand a year. Many of them could not earn half 
 that sum at their occupation, and especially as the 
 money comes easily they fritter away a great deal 
 of it in dissipation. To these classes are to be 
 added the diplomatic corps, many of the attaches 
 being young bloods sent abroad for the good of 
 
 36 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 37 
 
 the family, and they have nothing to do with their 
 salaries but to spend them in good living, and that 
 includes card playing. In addition, when Congress 
 is in session, the whole town is in a fever of excite- 
 ment, and the easiest way to work off the surplus 
 steam is with a pack of cards. 
 
 Washington is full of poker stories, because 
 from all accounts, every administration, at least 
 from Jackson's down, indulged in the game. Lin- 
 coln didn't ; he was of too serious mood to care for 
 the game; and of course, Hayes wouldn't touch a 
 card; although there is reason to think that he 
 knew something about the game. Arthur was a 
 splendid player; Garfield, only fair. Cleveland's 
 cabinet was full of poker players; and — although 
 you wouldn't think it to look at his grave and al- 
 most solemn features — Gresham was king of them 
 all. Carlisle is a shrewd player but lacks nerve — 
 that is, he can't bluff 'successfully. 
 
 It doesn't sound likely, but they say that Cleve- 
 land did not learn to play poker until he came to 
 Washington. He went off on one of his famous 
 duck hunting expeditions with Gresham and Car- 
 lisle, and when he came back he had been inocu- 
 lated. After that he took a hand whenever the 
 opportunity offered, but he always played a small 
 game ; rarely winning or losing more than ten dol- 
 lars at a sitting. Dan Lamont used to play heavily 
 before he got into public life, but w^hen he saw the 
 possibilities he dropped poker. , 
 
 V 
 
 \^ 
 
38 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 Going back to the old timers, practically all of 
 the congressmen before the war played poker, and 
 did not try to conceal it as they do now. Henry 
 Clay was a famous player, and won a fortune in 
 his time. There is a funny story about Clay that 
 illustrates the character of the man. 
 
 There was in Washington an old darkey whom 
 Clay had befriended, a poor fellow who had quite 
 
 a reputation 
 among his people 
 as a preacher. 
 One day as the 
 great Kentucky 
 senator was 
 strolling down 
 Pennsylvania Av- 
 enue, the old fel- 
 low tackled him. 
 It was on Sunday 
 
 mornmg. 
 
 B o b," 
 'you're 
 
 "Well, 
 said he, 
 up early." 
 
 ''Y e s, Marse 
 Henry; de airly 
 bird ketches de 
 worm." 
 ''Oh, you are worm hunting, are you?" 
 "No, Marse Henry," said the old fellow, sol- 
 emnly, "TsQ lookin' for help for my little church." 
 
 Bob, here is fifty dollars that I won at 
 poker last night. 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 39 
 
 "I won't give you a cent," said Clay, decidedly. 
 "I gave you something only last week for your 
 church." 
 
 "Yes, Marse Henry, so you did; and dat," rais- 
 ing his eyes piously, ''dat's a treasure laid up for 
 you in Hebben." 
 
 ''Oh, is it?" said the Senator, smiling. Then he 
 pulled out of his pocket a roll of bills, and con- 
 tinued. "Bob, here is fifty dollars I won at po- 
 ker last night. Now, if you can reconcile it with 
 your conscience to use money got in that way 
 for church purposes, take it along." 
 
 Old Bob bowed and pulled his cap. 
 
 ^'Sarvant, Marse Henry; thankee, sah. God do 
 move in a musterious way his wonders to per- 
 form." 
 
 x-\nd he walked ofi. with the money. 
 
 Another Kentucky man, a senator, although not 
 from that State, says that his seat there and all he 
 has besides is due to a poker game, and tries to 
 prove it with the following story. 
 
 ''I was born and bred in old Kentucky, and 
 strange as it sounds, it was in a highly moral town 
 where games of chance were not tolerated. It was 
 no use bucking against the law; no matter what 
 the position in life of the offender, if he was caught 
 gambling up he went. But of course there was 
 gambling, and the very lawyers and judges that en- 
 forced the law would take every opportunity to 
 have a quiet game, 
 
40 JACK POTS. 
 
 "One night, during a June term of court, the 
 judge and visiting lawyers arranged for a game, 
 and as it would never do to make such a venture in 
 the hotel, a flatboat moored at the foot of the levee 
 was pitched upon as an ideal place. Jt was supposed 
 that it would be out of sight and hearing of the 
 moral little burg. 
 
 "Accordingly that night two tables were set up 
 in the cabin, and nine members of the legal profes- 
 sion were bending over the game with all the na- 
 tive ardor of Kentucky gentlemen. It was about 
 this time that I, in company with a friend, strolled 
 in the vicinity of the flatboat. I was about twenty 
 years of age and had no money, and my friend was 
 on a par. 
 
 ''On discovering the old folks thus engaged a de- 
 sire to be humorous swept over us. We were law 
 students ; they were full fledged, and that was rea- 
 son enough for the joke. We cast off the boat, 
 and silently she drifted away on the dark bosom 
 of the river. The grave and reverend gamesters 
 drew and filled and straddled, until along about two 
 o'clock in the morning, and then Colonel Bugg 
 concluded he had better quit, and look over his 
 brief for next day. The gallant old fellow put on 
 his hat, bade every one good night, walked off 
 where he thought the gang plank ought to be — 
 and w^alked into twenty feet of water ! 
 
 "Of course there was a howl for help, and he 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 
 
 41 
 
 was fished out with considerable difficulty. Then 
 the startling discovery was made that the boat 
 was twenty miles down stream. The whoops and 
 yells of the voy- 
 agers finally 
 brought a tug to 
 the rescue, and 
 they were towed 
 back to town — 
 only to find the 
 town officers 
 waiting to run in 
 the whole party. 
 In the frank en- 
 thusiasm of youth 
 we had related 
 our doings, and 
 there was no es- 
 cape from the 
 stern rule of jus- 
 tice. 
 
 'There was a 
 terrible row over the affair. Publicly we were com- 
 mended, privately we were threatened with death 
 by the gentlemen we had betrayed, and we knew 
 that some of them would shoot on sight. We took 
 counsel of our fears, and lit out for the West. 
 
 'That was forty-five years ago. My partner in 
 villainy is now a United States Judge, and I am 
 
 Walked off where he thought the gang 
 plank ought to be. 
 
42 JACK POTS. 
 
 a Senator. We often discuss the past, and we lay 
 everything to that flatboat poker game." 
 ^ When General Mahone held Virginia in his vest 
 pocket he was a figure in Washington poker cir- 
 cles. He was cool and nervy, and withal played 
 poker Hke a gentleman. 
 
 Once he was in a game at Chamberlin's, which 
 included several Senators, and nobody was winning 
 or losing very much ; in fact the game was rather 
 slow which probably suggested what follows. A 
 deal was just beginning where Mahone was the 
 age, and the General had anted when a waiter 
 called him from the room to speak to some gentle- 
 man who wanted to see him. 
 
 As he closed the door behind him the Western 
 Senator who was dealing remarked : 
 
 ''Let's put up a joke on Mahone. I'll deal him 
 
 three queens on the go-off and fix up B next 
 
 him with a straight flush, and then let Mahone get 
 another queen in the draw. I'd like to see how 
 long and how hard the General will bet four 
 queens. Of course we can give the money back 
 afterwards." 
 
 The others thought this a good joke, and the 
 hands were fixed up accordingly. Everybody had 
 picked up his hand when the General came back, 
 and as he took his seat and reached for his cards, 
 the dealer remarked, ''Hurry up, General, we're 
 waiting for you." 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 43 
 
 General Mahone looked at his hand, discarded, 
 and said: ''Give me one card." 
 
 The dealer gave the General the fourth queen 
 
 which lay on the top of the deck, and gave B 
 
 next to him one card — the diamond he was after. 
 
 And then they all leaned back to see B and the 
 
 General buck each other, and to hear what the 
 General would say when he lost on four queens. 
 
 It was B 's first bet, and he threw down a 
 
 white chip. Of course everybody was confident 
 the General would raise him. That was where they 
 were disappointed. To their amazement, and with- 
 out a moment's hesitation, without a word of com- 
 ment or any gesture that would indicate either sur- 
 prise or disgust, Mahone threw his hand into the 
 
 discard, and as nobody had bet against B he 
 
 took in the little pot without opposition. 
 
 Mahone then reached for the deck and pro- 
 ceeded to calmly shuf^e the cards for the next deal. 
 The others looked at each other in surprise, and the 
 Senator who had put up the hands, said with a 
 laugh : 
 
 "B , you had better give the General his 
 
 ante." 
 
 Then they all laughed, while Mahone betrayed 
 mild surprise. 
 
 ''Why didn't you bet your four queens?" asked 
 another player. "Did you suspect a joke or think 
 some one was trying to rob you?" 
 
44 JACK POTS. 
 
 "No, sir," replied General Mahone, with perfect 
 gravity, "I have the utmost confidence in the hon- 
 esty of every gentleman present, and I haven't the 
 remotest idea that any one of you would rob me, 
 but I make an inflexible rule to never bet a high 
 hand when I have been absent through the deal. 
 To be out of the room and then to return and pick 
 up three queens and get a fourth on a one card 
 draw is to me very alarming. So, of course, I 
 threw my hand in the discard." 
 
 **Well, General," said the Senator who dealt the 
 cards, ''it was a joke, and I must compliment you 
 on the manner in which you received it. It showed, 
 sir, that you are a Southern gentleman, and was 
 complimentary alike to yourself and to us." 
 
 Then they called in a couple of cold bottles, and 
 the game went on. 
 %/ Ex-Speaker Reed used to relax on poker once 
 in a while, but he was very moderate, and they say 
 in Washington that he never raised more than fifty 
 cents in his hfe. He was also noted for never win- 
 ning anything, but takes his ill fortune with cool 
 good nature. 
 
 On one occasion at the Shoreham a small game 
 was raging with great fury, and by some miracle 
 Reed managed to capture a nine full. He saw / 
 visions of fortune before him, especially as Riley of 
 Pennsylvania^^a man who would bet a quarter 
 without a quiver — showed a disposition to dispute 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 
 
 45 
 
 the pot with him. So he went diHgently to work to 
 raise Riley. And the reckless Riley on his part 
 invariably raised the Speaker, without any rev- 
 erence whatever. 
 
 So they kept see-sawing until the total of the 
 wealth on the green cloth must have equalled six 
 dollars. At last 
 Reed called, and 
 to his disgust 
 Riley laid down a 
 queen full. As he 
 spread the cards 
 out on the table, 
 Reed peered over 
 them with much 
 the same air tliat 
 he used to employ 
 to count the 
 
 House on a rismg He saw visions of fortunes before him. 
 
 vote, and then as 
 
 he settled back in his chair, he drawled forth dis- 
 gustedly that formula wherewith the Speaker an- 
 nounces that a call for the ayes and noes has been 
 voted. 
 
 "Clearly a sufficient number," he said, and Riley 
 raked in the pot. 
 
 (^Senator Wolcott is one of the coolest men liv- 
 ing when engaged in a poker game. Like most 
 men whose early manhood has been spent on the 
 
46 JACK POTS. 
 
 frontier, he learned the vahie of a poker hand, and 
 he was known as a hmit player all over Colorado 
 before he ever gained any fame as a lawyer. 
 
 Wolcott once found himself in a poker game 
 where three of the other players were working a 
 sure thing. They were professionals and were after 
 a big bundle that Wolcott was known to have, as 
 well as looking out for the wad of Durkin, the fifth 
 player, a mining operator. Durkin was uncon- 
 scious but Wolcott knew in twenty minutes after 
 the first hand was dealt that the intention was to 
 rob him, and set his mind to find his way out. 
 
 At last he was dealt a pat flush of diamonds, 
 made up of the five, seven, eight, nine and jack. 
 He skinned these cards over and did a heap of 
 thinking. He felt in his bones that a flush would 
 be no good on the show down, but he chipped in 
 and stayed to draw cards. 
 
 He wasn't raised before the draw, and that 
 strengthened his impression, so he looked over his 
 red hand and concluded to draw a card in order if 
 possible to straighten the sequence. He pondered 
 a long time which to let go but finally threw away 
 the jack, and called for a card. The dealer could 
 not conceal his surprise at his wanting any, but 
 gave him the card. 
 
 Wolcott picked it up and found that he had got 
 the six spot of diamonds. He never turned a hair. 
 The betting began and he nursed the sequence, and 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 47 
 
 just stayed along, letting the other fellows do the 
 raising. At last it got down to Wolcott and one 
 of the professionals. Finally there was a call, and 
 the other man showed four queens. Wolcott laid 
 down the five, six, seven, eight and nine of dia- 
 monds and swept in the pot. Then he took Durkin 
 by the collar and marched him out of the room. 
 He said afterwards that it was the greatest piece of 
 luck that he ever had in a poker game. 
 VSenator Harris, of Tennessee, used to be an in- 
 veterate poker player, and his limit was penny- 
 ante. During the struggle over the Wilson Tarifif 
 Bill, when the whole country was churned up, the 
 House was surprised one day to see the venerable 
 •statesman wandering about inquiring for Repre- 
 uSentative Tarsney. When he found him, the tw^o 
 men engaged in an animated conversation for ten 
 minutes, and the people in the gallery, and all the 
 correspondents were tremendously excited. Tars- 
 ney was a member of the Ways and Means Com- 
 mittee, and this talk with Harris was no doubt due 
 to some tariff complication that would affect the 
 pending bill. 
 
 The correspondents hammered out many an ex- 
 citing tale about this conference, and it was only 
 by interviewing Tarsney that the truth came out. 
 
 "Tarsney," said Senator Harris, solemnly, *T 
 want you to come to my rooms to-night to play 
 penny ante. Do you play penny ante, Tarsney?" 
 
48 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''Yes," said Tarsney, with equal solemnity, "I 
 do, whenever I can gain the consent of my wife." 
 
 'Then," said Senator Harris, fiercely, "get your 
 wife's consent^ and come over to my room to-night. 
 Blackburn will be here, and I will get DuBois. 
 The limit is twenty-five cents, and the ante is two- 
 call-five. You know the rules of my room, sir?" 
 
 "No, I don't." 
 
 "Well, sir," went on Senator Harris, still keeping 
 up his tone of determined fury, "the rules of my 
 room are these. As we sit down to the game I 
 give every gentleman present a drink of Tennes- 
 see whiskey that is fifty years old, sir. After that 
 nobody gets a drink unless he loses money to me. 
 If those rules are agreeable to you, sir, I shall be 
 proud to see you at my rooms to-night." 
 
 Tarsney was there, and he took care to lose a pot 
 occasionally to the host. 
 
 As a rule the diplomatic corps is treated with 
 elaborate politeness by the residents of Washing- 
 ton as it is Understood that they are not used to 
 our ways and it is advisable to not convey wrong 
 impressions. But occasionally, the love of a joke 
 gets away with the young bloods, and they play a 
 prank. 
 
 Herr Von S of the German embassy was a 
 
 popular diplomat, and had been taught the game 
 of poker, or the rudiments, and that was the basis 
 of the joke. A party of young bloods got him 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 49 
 
 into a social game and on the fifth or sixth hand, 
 dealt him six cards. On discovering this fact, he 
 laid them down, remarking that he would not play 
 that hand. 
 
 The dealer asked the reason, and when told, pre- 
 tended to be highly offended, and declared that it 
 was a reflection on him, and that the German must 
 play the hand. The foreigner reiterated the state- 
 ment that he would not play it. Then the fun 
 began. 
 
 The players began to wrangle among themselves 
 over the decision, took sides, and in a few minutes, 
 there was a flash of steel, pistols leaped from hip 
 pockets, dirks, bowie knives, and even razors w^ere 
 drawn. The air also became lurid with profanity 
 that would have enlightened a cowboy in the elas- 
 ticity and scope of the English language. 
 
 Appalled at such an amazing spectacle, Herr 
 
 Von S must have felt cold chills running up 
 
 and down his spine, but he never weakened. With 
 a nerve and manliness that equalled anything ever 
 seen on the field of battle, he rose to his feet, and 
 said, ''Gentlemen, I know not this game entirely, 
 but I have been told that I am right. I will not 
 play these cards. My life is in your hands.". 
 
 The joke had gone too far however for the 
 young bloods to be satisfied with such a tame end- 
 ing, and they kept up their wild whoops, and the 
 flourishing of weapons. Then they apparently be- 
 
so 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 gan fighting among themselves, shooting point 
 blank, clutching throats with vengeful fury and 
 stabbing like wild men. In the midst of it all the 
 German made his way out of the room. 
 
 Afterward, in 
 A f tA<>^^^ speaking of the 
 
 truly American 
 game of cards 
 in which he had 
 taken part, he 
 gave a brief and 
 very graphic 
 account of the 
 manner in 
 which his exit 
 had been accomplished: 
 
 "I was a great many 
 times getting out of the 
 door." 
 
 One night on 
 Hill there was a 
 
 "I will not play these cards. My 
 life is in your hands." 
 
 Capitol 
 remark- 
 able game of poker, in which no Congressmen or 
 diplom.ats were engaged. There were just four old 
 cronies, all business men. They had just dropped 
 in, and began to talk over old times when they 
 were youngsters. Some one remembered the way 
 they used to play poker with gun wads for chips 
 and a dry goods box in the back shed for a table, 
 so it wasn't singular that some other one suggested 
 
POKER IN WASHINGTON. 51 
 
 that it would be a good idea to have a game just 
 for old times. 
 
 The host got out a deck of cards and his wife's 
 button bag, and it happened that there were 
 twenty buttons apiece. Then there was a raking of 
 pockets which disclosed the fact that there wasn't 
 more than two dollars in cash in the crowd. 
 
 The game then proceeded, but after only a few 
 hands the host remarked in a casual way that he 
 wished they were playing sure enough poker. The 
 man to his left skinned over his cards, acquiesced 
 in the desire, and, strange to say, the two other 
 men said they were more than willing to make it 
 the real thing for that hand anyhow. 
 
 The buttons had been bet already, and as there 
 was no money in the party, it was decided to use 
 simple articles easy of identification as markers 
 for the amounts each player should bet. With this 
 understanding the limit was taken off, and the fun 
 began. 
 
 The host bet ten dollars and put up a cigar as a 
 marker, and the next man raised it and shoved in 
 a key ring as a representative of forty dollars. So 
 it went around until there was on the table an ag- 
 glomeration of the various things men carry in 
 their pockets. 
 
 When they got ready to draw cards the expect 
 ant dealer was amazed to find that none of the 
 players wanted any, and just to be in the fashion 
 
52 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 he didn't take any himself. Then the betting be- 
 gan furiously, and everything the players had witli 
 
 the m, whose disap- 
 pearance would not 
 cause too much 
 inquiry on the 
 part of their 
 wives were put 
 up as markers for 
 their bets. 
 
 At last it came 
 around to the 
 host for the fifth 
 time and he de- 
 termined to call. 
 He reached out 
 and picked up an 
 empty coal scut- 
 tle. 
 
 "This goes for 
 sixty dollars," he 
 said, hoarsely. "I've got four jacks." 
 
 The other players laid down respectively a nine 
 full on five, a seven full on kings and four deuces. 
 The winner swept all the markers into the coal 
 scuttle and the game broke up. The next day the 
 coal scuttle man received $260 apiece from each of 
 the other men. 
 
 "This goes for sixty dollars " he said, 
 hoarsely, "I've got four jacks." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS JOHN BULL'S TWO 
 
 PAIR A GAME WITH THE PRINCE 
 
 OF WALES. 
 
 It is a long cry from Washington to London, 
 but not where cards are concerned. As explained 
 at the beginning poker has never taken deep root 
 in Great Britain, but it occasionally crops out with 
 generally humorous results. 
 
 On the staff of the American legation in London 
 some years ago there was a Major, who, like all 
 army officers, could play a stiff game, but who had 
 been rather out of his element for several months, 
 as our Minister was a man who frowned on gam- 
 bling in any form and that kept the staff subdued. 
 But one day there came to town a couple of the 
 Major's friends from the land of the stars and 
 stripes, and the trio had two or three little sittings 
 to the refreshment of all concerned. 
 
 Then one night the Americans brought to the 
 Major's rooms a Scotch manufacturer and an Eng- 
 lish M. P., a regular John Bull, gentlemanly and 
 pig-headed as they make them. After drinks and 
 cigars around, one of the Americans suggested 
 poker, but the Alajor demurred. Poker, he re- 
 marked, was a very dangerous game, particularly 
 
 53 
 
54 JACK POTS. 
 
 as his friends (he modestly omitted any reference 
 to himself) were hot stuff, and it was possible to 
 lose considerable money at the pastime without 
 half trying. 
 
 At this the Scotchman remarked that he had 
 learned the game in the States, and he thought he 
 was cautious enough to restrain his ardor, and 
 the Englishman said that he knew he had to learn 
 the game sometime in his life, and this seemed a 
 fitting opportunity. 
 
 ''V\\ take five pounds' worth of chips as a 
 starter," said he, "and if some one will kindly mark 
 the value of the hands on a piece of paper, I'll pick 
 up the game as I go along." 
 
 "I don't like the idea of playing poker with a 
 man who knows absolutely nothing about the 
 game, particularly in my own rooms," said the 
 Major, with an anxious look at the others. 
 
 But the Englishman was insistent, and as there 
 was risk of offending him if refusal was persisted 
 in, the Major gave way. The American who sat 
 on the right of the M. P. marked the value of the 
 hands on a sheet of paper, and passed it around. 
 It was all right, and, after a few other minutes 
 passed in explaining about the deal and the draw, 
 the game started. 
 
 The limit was five shillings. For an hour there 
 was no decided advantage, and although, like all 
 new players, the Englishman had a proclivity for 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS. 55 
 
 coming in on every hand, he held his own. He 
 also showed the peculiarity of new players in re- 
 garding two pairs as a world beater, and he re- 
 marked several times that they looked much bigger 
 than threes. 
 
 In the middle of the second hour there w^as an 
 intermission for refreshments. You know what 
 that is. Nobody stops playing; time is too pre- 
 cious for that. Each man grabs a sandwich or 
 whatever there is to devour and chews at it, while 
 with the other hand he skins his cards or fingers 
 his chips. This was a new feature to the English- 
 man, and it seemed to affect his luck when the 
 game was resumed in earnest. At any rate he 
 made a half dozen disastrous bets, on all of which 
 the Major profited. 
 
 Then the game went on in a monotonous way, 
 and the Americans could not fail to observe that 
 the M. P. was thinking that this great American 
 game was no great shakes after all. Then, of 
 course, came the star hand, of which there is al- 
 ways one if you play long enough. 
 
 It was the Major's deal, and the Englishman had 
 the age. The American on his left dropped out, 
 but all th'e others came in. There was a raise be- 
 fore the draw, and the man who had dropped out 
 looked at the Englishman's hand and advised him 
 to stay. The Englishman took one card ; the other 
 three drew three cards. 
 
56 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 The first man bet a chip, the Scotchman saw it, 
 the Major Hfted it five shilhngs and the M. P. bet 
 the Hmit. The American — who had three tens and 
 a pair of fours — reciprocated, the Scotchman pru- 
 dently dropped out, and the Major tihed it the 
 hmit. The American looked at his full house with 
 an inquiring air, and simply stayed, but when the 
 Major and the honorable member from Stogis-on- 
 the-Des raised the limit again, he soured on his 
 
 hand and threw it 
 into the deck. 
 This left the bet- 
 ting between the 
 Major and John 
 Bull. 
 
 After about six 
 raises the Major 
 thought it had 
 gone far enough, 
 and said, warn- 
 ingly, 'T'd go a 
 bit slow, old man, 
 remember, this is your first 
 game of poker." 
 
 By this time the other 
 American had taken a look 
 at the Englishman's hand, 
 and whispered something 
 in his ear, with the result that he promptly 
 
 The three had a drink and seemed 
 
 so hilarious that they 
 
 nearly choked. 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS. 57 
 
 raised the Major. Then both Americans went 
 oft to the other end of the room where there 
 was a bottle of the real stuff, and took a drink with 
 much merriment. After about ten more raises the 
 Englishman had to buy more chips, which gave 
 the Major another opportifnity to remind him that 
 this was his first game of poker and that he must 
 not bet over the strength of his hand. 
 
 "That's all right," responded the stubborn John 
 Bull, and he threw another half sovereign in the 
 pot. 
 
 ''Now, old chap," said the Major, solemnly, 
 "don't blame me if you lose your money." 
 
 At this the two Americans took the Scotchman 
 over to the sideboard, and the three had a drink 
 and seemed so hilarious that they nearly choked. 
 The Major was rather nettled at this, and remarked 
 that they had better be giving their friend some 
 good advice, than laughing like hyenas. The only 
 result of their admonition was that the three men 
 went off into convulsions, and one man actually 
 went into the adjoining bed room, threw himself 
 down, and fairly yelled. Whenever the Major sug- 
 gested to the Englishman that he really ought to 
 call or else he would be sorry for it, there came 
 another roar from the trio. 
 
 Finally John Bull got to the end of his money 
 and putting his last half sovereign in the pot, he 
 said, "I'll call you. What have you got?" 
 
S8 JACK POTS. 
 
 Hearing this the others rushed up to the table. 
 The Major looked at the pot, but did not reach for 
 it. He did not want to be in a hurry because he 
 knew it was his, and he hated to hurt the English- 
 man's feelings. At last he said very slowly and 
 almost sorrowfully, "I've got four jacks." 
 
 The Englishman laid his cards face upwards on 
 the table, and asked ''Do I wan?" He had four 
 kings. 
 
 It took the Major some time to take in the full 
 humor of the situation, but he did. The painful 
 feature of the affair was that the Englishrnan 
 thought he was betting his money on two pairs. 
 He had simply followed the advice of the Ameri- 
 can, who, upon seeing his cards, had advised him to 
 ''bet until he was dead." 
 
 He did not go quite so far as that, which was a 
 good thing for the Major. 
 
 It is only a step across the Channel, and we are 
 in Paris — "gay Paree,'' you know, where all good 
 Americans go when they die. Of course Parisians 
 play cards, and they actually play poker, but in a 
 way that Americans would hardly recognize. It is 
 a kind of mixture of a sand bag and a freeze out, 
 with the dangerous qualities of each. 
 
 It starts ofif in a club, and a steward or croupier, 
 or whatever his name may be, holds in his hands a 
 list of names. The first six on the list are "sitting 
 in." Each has declared his stake ; one $50, another 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS 59 
 
 $80, another $75, and so on, the limit of the dec- 
 laration being, for instance, $100. Chips arc 
 handed to each to represent the varying values, 
 and the game begins. 
 
 The limit of betting is the amount of chips be- 
 fore the player. The man with the $100 worth of 
 chips, to make a supposition, bets all of it on the 
 third deal. What becomes of -the man with $50, 
 if he has a good hand? He may put up his fifty 
 dollars, and get a sight for his money, and so with 
 ihe others. If he loses he is gone — scratched off 
 the list — and the steward reads ofT another name 
 to take his place. 
 
 There is no half way about it; it is win or bust 
 all the time. The Frenchmen have understood 
 that poker is a game of bluff and- high betting, and 
 nothing else ; they have missed entirely the quieter 
 features that make it loved. If four out of the six 
 are willing to play moderately, following some- 
 thing like the value of their hands, the other two 
 would shame them, dare them, crowd them. The 
 average Frenchman cannot stand to be ridiculed. 
 Around the table is a double row of spectators, and 
 they are in a continual state of awe and admira- 
 tion over the skill and daring of the bluffers, so 
 the sensible fellows are g^oaded until in a rash mo- 
 ment they plunge down their little pile, and out 
 they go. 
 
 Every once in a while an American gets intro- 
 
6o JACK POTS. 
 
 duced to this French game of poker, and makes 
 up his mind to stand these sports on their heads, 
 but he doesn't. There are too many anoularities 
 about the game for him to grasp in less than a half 
 dozen sittings, and by that time his money is all 
 gone. 
 
 On one of his flying trips to the Continent, our 
 Parson Davies ran up against this sweet game, and 
 after being scratched five nights in succession, de- 
 clared that he thought poker as played in Paris de- 
 cidedly immoral. 
 
 It does not follow from this that there is no real 
 poker played in Paris. There are enough Ameri- 
 cans, and all kinds of Americans to introduce any- 
 thing. They play among themselves, and have in- 
 troduced it into boarding houses, but they cannot 
 get the Frenchmen to play the game among them- 
 selves as it should be played. What the Parisians 
 need is an American Minister like Schenck to edu- 
 cate them. 
 
 As said once before General Schenck was not 
 really an inveterate poker player, although he will 
 go down to history with a reputation on account of 
 the little treatise he wrote on the game, but he 
 could play with the best of them when in the 
 humor. A big corporation lawyer tells a story that 
 illustrates what a high roller Schenck could be. 
 
 'T was in London on business," said the lawyer, 
 "and having known Schenck in America, called on 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS. 6i 
 
 him. He greeted me very cordially, showed me 
 around town and in a general way did the proper 
 thing. 
 
 " 'By the way/ said he, as we were about to sep- 
 arate one morning, 'what are you going to do this 
 evening?' 
 
 *'I replied that I had nothing particular in view. 
 
 " Then,' said Schenck, cordially, 'there is going 
 to be a poker game at the Langham, and if you 
 care for the exercise I'd like to take you in. The 
 Prince of Wales will be one of the party.' 
 
 "Of course I couldn't resist that. I reflected 
 that it isn't often that an American citizen has a 
 chance to draw cards, raise and bluff against a real 
 prince, not an imitation Russian afTair, but a sure 
 enough heir apparent. I didn't care two cents for 
 poker — and, as a true born American, I ought not 
 to have cared for a prince of the blood — but it 
 would be an experience to tell my children wdien 
 they grew up, how their daddy beat the Prince of 
 Wales. Of course I counted on that. 
 
 "So I told Schenck I'd be there without fail, and 
 he expressed himself as very well pleased. One 
 thing I forgot. I didn't ask about the limit, but as 
 I had about two thousand dollars in good Ameri- 
 can money, I felt elegantly and superciliously safe. 
 Even if there was pretty high play, I would be 
 there. 
 
 "Six o'clock came and I was at the Langham, 
 
62 JACK POTS. 
 
 and the others came m later. With the Prince of 
 Wales came Anselm Rothschild and the Duke of 
 Marlborough, and these with ^Minister Schenck 
 and myself were to make up the game. I want to 
 say right here that the Prince is a gentleman from 
 the ground up. If he feels himself any better than 
 his fellow men, and no one can blame him if he 
 does, he never shows it, at least to Americans. 
 They have a saying in England that if the tight 
 little island ever becomes a republic, the Prince of 
 Wales would be elected President by a unanimous 
 vote, and I believe it. 
 
 *7ust after I was presented to the Prince I asked 
 Schenck in a whisper what limit was usually fixed 
 at these poker festivals, and, to my horror, he re- 
 plied in a careless aside that there was no limit. 
 
 "The Prince wouldn't listen to such thing as a 
 limit, explained Schenck. It would be beneath his 
 dignity to suggest a thing like that. 
 
 'T felt a cold chill running down my back, and 
 my two thousand dollars reposing in the vault of 
 the Bank of England began to assume the appear- 
 ance of very small potatoes. Here I was about to 
 buck up against England's heir apparent with the 
 entire revenues of Great Britain to draw upon and 
 a kindly Parliament to pay his debts, the Duke of 
 Marlborough with something like a million a year, 
 and a Rothschild, who could write his check for ten 
 millions without turning a hair. I began to think 
 of home and the dear old flag, and all that. 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS. 
 
 63 
 
 *'It Started the perspiration, but I was in and 
 couldn't get out, so I made up my mind to stay 
 long enough to lose about a hundred dollars, and 
 then suddenly grow ill and extract myself. It 
 wouldn't do to have stomach ache, which was a 
 confoundedly plebeian ailment, and I deplored the 
 fact that I was not subject to fits, but I thought I 
 might ring in a pain of some kind, or perhaps fall 
 
 " And the first thing his Royal Highness said was, "Give me one 
 thousand pounds worth of chips.'' 
 
 back on cold feet. Perhaps the Prince had been 
 occasionally troubled in that way, and would sym- 
 pathize with me. 
 
 *'As we sat down, however, two things happened 
 to disturb my dream of cold feet. Schenck was to 
 bank and the first thing His Royal Highness said 
 was : 
 
64 JACK POTS. 
 
 '' 'Give me one thousand pounds worth of chips.' 
 And he said it with no more emphasis than if it 
 had been: 'Pass the pie.' 
 
 "I began to reahze that I was hable to drop my 
 Httle old two thousand the first hand, and perhaps 
 before I had a chance to draw cards, and I in- 
 wardly prayed for an earthquake. But earthquakes 
 only visit London about once in a thousand years. 
 
 "To add to my grief the Rothschild chap placed 
 at his elbow a book of signed checks, with a blank 
 space for him to write in the amount, which he did 
 with a pencil, in a careless way as if he were keep- 
 ing count of hams. The only glimmer of hope on 
 the horizon was the conduct of the Duke of Marl- 
 borough. He acted like a perfect gentleman and 
 only bought two thousand dollars worth of checks. 
 
 'T steered by him, and also bought two thou- 
 sand dollars worth. Schenck gave me an approv- 
 ing smile, and I learned afterward that I did the 
 proper thing. It would not have been etiquette to 
 buy as much as the Prince. I was mighty glad of 
 that. I thought since that I would have been in 
 a fine fix if etiquette had required me to stpck up 
 with the Prince. 1 am afraid that I would have 
 stuck our Minister for his year's salary, and he 
 would never have spoken to me again. 
 
 ''The horrors of that eventful night I can never 
 recall without a shudder. The ante was two 
 pounds — ten dollars — but that was a mere detail. 
 
POKER IN LONDON AND PARIS. 65 
 
 The Prince would look at his cards in a careless 
 way, and remark T raise that a hundred pounds.' 
 
 "The bloated villain Rothschild would flip the 
 pasteboards in an indifferent manner, and observe, 
 with the same indifference to my feelings, T'll see 
 that and go fifty pounds better.' 
 
 "These blood curdling remarks would take place 
 before the draw, you understand. And then they 
 would lean back, and puff at their fifty-cent cigars, 
 call for what cards they wanted, and talk about 
 bets of five to ten thousand dollars, or anything 
 that happened to come into their wealthy heads. 
 
 '*Oh, how I wished I was a copper king of Mon- 
 tana, or a coal baron of Pennsylvania, or any other 
 fellow rolling in wealth, so that I could have socked 
 it to them ! I laid down hand after hand because 
 I couldn't stand the strain. Td pick up two stout 
 pair, get hoisted a couple of hundred before the 
 draw, and then get knocked out with a bet of two 
 thousand, and set back and see the Prince or 
 Rothschild pull in the pot on a pair of nines. 
 
 "That's the sort of company I was in, and I 
 didn'lr^see my way out the least bit. Lots of times 
 I felt morally certain that they were bluffing, but 
 I couldn't risk five thousand dollars on my opinion, 
 and I had to let it go. It wasn't poker at all ; it 
 was more like highway robbery. It was just pos- 
 sible that they might have a good hand and if I 
 run up against one my friend Schenck would be 
 ruined cashing my losses. 
 
66 JACK POTS. 
 
 "At the end of an hour I was out twelve hundred 
 dollars; simply anted it away, so to speak, and 
 didn't have a bit of fun. Then, all of a sudden, I 
 got hold of three aces. It happened to be a jack 
 pot, very fat as you may believe, and I had them be- 
 fore the draw. I said to myself that it was now or 
 never, and I run my face for all sorts of raises. 
 Talk about cold feet ! When I tell my children 
 about that agonizing ten minutes, I never refer to 
 my feelings, and let them understand that their dad 
 was cool and collected. 
 
 ''But I wasn't. The Prince and the Duke and 
 that Rothschild let me down rather easy — I sup- 
 pose they took pity on me, as it was the first hand I 
 had really played — at any rate there w^as a call, and 
 I won ten thousand dollars on the hand. Then, oh, 
 how I wished that I could get up and make my 
 escape, but that would not have been etiquette, so 
 I stayed on and kept on fooling away my chips as 
 before. 
 
 ''The end of it was that the game broke up at 
 midnight, and I was as happy as if I had w^on a 
 prize in a lottery when I found that I was out only 
 three hundred dollars. The experience was worth 
 the money, and I have had lots of fun talking about 
 it, but I w^ouldn't go through it again until I get 
 to be about ten times a millionaire." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE VARIOUS -DECISIONS BY 
 
 LEGAL LUMINARIES — HOW THE JUDGE OVER- 
 RULED THE MOTION THE SHERIFF 
 
 TOOK THE POT. 
 
 In the eyes of the law all gambling- is illegal and 
 of course poker comes under the ban. Whenever 
 the law gets mixed up with a poker game, the cards 
 have to take a back seat. Yet the law, or the law- 
 yers, who are the life of the law, are currently re- 
 ported to know a great deal about poker from 
 practical experience. It is supposed that they 
 learn the game when they are young and do not 
 realize how wicked it is. Then, when they advance 
 in years, and have to take big fees from corpora- 
 tions that can do no wrong, they forget all about 
 the days of their youth. This probably accounts 
 for some of the curious decisions we hear from 
 the bench, when poker is in court. 
 
 A New York man who kept a cigar store, was 
 hauled up before a magistrate for keeping a gamb- 
 ling den. A detective went into the room back of 
 the store and found five longshoremen playing 
 penny ante. 
 
 'T have the kitty here as evidence," said the de- 
 tective. 
 
 67 
 
68 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''What has a cat got to do with the game?" 
 asked the magistrate. 
 
 "I said a kitty," repUed the detective. 
 
 *'Well, isn't a kitty a cat? Produce her." 
 
 The detective explained what a kitty was, and 
 the magistrate Hstened with a keen air, as if he 
 was imbibing novel information. Then he de- 
 manded to know who owned the kitty, and as the 
 
 "Not always," chuckled the judge on the bench. 
 
 cigar man said he didn't, and the longshoremen 
 couldn't be found, the case was dismissed and the 
 kitty was confiscated for the good of the poor. 
 
 A judge on the district court bench of Minne- 
 sota was more frank and also more learned. The 
 business methods of a furniture dealer who made a 
 sky rocket failure were being looked into, and in 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 69 
 
 the course of the trial it was developed that he had 
 been playing cards rather recklessly, and a story 
 of how he went against a sure thing and lost $2,500 
 at one sitting cropped out. 
 
 It seems that the furniture man was introduced 
 to a stranger at the Merchants' Hotel in St. Paul, 
 and a game was soon raging. The three men were 
 in it, and the introducer played the double cross on 
 the furniture man. At a certain time he was to 
 drop out and signal what the stranger had. 
 
 The furniture man caught a bob tail flush, and 
 his friend signalled that the stranger had only one 
 small pair. Our friend then drew one card and 
 proceeded to bluff. The stranger raised him, and 
 in a short time $2,500 in bills were piled up. When 
 the show down came our friend had nothing and 
 the stranger scooped in the pot on a pair of jacks. 
 
 "By the way," interrupted the creditor's counsel 
 at this point, "which hand wins at poker?" 
 
 "The best one, of course," was the disgusted an- 
 swer. 
 
 "Not always," chuckled the judge on the bench, 
 and a prolonged laugh passed around the room. 
 
 "You admit, then," continued the lawyer, se 
 verely, "that, knowing as you did by your friend's 
 pretty system of private telegraphy, that this 
 stranger had only a small pair that you run up the 
 stakes to $2,500?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
70 JACK POTS. 
 
 "Well, now wasn't that a very unusual proceed- 
 ing?" 
 
 ''Oh, I don't know," broke in the judge, with 
 the air of a man full of information on the subject 
 under discussion, "I suppose the witness argued 
 that having bet on the cards it was his best play to 
 bluff the stranger out, because, you see, he drew 
 only one card while the other man drew two, and 
 had a pair of jacks all the time, don't you perceive? 
 Under such circumstances a play of that kind 
 would win nine times out of ten." 
 
 Sojne of the old lawyers looked reproachfully at 
 the judge for giving the thing away in that fashion, 
 but the youngsters thought it the best joke of the 
 session. 
 
 Another learned jurist who could play poker was 
 Judge Walker, of Kentucky, who was very strict 
 / on the bench but a jovial companion in private 
 life. It had been the custom of the lawyers travel- 
 ing the circuit to indulge in a friendly game of 
 poker nearly every night after court adjourned, 
 and Judge Walker occasionally took a hand in the 
 game. 
 
 One night in Bracken County the court and the- 
 lawyers joined in a friendly game the evening they 
 arrived, and the next morning before court oper d, 
 the judge was seen in earnest conversation with the 
 district attorney. 
 
 When court opened the judge delivered the 
 usual charge to the Grand Jury, and then added : 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 71 
 
 *'I am informed that of late gambling- has been 
 rampant in this county, despite vigorous efforts to 
 suppress it, and it is your duty to bring to justice 
 the occasional as well as the persistent offenders." 
 Then he turned to the attorneys, and continued : 
 "Gentlemen, you are officers of the court, and as 
 such are sworn to uphold the laws and constitution 
 of the State. You have been playing poker, con- 
 trary to the statutes in such cases made and pro- 
 vided. Each of you will be fined $10 upon the 
 return of indictments, which I now instruct the 
 jury to bring in." 
 
 Turning to the prosecuting- attorney, he said: 
 "You are not only a lawyer, but the prosecuting 
 attorney, sworn to bring offenders to justice. You 
 will pay $25. Walker," laying his hand on his own 
 breast, ''you are not only a lawyer but a judge, 
 and your case is the w^orst of all. You will pav 
 
 $50." 
 
 He paid the fine, as did each of the lawyers, and 
 it broke up the game on that circuit. 
 
 Chicago has produced an official who would take 
 issue with that Kentucky judge. He isn't a lawyer, 
 but he was a police inspector, and that is the next 
 thing to it. He instructed the police to close all 
 places where stud poker, faro, keno and other 
 gambling might be found, but not to touch the 
 harmless game of draw. In explanation, the in- 
 spector said that he regarded draw poker as on 
 
72 
 
 JACK pots: 
 
 a par with whist, euchre, soUtaire and tiddledy- 
 winks. 
 
 "I regard poker as an innocent game," he said, 
 with a judicial air, ''and a harmless diversion. It 
 
 is true that money can be 
 bet on it, but the same 
 is true of the other 
 games I have mentioned. 
 Poker should be played 
 with beans or buttons, 
 and I understand 
 that it is quite a 
 favorite with fam- 
 ilies." 
 
 W hen asked 
 whether he sup- 
 posed the club 
 men used beans 
 or buttons, he re- 
 plied that he re- 
 garded the inci- 
 dent as closed. 
 
 As it happens, how- 
 ever, this police Solomon 
 has backing in no less a personage than Chief Jus- 
 tice Beatty, of the Cahfornia Supreme Court, who 
 has decided that in the eyes of the law poker is 
 not a game that comes under the head of gambling. 
 This decision was the result of an application 
 
 Laying his hand on his own breast — 
 you will pay $50. 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 73 
 
 for a writ of habeas corpus made by Julius Meyer, 
 who was held to answer on a charge of perjury. 
 He was a juror in a case where the defendant was 
 on trial for robbing the proprietors of a faro bank. 
 Meyer was asked by the counsel for the defend- 
 ant : 
 
 s 
 
 "Do you know a man named Carroll or Ross or 
 Webster, the men who were proprietors of the 
 gambling house at 620 Market street?" 
 
 To which he replied: "No, sir, I have nothing 
 to do with such places." 
 
 After the trial it was discovered that Meyer was 
 a constant visitor at certain poker establishments, 
 and was occasionally employed to help the game 
 along by taking a hand to revive interest. On this 
 information the district attorney made out a com- 
 plaint in which he charged Meyer with perjury. 
 In the lower court the ex-juror was found guilty, 
 but Chief Justice Beatty reversed this decision. 
 In his opinion he said : 
 
 'Toker playing for money, however objectiona- 
 ble in fact, in the eyes of the law is as innocent as 
 chess or any game played for recreation and its 
 votaries and the places where it is played are not 
 criminal. There is no inconsistency, therefore, be- 
 tween the declaration of the petitioner that he had 
 nothing to do with such places as a faro bank, and 
 the fact he did frequent club-rooms where poker 
 was played for money; And since there is neither 
 
74 JACK POTS. 
 
 evidence nor accusation of any other false state- 
 ment made by him it follows that he cannot be 
 held for perjury and must be discharged from cus- 
 tody." 
 
 As may be imagined this decision created a sen- 
 sation, but the justice stuck to it, and the poker 
 players of 'Frisco felt like voting him a set of 
 silver, but didn't dare to. 
 
 \\^hen Judge Y — was on the northern New 
 York circuit he was noted as a card player, in fact 
 it was a passion with him, and hardly a night passed 
 that he did not set down to a game of some 
 kind. He was not particular, as he played all 
 games equally well, and all in the same calm and 
 judicial style. This fact made him especially strong 
 at poker, but he never took advantage of it to 
 win any special amount of money. It was the 
 game he was after, and as a rule he would call even 
 when he had a strong hand, when he thought the 
 betting showed signs of exceeding reasonable lim- 
 its. 
 
 One night he sat in a game at the Lawyers' Club 
 in Buffalo, where the stakes were never high, and 
 the usual limit was a five-dollar bill. It had been 
 a trying day in court, with a very complicated case. 
 The lawyer for the defense was a little fellow named 
 Perkins, a peppery chap, who made a specialty of 
 badgering witnesses, and making objections to 
 every bit of evidence that did not come his way. 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 75 
 
 He had had a very unlucky day, as Judge Y — was 
 very clear headed and not inclined to let a lawyer 
 run over him as some judges do. Consequently he 
 sat down on Perkins extremely hard on about 
 twenty different occasions, and overruled all his 
 objections with promptness and dispatch. A law- 
 yer is supposed to take such matters as part of the 
 game, but Perkins was a man who harbored re- 
 sentment at being shown up. 
 
 When the game was made up, the judge sat at 
 the right of Perkins, and the little lawyer gave the 
 big judge a glance that boded him no good. The 
 game had not been in progress ten minutes before 
 it w^as evident that Perkins was going to make the 
 judge his meat if possible. You may have seen 
 such a game. Perkins wouldn't stay in a hand 
 unless the judge w-as also in, and he bucked at him 
 without ceasing. Of course the other players 
 noticed it and exchanged significant glances, but 
 the judge appeared to be oblivious. 
 
 Time and again Perkins would bet the limit 
 before the draw when it was the judge's age, and 
 when it was his age he was sure to raise the judge 
 out if possible. This was rather a dangerous game 
 against a cool player, and had the judge been 
 vengeful he could have broken the peppery player 
 on several occasions. But he laughed and talked, 
 smoked cigars and took an occasional nip of old 
 rye, and let Perkins get away with his transparent 
 
76 JACK POTS. 
 
 bluffs with the best of good nature. And, as may 
 be imagined, Perkins kept getting hotter and hot- 
 ter all the time. 
 
 At last it got down to a pot where everybody 
 appeared to have a fair hand, at least everybody 
 stayed. It was lifted several times before the draw. 
 The judge took three cards, the other three men 
 two apiece and Perkins drew one. 
 
 It was Perkin's age. The man to his left 
 chipped, the next man raised him one, the next 
 man called, so did the judge, and Perkins raised it 
 the limit. One man dropped out, the other called, 
 and the judge raised Perkins the limit. 
 
 ''Hello," said that gentleman, with a thinly 
 veiled sneer. "Motion overruled, hey?" 
 
 ''Looks that way," replied the judge, calmly. 
 
 "Then I'll have to take an exception," retorted 
 Perkins. "Raise you five." 
 
 The other two players threw up their cards. 
 They saw at once that a fight was on between Per- 
 kins and the judge and they didn't want to be 
 pinched. The judge raised back the limit, and 
 thus it sawed back and forth for about ten times, 
 Perkins all the while getting madder and madder, 
 the judge cool as if hearing an action for simple 
 trespass. 
 
 By this time there was quite a small army of 
 spectators around the table ; the exhibition of ran- 
 cor was an unusual sight in that club. Some of 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 77 
 
 them interjected a few jocular remarks with the 
 hope of giving the game a more gentle turn, but 
 by this time Perkins was white to the lips, and 
 one might have thought he was playing for his 
 life. 
 
 ''Come, come," said the president of the club at 
 length. "We don't want 
 any one to lose a fortune 
 here. In a friendly game, 
 you know" 
 
 "Make a final 
 suggested one of 
 the players. 
 
 "I'm agreed," 
 said the judge, 
 promptly. "Or 
 shall we show 
 down as it is?" 
 
 "Never!" cried 
 Perkins, excited- 
 ly. "L insist on 
 another bet." He 
 threw thirty dol- 
 lars on the table. 
 "You can't over- 
 rule that!" 
 
 The judge bit off the end of a fresh cigar with 
 aggravating deliberation, lit it, laid his cards face 
 down, and counted out thirty dollars. "Now, sir," 
 
 Perkins sunk into a heap like a 
 pile of old clothes. 
 
78 JACK POTS. 
 
 he said, leaning" back in his chair in his well known 
 attitude on the bench, ''produce your witnesses." 
 
 Perkins, shaking like a leaf, but with a triumph- 
 ant grin on his face, spread out his hand on the 
 table and exhibited four deuces. 
 
 ''The court," said the judge, sternly, "decides 
 that the witnesses are unworthy of credence." 
 
 Then he laid out his cards and disclosed four 
 treys. Perkins sunk into a heap like a pile of old 
 clothes, and actually gasped as he saw the judge 
 gather up the money and chips, and leave the table. 
 
 "Damn," he said, faintly. "Overruled again !" 
 
 Where the following described game took place 
 deponent sayeth not,' and it is not essential, as the 
 only important part of it is the ending. There 
 were four players, but there was nothing out of 
 the ordinary until it came to a jack pot, or rather, 
 this particular jack pot, and only the judge and 
 the colonel were in that. 
 
 It had been made for $25 as a starter, and each 
 of the four players had sweetened it four times with 
 a five-dollar chip, before there came an opener. 
 
 The colonel picked up his cards, glanced care- 
 lessly at them, smiled blandly, and said, softly : 
 ril bust that for fifty, so as to let you all in." 
 
 Two of the players thanked him with great cor- 
 diality, and stayed out pleasantly. The judge, who 
 was the last to have a say, looked at his cards care- 
 fully and an expression of supreme disgust settled 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. 79 
 
 on his face. He held the cards by the corner and 
 made a slight motion as if to throw them in the 
 discard. 
 
 The colonel's hand twitched nervously. It 
 looked as if it would be a case of showing openers 
 and raking in the rich stakes and for reasons that 
 will appear later the colonel was reluctant to show 
 his hand at that stage. 
 
 The judge made another motion as if he were 
 inclined to throw up his hand and the colonel said : 
 ''What are you going to do, judge?" 
 
 The judge went through his hand again, with 
 the despairing look intensified. 
 
 ''Ain't afraid to play, are you?" inquired the 
 colonel, tauntingly. 
 
 "A little bit," replied the judge, "but I hate to 
 see you run away with the pot in this fashion. I 
 guess I'll see what you are doing this on, anyhow." 
 Then he made good the opening bet. 
 
 They drew cards. The colonel took two and the 
 judge, after much painful deliberation, decided that 
 one was about all he wanted. 
 
 The colonel then promptly bet another fifty 
 dollars, and the judge, after thinking it over, saw 
 him and raised five dollars ; the colonel came back 
 with another fifty-dollar raise. 
 
 The judge laid his hand on the table, pulled out 
 a roll of bills and counted off three liundred dol- 
 lars. 
 
8o 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 "Vn tilt that about two hundred and fifty," he 
 remarked, calmly. 
 
 The colonel gasped. He looked at his hand and 
 then at the very respectable pile of chips and cur- 
 rency on the board. The judge's face still bore 
 that pained expression. The colonel thought over 
 the proposition for a minute and then went down 
 into his clothes. By hard scrabbling he managed 
 to get two hundred and fifty dollars together, and 
 then he said, rather weakly: 'T'll call you." 
 
 " Why, you robber," he said, " you had them all the time." 
 
 The judge picked up his hand and spread it out 
 on the table. He had four fives. 
 
 The colonel gasped worse than ever as he 
 showed up three queens. 
 
 "Why, you robber," he said, "you had them all 
 the time." 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. ^i 
 
 "Certainly," assented the judge, cheerfully. 
 
 ''But you made a couple of motions as if you 
 were going to throw up your cards." 
 
 ''My boy,'^ said the judge, solemnly, as he 
 stowed away the wad of bills, "I think it would be 
 a good thing for you to go to some night school 
 w^here there is a complete course in that noble 
 game known as draw poker." 
 
 But wiien we get down to what may be called 
 the lower walks of jurisprudence, it is seen that 
 law and poker mix with sometimes curious results. 
 This is illustrated in the trials and adventures of 
 two gentlemen of the East who went South and 
 West to do the country. 
 
 In a general way they were on the make, but 
 in this case their specialty was in bunkoing con- 
 fiding farmers out of farms and crops in various 
 ways not necessary to describe here. In the course 
 of time these two rascals came to Bugg Centre, in 
 Arkansas. One of the gentlemen, on his return 
 to civilization, related the happenings of that small 
 burg in a spirited manner. 
 
 "It didn't take us long to get acquainted, and 
 the glad hand was put out everywhere, generally 
 with a jug attached to it. Towards evening of 
 this welcoming day somebody suggested a little 
 game of draw just to pass away the time, and a 
 tall, lanky man said that as it was pretty warm we 
 might as well go to his house and play on the 
 
82 JACK POTS. 
 
 'piazzer' while his daughter played the 'pianner' 
 inside. 
 
 ''I wasn't stuck on the piano business, as music 
 always did disconcert me when playing cards, but 
 I couldn't very well make any objection. So we 
 went there, and in about half an hour the music 
 didn't bother me in the least. I don't know who 
 taught those fellows to play cards, but it was the 
 softest proposition I ever encountered. 
 
 "Tobe — that was my partner — and I just looked 
 at each other. We didn't have to do any crooked 
 work ; the other four fellows just threw their money 
 away, making the biggest fool bets I ever saw. I 
 never found any money in my life, but this was the 
 nearest to it. 
 
 ''By ten o'clock we had all the money in sight, 
 and Tobe said wx'd better be starting out, as it 
 was a long walk home, and the moon would be low 
 down before we could reach the hotel. Our lanky 
 host asked us to stay all night, but we refused. 
 The fact is, we were so well satisfied with the rake- 
 ofif that we meant to skip early the next morning. 
 
 ''We started through the woods just loaded 
 down with cash, and pretty near four hundred dol- 
 lars winner, and we did some pretty joyous talking, 
 when all of a sudden we heard dogs baying behind 
 us. We both knew they were hounds, and Tobe 
 said somebody was coon hunting, although it was 
 rather late in the year for that sport. 
 
POKER AND JURISPRUDENCE. ^3 
 
 'Then he began to tell me about a coon hunt 
 he was once in, and he was getting to the interest- 
 ing part when he broke off and cried : Tard, get 
 a tree ! Those dogs are after us.' 
 
 "I never was good at tree climbing, but I got 
 up one in a hurry and Tobe took another. In 
 about two minutes the meanest lot of big mouthed, 
 mangy hounds you ever saw were howling and 
 prancing around under us. We both prayed that 
 someone would come, and sure enough someone 
 did. It was the tall, lank man. 
 
 He came up and quieted the dogs, and then 
 leaned on a long double-barreled gun, while he 
 delivered a short address. 
 
 ''He said that he was mighty pained to do what 
 he had to do, but it was his duty. The fact was 
 that Bugg Centre had been victimized several times 
 in the last year by strangers who came into the 
 community and cleaned it out in various ways. He 
 was sorry to have to assert that we had returned 
 the hospitality extended to us in a cruel way. 
 
 "We had gone into a friendly game with the 
 Mayor, the Marshal, the County Treasurer and 
 the Sheriff, which latter was himself. In a moment 
 of confidence the Treasurer had staked the other 
 gentlemen with all the available county funds, and 
 we had skillfully — he would not say dishonestly — 
 won them all. After our departure the little band 
 of officials talked over the matter and came to the 
 
84 JACK POTS. 
 
 conclusion that it was the duty of the Sheriff to 
 make amends for this error, and here he was. 
 
 "He informed us that he construed his duty to be 
 to make us shell out all our winnings, and, as his 
 fee, any other small change that we might have 
 about us. He added that the dogs were not hun- 
 gry, but would get so after awhile, and when we 
 came down they might appease their appetite on 
 us. Furthermore, there were some citizens of 
 Bugg Centre back in the woods, who could pick a 
 coon out of the highest tree in the darkest night in 
 the year. 
 
 ''Did we come down? What else could we do? 
 We did. We threw the money we had down on the 
 ground, the Sheriff gathered it up, whistled to his 
 dogs and went off. Tobe and I slid down, shook 
 hands with each other mournfully, and in twenty- 
 four hours we were out of Arkansas. I'll never go 
 there any more, either on business or pleasure. 
 Honor? They don't know the meaning of the 
 word." 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 ALL ABOUT JACK POTS A $1,200,000 JACK DIDN't 
 
 KNOW GREENBACKS WON ON TWO DEUCES 
 
 A BOSTON man's NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 'Jack pots," said a veteran campaigner, "is the 
 devil." 
 
 The grammar is bad, the sentiment will be rec- 
 ognized as irreproachable. The inventor of jack 
 pots is unknown, but his name has been alternately 
 praised and cursed by players for ages. Southern- 
 ers have declared that more than a million niggers 
 have been lost on bob tailed flushes, but that isn't 
 a circumstance to the money lost on jack pots. 
 Of course somebody won the money, but the win- 
 ner is not entitled to any consideration in a poker 
 game ; he can take care of himself. 
 
 A jack pot is a delusion and a snare. When a 
 fellow is behind the game a jack pot offers a tempt- 
 ing chance to play even on one hand. Of five 
 players it has been calculated that an average of 
 three will stay in a jack pot, and it usually has 
 been sweetened three or four times before the 
 opening. That makes a pot worth playing for. 
 
 Now suppose you pick up a pair of jacks. Some 
 players will pass on jacks and not come in unless 
 another player opens the pot. Most players come 
 
 85 
 
86 JACK POTS. 
 
 in on jacks. Now comes the question how to play 
 it. If you are the last to say, you may be pretty 
 certain that you have the best hand to go, but if 
 you open it lightly all hands will stay, and some 
 one with a measley pair of fours will draw out on 
 you. Therefore it is good play to open the pot for 
 the limit, and thus scare away the little fellows if 
 you can. But if they stay and you do not better 
 your hand, you may be certain that you are beaten, 
 and your only chance to win is to make a big bluff. 
 If you help your hand, even with a small pair, you 
 have a right to think that you have a winner. 
 
 On the other hand, if you start out with threes 
 or better, it is good play to open the pot for a small 
 sum, so as to let in the other players. Then there 
 is a chance that some one with a pair of queens 
 or better will draw another and beat you, but it 
 won't do to think of that, or you can't play cards. 
 
 The most aggravating hand to have on opening 
 is two pairs. It is much easier to draw one more 
 to a pair than it is to make a full hand out of two 
 pairs, yet they have such a ponderous' look that 
 you can't help playing them after the draw. The 
 safest policy is to call the first chance if you are 
 raised. 
 
 The real agony, however, comes to the man with 
 a small pair who sees the opener, catches his card 
 and then has it beaten by the opener, who also 
 catches his card. Of course, arguing from the 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 87 
 
 ethical side, he ought to be beaten; the opener 
 having the best hand at the start ought to win 
 out; but that reasoning will not pacify the loser. 
 
 One of the problems of the jack pot is in rela- 
 tion to splitting openers. Suppose you open on 
 jacks and all the others come in cheerfully, and 
 you realize that you are up against threes and at 
 the same time discover that you have a four flush. 
 Then it is your play to split your jacks and draw to 
 tlie flush. But at the end of the hand you must 
 show your pair, so you place one jack on the table 
 in front of you under a stack of chips and let it 
 lay there until it is time to show up. That is fair 
 enough and plain enough, but it in a measure gives 
 away your hand. 
 
 The New York Sun comes to the rescue in its 
 own original way. The question is frequently re- 
 ferred to its card expert, and he always decides it 
 in the same way. This is the way he talks : 
 
 ''A player may open a jack pot on a pair and 
 split the pair to draw to a straight or flush without 
 in any manner calling the attention of any other 
 player to the play. The discards must be placed in 
 a pile in front of the next dealer, and the players 
 must discard in order, beginning with the age. 
 Then the discard pile gives indisputable evidence 
 of what each player discards." 
 
 How deliciously simple that is! The players 
 must discard in order ! This is a theory, not a con- 
 
88 JACK POTS. 
 
 dition. The Sun man apparently thinks that poker 
 players are like soldiers at roll call each one an- 
 swering to his name as called and no one daring 
 to speak out of turn. As a matter of poker fact, 
 no one ever saw a game where the players dis- 
 carded in regular order. Some men are always 
 slow in making up their minds, and the last man is 
 just as liable to pitch away his discard first, so that 
 the discard is never a reliable guide as to the 
 order in which the cards were dropped. Then 
 again, while two or three men are betting one of 
 the others is almost certain to pick up the remain- 
 ing cards and shuffle them or to mix them up in 
 the fashion some players have of "seeing what they 
 would have got." 
 
 In ideal poker every move is made according to 
 Hoyle — or the Sun — but poker isn't ideal. Men 
 will not discard in regular order and there is no 
 ''must" about it. There is no umpire to direct 
 the play or call down the player who discards out 
 of his turn. The Sun man has frequently an- 
 nounced that he is his own authority and it looks 
 as if he were his own poker player; he plays cards 
 wdth himself, where everything moves according 
 to his rules. Nobody else plays that way. In 
 splitting openers, anchor down the splitter in front 
 of you, and then there can be no dispute. 
 
 Another point while we are about it, which ap- 
 plies to all kinds of hands. It is a rule in poker 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 89 
 
 playing that if the card is faced before the draw, the 
 player must take it; if it faced while drawing, the 
 player can't take it. But, what then? Does he 
 get the next card, or must he wait until the others 
 are served? There are two opinions. One says 
 that he ought to get the next card because it 
 wasn't his fault that the card was faced. The other 
 says that if an extra card is served that deprives all 
 the players that follow of the cards they ought 
 to have had, and that so long as he has to take a 
 card to which he was not originally entitled, what 
 difference does it make if he has to wait until all 
 the others are served? This side seems to have 
 rather the best of the argument, and it is the view 
 taken by most poker coteries. 
 
 Speaking of innovations on jack pots — pro- 
 gressing up to aces and then down again — another 
 one comes to light, but it is not dangerous. It 
 appears to have been evolved from the active brain 
 of a St. Louis sport. He says : 
 
 "Of late years the old-fashioned ante-bellum 
 game of poker has been superseded by the plan of 
 playing all jack pots. This, of course, made 
 swifter play, while at the same time it enabled 
 everybody to gauge to some extent the strength 
 of the hand held by the man who opened the pot. 
 But the latest evolution of poker is now at hand, 
 and it consists of allowing pots to be opened on 
 any pair. 
 
90 JACK POTS. 
 
 'That is to say, if A has only a pair of deuces 
 and is wiUing to take chances he can begin the 
 betting. Of course, if he is very close to the 
 dealer he will pass on such a small pair, and will 
 hold his hand to await the action of B, C, D, et al. 
 
 ''The advantages of this plan may not seem 
 obvious, but I have yet to see the poker player who 
 does not consider it a big improvement on the cast 
 iron system of adhesion to jacks. In the first place, 
 it gives more rapidity and excitement, and that is 
 what the player yearns for. In the next place, it 
 gives the loser a far better chance to get even. 
 Everybody will be coming-in on short pairs — tens 
 and under — and the chances of making strong 
 hands are increased because of the increased fre- 
 quency of the draw. 
 
 "This open-on-any-pair game is, I think, quite 
 likely to gain the favor of the pasteboard loving 
 public, and crystallize into permanent form. The 
 conservative element will kick against it, but will 
 finally give way, just as it had to concede the all- 
 jack system, which was for a long time fought bit- 
 terly by the ancient regime." 
 
 Now doesn't that sound funny. To open a pot 
 on any pair is precisely what is done now in 
 straight poker, and the only thing he bars out is 
 the opening of the pot on nothing, and how often 
 does that occur in a game? Of course there would 
 be more pots played, but, what size would they be? 
 
 4 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 9' 
 
 It would be a miracle if everyone would pass out if 
 I wo deuces were openers. There would be a play 
 on every deal. The whole scheme is rubbish. 
 
 General Miles once told a good story about the 
 biggest jack pot on record. He prefaced it by two 
 astonishing statements — the first that he did not 
 play poker himself, and the second that the game 
 has rather gone out of the army. No one would 
 think of contradicting the gallant general in com- 
 mand of our armies, but, at the same time — well, 
 here is the story : 
 
 'T think I can claim to have been a witness of 
 the biggest game as to stakes that was ever 
 played." 
 
 "Tell us about it, General," said Colonel Ochil- 
 tree. 'T have some pretty good poker stories in 
 stock myself." 
 
 "And so have I," said Henry Watterson. "For 
 instance, Joe Blackburn's about the game played 
 in the trenches at the battle of Shiloh, with a table 
 made on the bodies of the comrades of the play- 
 ers." 
 
 "Well," chimed in John W. Mackay, "as to 
 stakes, I will enter a claim for some of the gamcrD 
 played in the good old days of Nevada, when the 
 boys had the Comstock lode to draw upon. But, 
 General, let us have your story." 
 
 "It was in the spring of 1865," began the Gen- 
 eral, "when Davis, Lee and the rest of vou Confed- 
 
92 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 erates, Watterson, were in full retreat from Rich- 
 mond toward Danville, and we were pressing you 
 night and day, hardly stopping to eat or sleep. 
 On the eve of the battle of Sailor's Creek" 
 
 ''I was there," chipped in Ochiltree. "It was in 
 that battle I was wounded." 
 
 "That day," continued General Miles, "we over- 
 
 The biggest poker game that was ever played. 
 
 hauled and captured a Confederate wagon train 
 and found, greatly to the delight of our boys, that 
 several of the wagons were loaded wdth Confeder- 
 ate bonds and Confederate money in transit from 
 Richmond to whatever place the government now 
 on wheels might make a stand. The soldiers 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 93 
 
 simply helped themselves to the stuff by the hand- 
 fuls, and the officers, who had a pretty good idea 
 as to the value of the spoils, or rather, their lack 
 of value, did not care to deprive them of their 
 fun. 
 
 "At night, when we had knocked off work for 
 supper and a few hours rest and sleep, I had occa- 
 sion to ride along the line, and I found a poker 
 game going on at every camp fire. Stopping to 
 watch one of the games, this is what I heard : 
 
 " 'How much is the ante ?' 
 
 " *A thousand dollars.' 
 
 " 'And how much has it been raised? Five 
 thousand? Well, here goes! I raise it ten thou- 
 sand.' 
 
 " 'Good ! I see you and go you ten thousand 
 dollars better. Twenty-five thousand to draw 
 cards.' 
 
 "Then cards were drawn, and presently a bet 
 was made of fifty thousand dollars. Some one 
 went one hundred thousand better, but he was 
 ruled down. Fifty thousand was the limit. How- 
 ever, there was five hundred thousand dollars in 
 the pot when it was hauled in by the winner, who 
 had three treys and a pair of kings. I expressed 
 my surprise at the size of the game and told the 
 boys that they had better go slow or their funds 
 would run out. 
 
 " 'Never fear, General,' replied one of them. 
 
94 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 'we'll keep within our means. You ought to 
 have been here ten minutes ago. We had a jack- 
 pot of one million, two hundred thousand dollars !' 
 
 "I think you will agree with me," concluded 
 General Miles, "that no bigger poker game than 
 that was ever played." 
 
 A sergeant in the Seventh Cavalry, then sta- 
 tioned in Dakota, told me a story that is a mate 
 
 to this. It was at 
 
 
 He made them shell out all the notes 
 they had stuffed in their clothes. 
 
 the very begin- 
 ning of the war 
 and his regi- 
 ment was in Vir- 
 ginia. He had a 
 squad out on a 
 scouting expedi- 
 tion, and they saw 
 ahead of them a 
 small party 
 o f Confederates 
 with a wagon. 
 They gave chase 
 and the Confed- 
 erates got away 
 and left the 
 
 wagon, 
 
 The sergeant and his men examined the wagon 
 and found that it was a U. S. wagon, probably cut 
 out from a train by a daring party of Confederates. 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 95 
 
 It contained twenty boxes, which they pried open. 
 The boxes were full of greenbacks, all brand new. 
 
 Not a man in the party had ever seen a green- 
 back and had no idea that they were good money, 
 so they grabbed them out by fistfuls, and set down 
 to play poker with them. In this occupation they 
 were discovered by another squad of Union troops, 
 this time headed by a captain, who knew something 
 about finance. He made them shell out all the 
 notes they, had stuffed in their clothes, and the 
 wagon was taken back to camp and a frantic pay- 
 master. 
 
 My friend used to tell this story with tears in his 
 eyes. If they had only known the value of their 
 capture they might have taken a couple hundred 
 thousand apiece, hid it in their clothes, threw 
 away some empty boxes, and brought the rest vir- 
 tuously back to camp, and been rich for the rest of 
 their days. It is rather a curious story, and I 
 don't vouch for it. 
 
 It seems that poker is played in rather peculiar 
 fashion in the upper circles of New York, if the 
 following little tale is true. It was a choice coterie 
 on the top floor of a fashionable Gotham club 
 house. 
 
 The jack pot had been around several times, 
 and there was an accumulation of dollars in the 
 centre of the table. 
 
 The dealer picked up the cards and threw them 
 
96 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 out one by one, after the manner of poker games, 
 and the gentleman on his left discovered that the 
 first three were deuces. He immediately opened 
 the pot for fifty cents, which was the terrible limit, 
 and was rather startled when it came to him again 
 to note that it cost him two dollars more to get in. 
 He paid the price, but such was his agitation that 
 he forgot he had three of a kind, discarded and 
 drew three. 
 
 Before picking up his cards he realized that he 
 had made a bull. Believing that he had lost all 
 chance of winning the pot, he was about to throw 
 
 down his hand when a 
 gentleman who sat be- 
 hind him, and was 
 well 
 
 the 
 game. 
 
 not 
 na- 
 re- 
 
 versed in 
 tional 
 
 marked, blandly : 
 "See here, old 
 man, you have 
 four cards just 
 alike. Is t h a t 
 right?" 
 
 "Shut up!" 
 
 The dealer leaped to his feet and shouted: 
 thought you had four of a kind; 
 where are they?" 
 
 growled the club 
 man. Then, with 
 seeming indifference, he added: "Fifty up. 
 
 Everybody laughed and stayed out — naturally. 
 Nobody cared to dispute the pot with him, and he 
 raked it in. 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 97 
 
 The occasion being rather phenomenal, he threw 
 down his cards face up, and he still had two deuces. 
 
 The dealer leaped to his feet and shouted: "I 
 thought you had four of a kind. Where are they ?" 
 
 "Four spades and a deuce of hearts," replied the 
 winner. 
 
 There was another laugh all around and the 
 game went on, and it was not until the next time 
 they met that somebody thought to ask how he 
 opened the pot. 
 
 He was fortunate that he was not playing in a 
 cowboy game. In fashionable circles the man 
 who opens a jack pot when he hasn't openers loses 
 the pot ; in other circles he loses his life along with 
 the pot. There are certain men who will not ac- 
 cept such excuses as "Forgot," "Thought that jack 
 was a king," or something like that. They see 
 nothing in it but a deliberate attempt to steal a 
 pot, and guns are pulled instanter. 
 
 In the early 'eighties, when Texas was really 
 tough, and a man's life was not worth much more 
 than a mule's, a young Bostonian, just from col- 
 lege, landed in the Lone Star State. He had three 
 thousand dollars, a good education and all the 
 astounding conceit that goes with a college educa- 
 tion. He was way up in the classics, had a smatter- 
 ing of the modern languages, thought he knew 
 "life" in all its phases — having imbibed the idea 
 from three months' experience in the streets of 
 
98 JACK POTS. 
 
 Boston and New York — and had more than a no- 
 tion that he could go West and carve out his for- 
 tune as easily as drinking a beer. 
 
 The first place he struck was Dallas, and he 
 dropped a few hundreds there just for a starter. 
 The further he moved west the easier he became, 
 and when he got to the limits, he had only about 
 five hundred of his original three thousand. He 
 was a gay boy, and rapidly fell into Texan ways, 
 but somehow he couldn't catch on. An occasional 
 spurt at cow punching kept his head above water 
 for a time, but he realized that the day was rapidly 
 approaching when he would have to return to 
 Boston with the sad confession that he had 
 dropped his pile, and would be obliged to run up 
 against the stern realities of life in the guise of 
 a teacher of a country school. 
 
 It was gall and wormwood to him and he used 
 every effort to stave ofT the evil day. Among the 
 efforts was bucking the tiger, but the beast was 
 unkind. He see-sawed back and forth, but he 
 could never make a real killing, and it was while 
 in this precarious state of affairs that he sat in a 
 game of poker. 
 
 The fates looked rather propitious. The four 
 other men in the game were cattlemen with big 
 wads and a generous style of betting. They were 
 also square as a die. Horace — we will call him 
 Horace, as befits a Boston man — knew that he 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 99 
 
 was the best player in the bunch, and if the cards 
 went his way he had more than a chance of fatten- 
 ing his wad. 
 
 And the cards did run his way. It was a rare 
 thing that he did not start out with a pair and he 
 helped his hand about four times out of five. Three 
 times he held a full house, and he got so that he 
 was almost afraid to play flushes he held so many. 
 He really did not dare to play to the full strength 
 of his hands, for fear of exciting suspicion, al- 
 though he was playing without a thought of trick- 
 ery. Once or twice he apologized for his luck, but 
 the other men laughed good naturedly. 
 
 *'Play your luck, my boy," said one of them. 'T 
 ^understand that you haven't had your share since 
 J striking this country." 
 
 This was true enough, and so he played a little 
 harder, until at the end of three hours he was nearly 
 four thousand dollars ahead of the game. 
 
 Then there came a jack pot. There had been 
 jack pots before, but nothing out of the way. It 
 was the Boston man's deal, and when he picked up 
 his cards he saw that he had a pair of kings, a jack, 
 a four and a five. There was twenty-five dollars in 
 the pot to start ofif. Everybody passed and it was 
 up to Horace. He opened it for twenty-five. Two 
 men stayed, the other two dropped out. 
 
 The first man to draw took one card, the next 
 man drew three and Horace took three. He laid 
 
lOO JACK POTS. 
 
 his pair of kings face down in front of him, tossed 
 the discard into the deck, and bet fifty dollars with- 
 out looking at his draw. The man that drew one 
 card raised it a hundred, the next man dropped 
 out, and Horace stopped to think. 
 
 A one card evidently meant a four flush or a 
 four straight. If he had caught either Horace was^ 
 beaten, even if he caught the third king; if it was 
 a blui¥ two kings w^ere good as wheat. He looked 
 at his draw\ A ten spot, a six and a deuce. So he 
 still had his pair of kings. He tossed in another 
 hundred. The cattleman came back at him with two 
 hundred and fifty. Then Horace picked up the 
 cards lying in front of him, more with a desire to 
 have time to think than any other motive. 
 
 Then he felt a cold chill stealing up his spine 
 until his hair crept on his head, and a sickness came 
 all over him. He had kept the jack and thrown 
 away one of the kings ! He sat there a full minute 
 and did some very rapid thinking. If it had been 
 an ordinary deal he would have thrown his hand 
 into the deck without comment, but it was a jack 
 pot, and he had opened it, so that he must show 
 his hand. 
 
 He said afterward that what he should have 
 done was to have thrown down his hand, explain 
 how he had made a mistake, and forfeit the po[. 
 He thinks they would have accepted the explana- 
 tion in good faith, although he admits that they 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. loi 
 
 might not. But all he realized then was that he 
 was in a terrible predicament. To open a jack pot 
 without openers was generally regarded as an at- 
 tempt to steal the pot, and treated as detected 
 theft usually is in Texas. Here he had been win- 
 ning right along, and holding phenomenal hands, 
 and he couldn't help but feel that under the same 
 circumstances he would have had suspicions. He 
 saw himself in imagination shot full of holes, or 
 maybe with a dirk thrust into his vitals, and the 
 folks at home never knowing what had become of 
 him. 
 
 While all these gloomy thoughts were running 
 through his head, he mechanically raised another 
 hundred, which was the worst thing he could have 
 done, because while he had an excuse before lifting 
 his cards now he had none. He realized that also 
 when it was too late, and another cold chill w^ent 
 capering along his spinal column. 
 
 The cattleman fingered his cards, and Horace 
 saw that it was either a call or a lay down, and then 
 would come the show down of openers, and 
 then 
 
 Just then there broke out a terrific commotion 
 in the rear of the saloon, which w'as also an eating 
 house. The cook had upset a pan of gravy over his 
 legs, and in his jumping around had upset the 
 stove, and the kitchen was on fire. As the whole 
 structure was of wood and the fire department any- 
 
X03 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 thing but prompt or reliable, there was a strong 
 probability of what the reporters call a holocaust. 
 The cook and his assistant, two men who were 
 eating, the barkeeper and the boss tore around with 
 buckets, people 
 
 rushed in from 
 the street, and of 
 course the game 
 
 broke up 
 and there. 
 
 Just then there broke out a terrific commotion in the rear of the saloon. 
 
 of the cattlemen swept cards, chips and money into 
 his hat and all five players lit out. Horace said that 
 when he dropped his cards on the floor he felt as if 
 he was getting rid of a thousand pound weight. 
 
ALL ABOUT JACK POTS. 103 
 
 When the excitement had subsided, and the fire 
 was extinguished with small loss, all hands went 
 back to the saloon to take a drink. Then the cat- 
 tleman took off his hat and emptied the contents 
 on the bar. 
 
 ''What's to become of this?" he asked. 
 "Fm willing to divide it," said the Boston man, 
 promptly. 
 
 'Tf you had the best hand it's yours," returned 
 the cattleman. ''What did you have?" 
 
 "I had only a pair of kings," replied Horace, 
 looking him squarely in the eyes. That was no lie, 
 because he did have a pair of kings, although he 
 was fool enough to throw one away. ^ 
 
 "I had a four flush to go," said the other man, 
 "and I didn't fill, but I made a pair of queens. The 
 pot's yours." 
 
 Horace felt another great weight lifted off his 
 mind when he realized that he really had had the 
 winning hand, and yet he felt ashamed to be the 
 recipient of such generous dealing. But the four 
 cattlemen were game, and he had to take the pile. 
 He made a mental resolve to set in with them 
 again, and lose it all back to them, but they left the 
 next morning and so he had to go back to Boston 
 with five thousand dollars to the good. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SCHEME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT A JACK POT 
 
 WITHOUT CARDS. 
 
 The jack pot is so infernally fascinating that it 
 has a tendency to turn the brain of its votaries. It 
 is only on this hypothesis that we can explain the 
 wild schemes which originate on this basis. One 
 would think that enough money has been lost on 
 the pot without devising any plan to swell it to 
 mammoth proportions. Such is the scheme of the 
 National Jack Pot, which is credited to a New 
 York enthusiast. 
 
 The basic idea is to have a prearranged series of 
 poker games played throughout the country by 
 parties of local card shufflers. Take Chicago, for 
 instance. On a certain evening six of the best 
 poker players in town will set down to a game. 
 Each man has $2 in the pot, and it takes $5 to come 
 in. 
 
 There being $12 in the pot to start with, it fol- 
 lows that if only four men come in there would be 
 $32 to win at the very lowest. But, of course, 
 there would be a bet or two, so that the pot might 
 be twice that sum ; but, as they say in faro, let her 
 go as she lays. 
 
 Now, under the terms of the compact, all over 
 
 104 
 
SCHEME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT. 105 
 
 the Union, from the sterile shore of Maine to the 
 sunny slope of California, poker players will be 
 stacking up on this same proposition. Now comes 
 the beginning of the novel part of the performance. 
 The winner of each pot does not pocket his earn- 
 ings. The $32 in every case is reserved for a grand 
 fund to be made up by the — let us say — hundred 
 games played on this system. That would make 
 $3,200 in all. 
 
 The winning hundred would next meet in con- 
 vention and arrange for a new set of winners. 
 Twenty games of five players each would be or- 
 ganized. Each man must put up $2 as before, 
 with $5 to open. The Hmit, it should be noticed, is 
 $5 all through this series of games. 
 
 Here we would have twenty jack pots, with $10 
 in each. Let us suppose that three men will stay 
 in each pot when it is opened; that would give 
 twenty $25 pots, which makes $500 more to add 
 to the original sum of $3,200. 
 
 The twenty men who come out of this second 
 ordeal as winners now form another series of five 
 games with four players each. Of course there 
 would be an adjournment between each series to 
 settle any little differences of opinion, and deter- 
 mine the choice of a referee, whose decision in all 
 cases would be final. When the twenty survivors 
 come together for their five games under the same 
 terms that have previously prevailed, it follows that 
 
io6 JACK POTS. 
 
 $2 for each man and $5 to open would mean 
 $28 at least for the pot at each table. Five times 
 $28 gives $140 to swell the sum already in hand. 
 
 Now comes the final bout. The five veterans 
 who thus come out of the various ordeals sit down 
 together to a thrilling final game. The pot would 
 be $3,200 plus $500 plus $140, or $3,840. It 
 would still be a jack with $2 apiece to come in, or 
 $3,850 in all. The limit is still $5. The winner of 
 this final pot takes all the money. 
 
 Now, what do you think of that, outside of a 
 lunatic asylum? The man out of whose brilliant 
 brain emanated this piece of nonsense, pretends 
 that everybody he met enthusiastically endorsed it. 
 Alas, alas ! There is one thing he forgot in the 
 scheme. He hasn't allowed for any betting after 
 the draw. It appears to be a show down affair all 
 the way through. Wouldn't that make a real ex- 
 citing game? 
 
 The impression that the man doesn't know what 
 he is talking about is deepened by his reference 
 to Bret Harte. "Without poker," he observes, 
 sapiently, ''we would have had no Bret Harte. It 
 was poker that inspired those immortal lines, be- 
 ginning : 
 
 'Which they had a small game 
 And Ah Sin took a hand.' " 
 Oh, no; my son. It wasn't poker at all. It was 
 euchre, as you will see if you consult the poem and 
 do not depend on your memory. 
 
SCHEiME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT. 107 
 
 However, the idea is original if it is foolish, and 
 we will give him credit for that. 
 
 As a genuine novelty a jack pot without cards 
 is entitled to pre-eminence. It was played in the 
 glorious climate of California, and a man on the 
 Argonaut was one of the party. 
 
 There were six all together, five men coming 
 into the mountains to have a fishing spree, and the 
 sixth man was Long Tom, the guide. 
 
 "Jest you all go over into the cabin there and 
 make yourselves comfortable, while I tend to get- 
 tin' this stufT unpacked," said Long Tom. 'There 
 ain't no one thare; my pardner he's down below." 
 
 The cabin had two rooms and the one they en- 
 tered was the kitchen. There was not much fur- 
 niture — a table of hewn logs, a chair of bent sap- 
 lings and a rough bench. However, they did not 
 notice such furniture as there was, for each mem- 
 ber of the party, as he stepped over the threshold 
 had his attention instantly attracted by the stove, 
 and a chorus of ejaculations went up from the 
 group. 
 
 "Well, that staggers me," said the stock broker. 
 "H'm," said the professor in a mysterious tone, 
 while he rubbed his chin. 
 
 The stove was a plain, small affair, rather old and 
 rusty, and the only strange thing about it was its 
 position. Its abbreviated legs stood upon large 
 cedar posts, which were planted in the floor and 
 
-io8 JACK POTS. 
 
 were four feet in height. This brought the stove 
 away up in mid air, so that the top was about on a 
 level with the colonel's neck, and he was a six- 
 footer. 
 
 The five men formed a circle around the stove 
 and stared at it as solemnly as if it were a coffin. 
 They felt the posts, and found them firm and solid, 
 showing that the arrangement was a permanent 
 one. Then they all took a look at the hole in the 
 roof through which the stove pipe vanished. 
 
 Suddenly the stock broker burst into a loud 
 laugh. 
 
 '*Oh, I understand it now," he said. 
 
 ''Understand what?" demanded the colonel, 
 sharply. 
 
 ''Why Long Tom has his stove hoisted up so 
 high from the floor." 
 
 "So do I," said the doctor, "but I suspect that 
 my explanation is not the same as any one else 
 would ofifer." 
 
 "Well, I will bet that I am right," returned the 
 stock broker, "and put up the money." 
 
 "I am in this," said the judge. "I have a clear 
 idea about that stove, and I will back it up." 
 
 "Make it a jack pot," suggested the colonel. "I 
 want to take a hand." 
 
 The stock broker drew a five dollar gold piece, 
 from his pocket and dropped it on the center of the 
 table. 
 
SCHEME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT. 109 
 
 "He has the stove up there," he said, "to get a 
 better draught. In this rarified mountain air there 
 is only a small amount of oxygen to the cubic inch, 
 and combustion is more difficult to secure than in 
 the lower latitudes. I have heard that if you get 
 high enough up you can't cook an egg — that is, I 
 mean, water won't boil — or something like that," 
 he continued, thrown into sudden confusion by the 
 discovery that the professor's eye was fixed upon 
 him with a sarcastic gaze. 
 
 "Is that supposed to be science?" asked the pro- 
 fessor, mildly. 
 
 "Well," said the stock broker, doggedly, "never 
 mind the reasons. Experience is probably good 
 enough for Tom. He finds that he gets a better 
 draught for his stove by having it in mid-air, so he 
 has it there." 
 
 "The right explanation," began the professor, 
 "is the simplest. My idea is that" 
 
 "Excuse me," interrupted the stock broker, tap- 
 ping the table, "are you in this pot?" 
 
 The professor made a deposit, and proceeded : 
 
 "Have you noticed that our guide is a very tall 
 man? Like most men of his height he hates to 
 bend over. If the stove was near the floor he 
 would have to stoop down low when he whirled 
 a flap jack or speared a rasher of bacon. Now he 
 can stand up and do it with ease. Your draught 
 theory is no good ; the longer the pipe, if straight, 
 the better the fire will burn." 
 
no JACK POTS. 
 
 'Trofessor/' remarked the colonel, with a cruel 
 smile, ''I reg-ret to have to tell you that your money 
 is gone. Long Tom told me on the way up, that 
 his partner did all the cooking, and he is a man of 
 rather short stature." The colonel then paid his 
 compliments to the jack pot, and continued. ''Now, 
 my idea is that the stove heats the room there bet- 
 ter than on the floor. It is only a cooking stove, to 
 be sure, but when the winter is cold it makes the 
 room comfortable. Being up in the middle of the 
 space it heats all equally well, which it would not 
 do if it were down below." 
 
 The doctor greeted this theory with a laugh. 
 
 "Colonel," he said, "you are wild — away off the 
 mark. Hot air rises, as any school boy ought to 
 know, and the best way to disseminate it is to have 
 the stove as low as possible. According to your 
 theory it would be a good plan to put the furnace in 
 the attic of a house instead of the basement." 
 
 'T think," remarked the colonel, "that I could 
 appreciate your argument better if you would 
 ante." 
 
 "Cheerfully, because the pot is mine," said the 
 doctor, as he deposited the coin. "You will adopt 
 my idea the minute you hear it, and Long Tom, 
 who will be here in a minute^ will bear me out. 
 This room is very small ; it has but little floor space 
 and none of it goes to waste. Now if he had put 
 the stove down where we expected to find it Long 
 
SCHEME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT. m 
 
 Tom could not have made use of the area under- 
 neath, as you see he has done. On all sides of the 
 supporting posts you will notice there are hooks 
 on which he hangs his pans and skillets. Under- 
 
 ' I see you air all admirin' my stove, Captain." 
 
 neath there is a practical kitchen closet for pots and 
 cooking utensils of various kinds. \Miat could be 
 more convenient ? I am surprised that none of you 
 have seen what is so apparent.*' 
 
112 JACK POTS. 
 
 The judge, who, had been listening to the opin- 
 ions offered by the others, with the same grim 
 smile that occasionally ornamented his face when 
 he announced that an objection was overruled, now 
 stepped forward and dropped a coin on the table. 
 He then rendered his decision as follows : 
 
 ''It appears that none of you have noticed the 
 forest of hooks in the roof just over the stove' 
 They are not in use at present, but they are there 
 for some purpose. I imagine that during the win- 
 ter pieces of venison and bear's meat dangle over 
 the stove and are thus dried for later consumption. 
 Now, if the stove was on the floor it would be too 
 faraway from the roof to be used for that purpose." 
 
 ''Here comes Long Tom," shouted the colonel, 
 who had stepped to the open door while the judge 
 was speaking. 
 
 The old trapper put down the various articles of 
 baggage with which his arms were loaded, and 
 came into the kitchen cabin where his guests stood. 
 He glanced at the group and then at the stilted 
 stove. 
 
 "I see you air all admirin' my stove," said he, 
 "an' I'll bet you've been wonderin' why it's up so 
 high." 
 
 "Yes, we have," admitted the professor. "How 
 did you know it?" 
 
 "People most alius jest as soon as they come into 
 the place begin to ask me about it. That's how I 
 knowed." 
 
i 
 
 SCHEME FOR A NATIONAL JACK POT. 113 
 
 *'\Vell, why is it up so high?" asked the stock 
 broker, impatiently, with a side glance at the well 
 developed jack pot on the table. 
 
 As the novelists say, the interest was intense as 
 Long Tom grinned until he showed his palate, and 
 prepared to elucidate the mystery. 
 
 "The reason," said he, ''is simple enough. You 
 see we had to pack all this stuff up here from down 
 below on burros. Originally there was four j'ints 
 of pipe but the cinch wasn't drawed tight enough 
 on that burro that was carryin' them, an' two of 
 'em slipped out an' rolled down the mountain. 
 When we got here an' found that there wasn't but 
 two pieces left I reckoned I would have to kinder 
 h'ist the stove up to make it fit the pipe. So I 
 jest h'isted her, an' there she is yet. Say, what's 
 all this money on the table for?" 
 
 There was a deep silence, while all the learned 
 •men looked at each other, and it lasted so long 
 that the guide ventured to repeat the question. 
 
 'Tt is a jack pot," said the doctor, sadly, ''and 
 as near as I can make out it belongs to you." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WOMEN AND POKER ARGUMENTS TO SHOW THAT 
 
 THEY can't play AND A STORY TO PROVE 
 THAT THEY CAN. 
 
 Can women play poker ? 
 
 Ought women to play poker? 
 
 These are two distinct questions and must be 
 decided on their separate merits. 
 
 Take the last question first. Ought women to 
 play poker? Of course. Why not? Don't they 
 do every thing else that men do ? They have even 
 had a try at base ball. Women would resent with 
 indignation the idea that they should be debarred 
 from cards, and when you once start who is going 
 to draw the line ? The point that poker is a gamb- 
 ling game is no point at all, because a bet can be 
 made on any game, even mumble peg. Society is 
 always erecting imaginary barriers between men 
 and w^omen and they are always being overturned. 
 
 Women have been insisting strenuously for the 
 last twenty years at least that they have just sm 
 many rights as men, and the men have finally ad- 
 mitted that the point is well taken. Of course, this 
 has its serious side, as in the case of the lady who 
 was standing up in the street car. A man asked 
 her if she was a "woman righter," and when she 
 
 114 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 115 
 
 admitted that she was, he told her to stand up and 
 enjoy her rights Hke a man. 
 
 So if a woman wants to play poker she should 
 not be hindered, but it must be understood that she 
 has no better right to the top hand than her man 
 opponent. Cards are not at all gallant, and they 
 will not run her way just because the fingers that 
 hold them are fair and feminine. 
 
 But now, can a woman play poker? Physically, 
 of course; but I mean play the game as it should 
 be played? No, she cannot. And yet they say 
 poker is like a woman. Uncertain, hard to under- 
 stand, fascinating, and has to be approached in a 
 different way about every time you meet her. Then 
 again, it is only the young and inexperienced that 
 know all about women, and it is only the fresh 
 young amateur that knows all about poker. Old 
 bachelors and married men confess that all they 
 know about poker is that they ought to stay out of 
 the game, and can't. Same w^ay about women. 
 These old and experienced chaps lose confidence 
 in their knowledge of women the more they meet 
 them. 
 
 I do not contend that no woman can play poker ; 
 there are exceptions to every rule, and as we shall 
 see further along, there are women poker players ; 
 I am talking about women in general. There are 
 a great many reasons why a woman cannot play 
 poker. 
 
ii6 JACK POTS. 
 
 She is too nervous, and hasn't the physical 
 strength. It is all very well to play from eight to 
 ten in a parlor, with buttons for chips and where 
 the winners give back the money at the end of the 
 game. And it is easy enough to take a hand with 
 a party of gentlemen visiting your husband, where 
 the hands are played to the accompaniment of 
 laughter and jokes, and all the men are deferential, 
 and call just to see what you are doing it on, or 
 let you get away with a transparent bluff, or play 
 with six cards, because they take pleasure in see- 
 ing how you enjoy the game. 
 
 But that isn't poker. The late Richard Proctor 
 used to call the usual game of whist "bumble- 
 puppy" to distinguish it from the real game as 
 played by experts, and parlor poker is entitled to 
 an equally derisive name. There isn't one woman 
 in a hundred thousand who could sit down al a 
 poker table at eight in the evening and play until 
 daylight broke in the East. She would faint or 
 have hysterics, and would certainly have to call 
 in the doctor next day. When I mentioned 
 this point to a charming woman the other day she 
 replied that when women played the gentlemen 
 would make special rules for their benefit. 
 
 That illustrates from what standpoint a woman 
 views the game of poker. She would exact def- 
 erence and indulgence; she would regard it as a 
 personal insult if she were reproached for being 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. ii7 
 
 slow or making a misdeal, or committing any one 
 of the little lapses of which the best of players are 
 guilty. 
 
 Women cannot play poker because they are very 
 poor losers. Some men are in the same boat, but 
 they have the grace to hide it as best they can, 
 but women are not ashamed to get angry and make 
 an exhibition of their distress. It is impossible to 
 imagine a woman losing a thousand dollars and 
 meeting the winner next week with a smooth coun- 
 tenance. A woman would take it as a personal in- 
 sult to be called down on a bluff. 
 
 No man could play with a woman and be free 
 to play his hand for all it was w^orth. He would 
 always be handicapped with the thought that she 
 was one of the weaker sex. Can you imagine, for 
 instance, a man who w^as sweet on a girl, beating 
 a flush that she held ? If he did it would be good- 
 by to his prospects. 
 
 Then again, a woman is a born cheat. No one 
 who has ever watched a woman play cards will dis- 
 pute that assertion. In euchre she will renege, and 
 in every game she will hold out cards, and violate 
 all the rules of the game, trusting to her sex to 
 be excused. Her pretty, manners and her flirta- 
 tious ways are supposed to be an excuse for her 
 cheating, but they would get very tiresome in a 
 game for keeps. In a board game like faro or rou- 
 lette a woman is playing against a machine, and she 
 
ii8 JACK POTS. 
 
 has no particular adversary, which accounts for the 
 fact that women gamble at Monte Carlo and make 
 no particular scene when they lose, but poker is a 
 game where personalities count. 
 
 I have been told that women make good poker 
 players because they have an instinct that men 
 have not. Excuse me if I say ''Bosh." Instinct 
 doesn't amount to a row of beans in poker. If 
 women could read faces as claimed and judge from 
 them what the men really think there wouldn't be 
 so many unhappy marriages in the world. A man 
 who sat down to beat a woman in a poker game, 
 and cast all sentiment aside, could break her if she 
 were a millionaire. All such stories emanate from 
 sappy youths who have been playing with the girl 
 of their choice, or married men who play in the 
 parlor with beans. Here is a sample of the way a 
 newspaper man writes when he is short of copy, 
 and wants to square himself with the fair sex. 
 
 ''Women are the best poker players, barring 
 Chinamen. Take a sharp, shrewd, beautiful wo- 
 man. She can beat a man every time after she has 
 learned the rudiments of the game. Ladies have 
 been made natural poker players. They are so coy 
 and- designing, and dissimulation with them is not 
 an acquired art. It is their second nature. Decep- 
 tion is so easy for them that they easily outwit 
 men. They size up men more quickly than we can 
 fathom their thoughts. 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 119 
 
 "Have you ever heard a lady exclaim: 'Oh, 
 how glad I am to see you ; perfectly charmed, don't 
 you know !" Then you wander away to a secluded 
 spot and wonder if she was bluffing. Well, you 
 encounter the same proposition with women in a 
 poker game, only you haven't got time to take a 
 secluded walk by yourself and meditate and deter- 
 mine whether she is bluffing or not, when she says 
 with a bewitching, coaxing Httle smile, arching her 
 eyebrows, and glancing innocently at you out of 
 the corner of her eye, T think my hand is worth 
 $1,500 more.' 
 
 "Ever been there? No? Well, Fve been in a 
 good many tight places, where I had to think 
 quickly, but I am free to confess that the v/oman 
 was too much for me." 
 
 The man that wrote that never played more than 
 five cent ante in his life. The idea of a woman 
 raising $1,500 with a roguish twinkle in her eye! 
 
 A story from Bar Harbor lets a little light in on 
 the way women play poker. It was some years ago 
 when poker was taken up as a fad, as automobil- 
 ing is now, and as w^omen take up anything. A 
 party of women were initiated into the mysteries of 
 penny ante, and pretty soon the bridle was loos- 
 ened and they were playing with white chips at fifty 
 cents and the limit taken off. 
 
 It went on this way for about three weeks, they 
 meeting every night, betting and bluffing in their 
 
I20 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''bewitching" way, and thinking they were hav- 
 ing a terribly wicked time. 
 
 Of course there was a tremendous amount of 
 cheating, and as there happened to be one woman 
 in the party who didn't cheat, she was soon broke, 
 and also in the soup to the amount of $300 in the 
 w^ay of I O U's. She thought she saw her way 
 out of the dilemma, and resorted to a genuine fem- 
 inine trick. She ordered four fine gowns from her 
 dressmaker, and the bill, amounting to $300 was 
 sent home. The husband handed the amount to 
 his wife. 
 
 She didn't do a thing with it but take it to the 
 poker table, pay off $200 of her debt, and with the 
 balance try to win back what she had lost. You can 
 imagine what happened. She lost her hundred, 
 and had to give some more I O U's. Then she 
 put of¥ the dressmaker until the latter got tired 
 and sent the bill to her husband. Then there was 
 a scene. She confessed all, gave all the names of 
 the poker players and the indignant husband wrote 
 to each one of them demanding the immediate re- 
 turn of the money won from his wife. Then there 
 was hysterics all around, the money was returned, 
 the circle broke up in admired disorder, mutual re- 
 criminations were the order of the day, and every 
 sweet player vowed that she would never speak to 
 any of the others. 
 
 Just try to imagine any such scene occurring 
 among men ! 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 121 
 
 And now, having- demonstrated that a woman 
 cannot play poker it is no more than right to tell 
 a story about a woman who could and did play 
 poker. But it will be noticed that we have to go 
 i)ack about fifty years for an example, and then 
 there is something supernatural in it. 
 
 In the suburbs of Trenton, New Jersey, there is 
 an old landmark known as the Mills Tavern. This 
 tavern was also a toll house, and was kept for more 
 than fifty years by a woman called Martha Mills, 
 who, by her commission on the tolls she collected 
 and the profits on the tavern made quite a small 
 fortune. 
 
 To these savings she added some thousands of 
 dollars made in her dealings with politicians who 
 came to the tavern to lay plans and pull wires for 
 the passage of certain laws through the legislature. 
 As Martha had a keen eye for business she made 
 these men pay special prices, and her terms were 
 always cash. She had discovered that a politician 
 was apt to be here to-day and gone to-morrow, so 
 to speak. Indeed, she was wont to boast that she 
 liad very small confidence in human nature, espe- 
 cially of the male persuasion, and her favorite re- 
 mark was that she wouldn't trust a man as far as 
 she could throw a church by the steeple. 
 
 Among her other accomplishments ^lartha was 
 an expert poker player, and coupled with her 
 knowledge of the game had an uncanny accom- 
 
122 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 paniment that made her a dangerous antagonist. 
 She would never take a hand unless there were 
 seven players, and she had an abiding faith in the 
 
 number seven. 
 She explained 
 that peculiarity 
 by saying that 
 she was the 
 seventh daugh- 
 ter of a seventh 
 daughter and 
 thus had rea- 
 son to believe 
 in the number 
 s e V e n. Her 
 confidence in this num- 
 ber always prompted her 
 to draw cards to it no 
 matter what odds were 
 against her. If there was 
 a seven spot in her hand she w^ould draw to it, and 
 when she did the pot generally floated her way. 
 
 Away back in those olden days there were some 
 sharp poker players among the New Jersey legis- 
 lators and politicians, and when they felt like mak- 
 ing a night of it without being disturbed they held 
 a session at Mills Tavern, in a big room in a re- 
 mote part of the house. Here, with a jug 
 of apple jack on the floor and plenty of tobacco, 
 
 " I'm the seventh daughter of a 
 seventh daughter," said ■ 
 Martha. 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 123 
 
 the players sweated and cussed and rejoiced as the 
 case might be. There was a kitty, and Martha 
 was always around to see that it w^as duly hon- 
 ored. 
 
 It was Martha's boast up to the day of her death 
 that she had never been kissed by a man since her 
 childhood days, and she won a good many dollars 
 from men who, more from fun than anything else — 
 since Martha was no peach — stacked their dollars 
 against her kisses. 
 
 A man from Hunterdon County came nearer 
 winning the prize than any other. It happened 
 one night when Martha consented to take a hand 
 in a game from which one of the players had been 
 called. 
 
 She played that night in great luck, and she 
 gathered in the chips with such monotonous regu- 
 larity that at midnight the other players declared 
 that it was no use trying to break her luck, and 
 that the game might as well be stopped. 
 
 "I'm willing," said Martha, fingering the chips 
 that were stacked in front of her and making a 
 gloating calculation of their value. 
 
 "Hold on, boys," said Honeywell, a politician 
 from Cape May County, "let's play one more hand 
 for a kiss. Martha can bet her kisses against our 
 money and every kiss shall be valued at ten dol- 
 lars. What do you say?" 
 
 The m^n, of course, favored the proposition. 
 
124 JACK POTS. 
 
 "You never knew me to back out of a game of 
 poker," said Martha, with a confident smile. 
 
 The deal went around to Martha before the pot 
 was opened. Honeywell opened it for $io, the 
 Hunterdon County man raised it $20 and Martha 
 stayed with three kisses, valued at $30. 
 
 Honeywell, who had opened the pot with a pair 
 of jacks and who had been playing in hard luck 
 ever since the game started, threw his hand in the 
 table with an expression of disgust, and refused 
 to see the raise. The other four players had not 
 come in, and the pot w^as between the Hunterdon 
 man and Martha. 
 
 ''Cards?" said Martha, as she picked up the pack. 
 
 'Til play these," said he, "and bet you $50 I've 
 got you beat." That meant five kisses if Martha 
 should call him, in addition to the three already 
 bet. "Don't be afraid to call me, Martha," he 
 added, banteringly. "Eight kisses won't hurt you 
 any more than three will." 
 
 "I'm the seventh daughter of a seventh daugh- 
 ter/' said Martha, as she slowly counted the cards 
 off the pack. She drew four, threw her discard on 
 the table, and ran her eyes' over the cards she had 
 drawn. She contemplated them carefully for a 
 minute, and then looking her opponent in the eye, 
 said : "I'll raise you five kisses. I don't w^ant 
 your money, and my advice to you is to not call 
 me." 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 125 
 
 Everybody around the table burst into a roar of 
 laughter. 
 
 "Well, Martha," said he, ''you're a cool one and 
 no mistake. You are trying to bluff a pat hand 
 with a four card draw. I've got already thirteen 
 kisses coming to me, but I guess we can both stand 
 more, so I'll raise you $50." 
 
 "I'll see that and raise you five more kisses," said 
 Martha, calmly. "That's twenty-three kisses I owe 
 you if your hand beats mine, but again I tell you 
 to keep out." 
 
 "Not with this hand," he replied, with a 
 chuckle. "I'd rather kiss you thirty-three times 
 than twenty-three, so I'll raise you a hundred dol- 
 lars.'^ 
 
 "Well, sir," said Martha, with a grim smile, "I've 
 given you a good chance to save your money and 
 you don't seem to want to do it ; now if you want 
 to kiss me you've got to pay for it. I'll see your 
 raise and bet you twenty more kisses that I've got 
 the winning hand." 
 
 The Hunterdon man paused to reflect. It would 
 be a great triumph to snatch fifty-three kisses from 
 Martha's lips, but he had been up against her luck 
 before, and his funds were running low. He 
 scanned his hand again. It was very stout — three 
 aces and a pair of fives, and they looked very en- 
 couraging. At the same time it would take $200 
 to call, and he was not a rich man. But what could 
 
126 JACK POTS. 
 
 he do ? It would never do to sacrifice the pot now. 
 He shoved $190 into the pot and said: "I'll call 
 you, Martha. I'm $10 shy." 
 
 "I don't play shy pots," said Martha, coldly. 
 
 The Hunterdon man had to borrow $10 to make 
 good. 
 
 ''I'm the seventh daughter of a seventh daugh- 
 ter," said Martha, as she slowly spread her cards 
 on the table. ''I held a seven-spot, and I drew 
 three more." 
 
 If you can swallow that story perhaps this will 
 not be too strong for };our stomach. It also con- 
 cerns this wonderful Martha Mills. 
 
 The New Jersey legislature was in session and 
 the railroads had several important bills that they 
 wanted passed, and as a consequence the lobbyists 
 and members had money to burn. This made grist 
 for Miss Martha's mill, and the kitty was a fat 
 one every night. 
 
 One night six crack players came together in 
 the tavern and Martha was invited to take a hand. 
 She objected, on the strange ground that she felt 
 unusually lucky, and suggested that they had bet- 
 ter leave her out. But all the others protested that 
 they also felt lucky, and insisted that she should 
 sit in with them. They adjourned to the private 
 room and began what w^as probably the shortest 
 big game ever played. 
 
 "Now," said one of the players, before the hands 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 127 
 
 were dealt, 'iet's find out which one of us lias the 
 least money, and we'll watch his pile and play for 
 table stakes." 
 
 The proposition met with approval of the other 
 players. The man who had the least money was 
 Sinclair, an Essex County man, and he had $300. 
 ♦He spread the money on the table, and the next 
 minute there was $2,100 on the board. 
 
 Henry \\'hitehead, a South Jersey assemblyman, 
 dealt the cards, and the pot was opened by Miles 
 Graham, who started the ball with a bet of $20. 
 The player next to him raised theT^et $50. Martha 
 saw the $70 and the man on her left raised the 
 bet $50. When it came to the opener to see all 
 the raises he gave it another boost of $50, and that 
 was raised $50 and then another $100. Meanwhile 
 Martha simply trailed along. 
 
 Graham was confident that he had the best hand, 
 for he raised the third, fourth and fifth time, and 
 came to a standstill only when all the money was 
 piled on the centre of the table. 
 
 'That's a pretty comfortable looking pile," re- 
 marked one of the players. 
 
 "Enough to buy cordwood for winter," said the 
 hostess. 
 
 There were six pat hands out, and Martha was 
 the only one to draw. ''Well, gentlemen," she 
 said, ''it's all in the draw anyhow, and if I make 
 my hand I take the money, It's a show down, so 
 
128 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 here's my hand." She spread out the trey, four, 
 five and six of diamonds and the ten of hearts. 
 
 "Now, Whiter 
 head," said she, 
 as she discarded 
 the ten of hearts, 
 "you may give* 
 me the seven- 
 spot of dia- 
 monds; then I'll 
 have a straight 
 flush." 
 
 Whitehead dealt 
 a card, turning it 
 over as he threw 
 it down, and to 
 the amazement of 
 the players it was 
 the seven-spot of 
 diamonds. The 
 straight flush was made and it won the pot. This 
 ended the game, which lasted exactly four min- 
 utes, and Martha's profits were $i,8oo. 
 
 That is the story, and you can believe just as 
 much of it as you please. When you think it over, 
 you can endeavor to recall how many railroads 
 there were in 1850, and how awfully flush the lob- 
 byists were in those days. You may also ask your- 
 self whether it was the fashion to play straight 
 
 " Now you may give me the seven-spot of 
 diamonds." 
 
WOMEN AND POKER. 129 
 
 flushes fifty years ago. Of course if you can settle 
 these points to your satisfaction, it will not be diffi- 
 cult to believe these two anecdotes about the sev- 
 enth daughter of a seventh daughter. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH A JACK POT OF 
 
 NIGGERS COLONEL RAFAEL AND 
 
 HIS HONOR. 
 
 It is a mighty hard thing to escape from the 
 Oldest Inhabitant in this country. He is ahvays 
 present and he makes his presence known. The 
 Oldest Inhabitant has spoiled more than a million 
 stories, and the man with a string of fish does weli 
 to get out of the way when he sees him coming. 
 He has it all made up that nothing that happens 
 now is or can be as great or as wonderful as some- 
 thing in the past, and as all his witnesses are dead 
 and you cannot very well accuse him of downright 
 falsehood, he gets aw^ay with his statements every 
 time. 
 
 To make the matter worse there are in every 
 town a number of men who are in training to be 
 Oldest Inhabitants. They are the fellows who are 
 always talking about the palmy days of every- 
 thing — the drama, baseball, hunting, dancing — any 
 old thing that exists to-day. Poker, for instance. 
 They don't play poker like they used to do; oh, 
 dear no ! In the palmy days the games were ten 
 times as long and a hundred times more exciting, 
 and as for the money bet — why, it is simply impos- 
 
 130 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. 131 
 
 sible to estimate the oceans of money that used to 
 pass over the cloth. 
 
 As ilkistrating the perfectly ferocious way they 
 used to play poker in the palmy days, the reminis- 
 cence of a gentleman from one of the lower coun- 
 ties of Georgia, as told in the Kimball House, At- 
 lanta, may be taken as a sample. 
 
 "Poker is a mighty funny thing," he said. "You 
 never know when you have run against a good 
 player. Take me, for instance. I was here in the 
 Legislature, years ago, and I know I didn't appear 
 to be what you call up-to-date — not a bit of it. But 
 I did know how to play poker. Learned it down 
 our way, with the boys. The members from 
 Augusta and Macon and Savannah thought they 
 had a soft piece of pie when they got me into the 
 first game. Well, you oughter seen how they got 
 beautifully left. 
 
 'T was here in the Legislature the whole of that 
 session, and I sent supplies home to the folks every 
 now and then, built and paid for a new corn crib, 
 bought the old lady a new stove and a sewing 
 machine and hadn't touched a per diem, which Bob 
 Hardman paid me in bulk at the end of the session. 
 I tell you, them fellers was surprised in their man !" 
 
 There was high rolling for you! A stove and a 
 sewing machine and a corn crib — he must have 
 been ahead nearly a hundred dollars. And here 
 is what another old-timer of Tennessee let off in 
 Memphis the other day. 
 
132 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''Times ain't what they used to be in this town. 
 In them days, 'long about '66, '67 and '68, money 
 was plentiful and sportin' people rolled them high. 
 Jefferson street from No. 9 clean down to Third 
 street was gamblin' houses, and everyone was 
 straight except two. And say, that puts me in 
 mind of a lucky play I had one time, which sounds 
 like a fairy tale, but it's true. I beat the game at 
 No. 40 Jefferson street, and they didn't do a thing 
 but deal the old thing there. It was one of the 
 brace houses, and the fellers that worked there were 
 so crooked that they slept in beds made in the 
 shape of the letter S. They couldn't get no rest 
 in no other kind. 
 
 ''Up at the El Dorado on Saturday nights the 
 keno game began at seven o'clock, at fifty cents a 
 card, and ran that way until nine, and then it was 
 a dollar a card. Well, I goes down there one 
 night, and havin' my luck with me by twelve 
 o'clock I had salted away $600. Next day it was 
 rainin' and drizzlin', and I didn't have nothin' else 
 to do, so I dropped in No. 40 and took a hand at 
 poker. I knew the game was bent, but I had this 
 money and didn't mind takin' a chance. 
 
 "I hadn't been in the game long until I picks up 
 four aces. I bet them up and down and all around, 
 and a little man across the table keeps comin' back 
 at me. When it came to a show down I had him 
 beat, and the banker announces that the game is 
 broke. 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 ^33 
 
 ''I loafs around until they gets another stake, 
 and the game starts again. Would I take a hand ? 
 Of course I would, and I did. I played along and 
 finally picks up four deuces. I keeps bettin' them, 
 until the show 
 down comes 
 again, and of 
 course I has the 
 other feller 
 beat. The 
 banker says the 
 game is broke 
 again and I 
 cashes in. They 
 were fixin' up 
 hand s, y o u 
 know, and I 
 gets the cooler 
 twice when i t 
 was meant for the other 
 man. The man who was 
 to get the cooler gets my 
 hand and of course he 
 thinks he has the cooler, 
 so he bets the bank's roll 
 at me. 
 
 ''The man who owns the joint was upstairs 
 asleep, and they went and woke him up, for another 
 stake, maybe. He comes down all on fire, and he 
 says : 
 
 "Where's the sucker that broke 
 this game?" 
 
134 * JACK POTS. 
 
 '' 'Where's the sucker that broke this game?' 
 
 "And I says: 'He's right here, but he ain't no 
 sucker.' He knows me, and when I says that, he 
 smiles and says : 'Well, if anybody has to get it, 
 I'm glad it's you. But, say, you're mighty lucky.' 
 
 ''And then he turns around and fires the flat- 
 heads that fixed up the hands wrong. I wouldn't 
 tell this story unless I could prove it, and the man 
 that can prove it is right back in the saloon yon- 
 der." 
 
 And the man back in the saloon was called in 
 and swore to it. Wliich goes to prove either that 
 it didn't happen or else that they had some mighty 
 clumsy brace men in the palmy days. 
 
 Honestly, though, there were palmy poker days 
 in the South in the time when cotton was king. A 
 certain class had a lot of money, and had it in the 
 very worst way for them. For eleven months in 
 the year they made nothing, and then when the 
 crop was sold they got their money all in a bunch, 
 provided, of course, that they had not mortgaged 
 it in advance. As a consequence they had a high 
 old time while the money lasted. It was some- 
 thing like getting a legacy once a year, and we all 
 know what the average man does with that. It 
 was a happy-go-lucky way of living, a peculiarity 
 of the South, and its only parallel is seen in mining 
 camps when some formerly unlucky prospector 
 strikes it rich. 
 
 Take a man with ten to twenty thousand dollars 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH, 135 
 
 in his pocket, a man who has not known what it 
 is to finger more than a twenty-dohar bill for 
 months, and turn him loose, and it is not hard to 
 predict what will happen. If he knows anything 
 about cards — and gambling was once part of a 
 Southern man's education — he is going to play 
 them to the top of his bent. Then again, the very 
 nature of a Southern man was to be free and liberal, 
 and in nothing can freeness and liberality be better 
 displayed than in betting. Can it be wondered 
 that many a Southern planter, after selling his crop 
 in the Xorth, started home with a large wad, and 
 arrived there with nothing left but his honor? 
 
 These times have passed, never to come again. 
 Poker is still played in the South, and it will never 
 die out, but the day of big stakes and reckless bet- 
 ting has gone into history. While it lasted it per- 
 meated young as well as old. As the old cock 
 crows the young one learns and the boys were not 
 a whit behind their seniors. 
 
 One December night not so many years ago a 
 party of seniors in the Southern University were 
 having a social game of poker. This old college 
 had turned out at about the same time Howell 
 Cobb, Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs and 
 other famous characters of the oiden days, and was 
 redolent of reminiscences. 
 
 Uncle Tub was the night watchman of the 
 campus. He saw a light in the room, when all the 
 rest of the building was dark, and as in duty bound 
 
136 JACK POTS. 
 
 he crawled up three flights of stairs and walked into 
 the room without ceremony, causing the utmost 
 consternation. 
 
 ''Hi! I cotch yer!" he exclaimed. "Fse gwine 
 ter lay it all out ter de doctor 'bout dis yere fust 
 class sittin' up here after hours an' gamblin', jess 
 like der Jews." 
 
 The crowd immediately surrounded the old man 
 and protested that they were simply boning up for 
 an "exam," but Uncle Tub would have none of it. 
 
 ''Go 'way, boss," he said, sternly. "Ain't I done 
 heard de rattle of de chips? Ain't I done seed yer 
 wipe in dat dar jack pot?" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Dat jack pot," Uncle Tub repeated with em- 
 phasis. "Ain't I done seed yer wipe it in? Don't 
 tell me." 
 
 Uncle Tub's knowledge of the game came as a 
 revelation. 
 
 "Uncle Tub," said the tall senior at the end of 
 the table, "I am astonished at you. You are a 
 deacon in the church, and a man of unquestioned 
 probity, and I cannot believe that you are acquaint- 
 ed with the sinful game of poker as your words 
 would indicate." 
 
 "Dat's all right, boss," returned the old man. 
 "I wasn't always a deacon." 
 
 "Do you mean to say that you have played 
 poker?" 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 137 
 
 ''No; I ain't adzactly played de game." 
 ''Then what do you know about it?'' 
 The old darkey had seated himself upon a trunk 
 with his lantern dangling between his knees, and 
 he assumed an air of dignity terrible to witness. 
 
 "De good Lawd, boss," he said, with his eyes 
 
 cast up to the ceiling, "don't ax me about kyards, 
 
 kase dem is sinful things, an' I know more about 
 
 dem dan you kin tell me in a thousand years. You 
 
 boys oughter 
 
 bin here in de 
 
 days afore de 
 
 wall. Dem was 
 
 s h o days a n' 
 
 dem was s h o 
 
 poker players. 
 
 I know lots 
 
 about de Bible 
 
 now an' kin 
 
 quote from 
 
 Genysis ter de 
 
 R e V u 1 a- 
 
 shun, but in 
 
 dem days I 
 
 knows poker 
 
 from A ter Z." 
 
 "Oh, come now, Uncle Tub," said the senior, 
 warningly. "We can't believe that." 
 
 "Don't believe it? Lemme tell yer," said the 
 
 " I was in a jack pot of niggers once." 
 
138 JACK POTS. 
 
 old man, waxing indignant. "I was in a jack pot 
 of niggers one time." 
 
 "What's that?" The students had left their 
 places by this time, and encircled the old darkey, 
 who swelled with pride at the attention he was at- 
 tracting. 
 
 "I say I was in a jack pot of niggers one time," 
 repeated Uncle Tub, "an' Marse Henry won me," 
 repeated the old watchman, slowly and thought- 
 fully. Then he put his lantern on the floor and 
 told his story. 
 
 '-'Dat war long time afore de wah," he said slow- 
 ly. "Most of de young bucks what come to col- 
 lege in dem days had der nigger man wid 'em. I 
 
 belong to young Marse George B . He was a 
 
 Satan, dat boy, but his daddy was er angel. 
 
 "Dere was fouh of 'em — all young bucks, jes 
 like you all. Dere was fouh of us niggers, too ; all 
 about de same age, an' we all sets dere an' sees de 
 game. I tell you, chillun, dat was a game. It 
 kep' gittin' hotter an' hotter. My young marse 
 lose all his cash an' then he gin to lose what wasn't 
 cash. He gits madder an' madder. Marse H^nry 
 
 C w^on all de stakes, an' jes nacherly keeps on 
 
 winnin' lak he born to win. 
 
 "Atter while my young marse say: 
 
 " 'Damme, dar goes all I'se got in de worl' but 
 Tobe.' Dat's what dey call me in dem days — 
 Tobe. 'Fore I knowed it I done heard him say: • 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. I39 
 
 " 'Les make a jack pot outen de niggers.' 
 
 ''Dey was all in for it. Dey ax de udder niggers 
 an' yer humble servant to stand in de middle of de 
 flo', an' Marse George he dole de kyards. He 
 ketched a good pair, kase he axed me to step up 
 to de table. 
 
 " 'I opens dis pot,' he says, Svid Tobe.' 
 
 " '1 stays in it wid Jack,' says Marse Henry 
 
 C , axin' Jack, his nigger, ter step 'long side 
 
 of me. 
 
 ''De rest of the gemmuns dey puts dere niggers 
 in too, an' dar we was, waitin' for de call of de 
 cards. 
 
 "Well, I kaint tell how- it happens, but Marse 
 Henry C won de whole lot of us, hair an' hide. 
 
 "Den he says, 'Good-night, gemmuns,' an' he 
 walks down stairs, us a-follerin' lak sheep. 
 
 "I mout er belonged to dat man to dis day, but 
 nex' mawnin' Marse George's pa he comes to de 
 college an' buys me back. Den he tells Marse 
 George he can't hab no nigger to wait on him." 
 
 "What became of the rest of the colored men?" 
 asked the tall senior. 
 
 "Law, honey," responded Uncle Tub, "I reckon 
 dey was all bought back lak me. But dat ain't got 
 nothin' to do wid dis. You better stop dis gam- 
 blin'. Hit'll git ye into tribulation." 
 
 Although it is almost a safe bet to say thru all 
 Southern men play poker, there is a marked differ- 
 
I40 JACK POTS. 
 
 ence in the way they play it. Gentlemen of the 
 old school have a way of playing on honor that is 
 apt to confuse the moderns, who have reduced the 
 game to a science. With the latter the "board is 
 the play'' — that is, only a show down wins, and 
 what you say goes for nothing. In the old school 
 a gentleman's word is as good as his cards, and 
 when Majah Dudley says "I have two pairs, kings 
 up," and Captain Wing replies, "Mine are threes," 
 the Majah throws his hand into the deck, and takes 
 another drink, without asking for verification. 
 Common sense inclines to the modern school ; sen- 
 timent supports the school of honor. It is only 
 when the two schools come together that there is 
 any trouble. 
 
 Colonel Rafael of Alabama was a player of the 
 old school. He learned his cards before the war 
 with a party of rich plantation men like himself, 
 who made poker playing a pastime but not a craze. 
 Perhaps twice a month they would meet at the 
 residence of one of their number, and there on the 
 broad porch, attired in cool linen, with plenty of 
 tobacco, and two or three bright colored boys at 
 hand to furnish mint juleps and kindred beverages 
 ad libitum, they reclined in easy chairs and whiled 
 away a couple of hours in a game that never roused 
 the passions or excited future animosity. The sup- 
 ply of chips was meagre, and they were used mostly 
 for anteing, since nearly all the betting was by 
 word of mouth. 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. 141 
 
 Judge J would say languidly, "I open this pot 
 for five dollars," and Major P would say, ''Judge, 
 I'll have to raise you about ten dollars." Where- 
 upon the Judge would reply, "V\\ call you, Major." 
 ''A pair of tens, sah," says the Major. ''That's 
 good," says the Judge, and tosses his cards on the 
 table face downward, and the Major does the same, 
 and rakes in the chips. Once .i» a while, after a 
 stiff argument back and forth, the players might 
 show their hands, just to explain why they thought 
 they had the other fellow beaten, and then there 
 would be a great amount of dignified talk about the 
 peculiarities and possibilities of the great national 
 game, but no one for a moment entertained the 
 idea that any one would miscall his hand. A 
 sharper sitting in such a game would have won all 
 the plantations in time,- but there was no chance 
 of such a happening. Strangers were rare in those 
 days, and when one was introduced he had excel- 
 lent recommendations. 
 
 When the war came, poker was discarded for a 
 sterner game. The Colonel served through the 
 entire conflict, and had no time for relaxation. 
 After the war when he went back to his plantation 
 he found it only in name. The slaves were gone, 
 four out of five of his old chummies were dead or 
 gone no one knew where, and in addition the Colo- 
 nel needed every cent he could rake and scrape, to 
 plant crops, make repairs and in a general way put 
 
142 • JACK POTS. 
 
 the plantation on a paying basis once more. It 
 was hard scratching for five or six years, but the 
 Colonel was not a man to sit down with his finger 
 in his mouth and cry about the ill fortunes of war, 
 so that in time he got out of debt, saw^ his w'ay to 
 a fair income, and felt that he could afford to take 
 a little relaxation. 
 
 It was in the winter of '71 and ^']2 he came 
 North. He stopped on his way at Richmond, 
 where he met a few old army friends, and at Wash- 
 ington, w^iere he met more, and then he extended 
 his trip to New York, w'hich he had last seen in 
 1859. -^s may be imagined the big town was a 
 sight to this fine old Southern gentleman. Very 
 few New Yorkers realize what an immense change 
 has taken place in their city since before the war, 
 and although since 1872 improvement has been 
 much more rapid, there was enough in '72 to just- 
 ify the Colonel's amazement. For several days he 
 w^alked Broadway, curious to see, and an object of 
 curiosity to others. Before the war the Colonel 
 would have been no unusual sight, but times had 
 changed, and he with his stately stride, immense 
 head of white hair, and calm, imperious air, seemed 
 like a visitor from a past age. 
 
 It was on the fourth day of his stay that the 
 Colonel met a man he knew. It was in front of 
 the St. Nicholas, and the friend was one who had 
 been a lieutenant in his regiment. After Appo- 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. 143 
 
 matox, Lieutenant Wickes studied law for three 
 years in Baltimore, and then came to New York 
 to practice. He had been rather successful and 
 was prepared to introduce his old commander to 
 several of the best clubs. In fact, they went to one 
 that very night, and that is where the Colonel had 
 his introduction to the modern game of poker. 
 
 A city judge, a leading physician, a banker, the 
 Colonel and his friend Wickes made up the party, 
 and the game was played in a snug room, with 
 cigars and cocktails handy. For quite a time the 
 game went on without any special incident. It 
 was recalled afterward that the Colonel was a 
 steady loser. Once or twice he called and re- 
 sponded ''good" in his old-fashioned way, wdien his 
 opponent's hand was announced, and on the occa- 
 sions when he was called he announced his hand, 
 and when beaters were shown, threw^ his cards into 
 the deck without comment, except a courtly little 
 bow. It was a game of easy stakes, very little 
 blufifing, no high betting, and a great deal of talk- 
 ing and story telling, so that the Colonel might 
 have imagined that he w^as back on the piazza of 
 the old plantation. 
 
 Then there came a hand in which he was disillu- 
 sionized. It was the banker's deal, and the Colo- 
 nel held the age. He got two aces, and it was one 
 of the traditions of the Southern game to always 
 raise on two aces before the draw^ Everybody 
 
144 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 came in and the Colonel raised it five dollars. 
 Wickes and the judge stayed, the physician came 
 back with ten more, and the banker dropped out. 
 The Colonel chivalrously tilted in ten, and Wickes 
 and the judge laid down. The judge saw the raise, 
 and he and the Colonel drew cards. The judge 
 drew one card to kings and fives and did not fill; 
 the Colonel drew three and caught his ace. 
 
 The judge bet a chip as a feeler; the Colonel 
 raised it ten dollars. The judge said to himself; 
 "He had a pair to go — probably aces. If he is 
 bluffing I've got him ; if he has 
 caught anything, even a pair, he 
 has me beat. 
 Therefore it is 
 the best pohcy to 
 call him now." 
 
 The judge 
 shoved a ten into 
 the pot, and said, 'T'll 
 call.'' 
 
 "Three aces," said 
 the Colonel, with a 
 smile. 
 
 "Beats two pair," 
 
 said the judge, briefly. 
 
 At the same time he spread his hand out on the 
 
 table, and then' shoved them into the centre. The 
 
 Colonel bowed and tossed his hand into the dis- 
 
 They supposed he was about 
 to have a fit. 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. i45 
 
 card, and raked in the pot. The judge hesitated 
 for an instant and then stretched out his hand. 
 
 ''Did you say three aces?" he asked. 
 
 The Colonel looked at him in surprise. "I said 
 three aces, sir," he said, calmly. 
 
 The cards he had discarded were lying on top 
 of the pack, and the judge leaned over and turned 
 them up. The aces were there, of course, and the 
 judge dropped them with the careless remark, ''All 
 right," and sank back quietly in his chair. Not 
 so the Colonel. For an instant his red face got 
 redder, and then the color slowly receded, until it 
 was absolutely pallid. The others noticed the 
 change, and no one but Wickes could divine the 
 cause, and not he right away. They supposed that 
 he was about to have a fit, and the physician was 
 on his feet in an instant. 
 
 But the Colonel recovered his voice, and rose to 
 his feet where he stood erect as if on parade. 
 
 "Wickes," he said, sternly, "you introduced me 
 here, and I want to ask you a question. Do you 
 consider me a gentleman?" 
 
 "Why, Colonel, what do you mean ?" stammered 
 Wickes. 
 
 "Answer me, sir !" 
 
 "Certainly I do. Who has dared to dispute it?" 
 
 "It has been disputed, sir," thundered the Colo- 
 nel, looking at the judge, witheringly. "When a 
 gentleman makes a statement, sir, and another man 
 
146 JACK POTS. 
 
 doubts it, that is a reflection on the first gentle- 
 man's honor, sir." 
 
 ''But, Colonel," said Wickes, soothingly, "no 
 one has disputed your word." 
 
 "Yes, there has been one," and he looked fixedly 
 at the judge. 
 
 Even then that functionary did not understand, 
 but a great light broke in on Wickes. 
 
 "Oh, yes ; I see ! You mean that the judge— — . 
 But, Colonel, that is the way we play poker in New 
 York. Every player is entitled to see all the hands 
 played, and the judge had a right to see your 
 cards." 
 
 "A right, sir!" exclaimed the Colonel, angrily. 
 "Of course you had a right, but the fact that you 
 insisted on exercising that right shows that you 
 doubted my word. By gad, sir, I told you I had 
 three aces, and yet you deliberately looked at my 
 cards, sir, to see if I spoke the truth ! I have seen 
 the time, sir, when I would have called you out, sir, 
 for less than that." 
 
 By this time all the men were on their feet, and 
 
 » 
 
 they had realized that it was a very serious matter 
 to the old gentleman. Unfortunately, the judge 
 was a hard-headed product of Vermont, and 
 although a gentleman beyond dispute, had no sym- 
 pathy with such strained notions of honor; and to 
 him the Colonel's rage was amusing. Conse- 
 quently, although he apologized, and assured the 
 
OLD TIME POKER IN THE SOUTH. I47 
 
 old man that he had not the least intention of giv- 
 ing him offence, he would not admit that there was 
 anything wrong in his insisting on a show of cards. 
 What the others said was to no purpose, and the 
 final result was that the Colonel threw up his cards, 
 and left the house. 
 
 ''VVickes," he said, gravely, when they were out- 
 side, ''I leave to-morrow for Alabama, and I wish 
 you w^ere going with me. 
 Believe me, this is no 
 country for a gentleman. 
 I could not live in a place 
 where a man's word is 
 not as good as his oath, 
 and I don't see how you 
 can. There may be 
 money to be made here — 
 I don't doubt ^ 
 it, but where is 
 the power to 
 
 Unfortunately the Judge was a hard-headed 
 enjoy it, unless product of Vermont. 
 
 a man can be treated as a gentleman at all times? 
 Wickes, it's lucky I didn't have my pistol with me 
 to-night. Damme, the idea of being asked — good- 
 by, Wickes!" 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 POKER AND HYPNOTISM A YOUNG MAN WHO CAN READ 
 
 CARDS HOW FIVE ACES WERE BEATEN THE MAN 
 
 WHO LAID DOWN A STRAIGHT FLUSH. 
 
 It is a mighty lucky thing that the professors 
 of sleight of hand do not take to crooked card 
 playing against the professionals, or that crooked 
 card players do not go through an apprenticeship 
 in sleight of hand before embarking on their nefari- 
 ous careers. Of course the sharps think they can 
 manipulate the papers in a way that defies detec- 
 tion, but a man like Hermann or Kellar could cheat 
 them while their noses wxre on the pack. 
 
 Hermann, in his day, was fond of playing poker, 
 but he never resorted to any tricks with the cards 
 wdiile playing. There would have been no show 
 for anyone else if he had. Imagine a man like that 
 sitting in a game unknown with two or three fel- 
 lows who thought they knew how to stack the 
 cards ! He could have palmed a cold deck on them 
 everv third deal if he had wished. 
 
 But the real danger to the card sharps will come 
 when the hypnotists get in their work. At present 
 hypnotism seems to be in a respectable stage. It 
 is regarded as something weird and almost sacred, 
 something like spiritualism, and the experts only 
 
 148 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM. I49 
 
 use it to illustrate a lot of theories about the soul 
 or the mind or things that nobody knows anything 
 about. But of late a lot of cold-blooded scientists 
 have delved into the question, and have pretty 
 nearly proved that hypnotism can be learned, like 
 chemistry or any other science. 
 
 Now this means a great deal. If there is noth- 
 ing sacred or holy about hypnotism, and it does 
 not require that the hypnotist shall be good or 
 pure, there will be a lot of fellows who will take 
 it up for revenue only. They are going to use it 
 in finance and trade, and after awhile some hypno- 
 tist wall sit down to the card table, and skin every- 
 body like sixty. Of course, if two of these hypno- 
 tists run up against each other, there would be a 
 mischief of a time. But then, I suppose, they 
 would join hands, form a partnership, as it were, 
 and keep up the skinning process. That would 
 create a panic in crooked pokerdom. 
 
 The danger is already imminent. Texas has 
 produced a young man, named Victor Roy, who is 
 a natural mind reader. He says that as soon as 
 he looks into one's face for a minute the person's 
 whole character and antecedents loom up plainly 
 in his mind. You see, right at the start, he could 
 size up the man who was trying to do him. Roy 
 has been known to meet a man for the first time, 
 and instantly tell him his name, his business, mar- 
 ried or single, and all that kind of thing. He also 
 
150 JACK POTS. 
 
 knows whether a man is' honest or otherwise, and 
 he could make his fortune as a detective if so in- 
 chned. 
 
 But that isn't a circumstance to his deadly skill 
 as a poker player. He does not really know how 
 to play poker, that is, he has never played for 
 keeps, and it is only recently that he has learned 
 the relative rank of poker hands. At the same 
 time it may be remarked that he doesn't have to 
 learn much more than he knows now. 
 
 He has been tested time and time again in games 
 of poker and never loses. Many noted gamblers 
 have called on him, . and put him to the test in 
 games of poker. He eyes each player as they pick 
 up their cards, and often before the betting begins 
 he will call out to the man whO' has a flush, threes 
 or a full, and tell him to take the chips, as he has 
 the* best hand, and he never makes a mistake in 
 doing so. A wealthy gambler from Denver offered 
 him $5,000 a year to travel over the country and 
 play for him. But Roy refused, saying that for 
 him to play poker w^ould be nothing less than rob- 
 bery of his victims. That is very true, but just 
 suppose that some other man like that without 
 Roy's scruples should take a tour of the card 
 iooms! 
 
 As a matter of fact, there is good evidence that 
 some such man is abroad, working his remarkable 
 powers on the unsuspecting. The tale is told 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM 151 
 
 about a man who was taken in and done for, and 
 in order to bring out all the weird effects it is well 
 to let the victim tell his own story. 
 
 ''I quit playing poker, not to keep out of the 
 poorhouse but to save myself from the madhouse. 
 The last game I played came near sending me to 
 one of the latter institutions, and since then I 
 haven't so much as played whist, for at the sight 
 of the cards I lose all certainty of myself and feel 
 again the terrible sensations of that last game. 
 
 ''I had played all my adult life up to four years 
 ago, and had been singularly fortunate, and to 
 make a rough estimate I will say that fortune had 
 favored me to the extent of at least $30,000 up to 
 the time I am going to tell about. Of course, I 
 did not save it all, as I was a high liver, but I had 
 quite a sum with me when one day I took a notion 
 to go to Havana. 
 
 'T was then staying at Jacksonville, and from 
 there I went to Tampa, and boarded the steamer 
 Olivette, and was soon out on the Gulf. We had 
 to touch at Key West, and I knew that we would 
 have to spend the whole night on the boat, so I 
 suggested to three other men, all apparently gen- 
 tlemen, that we have a game of poker. They 
 assented and we were soon playing in the saloon. 
 
 ''We had been playing perhaps an hour when I 
 noticed a commonplace, everyday-looking fellow 
 about thirty years old looking on at the game 
 
152 JACK POTS. 
 
 rather inattentively, as if he took but^Httle interest 
 in it, but was merely trying to keep himself occu- 
 pied. Out of mere courtesy I asked him to join 
 us, and he at first declined, but when all of us in- 
 sisted he rose up and came over to our table. 
 
 ''He did not play the innocent, or work ofT any 
 old game on the crowd, nor did he impress us as 
 being an expert; just an ordinary gentleman 
 player. He played as if he were only trying to 
 pass the time away. At the end of three hours 
 that fellow, who said his name was Callaway, kept 
 bobbing up and down and playing such an even 
 game that he wasn't ten dollars either way from 
 the starting point. 
 
 ''It was then nearly midnight, so one of the 
 crowd suggested that we take ofT the limit, and 
 bet as high as we pleased during the last half hour. 
 As no one objected, this was done, and then came 
 lively betting. 
 
 "I must have been $3,500 ahead of the game 
 when the cards went hoodooed. We had a jack 
 pot, made up of five-hundred-dollar bills, and for 
 nine deals no one got a pair to open it. At every 
 deal we sweetened that pot for another $500. 
 
 ^'Finally the cards, went to the other extreme 
 and I could tell from the expressions on the faces 
 of the other four men that everyone could open the 
 pot. It was Callaway's say and he tossed in two 
 one-hundred-dollar bills as a starter. He was met 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM. 153 
 
 all around and then the drawing began. I neg- 
 lected to say at the beginning that we w-ere play- 
 ing the game with all the new-fangled attachments, 
 such as a 'looloo,' composed of a pot draw of two 
 diamonds and three clubs, which beats all the other 
 hands, but which can be played only once in a 
 single game. We were also playing with a fifty- 
 three-card deck ; that is, we were playing the joker 
 to count anything its holder might designate. The 
 looloo had already been played, and I knew^ that 
 no man in that crowd could beat the hand I held 
 when we came to make this last draw. 
 
 ''Two men stood pat, and the other two drew 
 one card each. I held four legitimate aces and a 
 seven-spot. Not hoping for a better hand, but to de- 
 ceive my opponents as to the strength of my hand, 
 I discarded the seven-spot and drew one. When 
 I looked at the new card I could hardly repress a 
 whoop. It was the joker, making me five aces, a 
 hand such as was never held before. 
 
 "Then the battle began, and I have never seen 
 such furious betting short of a party of millionaires. 
 We kept raising the value of the pot, until it was 
 worth half the salary of the president of the United 
 States. I bet steadily and confidently, knowing 
 no hand could beat mine except a looloo, and that 
 had already been played. Finally all the others 
 dropped out except Callaway, and to make sure 
 that he was not betting under a misapprehension 
 
154 JACK POTS. 
 
 I reminded him that the looloo had been played. 
 
 " 'I'm not betting on a looloo. I'll raise you 
 $500," he said, quietly. 
 
 "As I had by this time put away about every 
 dollar, and as I didn't care to rob the man, I called 
 him. He looked seriously disappointed, and I 
 wondered what the mischief kind of a hand he had. 
 
 " 'Is that all you care to stake?' he asked, as if 
 surprised that I should have lost my nerve. 
 
 '' 'Not exactly,' I repHed, getting nettled. Til 
 just pull in my call, and raise you a hundred.' 
 
 " 'Good !' said Callaway, as he met my raise, and 
 shoved in two hundred more. 
 
 "I was beginning to get confused, and was un- 
 certain of myself. I recalled that Callaway had 
 shown himself to be a careful better, and I couldn't 
 understand what impelled him to keep on. I got 
 rattled as I sat there looking into his pale gray 
 eyes and eager face. He kept his eyes fastened 
 on my face while he played, and I began to think 
 that he could read my hand from my expression. 
 I made a feeble little raise, and after a long stare 
 he slowly called my bet. 
 
 "With the five aces, I suddenly felt a lack of con- * 
 fidence, but I spread out the cards on the table, and 
 said, boldly: 'Five aces ought to take the pot. 
 Hand it over.' 
 
 "I was just reaching out to rake in the spoils, 
 about $28,000 in cold cash, when Callawa}^ spoke 
 out in his smooth, easy tones: 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM. 
 
 155 
 
 " 'Not so fast, my friend. You are sufferini.; 
 from ail optical delusion, caused from over-excite- 
 ment. Those are not aces you hold, for I have 
 four legitimate single-spotters,' and he held up his 
 hand for me to look at. 
 
 ''Sure enough my eyes told me that he held four 
 aces and a queen. Then he told me to take an- 
 
 " Not so fast, my friend. Those are not aces you hold." 
 
 other look at my hand, and to my intense surprise 
 I saw that I had only a full house on jacks. He 
 never moved his eyes from mine while he was talk- 
 ing, and the glances of his gray orbs made me 
 shiver uncomfortably. So he pocketed the money 
 while I stood looking on without a protest. 
 ''The three other fellows had stepped to the 
 
156 JACK POTS. 
 
 saloon sideboard to investigate a bottle, and as Cal- 
 laway made the last note vanish they came back to 
 the table and asked who won. 
 
 '' 'I did,' answered Callaway. 
 
 '' 'He did/ I said, like a schoolboy learning a 
 lesson. 
 
 Callaway said good-night and stepped out on the 
 deck, while I fell back in my chair, cursing my bad 
 luck. In a few moments one of the men called to 
 me to come on deck for a breath of fresh air. The 
 voice seemed to awaken me from a kind of sleep. 
 I looked down at the two hands on the table and 
 saw, as plainly as I ever saw the light of day, that 
 the hand I had held was made up of four aces and 
 the joker. I picked up Callaway's hand and was 
 dazed to see nothing better than a bobtail flush. 
 
 "I realized then that I had been cheated; that 
 the fellow had cast over me some sort of magnetic 
 spell and convinced me against my reason that his 
 hand was the better. Then I made myself ridicu- 
 lous. I ran on deck and charged him with cheat- 
 ing me. 
 
 *'He was quite gentle and courteous in his man- 
 ner. He suggested to me that I was still suffer- 
 ing from the effects of over-excitement and had 
 better go to my bed and sleep it off. Of course 
 the three other players sided in with him. They 
 told me that I was surely insane to charge Calla- 
 way with cheating, after I had told them in the 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM. 157 
 
 saloon that he had won. From laughing at me 
 they finally got angry, and in the end pushed me 
 into my stateroom and locked me in. 
 
 "I saw Callaway a year later in Memphis, and he 
 was then giving exhibitions of wonderful mesmeric 
 power, and then I was fully satisfied as to the cause 
 of my fearful loss on board the Olivette." 
 
 This is wonderful enough to be true, and yet it 
 is not entirely convincing. It is just possible that 
 the good drinking of the Olivette's sideboard went 
 to our hero's head. There is a case on record 
 where a winning hand was beaten without any re- 
 course to hypnotism, and the other fellow didn't 
 have a gun, neither. 
 
 ''You see," said the man who was the victim, 'T 
 was a young fellow who got tangled up in poker 
 with a lot of boys that could manipulate the cards, 
 and I knew it, but I relied on my luck to pull me 
 out even in the end. 
 
 "As may be imagined, I got it in the neck with 
 distressing frequency, but at last my time came. 
 One of the best of the sharks was dealing in a five- 
 handed game, and it was my age. As I picked up 
 my hand after the cards had been dealt I discov- 
 ered that I had the king, queen, jack, ten and nine 
 of diamonds — a straight flush. 
 
 ''The three men behind me passed out in suc- 
 cession, and I said to myself, 'That's just my luck.' 
 But the dealer stayed, and I of course raised him. 
 
158 JACK POTS. 
 
 He saw my raise and asked me how many cards I 
 wanted. I told him to help himself, and as he dis- 
 carded three cards I argued that, he had two aces, 
 and oh ! how I prayed that he would get the other 
 two, so that I could paralyze him. 
 
 ''After he had skinned his hand the betting be- 
 gan, and it continued until my money was all up, 
 and of necessity there was a call. I asked him 
 what he had, and he replied, ''Four aces," the hand 
 which I had given him credit for, and which my 
 hand beat. I knew I had the winning hand, but 
 somehow or other I said "It's good," and threw 
 my hand into the deck. It touched the dead-wood 
 before I could recover my scattered senses, and of 
 course I was done for. 
 
 "Then I turned over my cards and showed him 
 what I had, but he took the pot. It was the first 
 time on record that a straight flush was beaten by 
 four aces without a gun. It was simply because 
 for one second I got rattled. I have never held a 
 straight flush since and never expect to hold one 
 again. The man who doesn't know how to treat 
 them right when they come along doesn't deserve 
 to get them." 
 
 The only match for this painful incident that I 
 know occurred in Wyoming to a friend of mine. 
 He had been sitting for three hours in the worst 
 kind of luck, when he picked up a pat straight 
 flush. It was his age, and there were five other 
 players, and every mother's son passed out. 
 
POKER AND HYPNOTISM. 159 
 
 He was so exasperated that he first spread out 
 his hand on the table, then he tore up the cards, 
 and finally he swore that he never would play 
 poker again. And he kept his word — for nearly 
 three weeks. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 A LIFE-LONG GAME THE GREAT MORGAN-DANIELSON 
 
 BETTING MATCH FOUR HOURS TO OPEN A JACK 
 
 POT THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A NAP. 
 
 As I remarked at the beginning, there is no 
 doubt that it is both an advantage and an objection 
 to the game of poker that it has no ending. There 
 is no stipulated number of "points," no bank to 
 break, and no time to quit, so that, if the money 
 held out and there was a sufficient number of re- 
 cruits to take the place of the dead and wounded, a 
 poker game, like the brook in the poem, could run 
 on forever. Even with the original players in- 
 stances are not uncommon where men have played 
 for thirty-six hours or more, until tired nature 
 asserted herself and called the game. Of course, 
 if recesses are taken, a game can go on forever. 
 
 Edward W. Pettus, at one time senator from 
 Alabama, was an inveterate poker player, and if the 
 time that venerable gentleman spent in the game 
 could be summed up many years would stand on 
 the debit side of the ledger. 
 
 There lived in Selma, Alabama, the town where 
 the senator hailed from, in the early '70s, a wealthy 
 railroad president, Major Lanier, of the old Ala- 
 bama Central Railroad, running between Selma 
 
 160 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME i6i 
 
 and Meridian, Miss., now a part of the Southern 
 Railway system. The major and the senator were 
 boon companions, with a friendship ahiiost as 
 strong- as Damon and Pythias, and they used to 
 spend their summers at the major's summer home 
 in Talledega, above Sehiia. 
 
 Here they put in about all of their time playing 
 poker, and no one else was permitted to take a 
 hand in the game. It was strictly a gentleman's 
 game; very few chips and an unlimited number of 
 I O U's. There was no hurry or excitement about 
 the playing. Each gentleman took all the time he 
 wanted to make his bets, and it was not unusual 
 for the game to come to a standstill for fifteen or 
 twenty minutes while a good story was told/ Five 
 to ten dollars was about the average bet, but there 
 was no limit, and once in a while the stakes mount- 
 ed up into the hundreds. 
 
 Old Manuel, the major's body servant, was 
 always present at these games. He was the drink 
 mixer and dispenser, took care of the chips and 
 cards, and kept account of the winnings and los- 
 ings. At the end of each year he would render 
 accounts promptly, and whichever was indebted to 
 the other would hand Manuel a check to square up 
 the game. At the end of one year Pettus owed the 
 major $10,000, another year the major was in- 
 debted to the senator for $13,000, and so the 
 game would run. And this was kept up until the 
 
i62 JACK POTS. 
 
 major's death, when the senator stopped playing, 
 as he would not take up with another partner. 
 
 This, however, is not the record of one game, 
 but of a series of games. A single game that last- 
 ed a lifetime, and even longer, is much more won- 
 derful. Governor Hogg, of Texas, never plays 
 poker himself, but he can tell more good stories 
 about poker than any other public man in his sec- 
 tion of the country. His story of the great Mor- 
 gan-Danielson game, is one of the most unique in 
 all the history of poker. 
 
 Old man Morgan was one of the most inveterate 
 poker players in the Lone Star State away back in 
 the '50s. His passion for the game was rivaled 
 only by that of his bosom friend and neighbor, 
 Major Danielson. The two old cronies used to 
 get together every night and indulge in a quiet 
 game for table stakes. Sorhetimes they lost 
 large sums to one another, but they were both 
 enormously rich, and at the end of a year the bal- 
 ance was generally pretty even. 
 
 One night they started to play soon after sup- 
 per — folks dined in the middle of the day in those 
 times. The exact date was June 15, 1853, and 
 the hour was 8 p. m. 
 
 After they had been playing a couple of hours, 
 Morgan, who had just finished dealing, straight- 
 ened up in his chair and became rigid. The next 
 moment he kicked himself vigorously, because he 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 
 
 163 
 
 feared he had betrayed to Danielson the fact that 
 he had an extraordinary hand. But the Major 
 had also caught something wonderful. Each was 
 so excited that he didn't notice the perturbation 
 of the other. • Both were so nervous that they 
 could scarcely speak. 
 
 At last Major Danielson started the ball. He 
 
 Inside of a couple of hours the action became fast and furious. 
 
 bet cautiously at first, and so did Morgan. Then 
 the betting became livelier, and inside of a couple 
 of hours the action was fast and furious. After 
 midnight the bets became larger. Each of the 
 players had had about $10,000 on the table when 
 the game began. At 2 o'clock in the mornine all 
 the chips were stacked up in the centre, but neither 
 of the men showed any signs of weariness. 
 
i64 7ACK POTS. 
 
 At Morgan's suggestion they then made it a 
 no-hmit game. Then they began to bet with thou- 
 sand-dollar checks, and pretty soon the table 
 groaned beneath the weight of wealth, or it would 
 have done so if the wealth had been in gold or sil- 
 ver. Daylight found them still betting, and the 
 players had written their checks for the aggregate 
 amounts they had wagered during the night. 
 Each of these checks bore five figures. 
 
 Stopping only for meals, Morgan and Danielson 
 continued to bet against each other on these won- 
 derful hands until nightfall. Then they adjourned 
 for six hours sleep, and resumed the play again at 
 midnight. They kept it up for the rest of the 
 week, and for the remainder of the year. At the 
 end of the year each of them had invested his en- 
 tire fortune — cash, bonds, stocks, livestock, land, 
 houses, everything — in that game. People began 
 to fiock to Austin from all parts of the State, and 
 from the neighboring principal cities, to see the 
 great Morgan-Danielson game. 
 
 The war came along, but the game never 
 stopped. Morgan and Danielson were both too 
 old to be conscripted, so they stayed home and 
 went on with their betting. Finally it became ap- 
 parent that neither would ever call the other, so 
 the hands were sealed up Separately in tin boxes, 
 and the rest of the deck was put in another box. 
 The three boxes were deposited in the National 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 165 
 
 Bank, each bearing the seals of the players and of 
 a dozen witnesses. Then Morgan and Danielson 
 went on with their betting. 
 
 Both of the old men died in 1872, having been 
 playing for twenty-one years, but they left instruc- 
 tions in their wills to the effect that their eldest 
 sons should carry on the game. The heirs did so 
 for five years. Then one of them was killed in a 
 railway accident and the other went crazy. 
 
 Their eldest sons, however, are carrying on the 
 game in the same old way. Every time either of 
 them gets a few hundred dollars together, he goes 
 to Austin and raises the other fellow. Both fami- 
 lies are as poor as church mice now, and it is all 
 they can do to get the necessaries of life, but they 
 are game to the core, and so long as either of them 
 can earn a cent the world will never learn what sort 
 of hands old man Morgan and Major Danielson 
 drew on that balmy June evening, more than forty- 
 six years ago. The heirs know, but they are sworn 
 to secrecy. 
 
 Taking this story to be strictly on the square, it 
 is easy to guess that each man held four aces, and, 
 as they were not playing straight flushes, each had 
 an invincible hand. How they each got four aces 
 is another story. Probably some youngster of the 
 family rung in a cold deck on the old gentlemen, 
 and then, when he saw the mischief he had done, 
 was afraid to acknowledge the trick. 
 
i66 JACK POTS. 
 
 For a straight out, continuous game of poker the 
 following instance is probably the best on record. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago there were half a dozen 
 men in New Jersey who never failed to play a 
 stiff game of poker when they came together. 
 They were Oliver Wilson of Barnegat, Silas Dan- 
 iels of Philipsburg, Hosea Brockway of Princeton, 
 James Howe of Ewing, John Strange of Titusville 
 and William Tomlirison of Burlington. All these 
 men were rich, and when they were once interested 
 in a game of cards they bet with a recklessness 
 that always astonished those who happened to be 
 looking on. In those days star chamber sessions 
 were almost unknown, and the players were as 
 likely to get into a red-hot contest with the paste- 
 boards in a hotel bar room or the sitting room of 
 a tavern as anywhere. 
 
 At that time deer hunting in Atlantic County 
 was looked upon as the best sport it was possible 
 to find in the state, and in the fall hundreds of 
 men went to the pines for the purpose of hunting. 
 The headquarters for these hunters was McDon- 
 ald's tavern, a barn-like structure in the midst of 
 the woods, where sleeping, eating and drinking 
 accommodations were furnished at somewhat ex- 
 travagant prices. 
 
 Rough as it was, Andy McDonald's tavern was 
 patronized liberally by a big gang of free money 
 spenders, and during the deer-hunting season the 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 167 
 
 establishment was the scene every night of drink- 
 ing bouts, good natured fistic encounters, rifle 
 practice, in which bullets were shot across the bar 
 room at a white ring chalked on the wall, and all 
 kinds of card games. 
 
 One night Silas Daniels, John Strange, James 
 Howe and Hosea Brockway met at the tavern. 
 Strange was considered one of the best poker play- 
 ers in the State. His nerve was as steady as the 
 foundations of the earth, and when he took a 
 notion to raise a bet he did it as if he had the 
 United States treasury at his back. 
 
 When the crowd was properly keyed up, Andy 
 McDonald, who was chief dispenser of liquid joy, 
 and who always had an eye out for his own welfare, 
 said : 
 
 ''Mr. Strange, playin' any cards nowadays?" 
 
 "No," replied Strange, "I ain't had what you 
 might call a real lively settin' for a good while." 
 
 "Feel like playing a few^ hands now, Strange?" 
 asked Daniels, carelessly. 
 
 "You know me, Daniels," replied Strange. "Fm 
 always lookin' for chances of that kind." 
 
 The two men walked over to a table that stood 
 on one side of the room. At the table sat James 
 Howe and Hosea Brockway engrossed in a game 
 of seven-up. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Strange, "what do you say; 
 shall w^e make this game four-handed ?" 
 
1 68 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''Four-handed seven-up?" asked Howe. 
 
 ''Not much," said Strange, contemptuously. 
 "Poker." 
 
 "Well, I reckon it would be more interesting," 
 laughed Howe. "How about you, Brock?" 
 
 "Bring along the chips, Andy," shouted Brock- 
 way, joyously^ "and a brand new pack of cards. 
 Strange is out for a game to-night, and I guess 
 we'd better give it to him." 
 
 The cards and chips were produced, and at nine 
 o'clock the four men began what proved to be the 
 most remarkable game of poker ever played in the 
 State. The news spread rapidly through the tav- 
 ern that Daniels, Howe, Strange and Brockway 
 had got into a game of poker, and every man went 
 to watch it. The players w^ere used to this sort 
 of thing, however, and made no objection, unless 
 someone made remarks on their manner of play- 
 ing; then that man would have to leave the room, 
 or something would break. 
 
 The players were feeling their toddies pretty 
 keenly, and the game opened with a bet of $i,ooo 
 in bank notes made by Daniels. Strange looked 
 out of the corner of his eye for a moment, and 
 then laid down his cards. Brockway did likewise. 
 Howe called the bet and won it on three deuces. 
 Daniels'was bluffing; when he laid down his hand 
 he had only ace high. 
 
 The pace was now fairly set and the game went 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 169 
 
 briskly on. On the next deal Daniels had revenge, 
 for he got back his $1,000 and $800 besides that 
 Strange had risked on a pair of kings. That win- 
 ning was doubly satisfactory to Daniels because 
 it was off Strange, and it nettled Strange to have 
 Daniels crow over him. 
 
 Drinks were had and the game proceeded. A 
 jack pot was started and then one of the most 
 remarkable features of the game took place. It 
 lacked a few minutes of ten o'clock when the jack 
 was declared, and although the cards were dealt 
 as often as possible, it was two o'clock in the 
 morning when openers were caught. 
 
 Brockway was the lucky man. The jack pot was 
 then worth about $2,000, and he had a pair of 
 aces. He opened it for $1,000 and Daniels stayed. 
 Howe and Strange threw down their cards. Brock- 
 way drew three cards and caught another ace; 
 Daniels held three kings. Brockway slapped up 
 $2,000 and Daniels tilted him back a like amount. 
 Brockway saw the raise, and, filling out a check 
 for $5,000, laid it on the pile of bills in the center 
 of the table. 
 
 ''Brock," said Daniels, sharply, 'T believe you're 
 bluffing. I'm going to see your hand, anyhow. I 
 call you." 
 
 Brockway laid down his three aces. Daniels 
 crossed his legs, pulled his hat down over his eyes, 
 said, 'Tt's yours, old man," and knocked on the 
 table for Andy to bring the drinks. 
 
Z70 JACK POTS. 
 
 That was better than a $10,000 winning for 
 Brockway, but he did not let his elation appear. 
 It was late, but nobody thought of going to bed. 
 Lighting cigars, the players began another hand. 
 Howe was lucky man that deal, and he raked in 
 about $2,000, to which each player had contrib- 
 uted nearly an equal share. Then the game went 
 on without any one losing or winning any great 
 amount until noon, when it was stopped for awhile 
 so that the players could eat. The food was 
 brought and spread on the table upon which they 
 were playing, and as soon as it was swallowed the 
 cards were dealt again. 
 
 At midnight the players took account of 
 their chips and money and found that each 
 had about the same capital that he began the game 
 with. They had worked twenty-seven hours and 
 had nothing to show for their labor. 
 
 ''This is the funniest game I ever got into," said 
 Strange. ''We had a jack pot that it took us four 
 hours to open, and now, after all this sweating and 
 betting nobody's any better off than they were 
 when the game started." 
 
 "Shall we quit?" asked Howe. 
 
 "Quit? No!" cried Strange. "I ain't going to 
 leave this table until I've won enough to pay me 
 for sitting here." 
 
 "That's the way I feel about it," said Daniels. 
 
 "I propose this," chimed in Brockway. "We'll 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 171 
 
 play the game until somebody is broke, and if any- 
 body falls asleep or quits the game before that 
 time, he's got to pay each of the other players 
 $1,000." 
 
 ''It's a go," said Strange, and the others nodded 
 their heads. 
 
 This put a fresh interest into the game, and it 
 was played vigorously until noon. Twelve hours 
 had been added to the session, which had now 
 lasted thirty-nine hours, and still the original cap- 
 ital of each player had not been materially les- 
 sened. All of the players were sleepy, but none 
 of them was disposed to take a $3,000 nap, and 
 they fought heroically to keep their eyes open. 
 
 Another twelve-hour lap was begun. By this 
 time the news of the big poker game at McDon- 
 ald's had reached the surrounding towns and men 
 came in from every direction to see it played out. 
 There was no railroad at that time running any- 
 where near McDonald's tavern, but several enter- 
 prising stage drivers ran excursions from the town 
 to the tavern, and reaped a rich harvest. 
 
 In the forenoon of the next day Strange struck 
 a streak of hard luck. He couldn't get a winning 
 hand, and he chipped away until his funds were 
 greatly reduced. At last he caught four deuces. 
 He bet all he had in sight on the cards, and when 
 he was raised he drew a check for $5,000 and threw 
 it on the table. 
 
173 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 "I reckon that's a bluff," remarked Daniels. "I 
 guess the hand is worth seeing, anyhow." He 
 called the bet. 
 
 ''I want to see a piece of that myself," said 
 Howe, showing up $5,000. 
 
 "Fm in it, too," observed Brockway. 
 
 There was something like $30,000 in the pot, 
 and Strange's four deuces were good. The turn 
 
 in his luck woke up 
 Strange, and he played 
 
 a slashing game all 
 through the day, but 
 somehow the capital of 
 the players was shifty, 
 and would return to 
 them. 
 
 At six o'clock 
 that night ac- 
 counts were 
 made up again, 
 but there was no 
 material change 
 in the finances. 
 The game had 
 been running 
 sixty-nine hours, 
 and the players hadn't had a wink of sleep. They 
 were hardly able to hold up their heads, and 
 they drank strong coffee until it failed to have 
 effect. 
 
 And in less than a minute every man in the 
 game was sleeping. 
 
A LIFE-LONG GAME. 173 
 
 For another hour the game dragged along in a 
 Hstless way, because the senses of the men were 
 so dulled by lack of sleep that they hardly real- 
 ized what they were doing. Finally, Howe 
 dropped his cards, saying, "Fll pay the $3,000, 
 boys: Fm willing to give it for a nap." 
 
 His head fell forward on the table, and he was 
 instantly in a dead sleep, and in less than a minute 
 every man in the game was sleeping like a log. 
 They were carried to bed, and were dead to the 
 world for twenty straight hours. 
 
 Howe paid the $3,000 and said he did not be- 
 grudge a cent of it. He said it was the sweetest 
 sleep he ever had in his life. 
 
 As it happened he was just about three thousand 
 dollars ahead when he collapsed, and so was no 
 loser. The game thus lasted seventy hours, and at 
 its close no one player was out more than twenty- 
 five dollars. As Strange remarked, one such game 
 was enough to last a lifetime. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ABOUT BLUFFING $200,000 ON A PAIR OF TENS A 
 
 BLUFF THAT TURNED INTO A FLUSH MAJOR 
 
 EDWARDS AND THE TENDERFOOT. 
 
 The bluff is half the game of poker — some young 
 players think it is the whole thing, until they learn 
 from bitter experience. One of the painful epi- 
 sodes of a budding poker career is to go out on 
 a bold bluff and be called down in an instant, or 
 be raised out of his boots, and have to lay down 
 ignominiously. After a while a fellow gets hard- 
 ened to that sort of thing, at least enough to hide 
 his real feelings, because no one enjoys being 
 called on a bluff; whereas, the rollicking joy that 
 overwhelms his soul when he gets away with the 
 bluff is better than two pots w^on in a legitimate 
 way. Perhaps the best plan is to follow the exam- 
 ple of our German friend Fritz Vonderhannes. 
 
 "Veil, I dell you how it is," said he. 'T dinks de 
 way to pluff is to vait undil you gets apout dree 
 aces, and den sock it to dem." 
 
 There is no doubt that it does help a bluff to 
 have a little something to back it up, although 
 there are players who claim that they can do better 
 execution when they are absolutely bare. 
 
 A gentleman who is well known in society cir- 
 
 174 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. I7S 
 
 cles in New York recently sat in a little game at a 
 dinner resort in Twelfth Street, and during the 
 evening peddled out about twenty dollars on a half 
 dollar limit. 
 
 He had beastly luck, but he was buoyed up by 
 the feeling that things would eventually come his 
 way, a feeHng that other poker players have felt 
 at times; in fact, many times. It was a jack pot, 
 and the deal had gone around many times, but 
 when the pot was opened he had his usual hand — 
 five nothings. Yet he remained, feeling that this 
 was his last chance. 
 
 ''Five." he said when asked to state the number 
 of cards he wanted, and he was accommodated. 
 As he picked up the first card he uttered an ex- 
 clamation. With the second card he said, ''Great 
 Scott !" With the third "Holy Moses !" With the 
 fourth silence and likewise when he accumulated 
 the lifth. 
 
 It was not his bet, but he shoved in the limit 
 at once, and had to withdraw it, because the opener 
 wanted a chance. Then he saw the bet and raised 
 the limit. The other players looked alarmed. Only 
 one stayed and raised, and he only raised a quarter. 
 The gentleman of the five-card draw again ven- 
 tured the limit, and was astounded and mortified 
 to have the compliment returned. 
 
 "I guess," he said weakly, "you can take it.'' 
 
 "The dickens," said the other fellow, in an ag- 
 
176 JACK POTS. 
 
 grieved tone. ''I thought you had something. I 
 have a full house." 
 
 And the gentleman who drew the five cards said, 
 with dignity, ''I can bluff on a pair of deuces, but 
 when I have nothing I can't." 
 
 Very few people can now recall the notorious 
 Sarah Althea Hill-Sharon divorce trial in San 
 Francisco. Judge Terry, who was killed by Justice 
 Field's bodyguard, Nagle, was Miss Hill's attorney 
 in that case, and during the trial endeavored to 
 have produced in court in evidence of Senator 
 Sharon's maintenance of the plaintiff, the million- 
 aire's check stubs. The effort failed, chiefly from 
 the showing made by the defendant that the checks 
 would throw very little light on the subject. Nine- 
 tenths of the private checks drawn by Sharon were 
 payable to the order of ''Cash," and neither checks 
 nor stubs indicated the age, sex or social condition 
 of "Cash." The fact was that nearly all of Sharon's 
 private checks were in settlement of poker ac- 
 counts. 
 
 Not that Sharon always lost at poker; he nearly 
 always won. His total winnings in the Pacific 
 Club were said to have been more than a million 
 dollars. The play there was tremendously high, 
 and there was a regular clearing-house performance 
 after each game, each player settling with the oth- 
 ers by checks, and it might happen that Sharon 
 would draw a half-dozen checks after a game in 
 which he was ahead. 
 
 'it 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. I77 
 
 He played a great game of poker, both in kind 
 and size, but his immense wealth gave him no ad- 
 vantage because his antagonists were also multi- 
 millionaires, men like Ralston, the capitalist and 
 banker. Senators Jones and Stewart of Nevada, 
 Flood of the Bonanza firm, and that set of high- 
 rollers. 
 
 One of the tales of the Pacific Club is of the 
 night when Ralston won $200,000 on a pair of 
 tens. Five of the big fish were in the game and 
 they were playing jack pots. Sharon opened and 
 Ralston and two others stayed. 
 
 There was some light chipping of $100 or 
 $200 several times around, when Ralston 
 strengthened his play and began raising by thou- 
 sands. Sharon and Ralston soon had the play to 
 themselves, and it was not long before there was 
 $150,000 in the pot. Then Sharon met a raise 
 with a $50,000 counter. Ralston studied only a 
 moment and then came back with a raise of 
 $150,000. Sharon did not take long to decide his 
 play. 
 
 *T quit, Bill " he said, and shuffled his cards in 
 the deck. 
 
 Ralston was so delighted over having made his 
 bold partner lay down that he spread his hand, dis- 
 closing a pair of tens. Sharon never told what he 
 held in his hand until after Ralston's death. It 
 was a pair of jacks. 
 
178 JACK POTS. 
 
 To go in on a bluff, and get beaten, and then win 
 out after all, is a rather unique experience that 
 could only hapj)en to a newspaper man, so we will 
 let him tell it. 
 
 "I'll never forget," said the Old Reporter to the 
 Young Reporter, ''one game of poker that was 
 played at police headquarters when the reporters' 
 room was a dirty, rickety, shabby hole on the top 
 floor. Our great game generally began at 1 1 p. m., 
 when the news was getting too late to telegraph 
 unless it was very big. It was penny limit up to 
 12, then five-cent limit to i a. m., then ten-cent 
 limit up to 2, then a quarter hour of jack pots with 
 a twenty-cent limit. 
 
 ''The usual quiet game continued on this occa- 
 sion and at two o'clock I was two dollars out. Dol- 
 lars were as big as stove plates to me in those days, 
 nor, by the way, have they got over their inflated 
 qualities yet. Then the jack pots came my way 
 and I enriched myself with a few fat ones. Then 
 I got wrecked on a couple of false ones and stood 
 a loser once more. 
 
 "There was a slick crowd around that table, six 
 being the limit of players. Presently one of the 
 boys started a nice jack pot with a boost of twenty 
 cents before the cards were drawn. I looked at my 
 hand and saw four fat diamonds and a club, al- 
 ways a tempter. I should have come in and said 
 nothing, but, you know how it is with a flush — 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. I79 
 
 there are so many possibilities — I not only stood 
 the raise but went twenty cents better. It went 
 around that way until the first man hoisted it for 
 another limit, and all stayed to me and I was fool 
 enough to give it another lift. That scared all out 
 but the first man, and he stayed. 
 
 'The cards were dealt. I did not look at mine, 
 but when the other fellow raised I gave it a gentle 
 boom for twenty coppers more. I was watching 
 my antagonist and thought he was putting 
 on rather too broad a grin for his conscience, but 
 he raised all right. Then I picked up the card that 
 had been tossed me, and it was the ace of spades. 
 
 "A bob-tailed flush stared me in the face. I 
 was now out about three dollars, and, feeling ner- 
 vous, I think I would have presented any man 
 w^ith fifty cents who would have been so kind as 
 to kick me for getting into the game, but the devil 
 took hold of me and I went in for a bluff. Well, 
 sir, the other fellow assisted me. 
 
 "My hand for all he knew was good for a flush, 
 a full house or four of a kind, but Jim (never mind 
 his last name) was a bold player, and I did not 
 know what to make of him. He was nervous all 
 right, but I began to believe that the nervousness 
 was a symptom of a good hand on his part and I 
 began to shake a little myself. 
 
 ''Under ordinary circumstances I would have 
 dropped, but I was reckless by this time, and bor- 
 
i8o 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 rowed a ten from one of the winners. The other 
 boys began to get excited, and I think I got a bit 
 excited myself as I said to Jim, 'Say, suppose we 
 throw aside the Hmit.' 
 
 "He agreed and I planked down the ten. It was 
 the first time on record that the limit had been 
 lifted and the boys looked worried about it. Jim 
 took out a yellow envelope, opened it and laid $15 
 
 on the table, 
 just one-half 
 his salary. I 
 did not mind 
 that, for Jim 
 had an income 
 and was com- 
 paratively well 
 ofif. 
 
 ''I sat there, 
 studying that 
 bobtail flush 
 and thinking 
 how I could 
 get out of the 
 hole I was in. 
 Then I did a desperate thing. I took out my 
 watch and said I would lay it against forty dollars. 
 It was a present from a politician and cost a cool 
 two hundred. I put it up as confidently as I could, 
 but my hand shook and I knew that Jim saw that 
 I was rattled. 
 
 "1 took out my watch and said I would lay it against 
 
 forty dollars. 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. i8i 
 
 " 'Old man,' said Jim, 'I know you are bluffini;- 
 right through and I hate to take your money. I 
 call you and I have three of the prettiest aces in the 
 pack.' 
 
 "He laid them down, and a sickly feeling came 
 over me as I thought of what I would tell my wife 
 that night. Down on the table I threw my hand, 
 and I cussed to myself, although I was by no means 
 a cursing man. Then Jim gave a gasp and said: 
 'Well, I'll be jiggered ! If you had not all the 
 symptoms of a bluff, I'll eat my hat !' 
 
 ''I was in a fainting condition by this time, and 
 only said : 'Don't, get gay. Take the money and let 
 me get over the agony?' 
 
 " 'Take the money?' he yelled. 'What in blazes 
 do you think you've got?' 
 
 " 'Why, a miserable bobtail, of course.' I re- 
 plied. 'Hello! What's this?' 
 
 "I picked up the ace of spades, and saw the word 
 joker on it for the first time. It was one of these 
 jokers that are fixed up like an exaggerated ace 
 of spades, and across the top was marked in pencil 
 'deuce of diamonds.' I had an ace high flush! 
 
 "Just before I entered the game it was discov- 
 ered that the deuce of diamonds was missing and 
 the joker was put in to take its place. I tell you 
 I felt mighty mean over that pot, and did not want 
 to take it, but Jim would not have a division. 
 That's the last game I ever played or will play, and 
 I advise you to take warning." 
 
1 82 TACK POTS. 
 
 The Young Reporter said he would, but he sat 
 in a game that night just the same. 
 
 Speaking of bluffs recalls a story that illustrates 
 the old adage that there is an exception to every 
 rule. It is the rule in poker that friendship ceases 
 when the game begins. No matter how much pre- 
 liminary chaff and chatter may go on before or dur- 
 ing the game, the true player must steel his heart 
 to the fact that the fellow on the opposite side of 
 the table is his antagonist, and must not be shown 
 any mercy. Of course it is all right to give him 
 a loan outside, but any signs of leniency toward 
 him during the game might well rouse a suspicion 
 of collusion. Yet there are times . 
 
 In the '8o's when all Dakota was on the boom, 
 the sporting fraternity held high carnival. The 
 boom burst, or faded, or settled down into an en- 
 during prosperity, whichever way you choose to 
 look at it, but it was lively while it lasted. Not 
 that everybody made money. Oh, no ! There are 
 some men who have an unhappy faculty of always 
 arriving too late, or of landing on the back of their 
 necks when everybody else is on his feet. Among 
 this sort of driftwood was one Harry Charlton, 
 from somewhere in the East. 
 
 He had about five thousand dollars when he left 
 home, and by all rights he ought to have made a 
 heap of money in buying and selling lots, but 
 somehow he managed to always get the short end 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. 183 
 
 of the bargain. The result was his pile steadily 
 diminished, and when he finally drifted into Fargo, 
 he was pretty well discouraged. After looking over 
 the ground for a week, he concluded that he would 
 go into some respectable business, say, a grocery. 
 
 He did not know anything about groceries ex- 
 cept in a general way, but he had a thousand dol- 
 lars and could get credit for as much more, and 
 with an experienced clerk — well, you know how a 
 man will persuade himself in such cases. So Charl- 
 ton rented a store, paid a month's rent in advance, 
 and negotiated for a fine stock of groceries. 
 
 While he was waiting for the men to fix up his 
 store, he got acquainted, no difficult matter in 
 those days, and among his new friends was Major 
 Edwards, the well known newspaper proprietor of 
 Fargo, w^ho was known all over the State. Ed- 
 wards gave Charlton a pufY for his grocery store, 
 and in a few days they became quite chummy. 
 This was not to be wondered at since Maje — as 
 everybody called him — was the soul of good na- 
 ture and Charlton was a bright and educated 
 young man, with pleasant ways. 
 
 As may be imagined it did not take Charlton 
 long to get into a poker game ; in fact he got into 
 one every night. He was just a fair, ordinary 
 player, but inclined to recklessness and not an 
 adept at hiding his feelings. He would have been 
 pie for a professional, and he knew it, but he felt 
 
1 84 JACK POTS. 
 
 safe in following where Maje led ; a man who would 
 not cheat or tolerate any crooked work in others. 
 
 On Monday morning Charlton was to open his 
 new store, and on Saturday night he was sitting at 
 a round table with four other choice spirits, hav- 
 ing a parting seance, because, although he did not 
 say so to the others, he had told himself that really 
 he ought to settle down into a respectable man of 
 business, and leave such frivolities to men who had 
 no stake in the country. And while he was about 
 it, he enjoyed himself to the utmost. 
 
 The game see-sawed for a couple of hours, and 
 then everything went Charlton's w^ay. As the say- 
 ing goes, if he drew to a steamboat he could catch 
 a river. If he had been a professional he would 
 have broken every other man at the table, but it 
 was evident that he played more for fun than 
 money, and a dozen times he refrained from press- 
 ing an advantage where another man would have 
 been merciless. As it turned out perhaps it is just 
 as well that he acted in such liberal fashion. 
 
 At one o'clock two of the players quit the game 
 broke, and that left Charlton with Maje Edwards 
 and Stanley Huntley (afterwards so well known as 
 ''Spoopendyke"), two of the best players in the 
 Northwest. This is the place where he should have 
 risen and quit also, but he held on. In less than 
 a half hour he was sorrv he didn't. 
 
 His luck seemed to have taken wings. It would 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. 185 
 
 not have been so bad if he had .drawn poor hands, 
 Init he kept picking up threes and flushes and even 
 full hands, only to find that he was held over nearly 
 every time. The result was that his winnings melted 
 like snow in the sun. 
 
 It was a very painful situation and Charlton 
 felt a cold chill stealing over him, to be succeeded 
 by a feeling of exasperation, the very w^orst thing 
 that can happen to a man who wants to win. He 
 began to bet recklessly, and try to force his hands 
 to win. Edwards and Huntley at first felt amused 
 and then pitiful, and each hinted more than once 
 at quitting but this only angered the young man. 
 
 Then there came the crisis. It was Edwards' 
 deal and Charlton's age. Huntley came in on a 
 pair of nines, Edwards had a pair of tens and Charl- 
 ton a pair of aces. He raised ten dollars before 
 the draw, and Huntley laid down. Edwards stayed, 
 and he and Charlton both drew three cards. Maje 
 caught another ten, and Charlton did not help his 
 hand. Huntley, who was lying back easily in his 
 chair, smoking a cigar and watching the fray, said 
 afterward that he could read the fact that Charlton 
 had failed to help his hand as easily as if the an- 
 nouncement had been written on his face. If Ed- 
 wards dia not ixaJ it likewise he must have forgot- 
 ten his cunning. 
 
 "Chip " -aid Mr.je. 
 
 "Ten rtr!!-..-.' V . -der," said Charlton. 
 
i86 JACK POTS. 
 
 "Twenty more," retorted Maje, placidly. 
 
 "Charlton came back with twenty more, and Ed- 
 wards after contemplating him for a minute out the 
 curner of his eye, Ufted the pot a single dollar. 
 
 "I advise you to call," he said, quietly. 
 
 "Not on this hand," said Charlton, with a great 
 attempt at steadiness of manner. "I'm going to 
 win enough on this hand to stock my new grocery 
 store." 
 
 "And if you lose there will not be any grocery 
 store," observed Huntley, smilingly. 
 
 Charlton gave a little nervous start but pulled 
 himself together very quickly, and going down 
 into his clothes, pulled out a wad that represented 
 every cent he possessed, as he had paid out very 
 little cash on his new venture. He counted off note 
 after note until he had a stack before him. 
 
 ''Raise you six hundred dollars," he said, boldly. 
 
 "Whew!" whistled Huntley, while Maje Ed- 
 wards leaned back in his chair and looked at Charl- 
 ton with a twinkle in his eye. 
 
 Charlton felt himself getting sick under that 
 piercing gaze. He realized when too late that 
 Maje had him sized up, and that he was beaten. 
 At the same time it came to him with terrible force 
 that his grocery store was going to be knocked 
 on the head, or else he must go heavily in debt. 
 It would have been a relief to have been able to 
 kick himself for his freshness, but he bitterly told 
 
ABOUT BLUFFING. 
 
 187 
 
 himself that he would have plenty of time for that. 
 Just now he had to keep a stifY upper lip, and take 
 kis medicine like a man. 
 
 It seemed an interminable time until Edwards 
 did anything. He took a fresh cigar from his 
 pocket, lit it, took a half dozen pufTs, looked at 
 Charlton through the smoke, and then said slowly, 
 "When did you say the store will open?" 
 
 "Monday morning," answered Charlton, 
 
 -_ through his teeth, w^ith an 
 
 inward curse at what he re- 
 garded as playing with his 
 _^_ feelings as a 
 
 cat does with a 
 mouse. 
 
 "Hum," said 
 Edwards. Then 
 he fingered his 
 cards again, 
 and slowly laid 
 them on the 
 table. "Well," 
 I guess you 
 have the bet- 
 t e r hand. 
 Three tens are 
 generally good, but not to-night." 
 
 Then he threw his hand into the deck, arose and 
 put on his hat. 
 
 " When did you say the store would open? " 
 
1 88 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''We might as well quit, Eh, Huntley?" he 
 said. 
 
 Huntley assented and as they turned to go they 
 looked back at Charlton. He had gathered the 
 money into his pockets and had his chips in his 
 hands ready to have them cashed, and he said noth- 
 ing until he and the others went through that nec- 
 essary performance in the bar room. 
 
 Then he got between Huntley and Edwards and 
 said with a very unsteady voice : 
 
 "I'm a tenderfoot, but I'm not entirely green. I 
 know just what you did to me to-night. Before I 
 sat down I made a sort of vow that I would not 
 play again, and now I'm going to keep it. But 
 before I quit, I want to say that I never can ex- 
 press my gratitude" 
 
 "Here, here," said Maje, hastily. "I don't know 
 what you're talking about. Come along, Huntley. 
 Goodnight, Charlton. Let me know when you 
 get settled and I'll send a man down to write up 
 your place." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 TOM Custer's luck — a girl makes the best draw on 
 
 RECORD HOW A TOWNSITE WAS WON ON TWO 
 
 DEUCES LUCKY BALDWIN'S BIG PLAY 
 
 There is no end to queer luck tales in poker an- 
 nals, which is not to be wondered at since poker 
 is made up so largely of luck. The saying: 'Tt's 
 all in the draw/' has passed into a proverb, al- 
 though it isn't exactly true, yet it is true enough 
 to tempt many a player to his ruin. Careful tables 
 have been prepared showing what the chances are 
 of catching certain fillers to pairs, two pairs, flushes 
 and so forth, and we are assured that the player 
 who studies these chances and plays accordingly, 
 w^ill win more than the fellows who play without 
 any rule, and just come in because they feel like 
 it. That may all be true, although I do not think 
 the system has ever been tested, and everybody 
 knows thiat the system player in faro is generally 
 standing around the table looking at the other 
 players and wishing some one would stake him. 
 To put it in effect would be to eliminate all those 
 delightful slices of luck that drag a man into the 
 game when he has only a pair of deuces and he 
 knows to a moral certainty that the other fellow 
 has at least two pairs. 
 
 189 
 
I90 JACK POTS. 
 
 Captain Tom Custer, who, with his famous 
 brother General Custer, was slaughtered on the 
 Little Big Horn, was a dashing poker player. He 
 played without any apparent style or reason, some- 
 times coming in on the most ridiculous hands — 
 such as a nine and ten, or standing a raise on three 
 cards of a suit, in hope of catching two more to 
 make a flush — and he made them win often enough 
 to cause remark. He used to make the remark, 
 half true, that he would a little rather start out 
 with nothing in his hand, because then he had a 
 better chance in the draw. 
 
 The Seventh Cavalry was a great poker playing 
 organization, from the general down to the pri- 
 vate, and Captain Tom didn't miss many games, 
 when he was off duty. He did not win all the time 
 but the other players always knew he was in the 
 game. 
 
 One night a party of four were playing, and 
 Custer had been playing his usual reckless game. 
 Finally it came to a hand where there was consid- 
 erable at stake, Custer having raised two or three 
 times with nothing in his hand. When it came to 
 the draw he skinned his hand and found nothing 
 better than the six, seven and ten of spades, the 
 four of clubs and the jack of diamonds. He threw 
 away the club and diamond and asked for two 
 cards. 
 
 It is the rule in poker that on the original deal 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 
 
 191 
 
 if a card is faced the receiver must take it, ])ut in 
 the draw if a card is faced he cannot take it, but 
 must receive another in its stead. He picked up 
 the cards as they were dealt to him, and the first 
 was the eight of clubs. As he reached out for the 
 next card it struck his hand in such a way as to 
 turn it over, and there lay the king of Spades ! 
 
 Custer ripped out an oath, he was so exasperated 
 at his bad luck, and of course gave away his hand 
 in so doing. He got a roar of laughter in return, 
 as another card 
 was dealt him, 
 which he received 
 in sulky silence. 
 
 Then the bet- 
 ting began and 
 when it came 
 around to Custer 
 he raised every- 
 body. Of course 
 he was chased 
 up, but he kept 
 coming until the 
 others were 
 forced to call 
 
 , . -r-« 1 Each was confident that Custer was bluffing. 
 
 him. liach man 
 
 had a stiff hand and each was confident that Custer 
 
 was bluf^ng, out of sheer rage. 
 
 The instant he was called his expression of 
 
192 JACK POTS. 
 
 gloom changed to a grim smile, and he laid his 
 cards on the table face upward. They were the 
 six, seven, eight, nine and ten of spades. After 
 losing the king by mischance, he had actually 
 caught the nine, giving him a straight flush ! 
 
 That game ended right there, it being conceded 
 that the devil himself could not beat that luck. 
 
 This, however, isn't a marker to the story of a 
 girl's luck in the draw. 
 
 It was a rather long voyage from Rio Janeiro to 
 New York on the old Brazilian Line, and there 
 were only nine passengers in the first cabin on the 
 occasion when this wonderful game occurred. 
 Among them was a pale, delicate and very nervous 
 young man who was accompanied by his sister, and 
 a solid, phlegmatic individual of about fifty years 
 of age. 
 
 About five days before the ship reached home, 
 these two men got to playing freeze out in the 
 smoking room. The game started with dollar 
 stacks, just to pass away the time, as so many 
 games start, but as the nervous man lost steadily 
 he wanted a chance to get even, and they decided 
 on a ten dollar limit. 
 
 Now everybody knows that a lot of money can 
 go across the table in a ten dollar limit game if the 
 cards keep running the same way, and if ever a 
 man had a run of hard luck it was the pale, deli- 
 cate chap. No matter what he held the solid man 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 193 
 
 beat him by a spot or two, and the worst of it 
 was that the hands were always too good to lay 
 down without a struggle. He had a queen full 
 beaten by four fives, and a king high flush of 
 spades by an ace high flush of diamonds. It did 
 not seem natural that bad luck should run one way 
 so persistently in a perfectly square game, but it 
 did, and the game was square beyond the shadow 
 of a doubt. 
 
 The last night out from New York the young 
 man was out $1,000, and there came the crisis, as 
 it is bound to come in every game. And, as in so 
 many other cases, it was a jack pot that started 
 the ruction. This one started at five dollars and 
 crept up and up with each deal, until all the chips 
 were in the middle of the table, and still neither 
 the nervous young man nor his stolid opponent 
 could get openers. 
 
 Everyone of the cabin passengers was inside 
 watching the game, but not one knew just what a 
 state of anxiety that nervous young man was in 
 except his sister, and she was about as much 
 wrought up as he was. She would have been more 
 so if she had known that the roll of bills that he 
 now pulled from his pocket contained all the 
 money he had in the world. The stolid man also 
 produced a wallet from his pocket and laid it in 
 front of him. 
 
 They kept dealing and passing for fully twenty 
 
194 JACK POTS. 
 
 minutes, while every one was breathing hard and 
 staring at the cards as if the fortunes of empire de- 
 pended on the deal. The stolid man, however, was 
 as cool as the conventional cucumber, and seemed 
 to be perfectly indifferent as to what became of the 
 mass of money in front of him. Finally the young 
 man rose from the table on his opponent's deal. 
 
 ''I have heard that there's luck in a new player," 
 he said. ''If you've no objection, deal this hand to 
 my sister." 
 
 ''Certainly," assented the stolid man; and the 
 girl, her face flushed with excitement, took her 
 brother's seat. 
 
 The stolid man dealt the cards and the girl, in 
 the mincing way peculiar to women in parlor 
 games, picked up each card in succession, and held 
 them so that her brother, who stood directly be- 
 hind her chair, and everybody else near by could 
 distinctly see them. The first card was an ace, the 
 second an ace, the third was a queen, the fourth 
 an ace, and the fifth was an ace. Four aces and a 
 queen and a thousand dollars in the pot ! 
 
 "Open it," whispered her brother, "and play it 
 for all the money." 
 
 She opened the pot for ten dollars and the stolid 
 individual promptly raised her ten. He was raised 
 in return, and the nervous man suggested that the 
 limit be taken off. The proposition was accepted, 
 and in an incredibly short time all the young man's 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 195 
 
 money, amounting to about a thousand dollars, 
 was in the center of the table, together with an 
 equal amount of his opponent's cash. 
 
 ''Cards, if any?" politely asked the dealer. 
 
 The young lady, throwing her four aces exposed 
 on the table, answered ''Four," and quick as a 
 flash, four cards off the top of the pack, lay in front 
 of her. 
 
 No one who witnessed the scene will ever forget 
 it. The young man only said "Oh !" but it was like 
 reading a death warrant. Then, pale and tremb- 
 ling, he staggered to the door and went out on the 
 deck, and it is a mercy he did not throw himself 
 overboard. 
 
 Of course the girl had to take the four cards 
 dealt her. She explained her apparent streak of 
 idiocy by saying that in her excitement she had 
 got the game mixed with old maid, and as the aces 
 matched of course she had to discard them. This 
 left her with the queen, and she seemed to feel 
 dreadfully for a moment that she would be an old 
 maid. When she had finished explaining, and 
 looked around and saw the expression on the spec- 
 tators' faces, she for the first time realized what she 
 had done. 
 
 All the money was up by this time, and it was a 
 show down, so the girl picked up the four cards 
 that had been dealt her, and slowly turned them 
 over. 
 
196 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 There were three more queens among them! 
 The stolid man held a small full and politely passed 
 the money over to her. Then she went on the deck 
 
 to find her 
 brother, and he 
 acted Uke a 
 man saved 
 from the gal- 
 lows when she 
 passed the 
 money over to 
 him. That was 
 probably the 
 luckiest draw 
 on record. 
 
 In pretty 
 nearly all these 
 stories of big 
 luck the hands 
 chronicled are 
 also big. As a 
 rule, it is four 
 aces or a 
 straight flush 
 that takes the 
 pot ; anything 
 story. Now, as 
 stakes are very 
 
 Pale and trembling he staggered to the door and 
 went out on the deck. 
 
 less would seem to spoil 
 a matter of fact, the 
 rarely won on big hands 
 
 the 
 
 biggest 
 
 Of course, a real big 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 197 
 
 hand, like fours of anything will generally get the 
 pot, but there is more than likely to be nothing 
 out against it except a pair or two, and the fours 
 win no more than three little ones would have 
 done. Then again it has happened very frequently 
 that large pots have been raked in on very small 
 hands. 
 
 Back in the '50's, when the northern portion of 
 the Territory of Dakota was hardly more than a 
 bleak waste of uncultivated ground, the town of 
 Pembina was founded by Enos Stutsman, a man 
 as remarkable for his eccentricities as he was for 
 his physical deformity. He emigrated to Dakota 
 from the huckleberry districts of Connecticut and 
 located in the upper Red River Valley, where he 
 filed and proved up on 320 acres of land, which was 
 the ground on which Pembina now stands. 
 
 Stutsman had the head and body of a giant, but 
 his legs were hardly more than a foot long, and he 
 was unable to travel without the aid of two short 
 and powerful crutches. He was a shrewd, calcu- 
 lating fellow and soon became a recognized leader 
 among the handful of emigrants who had taken up 
 their claims in his neighborhood. As a political 
 diplomat he never had his equal in the territory, 
 and for four consecutive sessions he was chairman 
 of the council in the upper branch of the territorial 
 legislature. He was also one of the most famous 
 draw poker players in the territory. 
 
198 JACK POTS. 
 
 Among Stutsman's close friends he numbered a 
 pioneer named Judd La Moure, who owned a Hue 
 of stage coaches running between Grand Forks 
 and Pembina. The advent of the railroads killed 
 Judd's coach line finally, and he settled down into 
 a profitable grocery business in Pembina. 
 
 It was these two men who played one of the 
 stiffest games of poker that was ever played in the 
 Territory. The combat came off in the old Levee 
 Hotel in Yankton in 1862, and it lasted from 10 
 o'clock on "Friday morning to 3 o'clock on Sunday 
 morning. During its progress the people of the 
 town assembled in the hotel and watched the two 
 men as they fought with the tenacity of bulldogs 
 over the pile of red, white and blue chips. The 
 legislature was in session at the time, and as Stuts- 
 man, who was chairman of the Council, refused to 
 leave the game, that branch of the legislature ad- 
 journed until the following Monday, and the mem- 
 bers watched the game to the finish. 
 
 Early in the game Stutsman's luck was wonder- 
 fully good and he played with a recklessness that 
 surprised everyone. Later on, the tide turned 
 against him, and the chips began to flow in the di-' 
 rection of La Moure, who sat with his slouched hat 
 pulled over his eyes watching every move of his 
 opponent. Slowly but surely Stutsman's chips 
 went over to La Moure's side of the table, and 
 work what trick or artifice he would, he could not 
 turn them back. 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 199 
 
 Matters went this way until past midnight on 
 Saturday, when Stutsman threw two $500 bills on 
 the pile of chips in the center of the table and 
 called a $1,000 bet made by La Moure. Stutsman 
 held a king full on queens, and he felt pretty sure 
 that the pot was his, but when La Moure threw 
 down his cards there were four deuces. 
 
 At this display, Stutsman fairly gritted his teeth 
 and exclaimed : 
 
 'Tm getting tired of this infernal run of luck. 
 Judd, I tell you what I'll do. You've won $3,800 
 of my money. If you put up $3,800 more with it 
 I'll stake the town site of Pembina against you, and 
 will play for it in a lump to win or lose at one 
 deal." 
 
 Judd accepted the proposition at once, and the 
 two men shook hands to ratify the agreement. The 
 news spread rapidly, and the crowd around the 
 table increased to suffocation. After some more 
 talk it was agreed that the hand should be dealt 
 by E. A. Williams, of Bismarck, the speaker of the 
 House of Representatives. The cards were to be 
 dealt face up. When the five cards had been dealt 
 each man was to discard and draw, the cards be- 
 ing thrown face up by the dealer as before, and 
 when the hands had been dealt, the highest hand 
 was to take the pot. 
 
 Excitement ran high as the deal began. To 
 prevent trickery, although no one had any sus- 
 
200 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 picion of foul play, Williams was seated in the cen- 
 ter of the table with his legs turned under him like 
 a Turk, in the full glare of the oil lamp that hung 
 suspended from the ceiling. The friends of the 
 two players crowded around the table and Wil- 
 liams was threatened with summary vengeance if 
 he should in any manner manipulate the cards so 
 as to give either man an advantage. 
 
 Deftly Williams shufifled the cards and squaring 
 
 them slipped 
 one from the 
 top of the pack 
 and laid it 
 under La 
 Moure's nose. 
 It was a deuce 
 of clubs. Stuts- 
 man caught 
 the queen of 
 spades. The 
 next card 
 came off and Judd got an- 
 other deuce. The four spot 
 of spades turned up under 
 Stutsman's nose and his brow 
 wrinkled a little. Again the 
 cards fell and Judd placed the ace of diamonds be- 
 side his two deuces while the jack of spades looked 
 up into Stutsman's face. Once more the dealer laid 
 
 The game was over. 
 Judd had won. 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 201 
 
 down the cards and Judd claimed the queen of 
 clubs while his opponent caught the ace of spades. 
 Stutsman's face began to brighten. He saw the 
 possibility of making a flush but the next card to 
 him was a heart. However Judd had not bettered 
 his hand and had to draw three cards to his two 
 deuces. 
 
 Stutsman's friends tried to persuade him to draw 
 four cards to the ace but he wouldn't listen to 
 them, and discarding the heart, he drew one card, 
 hoping to fill the flush. The onlookers were wild 
 when Williams threw three cards to Judd. They 
 fell face up — the queen of clubs, jack of diamonds 
 and ten spot of clubs. He had not bettered his 
 hand, and his opponent smiled grimly as he saw 
 how severely fortune must snub him now if she 
 failed to bring him a winning hand ; for if he paired 
 any of the four cards he held he must beat Judd's 
 hand; besides, there was a possibility of his filling 
 the flush. Judd, on his part, had evidently lost 
 hope. He rested his arms on the table and dog- 
 gedly watched Williams as he turned to Stutsman 
 and slipped a card from the pack. All stretched 
 their necks to catch sight of the card. It was the 
 eight of clubs. 
 
 The game w^as over. Judd had won, and as he 
 shoved his hand over the table to Stutsman the 
 latter grasped it and shook it as if he had forgotten 
 that it had played havoc with his fortunes. He 
 
203 JACK POTS. 
 
 kept his word and deeded the 320 acres of land 
 to La Moure. 
 
 La Moure sold a large portion of the land, and 
 realized many thousands of dollars, especially when 
 the railroads gave Pembina a boomi Stutsman died, 
 in 1880, and was buried in the cemetery on the 
 hillside half a mile north of Pembina. The only 
 monument to his memory is the County of Stuts- 
 man. 
 
 A story of luck at poker would not be complete 
 without some reference to Lucky Baldwin of the 
 Pacific Slope, although, from all accounts, such 
 happenings must have been ordinary occurrences 
 to him. 
 
 Banker Ralston sat in this game, and the betting 
 before the draw had been very heavy. All fell out 
 but the banker and Baldwin. The latter had three 
 queens, and, with that peculiar "hunch" which he 
 seemed to possess, he sized his opponent up for 
 three aces. Now, even with two aces it would be 
 a difBcult matter to bluff Ralston out of a pot 
 and with three aces it would be impossible. He 
 must outdraw him or else lay down. 
 
 Ralston drew two cards — he had three aces, as 
 Baldwin had guessed — and Baldwin hesitated 
 whether he should take one or two cards. Finally, 
 he held up a king to his three queens, and drew 
 one card. He skinned the cards in an anxiety he 
 had never felt before and to his great joy beheld 
 
TOM CUSTER'S LUCK. 203 
 
 the smiling face of another queen. He said after- 
 wards that a woman's face had never looked so 
 sweet before. 
 
 There was $22,000 in the pot. Ralston had 
 drawn a pair of jacks, making an ace full, and his 
 face betrayed his luck. Baldwin meditated, hesi- 
 tated, coughed, and squeezed his cards from time 
 to time. It was a critical moment. He knew he 
 had the banker beaten ; the only question was how 
 to play the cards to produce the most revenue. 
 
 It was Ralston's first bet. He thought a mo- 
 ment and then bet a single chip, which in this case 
 meant $10. Baldwin immediately bet $30,000. 
 Ralston eyed him in surprise, and started to raise 
 the bet as much more, and then something caused 
 him to pause. He fingered his cards for quite a 
 while, and then called the bet. 
 
 Baldwin displayed his cards and raked in the 
 pot. As he did so he remarked : ''That was one 
 of the luckiest draws I ever made, and one of the 
 poorest plays. If I had raised you about a thou- 
 sand dollars you w^ould have come back at me with 
 about thirty thousand, and then I could have given 
 you a lift that you would have had to call." 
 
 ''Yes, that is so," responded Ralston, dryly. "I 
 am very glad you did not think of it." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND TWO GAMES WHEREIN SIX 
 
 CARDS FIGURED WHAT BECAME OF THE 
 
 EXTRA ONE. 
 
 It is interesting to note the various ways in 
 which players pick up the cards that are dealt 
 them. One man will take them up one by one as 
 they come, another will take them by twos or 
 threes, and another will not take up the cards until 
 all have been dealt. Then he will make a "book" 
 out of the five cards, and squeeze the corners down 
 apart carefully, evidently enjoying the prospect as 
 it unfolds. To a man who is set in his ways in this 
 respect, it is regarded as rank bad luck to depart 
 from it. There is, however, a reason why the cards 
 should be picked up in a certain way, and the pref- 
 erable way is one by one. The reason is that it 
 avoids the possibility of receiving too few or too 
 many cards in a deal and of being ruled out on 
 that account. One of the most painful incidents 
 of the game is to get started in the betting and then 
 discover that you have six cards. Before the draw 
 it might be possible to get rid of the extra card, 
 but after the draw it is only possible to lay down 
 like a little man. 
 
 A Chicago drummer tells an interesting tale of 
 
 204 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 205 
 
 how six cards nearly brought him to grief, and it 
 may serve as a moral warning to careless players. 
 
 "1 was doing Wisconsin and Alichigan for a 
 hardware firm, and having a little fun on the way. 
 By that I mean that I managed to put m a night 
 here and there at the great American game. After 
 a man has been on the road two or three years, cov~ 
 ering the same territory, if he is any sort of a 
 congenial fellow, he is bound to make the acquain- 
 tance of a half dozen good chaps in every town of 
 importance, and they will make it pleasant for him 
 on the occasions when he has to take the train at 
 somewhere between one and three a. m. and it 
 doesn't pay to go to bed. 
 
 *'0n one of these occasions I was in the upper 
 peninsula. I had done the town, whose name T 
 won't mention, because I don't want to cause any 
 hard feelings, and I found myself with three hours 
 on my hands, that there was no use wasting in 
 sleep. 
 
 'The night clerk, who had to stay up anyway, 
 was one of the party, and early in the evening he 
 agreed to round up three other young sports with 
 whom I had several tilts on previous trips, but as 
 luck would have it, there was a sleighing party 
 on the boards, and the young bloods were booked 
 for an outing with three of the prettiest girls in 
 town, and I couldn't blame them when they sent 
 word that they'd .see me blowed first. Of course 
 
2o6 JACK POTS. 
 
 it wasn't any killing matter but I showed my dis- 
 appointnfent, so the clerk suggested that he sound 
 some of the transients, and thus make up a party. 
 
 "I assented, and along about ten o'clock the 
 clerk and I were sitting down in a small room off 
 the office in company with Mr. Close of Saginaw 
 and Mr. Wilson of Duluth. These two gentlemen 
 were probably traveling in Michigan in midwinter 
 for their health — at least I never heard what was 
 their business, and the clerk was no wiser — and 
 were willing to devote a few hours to shuffling the 
 papers, although they had to confess that it had 
 been so long since they touched a card, that really, 
 etc. 
 
 'T had heard that kind of talk before, and it al- 
 ways gave me a pain. It either means that the 
 man is a fellow who doesn't know the first thing 
 about poker, or else he is a clumsy sharper trying 
 to throw one off his guard. Mr. Wilson and Mr. 
 Close looked like a couple of tough lumbermen, 
 just come into a fortune, coarse in appearance and 
 speech, and I took an instinctive dislike to both. 
 But I was in for it, and I couldn't very well de- 
 cline to play with them after in a measure inviting 
 them to meet me, so I drew up my chair with a 
 cordial air, and we fell to. 
 
 "The clerk was a slow and careful player, who 
 did not bluff, or get excited, or do anything but 
 chip along until he got threes or better, and then 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 207 
 
 play himself even for what he had anted away. He 
 never got any particular fun out of the game, and, 
 in fact, he never played except to make up the 
 game as on occasions like the one I am describing. 
 Wilson and Close, I soon found, played a very stiff 
 game, with plenty of bluffing, and yet changed 
 their style so often that I soon realized that I was 
 up against som.ething more than ordinary. 
 
 *'I wasn't kicking against their skill, because I've 
 conceit enough to think that I can hold my own in 
 fast company, and I had just about began to admit 
 to myself that I was having a pleasant time when it 
 dawned upon me that these two men were sharpers, 
 and would fleece me if they could. I don't know 
 what opened my eyes, but it came on me like a 
 flash. They were not experts by any means, I 
 made up my mind, but they would bear close 
 watching. 
 
 ''And watch them I did, and without much at- 
 tempt at concealment, so that I felt certain that 
 they could not ring in a cold deck on me, or 
 slip a card. But you know it is a big strain to 
 keep up that sort of thing for hours, and I was 
 mighty glad to think that I didn't have to make a 
 whole night of it. 
 
 ''Well, the game went on without the sharpers 
 getting in any of their fine work so far as I could 
 see, until it came half past twelve, and then I 
 suddenly announced that I could play only one 
 
2o8 JACK POTS. 
 
 more round, as I had to take the 1 105 a. m. I 
 saw them exchange a quick glance, and I won- 
 dered what they would try on. As it happened 
 they caught me on a trick that was brand new to 
 me. 
 
 "It was Wilson's deal, and I got two kings. The 
 cards may have been stacked, but the deal looked 
 fair enough. The clerk threw up his hand accord- 
 ing to his usual custom, and Close stayed and 
 raised before the draw. Wilson came back at him, 
 and as I was between them the}' led me a dance 
 for a few minutes. Then I was allowed to draw 
 cards, and I asked for three. 
 
 'T watched Wilson closely, and felt certain that 
 he took the cards off the top of the pack. He 
 took them off in a bunch, and I received them 
 in the same way, and placed them at the back of 
 my two kings. I saw that Close got three and 
 that Wilson took the same number himself, and 
 then I waited to see what was going to happen, as 
 I felt certain that something would happen. 
 
 *Tt was my age, and Close had the first say. He 
 bet ten dollars. Wilson raised him ten. I pinched 
 down my cards until I saw another king and then 
 I lifted it twenty. Close promptly raised a hun- 
 dred dollars, and Wilson laid down, with a poorly 
 pretended oath of disappointment. It was up to 
 me, and I knew that the dark secret was about to 
 be revealed. And so it was! 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 209 
 
 "I peeled down my cards still further and dis- 
 closed to my delighted eyes a fourth king. 
 Merely to give myself time to think I looked at the 
 fifth card and saw an ace. That made me as solid 
 as a rock as we were not playing straight flushes. 
 I began to wonder why fortune was so kind to 
 me, when suddenly I made an alarming discovery. 
 I had another card ! Wilson had given me four 
 cards instead of three, and the way I took them 
 I had not noticed the extra card. 
 
 ''I could have kicked myself for my carelessness, 
 and I had no doubt it was premeditated on Wil- 
 son's part. I hadn't more than thirty-five dollars 
 in the pot, and I might have thrown up my cards, 
 but it riled me to think that I had watched these 
 fellows so successfully so long, and then to let 
 them get away with me. 
 
 "It didn't take more than five seconds to think 
 all that and then I came to a sudden resolution. 
 I would meet trickery with trickery. I fingered 
 my cards until I got the ace between my thumb 
 and finger, and then while asking "How much?" 
 I dropped the ace on my knee. Then I saw Close's 
 raise and tilted it ten more. He promptly came 
 back with another hundred. 
 
 "Then I began to feel sorry for myself. The 
 ace laid on my knee in plain sight, and how to 
 ret rid of it I couldn't imasfine. The men knew 
 I had a sixth card, and would be sure to look for 
 
2IO JACK POTS. 
 
 it when it was missed. And here I was a hundred 
 dollars deeper in the hole. And time was flying. 
 
 ''It was a cold night, but it was warm enough in 
 the room, because it was heated by a large box 
 stove that burned wood, and the room was small. 
 A few moments before the clerk had opened the 
 stove door to reduce the heat somew^hat, and I 
 was so close to it that my foot almost touched it. 
 I looked down again and saw that the ace had 
 slipped down my leg and was resting on the tip 
 of my boot. 
 
 "I never was a sleight of hand performer, but I 
 did a very neat trick just then. Without turning 
 my head, although I could see the card out of 
 the corner of my eye, I tossed that card directly 
 in the fire box, and then, without a tremor, I 
 looked Close in the eye, and said : 
 
 " Tve got you beat bad, but I have to catch a 
 train as I told you, and besides this is only a 
 friendly game, and I don't want to leave any hard 
 feelings behind. So I'll just call that bet. What 
 have you got?' 
 
 " Three tens and a pair of eights,' he replied, 
 as he laid his hand face upward on the table. 
 
 " 'Four kings,' I said, briefly, and I exposed my 
 cards. 
 
 "As I expected Close was on his feet in an in- 
 stant, with Wilson by his side. I pretended to not 
 :ee their excitement, and began to rake in the 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 
 
 21 I 
 
 winnings. Fortunately I had the clerk on my side, 
 and he was a big husky fellow, equal to three ordi- 
 nary men. 
 
 '' 'I think,' said Close, 'that you have a foul 
 hand.' He turned over the cards, and, of course, 
 found only five. It was amusing to see the look he 
 turned on his partner, and the embarrassment of 
 that worthy. 
 
 'Then Close walked around to my side of the 
 
 table and looked on 
 
 the floor. Of course 
 
 no card was visible, 
 
 because the ashes of 
 the ace were 
 
 smouldering in 
 
 the stove. He 
 
 gave another 
 
 withering look 
 
 at Wilson, but 
 
 what could Wilson do? He 
 
 couldn't say that he had given 
 
 me six cards, for that would 
 
 reveal his perfidy. And there 
 
 was the clerk, who wouldn't stand in for any foul 
 
 play. 
 
 "I tell you I enjoyed the situation to the utmost. 
 
 The two men walked around and muttered and 
 
 growled, while I tucked away the good money, 
 
 and the clerk cashed my chips, and then I turned 
 
 I pretended not to see the 
 
 excitement and began to 
 
 rake in the winnings. 
 
2 12 JACK POTb. 
 
 to go. But I could not refrain from a parting 
 shot. 
 
 " 'Dorsey,' I said to the clerk, 'you should al- 
 ways see that the cards you furnish are straight. 
 I have noticed several times to-night that the cards 
 stuck together, and I was afraid that I might get 
 too many cards in the draw\ You ought to see 
 to that.' 
 
 *'Then I passed out to catch my train, several 
 hundred dollars richer, and with the calm con- 
 sciousness of a duty well performed. When I got 
 back to that town on my next trip, the clerk told 
 me that the two men had a monkey and a parrot 
 time over the afTair, each accusing the other of be- 
 traying him. The clerk, who had not the least 
 idea what it was all about, listened in amazement, 
 and of course could not give them any satisfaction. 
 But when I told him what had really happened he 
 expressed keen regret that he had not known it in 
 time to help them out of the hotel on the toe of 
 his boot." 
 
 Another story about six cards dates back to the 
 early and halcyon days of Colorado, Nevada and 
 California, when everybody w^as either prospecting 
 for gold or speculating in real estate. Money was 
 very plentiful, and much of it was spent with an 
 abandon that would have done credit to the Count 
 of Monte Cristo. Pretty nearly everyone gam- 
 bled more or less and poker was the favorite game 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 213 
 
 from Ah Sin up to the bonanza kings. One of the 
 best business blocks in Denver is or was owned 
 by a man who laid the foundation of a big fortune 
 with money won at cards, and many of the high 
 rollers who have taken a hand in the games where 
 he held cards have quit sadder but wiser by reason 
 of their experience. 
 
 Even when Denver was but a small place it was 
 the rendezvous for many skilled players. There 
 was a banker living in Denver at that time, of the 
 name of Cook, who had an abundance of cash, and 
 who was a famous poker player. 
 
 He was also a rare good fellow, noted -for his 
 liberality. Jerome B. Chafifee, at one time United 
 States Senator from Colorado, with two or three 
 others who used to play with Cook a great, deal, 
 one night concocted a little scheme by which they 
 figured they could have a great deal of fun at 
 Cook's expense, and at the same time get a cham- 
 pagne supper out of him. 
 
 So ChafTee and his companions, who had plenty 
 of money, and who had been caught in a good 
 many jack pots that Cook had opened — and won — 
 arranged among themselves that the very next 
 time they played with Cook they would show him 
 a trick he would not forget in a hurry. The scheme 
 was to open a pot and if Cook stayed to deal him 
 enough cards to make six in all and if he stayed 
 on a pair he was to get four aces. Then, when 
 
214 JACK POTS. 
 
 the pot had reached a goodly size, to call him, 
 make him show his six cards, have the laugh at his 
 expense, and after giving him back his share of 
 the money in the pot, make him set up the cham- 
 pagne. It generally made Cook very mad to lose 
 a pot of any considerable size, and they knew that 
 if they made this pot a very large one his wrath 
 would be very amusing to witness. 
 
 The day at last arrived, when they were all to- 
 gether in Cook's office, and Chaffee suggested a 
 game of poker to while away the afternoon, which 
 w^as a stormy one. Cook assented, little dreaming 
 of the good time which was to be had at his e5c- 
 pense. 
 
 The cards were dealt and the game went on for 
 nearly an hour. before the trap was sprung. Chaf- 
 fee opened a jack pot on three kings. Cook stayed 
 on a pair of jacks and called for three cards. He 
 got four aces. It dawned upon him that some- 
 thing was up, but he did not quite grasp the situ- 
 ation, and w^hen he did he was in pretty deep. 
 
 Chaffee had drawn two cards, and he bet the 
 limit. Cook raised him. The others stayed for 
 three or four rounds just to swell the pot, and then 
 Cook and Chaffee had it back and forth. The bet- 
 ting continued until there was an even ten thou- 
 sand dollars in the pot, when Chaffee called Cook 
 and made him show down his cards. 
 
 Cook threw four aces and a jack on the table and 
 
SIX CARDS IN ONE HAND. 215 
 
 Started to rake in the pot. The man who had 
 dealt objected, stating that he saw Cook with six 
 cards in his hand. The others added that they also 
 saw Cook with six cards. 
 
 "Prove it, then," cried Cook. 'T did not deal ; 
 you dealt, and if you gave me six cards, where are 
 they?" 
 
 Chaffee and his companions at once inaugurated 
 the most rigid search for the missing jack. They 
 looked under tables, in drawers — everywhere a 
 card could possibly get. They made Cook dis- 
 robe which he did without objection, and subjected 
 • him to the most careful examination, but the card 
 could not be found. 
 
 This was a stunner. Cook had not moved dur- 
 ing the game, and they were sure of the six cards, 
 but where was the other jack? At all events it 
 was not to be found, and Cook asserted he had 
 but five cards, and expressed the greatest in- 
 dignation at their doubts. He also held on to the 
 money like grim death. 
 
 To say the w^ould-be jokers were crestfallen 
 would be putting it mildly. It was not so funny 
 as they had figured out in advance, and for a week 
 they vented their feelings by alternately laughing 
 and swearing at the way Cook had turned the 
 tables on them. To add to the aggravation, every 
 time Cook met them he put on an injured air, as 
 if he could hardly bring himself to forgive them 
 for suspecting him of anything wrong. 
 
2i6 JACK POTS. 
 
 Cook, as he used to relate afterward with great 
 glee, got the six cards all right, but under cover 
 of taking a chew of fine cut tobacco, of which he 
 was very fond, got the extra jack in his mouth, 
 chewed it to a pulp and swallowed it, tobacco and 
 all. He said he guessed he could risk swallowing 
 a chew of tobacco and a little pasteboard for ten 
 thousand dollars, even if it did make him a little 
 sick. At any rate, he thought the other fellows 
 were a great deal sicker than he was. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE BIG BETTING ON 
 
 SMALL HANDS HOW THREE KLONDIKERS 
 
 PLAYED CARDS. 
 
 There are plenty "of stories about the man who 
 held four kings and the man who came back at 
 him with four aces, and kings and aces are the 
 leading features of the poker-story teller's reper- 
 toire. It seems to be assumed that the average 
 player will not bet his hand unless he has at least 
 a full house. This w^ill make an old poker player 
 laugh. He knows that the toughest struggles are 
 frequently over hands that do not arrive at the 
 dignity of threes. It happens very often that an 
 entire evening will pass without the appearance 
 of fours, and if players waited for these big hands 
 before they bet, the game would be a pretty dull 
 affair. The fact is that there seems to be spells 
 when the cards run high for a night, and then tht 
 next night they run low, but the playing runs 
 about the same, because when the players find that 
 small hands are winning pots they begin to bluff on 
 pairs or nothing at all. 
 
 A Colorado expert sizes up the situation w-hen 
 he says that there is more genuine deviltry in two 
 pairs than in aces out of two packs. And there 
 
 217 
 
2i8 JACK 10'! S. 
 
 has been a mighty lot of poker playing in Colo- 
 rado, and some good poker hands, but very few 
 of the phenomenal sort have gone on record, 
 whereas two pair or less have created consterna- 
 tion at times. 
 
 Poker is, and always has been exceedingly pop- 
 ular in the Centennial State. Perhaps faro is a lit- 
 tle ahead, because miners are always dead set on 
 faro, as it gives them such quick action, but then 
 you can't play faro without a layout and consid- 
 erable flummery, whereas you can play poker any- 
 where at anv time. 
 
 The amount of stakes has cut a greater figure in 
 poker games in Colorado than the hands held, and 
 there are instances to prove this, ranging all the 
 way from the man who bet his sleeve buttons to 
 the magnate who put up his mine. 
 
 On the southwest corner of Blake and Sixteenth 
 Street, in Denver, some years ago there stood — 
 and may stand now — a two-story brick business 
 block, bearing some evidence of the flight .of time, 
 yet still sound and solid, and capable of use for 
 years. In 1870 part of the ground floor of this 
 building was used by the First National Bank, and 
 another part by Wolfe Londoner as a grocery 
 store. Overhead were offices, and in one of these 
 offices there occurred one evening in April a re- 
 markable poker game. 
 
 The owner of the building sat in this game, and 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 219 
 
 Opposite him was a then prominent Denver man. 
 Both were prominent in fact since the owner held 
 a high executive office in the Territory at that time. 
 There were five in the game originally, but some- 
 how they dwindled down to two. At 1 1 130 at 
 night a large amount of money had changed hands, 
 and things were going bad for the owner of the 
 building. There was no limit, and his opponent 
 had been putting the gafY to him in lively fashion. 
 
 Already there were four bank checks up, but the 
 owner of the block would not be downed by hard 
 luck, and felt confident that fortune would come 
 his way. 
 
 He wanted to know if his building wasn't worth 
 $50,000 and was informed that it was. There- 
 upon he mnde a written agreement to sign it over, 
 and the game went on. Within two hours he lost 
 the block, and he transferred it the next day. It 
 is said that the only recovery he made from the 
 person who won it was at another sitting a week 
 later, when he came out $25,000 ahead. None of 
 the hands held in this memorable game are on rec- 
 ord now, but it is known that not one was re- 
 markable. 
 
 This game is paralleled by one that comes from 
 Leadville and credited with having been played 
 there in the winter of 1882. The set-to took place 
 in the Clarendon Hotel, and was participated in by 
 two gentlemen who are still residents of Colorado, 
 
220 JACK POTS. 
 
 and are both wealthy. At that time they had not 
 much money but they had large prospects, and 
 among other things there 'was a mine in whicli 
 each had an equal share. The money w^as not 
 much, at least not much in comparison with what 
 they afterward possessed, but it w^as enough to 
 make the game exciting. 
 
 And it was exciting. Hands run low, but they 
 banged away at each other in lively fashion, and 
 neither one got a pot without playing for it. Fin- 
 ally each got a hand that they evidently proposed 
 to stay with. Everything went up — chips, cash, 
 two gold watches, and, of course, bank checks, and 
 it was only a question of time when they would get 
 to the mine. Finally there came a pause. 
 
 "Have you got anything else, Charley?" 
 
 "How much is the mine worth?" 
 
 "I value my interest at $10,000, and I suppose 
 yours is the same." 
 
 "Very w^ell," was the grim reply. "I raise you 
 that." 
 
 So the other interest went into the pot and there 
 was a show down. Charley's winning hand was 
 three deuces, a four and a five. His opponent held 
 a pair of aces and a pair of kings and a three. Cer- 
 tainly neither of these hands could be considered 
 sensational, but they were considered good enough 
 to stake a mine on. This mine, by the way, is now 
 producing ore valued at about as much per month 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 221 
 
 as the entire property was worth at the time of the 
 poker game. 
 
 In a game played in Denver one July day 
 in 1884, there were four diamond rings, two 
 watches, two 
 pairs of costly 
 sleeve buttons, 
 a number of 
 scarf pins and 
 $5,000 in 
 money staked 
 on one pot. In 
 this game sat 
 an ex-Governor, a 
 well known smelter 
 man, a California 
 miner and an East- 
 ern Congressman. 
 
 It was an old time miners' game. 
 
 The man from the East scooped in the pot on a 
 small straight. 
 
 Six thousand dollars in nuggets was w^on by a 
 lucky poker player in Denver in 1871. The nug- 
 gets came from Clear Creek, and were brought to 
 Denver for the purpose of being placed in bank, 
 and they got there but not in the way intended. 
 It was an old time miners' game, with all sorts of 
 blufifing, and it lasted all night. The end of it 
 was that the man with the nuggets got three tens, 
 and he thought it was a simply paralyzing hand. 
 
222 . JACK POTS. 
 
 and it was pretty good for the way the cards had 
 been running, but the other fellow held three jacks. 
 
 In Santa Fe there is a record of a prominent 
 business man giving a bill of sale for his stock of 
 dry goods, groceries, etc., amounting in all to 
 $80,000. This bill of sale went into a quiet little 
 game, but it was not lost, for the reason that no 
 one could show^ anything excelling a king full, 
 which the merchant rightly considered a good 
 thing to cling to. 
 
 A rather singular game was one played at Den- 
 ver about five years ago, at the Windsor. There 
 were five men sitting in the game; a railroad man, 
 an ex-Mayor, a lawyer and two prominent business 
 men. There came a deal when all stayed in. One 
 man drew one card, another two cards, and the 
 three others three cards each. The man who drew 
 three cards raised, and was followed up until there 
 was $18,000 on the table. Then the man who 
 drew three cards bet $10,000, and all the others 
 laid down. Then it transpired that he had been 
 running a beautiful blufT on two pairs, while the 
 man who had drawn two cards laid down an ace 
 full, and those who had drawn three each laid down 
 in turn, four queens, four jacks and four tens. This 
 story is vouched for by witnesses, but all the same 
 it is pretty hard to believe. The only supposition 
 is that the other players were paralyzed at the size 
 of their hands. 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 223 
 
 An amusing instance of Colorado poker playing 
 is reported as occurring on a stock train coming 
 from a point in New Mexico to Colorado. A large 
 shipment of steers was being made to this point 
 and the owners of the cattle traveled in a caboose. 
 Now there is only one result of four cattlemen trav- 
 eling together in a car for any length of time, 
 and that is a poker game. There is a great deal 
 of beautiful scenery on the way up from New Mexi- 
 co, but scenery is cheap and only made for East- 
 ern tourists to look at, while poker is always in- 
 teresting. 
 
 The game went on very well for a couple of 
 days. On the third day the conductor going 
 through the caboose during the afternoon, was laid 
 out with astonishment at hearing the remark : 'T 
 raise you five steers." The man who spoke these 
 w^ords then laid five matches on the board. He 
 was followed up with more matches, each one rep- 
 resenting a steer, and thus the game went on. 
 When the shipment arrived at Denver it was 
 owned by two instead of four men. 
 
 There is a great deal of gambling on the Klon- 
 dike, but not so heavy playing as there was in the 
 old California mining camps. The Klondikers 
 have a tough time of it as a rule, and, with few 
 exceptions, every man is looking eagerly forward 
 to the day when he can shake the dust — even if it is 
 gold dus,t-^of that region from his feet and rejoin 
 
2 24 JACK POTS. 
 
 his friends in the haunts of civiUzation. Conse- 
 quently he hangs on to every ounce that brings 
 him nearer to the day. 
 
 But when the miner makes his pile, and escorts 
 it safely to the outposts of hotels, theatres and 
 all that makes life worth living, the temptation is 
 almost irresistible to have a high old time once 
 more. The temptation generally takes the form of 
 cards, and as there must be losers where there are 
 winners, it is not unusual for a man who has 
 amassed enough for him to live on the rest of his 
 days to drop it in Seattle, Portland or San Fran- 
 cisco, and then start back to the Klondike to make 
 another pile. Some of the games played by these 
 returned Argonauts are simply fierce, and make 
 old timers open their eyes. 
 
 In August, 1899, there arrived at Portland three 
 men from the Klondike — George Mulford, Parker 
 Hamlin and Henry Smith. They had never met 
 each other in the gold regions, but made acquaint- 
 ance on the boat. Each had been very successful, 
 having about a hundred thousand dollars apiece, 
 and all the way down they told each other w^hat 
 they were going to do with their wealth. One 
 was going into business in Pittsburg, another was « 
 going to live on his money in Ohio, and the third 
 had a rosy dream of a fruit ranch in California. 
 All had been poor men, and they seemed to fully 
 appreciate the value of their hard earned money. 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 225 
 
 When they landed in Portland they went to the 
 same hotel, and put in three or four days in fitting 
 out with store clothes, and filling up on square 
 meals, just to get into the habit of eating again, 
 as Smith said. 
 
 They had resolved to leave on Sunday morning, 
 and on Saturday night they had a farewell supper. 
 After the supper they had a smoke, and then Mul- 
 ford suggested a little game of poker, just for fun. 
 They had never playe^i cards together, but it soon 
 developed that all were most stubborn players. 
 
 The game began mildly, with a fifty-cent ante 
 and five dollar limit, and for an hour nobody was 
 much to the good. As they played they drank, 
 and perhaps that went to the head ; at any rate, the 
 limit was raised to a hundred dollars, and they be- 
 gan to bet recklessly. The excitement started with 
 Mulford, who held two aces. He bet the limit ; 
 Smith stayed on two pair; Hamlin raised it the 
 limit on three fours, and Mulford came back with 
 another hundred raise. Smith and Hamlin laid 
 down, and when they saw that Mulford only had a 
 pair they swore at themselves for being bluffed. 
 
 The hands ran very low but the betting ran 
 higher and higher. The limit was bet about every 
 deal, and no one could get away with a bluff, be- 
 cause every time one player made a bet, the other 
 two would call, even if thev had nothing better 
 than ace high. 
 
2 26 JACK POTS. 
 
 Of course this soon got too tame, and finally the 
 Hmit was taken off, and then the recklessness of 
 the play was astonishing. On one hand Hamlin 
 drew one card to a four flush, and bet five hundred 
 dollars. Smith had a pair of sevens, and drew 
 three cards without helping his hand. 
 
 "Five hundred dollars?" he said, eyeing Hamlin, 
 keenly. 
 
 "That's what I said." 
 
 "I don't believe you made it," returned Smith. 
 "At any rate, I'll just lift that five hundred for 
 luck." 
 
 "One thousand more," retorted Hamlin. 
 
 "Call you." 
 
 Hamlin showed down a pair of deuces, with a 
 laugh. 
 
 On the very next hand Mulford stood pat. It 
 was Hamlin's deal and Smith's age. 
 
 "Pat, eh?" said Hamlin. "You haven't got a 
 thing, and I know it." 
 
 "Five hundred says I have," returned Mulford. 
 
 "I wish I knew what you were going to do," 
 said Hamlin, glancing at Smith. 
 
 "Well," said Smith, with a laugh, "in order to 
 not spoil the fun I'll stay out this hand and let you 
 two fight it out." 
 
 "Then I'll just keep these," said Hamlin. "Five 
 hundred harder." 
 
 Mulford came back at him, and when there was 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 227 
 
 ten thousand in the pot, HamHn called. Mulford 
 had ten high, and Hamlin had queen high. 
 
 The betting simmered down for the next three 
 or four hands and then Mulford started out on an- 
 other cantico with a pair of kings. This time he 
 put his foot into it largely, as Hamlin had three 
 nines and Smith three aces. After contributing six- 
 teen thousand to the pot, Mulford dropped out, 
 and after another big bet Hamlin called. 
 
 By this time Mulford was out about twenty-five 
 thousand dollars, and announced his intention of 
 quitting. He also advised the others to do likewise, 
 but Hamlin was also out some thousands and he 
 wanted to get even, and as Smith was ahead he 
 didn't care how long he played. So Mulford sat 
 and looked on. 
 
 The two men then went at it as if all their prev- 
 ious playing had been mere practice. Hardly a 
 hand was played that did not count up to two 
 thousand dollars, and bets of five thousand w^ere 
 frequent. Strange to say the cards began to run 
 higher than they had all evening, and that had a 
 tendency to add to their excitement. Hamlin fin- 
 ally evened up his losses, and Smith then suggested 
 that they call it off, but he wouldn't listen. 
 
 About I a. m. Hamlin was ten thousand dollars 
 ahead, and then his luck took another turn and he 
 lost rapidly. This had a tendency to rattle him 
 and eventually proved his undoing. There came 
 
228 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 a hand when he dealt Smith two queens and him- 
 self two fives. Each took three cards; Smith 
 caught a pair of tens, and Hamlin the other five. 
 
 Smith bet a thousand, Hamlin raised it five thou- 
 sand; Smith raised a like amount, Hamlin lifted it 
 ten, and Smith again hoisted it ten. 
 
 For the first time during the game, Hamlin 
 began to get nervous. He had been blufiing on 
 
 pairs, and calling 
 thousands on a 
 high card, and 
 now he had 
 threes, but the 
 more he looked 
 at them the 
 smaller they 
 seemed. He was 
 again out more 
 than ten thou- 
 sand and he had 
 lost the last five 
 or six bets. The 
 poker player 
 who goes into 
 any such line of 
 reflection might 
 as well quit playing, and Hamlin realized that, but 
 he did not like to weaken. 
 
 So he did a very foolish thing. Next to calling 
 
 ^^^^^^ 
 
 Smith gave a whoop of joy and threw his 
 hand on the table. 
 
POKER IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE. 229 
 
 his best play was to raise it to the skies, but he 
 raised it five hundred dollars. Smith felt certain he 
 had him, and he bet thirty thousand dollars flat. 
 
 Hamlin looked at his cards and then at the man 
 opposite him, who seemed very serious. He fin- 
 gered his cards for fully a minute, and then said, 
 hoarsely, ''Damn it, Hank, you've either got four 
 small ones or three big ones, and I'll pass." 
 
 Smith gave a whoop of joy and threw his hand 
 on the table. 
 
 "Don't look at them," said Mulford, warningly. 
 "It may make you feel worse." 
 
 But Hamlin insisted and when he turned up the 
 cards he swore like a Klondiker for a minute, and 
 then he laughed. 
 
 "Well, I've got enough to live on yet," he said, 
 cheerfully. ''I never weakened until I happened to 
 think that if I kept on losing I would have to go 
 back to that God forsaken country and dig up an- 
 other fortune." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CHILDREN AND POKER TOO MUCH FRANKNESS DADDY 
 
 AND DINAH — HOW THE TOM FOOL HAD 
 THEM " ALL ALIKE." 
 
 They say that children and fools speak the truth, 
 a most desirable trait indeed, but not of much use 
 in a game of poker. For that reason it is just as 
 well that both children and fools should be kept 
 out when the festive game is in progress. The 
 pure innocence of prattling babes is a sweet thing 
 to the father and man w^hose days are spoiled with 
 the sordid contact of commerce and the wiles of 
 the world. Yet that purity of mind sometimes as- 
 sumes such poignancy of penetration as to startle 
 the fond father. 
 
 Such was the case of a bright four year old 
 daughter of a Philadelphia gentleman, who when 
 he is at home luxuriates on West Walnut Street, 
 and spends his summers at Atlantic City. Owing 
 perhaps to the exhilarating influence of the sea air, 
 he always indulges in more or less poker playing 
 during these months, and it is a matter of some 
 envious notice among his friends that he almost 
 invariably is a winner. In fact, the gentleman is 
 just about good enough to make a living at the 
 
 230 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 23^ 
 
 noble game if his inclinations had drifted that way. 
 
 But there are occasions when fate gets a double 
 nelson on him and he goes to grass. On the oc- 
 casion in question this gentleman met three of his 
 old college chums, and after indulging in personal 
 reminiscences until the subject grew tiresome, one 
 of the party suggested poker. 
 
 The game went on swimmingly for some time, 
 and our friend w^as winning with his accustomed 
 frequency. Then there came a jack pot, into which 
 he plunged with great enthusiasm. At this stage 
 his young and charming daughter climbed upon 
 his knee, and was received with a fond embrace. 
 Two of the players had dropped out and the third 
 was wavering. 
 
 "Ten more," said the Philadelphia man, with a 
 cheerful air of confidence. 
 
 The other man took a look at his two pair. They 
 were as big as ever, but their importance seemed 
 to be dwindling. He had them before the draw 
 and hadn't helped them; his opponent had drawn 
 three cards, and he was so infernally lucky 
 
 Just at this point the angel child spoke up and 
 said: 
 
 ''Oh, papa, you have two mammas and one papa, 
 and two cards with spots" 
 
 ''Raise you ten," said the man with tw^o pair. 
 
 The child must have been astonished at the ve- 
 locity with w'hich she was hoisted off of papa's 
 
232 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 knee, and the sternness of the voice that ordered 
 her to ''go to your mamma." 
 
 She went, and her papa did not call that raise; 
 in fact, he was so unnerved that he was a heavy 
 loser before the game ended. And the other 
 players were cruel enough to give him the laugh. 
 
 Perhaps it 
 was a cousin to 
 this young 
 lady — a youth 
 of tender years, 
 known as Au- 
 g u s t u s, who 
 lived in New 
 York. He also 
 had arrived at 
 the interesting age of four, 
 and during that brief period 
 had developed so many 
 talents that it is a wonder 
 wings did not sprout 
 from his shoulders. As it 
 was his fame was blaz- 
 oned even unto the dis- 
 tant family circle represented by the fourth assist- 
 ant deputy cousins. Yet there came a time when 
 the cherub fell from his high estate. 
 
 One Sunday the uncle of Augustus came to town 
 to visit the father of Augustus. He had heard of 
 
 "Oh, papa, you have two mammas 
 
 and one papa, and two cards 
 
 with spots." 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 233 
 
 the heir apparent's mental luminosity and ren- 
 dered appropriate homage to him, much to the 
 delight of his progenitors. The lady, who had not 
 hitherto had more than a writing acquaintance with 
 Uncle George, expressed a high opinion of his 
 intelligence. 
 
 When Sunday evening arrived the mistress of 
 the house, who is a strict church member and a 
 fanatic on the point of Sabbath observance, pre- 
 pared to sally forth to evening service, but, strange 
 to relate, her husband and brother-in-law suddenly 
 succumbed to violent headaches. 
 
 Menthol and other remedies were freely but 
 vainly used, and finally Augustus' mamma had to 
 depart by herself. She left her husband in the 
 library inhaling spirits of hartshorn and reading 
 Fox's ''Book of Martyrs" ; while her brother-in-law 
 sat in his own room with a towel tied around his 
 fevered brow and an expression of intense sufYering 
 on his face. But when the door slammed the two 
 men vanished into the library and locked the door. 
 Augustus, alone and forgotten, roamed the halls. 
 
 At breakfast on Monday morning Augustus was 
 more than usually scintillant and was given all sorts 
 of opportunities to display his brightness. 
 
 "Now, Gussie," said his mamma, playfully, "tell 
 me what papa and Uncle George did last night." 
 
 Papa and Uncle George exchanged looks, but 
 felt reasonably safe. 
 
934 JACK POTS. 
 
 "They wented into the library," chirped the 
 prodigy, "and they flirted." 
 
 "What !" exclaimed the questioning one, while 
 the two gentlemen felt the shadow of impending 
 disaster. 
 
 "Es they did," continued the charming Augus- 
 tus. "I heard 'em frew the door. Papa kept say- 
 ing 'You're shy,' and Uncle George would say, 
 'No, I ain't shy.' And there was something as 
 sounded like this" — he rattled his ivory napkin 
 holder on the plate — "and once papa said, 'I'm 
 Pat,' Papa's name ain't Pat; is it mamma?" 
 
 It was Dennis for some time afterward, and it is 
 feared that papa will never think so much of his 
 little Augustus again. 
 
 Black or white it is all the same with children. 
 This little anecdote from Dixie will illustrate the 
 similarity. 
 
 Old Daddy November always took pride in sa)^- 
 ing: "I bawn een Chalston befo' de wah, en I 
 been lib yah eber sense. I lib clus to de battry 
 whay Mohlan wof stan; a berr nice place fur hit, 
 sho nufif, speshially een in de summer, kos een in 
 de night, wen yo wuk done, you kin go sot on de 
 battry en git nice, cool breeze." 
 
 On a very hot night in August the old man occu- 
 pied his favorite seat, and thus discoursed with his 
 friend Primus Green. 
 
 "Primus, is I ebber tole you 'bout de narrer' 
 'scape I mek on lass Fote ob July?" 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 235 
 
 "No," said Primus, ''you ain't been tole me niu- 
 tin' 'bout 'em. What kine er narrer scape you 
 mek?" 
 
 Daddy November held his hat between Fort 
 Sumter and himself, struck a match, held the match 
 behind his hat until he had lighted his pipe, and 
 then he put the pipe in his mouth and his hat on 
 his head. Then he said: 
 
 ''Et bin befo Sambo Robinson bin dig rock een 
 de fosfite mine on de Ten Mile Hill, en he bin wuk 
 on truck farm, between de fawk of de road and de 
 Fo' Mile House. On de Fote ob July Sambo had 
 a kyard pahty wot consists ob fo' niggahs — ole 
 Sambo hisself, en his friend Gawge Washinton, 
 en mc and Hendry Drane, wot sell chicken. 
 
 "We play monstous big game. You kin bet iibe 
 cent ebery time. Well, Drane dole de kyards, en 
 Sambo gone bline. I git two king, en ob cose I 
 cum een. Washinton seen de bline too, en Drane 
 kum een. Sambo mek de bline good en tek tree 
 kyard. I tek tree, Washinton tek one en Drane 
 tek tree. 
 
 "Wen I pick up my han' I mos turn pale. I 
 ketch wun mo king en two jack. Sambo he lay 
 low. bekase he em bline. I bet fibe cent, en Wash- 
 inton he lifif me fibe mo. Drane trow away he han' 
 an cuss. Ole Sambo smole a smile en seen my 
 fibe cent en Washinton fibe cent en liff em anudder 
 fibe. I try ter look es if I gwine ter bluff, en I hab 
 
236 JACK POTS. 
 
 my hail on de chip fur to rise em agen wen some- 
 tin happen wot nobody ain't count on. 
 
 "Sambo got one pooty httle granchile name 
 Dinah. De chile ain't but six year ole but she 
 know all de kyards. Dinah sot behin Sambo en 
 look on de kyard en jiss wen I gone liff Sambo 
 some mo, de little gal sing out, 'Oh, how funny! 
 Granpa got all de queens!' 
 
 *'Ob course dat mek excitement. I trow away 
 my full house, Washinton fling fibe spade on de 
 table; Drane he lafT — he cum in on two sebens, 
 en Sambo, who hab de queens sho enough, say 
 dam, en tun roun en slap de chile en tek her in de 
 nex room en put her to bed. Den wen soun kum 
 frum de room like spank, en Dinah holler, I sorry 
 fur dat chile, kase her talk seen sabe me at least 
 sebenty fibe cent. I mek narrer scape." 
 
 "En what Washinton say?" inquired Primus. 
 
 "Gawge Washinton say," replied Daddy No- 
 vember, "dat Sambo ain't no right fur to spank dat 
 chile, kaws she been tole de troof." 
 
 Three children are at least equal to one fool, 
 and this is the story of how a fool got away with 
 a wise man. 
 
 In the year 1880 there came to western Missouri 
 from Vermont a family named Hecker, consisting 
 of a man and wife and six children. What tempted 
 a Yankee to come to Missouri, and that section in 
 particular, no one knew except Hecker and he 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 237 
 
 never told. He first started in the grocery busi- 
 ness, but soon found that he could not compete 
 with the shopkeepers to the manner born, and 
 within a year he failed and then took up farming. 
 
 He was not much more successful as a farmer 
 than a shopkeeper, but he made a living, and that 
 seemed to satisfy him. In fact he lost all the traits 
 of his Yankee nature, and just shuffled along 
 through life like his neighbors. In 1888 he died, 
 leaving his wife and children to make a still poorer 
 living out of the rocky farm. 
 
 The eldest of his children was a boy of twenty, 
 then came four girls, and then a boy, named Zenas, 
 aged fifteen, who was a mere simpleton. It was 
 said that he was bright enough up to the age of 
 six, and then something grew on his brain — that 
 was the way his mother explained his affliction. He 
 was both harmless and goodnatured, and the child- 
 ren very fond of him, because although a big fellow 
 he played with them like one of themselves. In 
 fact, the poor fellow was a general favorite in the 
 town where he strayed occasionally. 
 
 In 1891 there came a change in the fortunes of 
 the Hecker family. Some enterprising fellow dis- 
 covered zinc and lead on the farm, and w^as honest 
 enough to offer the widow a generous per centage 
 on the output. The mine turned out to be won- 
 derfully prolific and the result was an income to 
 the Heckers that practically made them wealthy. 
 
238 JACK POTS. 
 
 Fortunately, Henry, the eldest son, had a wise 
 head, and he kept the family pride from swelling 
 too much. 
 
 They moved into town where they occupied a 
 comfortable house, the girls were sent to school, 
 and Henry acted as his mother's representative at 
 the mines. Zenas, of course, remained at home, 
 and wore good clothes and also had more money 
 than was good for him. He did not have a per- 
 fect idea of the value of money, but he knew 
 enough to keep count, and make small purchases. 
 His mother — like a mother — thought more of Ze- 
 nas than all the rest of her children, and tried to 
 persuade herself that he was recovering his senses, 
 and that was one reason why she kept him supplied 
 with plenty of pocket money. It was also suspect- 
 ed that Zenas knew other routes to his mother's 
 pocket book since he occasionally flourished rather 
 large bills. 
 
 On one occasion when he was known to have at 
 least a hundred dollars with him he came into the 
 leading hotel of the town and was spotted for game 
 by a couple of the hangers-on. They were not ex- 
 actly professional gamblers, although hindered 
 more by lack of skill than scruple, but they had 
 enough experience to be dangerous opponents for 
 any ordinary country player let alone a simpleton. 
 
 The landlord's son, a boy of twenty, got Zenas 
 into a side room and proposed a game of poker. 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER 
 
 239 
 
 Zenas knew how to play casino and seven-up in a 
 kind of way, so that he could tell the cards, but he 
 did not know how to play poker. The landlord's 
 son undertook to teach him the value of the hands, 
 and after a little while Zenas announced that he was 
 ready to play. Just at this time a couple of 
 strangers happened into the room accidently, to 
 the chagrin of the three young scoundrels who 
 were about to fleece the unfortunate. 
 
 They were guests of the house only arrived that 
 day and did 
 not know Ze- 
 n a s , but 
 noticing his 
 open mouth 
 and gawky 
 manner, stay- 
 ed to see the 
 fun. When the 
 game com- 
 menced, how- 
 ever, and they 
 saw that Ze- 
 nas was really 
 a simpleton, 
 they e X- 
 changed glances, and one of them said: 'Til just 
 stand behind your chair, my boy, and give you a 
 few pointers." 
 
 'I'll just stand behind your chair, my boy, and g'wa 
 you a few pointers." 
 
240 JACK POTS 
 
 "That ain't fair," growled the landlord's son. 
 
 ''Maybe not," replied the stranger, ' but we 
 don't want the unfairness to be all on one side." 
 
 ''Oh, let him do it," spoke up one of the other 
 fellows. "This is only to teach him the game, any- 
 how." 
 
 There was no further remark, and the game be- 
 gan. It was ten cent ante, and Zenas came in on 
 every hand. The man behind him made no objec- 
 tion to that, but he showed him how^ to draw to his 
 hand, and also advised him when to call. To the 
 surprise of the three young men, Zenas proved to 
 be an extremely apt pupil, so much so that the man 
 behind his chair began to think that his sympathy 
 had perhaps been wasted, and that Zenas was not 
 the fool he looked, so he relaxed his vigilance, 
 and with his friend took a chair at a little distance 
 and contented himself with an occasional word of 
 advice. 
 
 The three amateur sharpers now felt more con- 
 fident, and gradually began to absorb some of the 
 fool's money. 
 
 On one of the hands, when there was about ten 
 dollars up, Zenas turned to his adviser, and said : 
 
 "When they're all alike, mister, does that count? 
 
 The man nodded his head, and Zenas pushed in 
 ten dollars. The others glanced at each other and 
 there was a general throwing up of cards. Zenas 
 raked in the pot, and as he laid down his hand, the 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 241 
 
 landlord's son turned over the cards and disclosed 
 three hearts and two diamonds. 
 
 ''All red cards," said Zenas, with a grin. 
 
 The two on-lookers burst in a roar of laughter, 
 while the others looked sheepish. 
 
 Zenas lost the next three pots, and the fourth he 
 won on three kings. Then came a dozen pots in 
 succession, which he lost, but all for small sums. 
 
 Then there came a deal w^hen it was raised two 
 or three times before the draw. This was a new- 
 feature to Zenas, and he had to have it explained 
 to him at great length, and then it was evident 
 that he did not like it. But he drew cards in a 
 sulky w^ay, and to the delight of his opponents he 
 took four. The man behind him tried to check 
 him, as he saw that he was discarding a pair of 
 tens, but it was too late. 
 
 ''He knows his business, mister," said the land- 
 lord's son, with a coarse laugh. "Board's the 
 play." 
 
 "Yes, I know it is," said the man, "but I want 
 to tell you right here, that this is the last hand you 
 are going to play." 
 
 "Is that so?" asked one of the other players, with 
 a sneer. 
 
 "Yes, it is so." 
 
 "Well, then, don't you interfere with this last 
 hand," was the sharp response. 
 
 "All right," said the man, quietly. 
 
242 JACK POTS. 
 
 The landlord's son drew two cards, the others 
 three cards each. One of the fellows held two pair, 
 the other did not help his pair of queens, and the 
 landlord's son made a full house — three tens and a 
 pair of eights. 
 
 It was his first say, and he started it at a dol- 
 lar. The man with a pair dropped out, the other 
 fellow raised five dollars. Now it was up to Zenas. 
 He looked at his cards in a vague way, and then 
 shoved in a bundle without counting it. The land- 
 lord's son counted it and found twenty-two dol- 
 lars. 
 
 'That makes sixteen dollars raise," he said. 
 
 *'Ya-as, that's right," drawled Zenas. ''Only I 
 wanter know" 
 
 "No, you can't ask any advice," cried the land- 
 lord's son, sharply, "That's the agreement." Then 
 he added, hastily, 'T raise you ten dollars." 
 
 "But I wanter know," drawled Zenas. 
 
 "Shut up, I tell you!" 
 
 But Zenas wasn't to be silenced. Holding his 
 cards all hunched up, he wriggled around on his 
 chair, and seemed on the point of bursting into 
 tears. And then he broke out in spite of the agree- 
 ment. 
 
 "Say, mister, I've got four cards all alike, 
 and" 
 
 "Say!" The landlord's son was on his feet, 
 blazing with wrath, but the stranger held up his 
 hand soothingly. 
 
CHILDREN AND POKER. 243 
 
 '*A bargain's a bargain," he said, laughingly. 
 '*My friend, you'll have to go it alone this time." 
 
 Zenas looked at his new friend and then at his 
 companion, but their faces were blank. Then he 
 fingered his cards for a minute, and then he went 
 down into his trouser's pocket and brought up a 
 bundle of bills. He took away a dollar bill from 
 the roll, and dropped the rest on the table. 
 
 "Fve only got that much," he stammered. 
 
 The landlord's son pounced on it. 
 
 'There's forty-two dollars here," he said, trying 
 to speak carelessly. ''Do you want to raise thirty- 
 two dollars?" 
 
 'T suppose so," was the hesitating reply. 
 
 ''Cut it down half," suggested one of the men 
 locking on. 
 
 "No, I won't," said the landlord's son, doggedly. 
 "It's his money, and we'd give him ours if he 
 won it." 
 
 He had to rake up every cent he had, and bor- 
 row ten dollars from his friends to call the bet. As 
 he did so the men who had been looking on, 
 stepped up behind Zenas. 
 
 He did not understand at first that he had been 
 called, and it was with some difiiculty that he was 
 persuaded to deposit his cards on the table. Then 
 he slowly disclosed four kings! 
 
 There was a chorus of oaths and howls of rage 
 from the amateur sharpers, and there is no doubt 
 
244 JACK POTS. 
 
 that they would have taken the pot by force if it 
 had not been for the presence of the strangers. 
 
 ''Good boy!" shouted one of them. 'Tour of a 
 kind, sure enough ! Well, it takes a fool to speak 
 the truth." 
 
 And the town fool walked away with the^ money, 
 and, as the strangers took care to tell the story, the 
 sharpers never got it back. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS A DOWN EAST SELEC 1 - 
 
 MAN A BUNKO GAME AT LOS ANGELES STORY 
 
 OF THE SHORT-CARD MAN. 
 
 The police are always at war with the gam- 
 blers — quite properly — but they are not always suc- 
 cessful in keeping them within bounds. It is nec- 
 essary to get unde- 
 niable evidence, and 
 that is not readily 
 obtainable, so the 
 guardians of the 
 morals as well as 
 the peace of the 
 community must 
 get it themselves. 
 This is not so easy 
 as it might appear. 
 There are two 
 methods — strategy 
 and force. In Cin- 
 cinnati not long 
 ago there came 
 vigorous com- 
 plaints of a poker 
 game that was anything but on the square, so it 
 was determined to raid the house. As usual the 
 
 The officers walk^ into the various traps 
 set for them. 
 
 245 
 
246 JACK POTS. 
 
 managers of the place received a tip and prepared 
 to give the poHce a hot reception. They fihed the 
 rear yard and halhvay with boxes, beer kegs and 
 other stuff. Barbed wires were strung so that 
 officers scahng the fence would become entangled 
 in them, and the cellar way was partially filled with 
 sticks of timber and the door left open. 
 
 The officers came as expected and walked into 
 the various traps set for them. They were shame- 
 fully cut and torn by the wires and bruised by falls 
 over obstructions in the yard. Every uniform was 
 ruined. When the police were in the midst of their 
 struggles the gamblers who had been watching, 
 gave them the laugh and fled. One veteran sport 
 who was with the party didn't laugh. 
 
 *'John," he said to the head man, ''this isn't so 
 sharp a trick as you think. The police are only do- 
 ing their duty and you have no right to person- 
 ally injure them. They will remember it against 
 you, and if you undertake to open up another 
 game in this town they will never give you a mo- 
 ment's peace." 
 
 The boss laughed again, but he realized to his 
 sorrow that the old sport knew more than he did 
 about poker and police. He opened up three 
 times in succession and every time he was pulled 
 before he had a chance to make a winning. 
 
 The other way is to resort to strategy, and the 
 process is always about the same. Detective Bern- 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 247 
 
 Stein is informed that a crooked game is in prog- 
 ress at such a number on Clark Street. The place 
 is called the Kalamazoo Club. It is understood 
 that the club is open only to members, but Bern- 
 stein is not only permitted but invited to visit the 
 place. 
 
 He goes to the house and tells the custodian 
 that he has an appointment to meet Harry Brown 
 there. The name was a creation of his mind, but 
 he is promptly invited to go up stairs and wait for 
 his friend. When he reached the third floor he 
 saw a complete poker layout — table, cards, chips 
 and players. There was a vacant chair at the table, 
 and he was asked to take a hand in a fifty cent 
 limit game. He declined and said that he must 
 see Brown. After watching for a time, he con- 
 cluded to leave, but promised to return. 
 
 The next night he came back, and he was as- 
 sured that he had missed a good thing by not 
 remaining the previous night. Then he took a 
 hand, and purchased three stacks of chips for five 
 dollars. At first he won a considerable amount, 
 and then the luck wxnt the other way, and his win- 
 nings dwindled down. A jack pot was opened by 
 the detective with three queens. The others 
 stayed. Cards were drawn the detective taking 
 two, while the others stood pat. On the first raise 
 Bernstein prudently threw up his hand. 
 
 Two or three more hands were played and then 
 
-•48 JACK POTS. 
 
 he got a king full. He thought that was pretty 
 good, and decided to win or lose on it. He went 
 broke, because one of the other players had four 
 tens. This satisfied him. He left, and the next 
 day had a warrant sworn out for the place. 
 
 The trouble wath that kind of strategy is that 
 the detective is always at a disadvantage when it 
 comes to testifying on trial. It is very easy to 
 make a point with a jury that he only complained 
 because he lost ; if he had won he would have kept 
 on going tEere and pocketed his winnings. Then 
 again, it doesn't follow that the game is crooked 
 because a man loses. Perhaps he is not a skillful 
 player. When an ofBcer of the law makes a big 
 winning at a gambling game and then informs the 
 authorities, his sense of justice cannot be called 
 into question, but where is the case? 
 
 A summer tourist describes a scene in a New 
 England village. About a table sat three stran- 
 gers who had started a friendly game of poker by 
 roping in the usual country jay. After an hour's 
 play they had fleeced their victim to the tune of 
 $40. He w^as good natured and did not growd and 
 the game continued. 
 
 The scoundrels showed no mercy. They did not 
 let their victim win even a few dollars to encourage 
 him but either stacked the cards or whipsawed 
 him until he w^as compelled to drop. At the last 
 pot the jay was $65 loser. 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 249 
 
 "Have you had enough?" asked the leader of the 
 gang, rising with a smile — and his winnings. 
 
 The jay's countenance immediately underwent a 
 marked change. He had every appearance of a 
 man consumed with virtuous wrath, as he drew a 
 revolver out of his pocket, and said: 
 
 "Gentlemen, I am one of the selectmen of this 
 town. You may consider yourselves under arrest." 
 
 The gang, thunderstruck, was led to the lock-up 
 where it rested for the night. On the following 
 morning the sharpers were brought before this 
 same selectman. The constable had searched them 
 and the contents of their pockets were placed on 
 the table. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the selectman, suavely, "you 
 are charged with gambling and obtaining money 
 by fraud. What have you to say?" 
 
 "Only this," replied the leader of the gang. 
 **You were gambling just as much as any of us, and 
 if we have broken the law so have you." 
 
 "Not at all," responded the selectman, with an 
 extremely judicial air. "I was gambling merely to 
 collect evidence. However, if you wish to make a 
 test on this point I will remand you for trial." 
 
 "We w^ould rather have it settled here," said the 
 prisoner, hastily. 
 
 "Then," said the selectman, calmly, "the sen- 
 tence is a fine of fifty dollars each or thirty days in 
 the county jail." 
 
250 JACK POTS. 
 
 They paid their fines, and the money went to the 
 State — or to the selectman. Next day the jay was 
 at the hotel ready .to be taken in again. 
 
 The "squealer" is a frequent figure in court. 
 He has to be taken into account, although he is a 
 contemptible character. He is invariably a fellow 
 of low cunning, who has the instincts of a cheat, 
 and when he sits into a game, whatever it may be, 
 he has formed a plan to cheat the other fellows. 
 The result is that he is cheated, and then he roars 
 like a stuck gig, and runs for help to the police. 
 He is the same fellow who goes to town to buy 
 a stock of counterfeit money, which he intended 
 to work off on his friends and neighbors, and when 
 he finds that he has given good money for a lot 
 of sawdust, invokes the protection of the law that 
 he has been endeavoring to violate. There need 
 be no pity for the biter when he gets bit, but we 
 can afford to drop a tear for the honest fellow who 
 is taken in by the bunko poker player. 
 
 One of the most striking instances of a hair 
 raising bunko poker game occurred in Los An- 
 geles, and the funniest part of the whole story is 
 that, with three men working him, the victim him- 
 self proposed the game and introduced the three 
 steerers to each other, all of which was part of the 
 play. 
 
 The gentleman was a merchant -from the East, 
 who had come to California for a year's stay to 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 251 
 
 benefit his health. He was extremely wealthy aivi 
 also sportively inclined, although all his knowledge 
 had been gained among gentlemen like himself, 
 so that he had no suspicion of evil. To the hotel 
 there came a man representing himself as an offi- 
 cial of the Canadian Pacific railroad, who had been 
 East on business and was now on his way to San 
 Francisco. The Eastern gentleman soon made 
 the acquaintance of the railroad man and for two 
 days the pair chummed together. 
 
 Another guest arrived from Chicago, who also 
 made known the fact that he was destined for San 
 Francisco. Anxious to make things pleasant for 
 his friends the old gentleman introduced one stran- 
 ger to the other, seeing that they both intended 
 remaining at the hotel over Sunday and then go- 
 ing on to San Francisco. The newcomer was in 
 the boot and shoe business. 
 
 Soon there was another arrival, and he proved 
 to be a high roller. He was a stockman returning 
 to his ranch from market, and he had a roll of 
 bills as big as his head. He ordered everything of 
 the finest and hardly ever flashed forth anything 
 less than a tenner. It did not take him long to 
 get acquainted with the old gentleman, in fact, 
 he got pretty well mixed up with every soul about 
 the place before he had been there a night — all but 
 the Canadian Pacific man and the boot and shoe 
 dealer. When he did meet these two worthies it 
 
252 JACK POTS. 
 
 was through the medium of the genial gentleman 
 from the East. 
 
 With such good fellows around him the onJ)- 
 outcome could be a poker game, and soon it was 
 going. The railroad magnate did not know much 
 about the game, the boot and shoe man hoped it 
 would be a small limit, and the stockman did not 
 care how high it went — the higher the better for 
 him, he said. 
 
 So it started. It opened at three o'clock Satur- 
 day afternoon and was still going at 9 a. m. the 
 next day. Then it ended. The old gentleman 
 was out $1,700 in cash and $40,000 in checks. The 
 stockman had not a dollar of his big roll left, which 
 was easily $10,000, and he, too, had given checks 
 for more than $25,000. The game had simply been 
 a ripsnorter and everything went. 
 
 It was the stockman who threw up his hand. He 
 said he could not stand it any longer. The three 
 agreed to give him a revenge game after dinner, 
 and so the matter rested for a time. When the 
 old gentleman had taken a much needed nap, and 
 had his dinner, he was handed a note signed by the 
 railroad magnate, expressing regret that a tele- 
 gram had been received necessitating his going 
 to San Francisco without delay, and that the boot 
 and shoe man had decided to accompany him. 
 
 With the wings of a bird the gentleman from 
 the East flew to the apartments of his fellow suf- 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 
 
 253 
 
 ferer, the stockman, and related the facts within his 
 knowledge. 
 
 "Bunkoed!" cried the stockman, and added 
 much more vigorous language to support his opin- 
 ion. "I tell you," he wound up, determinedly, ''I 
 am not going to stand it." 
 
 "What can we do?" asked the old gentleman, 
 helplessly. 
 
 "We can't be- 
 lieve that mes- 
 sage," returned 
 the stockman. 
 "Like as not they 
 have not left the 
 city. We will put 
 the .police on 
 their trail for one 
 thing, and then 
 we will telegraph 
 to the banks 
 where we have 
 given checks 
 stopping their 
 payment! Here ! You needn't bother yourself ; I've 
 had experience with sharpers before. Give me a 
 list of your checks, and I'll do the telegraphing." 
 
 He dashed out of the hotel, and when he came 
 back he assured his friend that everything had been 
 done in proper shape. 
 
 I hope you do not suspect that I knowingly intro- 
 duced you to these scoundrels." 
 
254 . JACK POTS. 
 
 "Now," said he, knowingly, "let us wait until 
 to-morrow, and we will save all that money and 
 most likely bag our game." 
 
 "I hope," said the old gentleman, timidly, "that 
 you do not suspect that I knowingly introduced 
 you to these scoundrels?" 
 
 "Certainly not, certainly not," replied the stock- 
 man, heartily. "My dear sir, no matter what may 
 be the outcome of this affair, I absolve you of all 
 the blame." 
 
 Monday morning there was another surprise 
 awaiting the old gentleman. The stockman was 
 missing. The old gentleman went to the police 
 headquarters and the telegraph office, and found 
 that no information had been lodged or telegrams 
 sent. The stockman had been in the game bigger 
 than any of the trio. His roll had been good only 
 for a hundred or so, the balance being counterfeit, 
 and he had remained behind to keep the old gentle- 
 man off the trail while his pals got a good start. 
 The victim stopped the checks on all the distant 
 banks, but he never saw his cash again. 
 
 There is a clever story told on one of the prom- 
 inent railroad officials of Georgia, who sat down 
 to shear and rose up shorn. He went to New 
 York to attend a meeting of the Southern Railway 
 and Steamship Association, and through the intro- 
 duction of several high officials was led into a "soci- 
 ety" game of poker. 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 
 
 255 
 
 There was a presi- 
 dent of an insurance 
 company in the game, 
 who sat in only to fill 
 up, as he was not a 
 regular player, 
 and the other 
 three were 
 society bloods, 
 who were 
 more used to 
 dancing than 
 card playing. 
 When the 
 game started 
 the railroad 
 man remarked 
 that it wasn't 
 a fair show for 
 the others. 
 
 ' ^ Y o u 
 k n o w," h e 
 said, apologetical]y,*'that 
 everybody down South 
 plays poker ; it's like 
 mother's milk to them, 
 and that gives me a big 
 advantage. However, 
 ni promise to not play 
 tricks." 
 
 His comparnon leaned up against the 
 
 nearest lamppost and laughed 
 
 until he cried. 
 
256 - JACK POTS. 
 
 Of course this was said more in fun than by way 
 of boasting, but before the evening was over he 
 wished he had kept his mouth shut. He played in 
 the worst kind of luck, because he held good hands, 
 such as warranted high betting, always to be de- 
 feated by the better hands of his society opponents. 
 The insurance man simply chipped along, with only 
 an occasional call, and put in the rest of his time 
 making humorous remarks about the superiority 
 of the southern style of poker playing. 
 
 * Finally he caught a pat flush, and he deemed 
 himself lucky, as it came at a time when he had 
 but thirty dollars left. There wxre good hands all 
 around, and repeated raises, which made the rail- 
 road man feel so much the better. But before it 
 came to the actual betting after the draw his money 
 was all gone, and he had to play his face. Then 
 it came to a show down, and to his horror the 
 young man on his right held four nines. 
 
 He rose from the table and offered an humble 
 apology for his remarks at the beginning of the 
 sitting, and nobody was unkind enough to laugh. 
 But when he and his insurance friend got outside, 
 and he was obliged to ask for money to pay his 
 hotel bill, his companion leaned up against the 
 nearest lamppost and laughed until he cried. 
 
 There is one thing to be said in favor of the 
 professional gambler. He is game. When the 
 sucker undertakes to skin the supposed innocent 
 
THE POLICE AND THE GAMBLERS. 
 
 257 
 
 and finds that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing, he 
 wants his money back, but when the gambler finds 
 that his schemes have miscarried, he lets it go at 
 that, and rarely whimpers, although he may tell 
 about it as a good story. 
 
 "Yes," said the short-card man, with a grin, 
 'John is a good fellow, but he's got a heap to learn 
 about the game of poker. Now, for instance, I 
 met him the other night, and he proposed a little 
 game. I was needing money that night and I fell 
 in with the proposition gladly. John has plenty 
 of stufT, and he does not hesitate to bet it as well 
 as he knows how. I figured that with him and me 
 playing a nice, 
 sociable two- 
 handed game, 
 the element of 
 chance would 
 vanish, and I 
 would be rea- 
 sonably sure 
 of getting 
 what I wanted. 
 
 ''W e sat 
 down and I 
 played square 
 for awhile. Luck ran about even. Neither of us 
 had lost or won anything. We piked along for an 
 hour or so, and then I thought I might just as well 
 wind the whole thing up. 
 
 Hold on there." said John, and my heart turned to 
 stone. " I've got four aces." 
 
258 JACK POTS. 
 
 "It came my deal and I fixed the cards. I gave 
 him three aces on the go-in, and took four kings 
 myself. You know how these amateurs are — they 
 think there is nothing bigger than three aces. I 
 figured that with his knowledge of the game he 
 would bet till the cows came home on those three 
 bullets. 
 
 ''John's eyes bulged out when he saw the three 
 aces, and he gave it a good lively tilt. I came back 
 at him, and there was a large wad in the middle of 
 the table when the draw came. John allowed he 
 would take two cards. I took one, for the looks 
 of the thing, and it was his age. I bet ten, and 
 he came back with twenty. We kept on until every 
 cent I had was on the cloth, and John had shoved 
 in his watch. 
 
 *'I admired his nerve, but as I was fixed I 
 couldn't afford to be sorry for him. He rustled 
 around and got valuables enough to call my last 
 raise. I laid down the four kings I had all the 
 time, and began to rake in the pot. 
 
 '' 'Hold on there,' said John, and my heart 
 turned to stone. 'I've got four aces.' 
 
 "And," continued the short-card man, reflec- 
 tively, "I'll be cussed if he hadn't caught the other 
 ace in the draw, and I was broke for a month. 
 Nobody but a novice in poker would have been 
 guilty of a draw like that, when the cards were all 
 fixed to beat him. No, no; John can't play cards." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS — QUEENS AND TENS LOUIS 
 
 LAID THEM DOWN EUCHRE AND POKER 
 
 AN OLD STORY. 
 
 There being so much chance about cards of 
 course there is superstition among players. It has 
 been said that all players are superstitious, and that 
 may be true but certainly not to the same degree. 
 Some are to such a ridiculous extent that it utterly 
 ruins their game. The man who must have his 
 seat just so, must not meet a cross-eyed man, or 
 must meet a man with a hump, and can't play un- 
 less a dozen crotchety notions are complied with, 
 is not likely to play a good game once out of fifty 
 times. A man must recognize that most of his 
 success comes from his own endeavors or else he 
 m.ight as well shut his eyes and bet at random. 
 Of such capers as walking around your chair to 
 change your luck, spitting over the left shoulder, 
 changing your seat, and lots of other simple tricks, 
 even the wisest of poker players have indulged in 
 them, but more for fun than with any fixed belief 
 in their efficacy. 
 
 There are other matters, however, in connection 
 with poker, in which superstition plays a prominent 
 part. Most poker players also indulge in faro, and 
 
 259 
 
26o JACK POTS. 
 
 will have noticed the system players — in fact, may 
 be one themselves. One man believes that the cards 
 always play out the way they started, another 
 thinks they must break even, one will always play 
 the face cards open, and it is a maxim with the 
 majority to never copper the ace on the last turn. 
 No amount of breaking will convince a system 
 player that he is wrong — it is always something 
 else that broke him. The faro dealer likes to see 
 the system players in front of him; they support 
 the bank. 
 
 Poker players do not go to those extremes, but 
 many of them have funny notions about cards. I 
 have met gamblers who would go broke on three 
 aces. They acknowledged that there were plenty 
 of hands in the pack to beat three aces, but they 
 contended that the hands wouldn't be out at the 
 same time. I have known men who maintained 
 that they never had three aces beaten, although 
 they had seen them beaten many times when held 
 by other men. Other men admitted that they had 
 had three aces beaten but only on rare occasions; 
 not enough to shake their faith in the rule. 
 
 Nearly every old player has some such supersti- 
 tibn. He has a pet hand; one which, if he will 
 not exactly go broke on, he will bet fiercely and 
 confidently. For this very reason no doubt the 
 favorite hand frequently wins. The man who be- 
 lieves that three aces are invincible is apt to bet 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS. 261 
 
 them as if they were four, and carry dismay to his 
 opponents. 
 
 I have met two players who beHeved that queens 
 •and tens were invincible. The men were not in 
 the same town, by the way, and never met so far 
 as I know. One man admitted that he had been 
 done up on the hand once or twice, but the other 
 man was adamant. This latter was a Frenchman 
 of Bismarck, Dakota, locally known as Louis. 
 
 This was twenty-five years ago, when Bismarck 
 had been busted by the collapse of Jay Cooke, and 
 had not started on the return trip to prosperity. 
 When the railroad had entered the town in 1873, 
 it was a red hot place. Everything was wide open, 
 and there was lots of money. 
 
 When Jay Cooke failed the railroad stopped, the 
 railroad men left town and the gamblers soon fol- 
 lowed. Pretty near all the money went with the 
 gamblers and for the next five or six years it was 
 the queerest sporting town on earth. There was 
 all the inclination, but the means were lacking. 
 Everything was wide open, and practically every- 
 body played but there w^as so little money in town 
 that plunging was out of the question. 
 
 Across the Missouri River was Fort Abraham 
 Lincoln, where was stationed the Seventh Cavalry 
 under the famous Custer. Of course, that was a 
 source of supply. The soldiers on and after pay 
 day drifted over to Bismarck and dropped a few; 
 
262 JACK POTS. 
 
 but they were pretty fair players themselves, and 
 just as liable to carry away a bundle as leave it. 
 The Coulson Line of boats plying between Yank- 
 ton and upper Missouri points, dropped a passen- 
 ger now and then who had a few dollars, and oc- 
 casionally somebody with money wandered in 
 from an Indian reservation. Hardly any one came 
 into town to settle, and the transients did not stay 
 long enough to get acquainted. Then there came 
 occasionally a post trader or Montana freighter 
 who wanted to blow in about five hundred dollars 
 in three days, dance on the billiard table, shoot 
 out the lights and break mirrors, and otherwise let 
 off steam. 
 
 It was quite a happy family of busted sports, all 
 too sharp to prey on each other, and with no one 
 else to prey on. So they played with each other, 
 on the square and just as fiercely as if there were 
 thousands at stake instead of five dollar bills. To 
 this colony Louis belonged. 
 
 He was a painter by trade, but there were very 
 few painting jobs in Bismarck, so he must have 
 eked out a living by some other means. He was 
 an occasional poker player, and really a good one, 
 because he. was cool, good natured, courageous 
 and knew the value of a hand. His only fault was 
 that he did not play out his luck. When every- 
 thing seemed to be going his way, he would get 
 up and cash in his chips, and jump the game. The 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS. 263 , 
 
 Other fellows agreed that a man who would throw 
 away his luck when he had it would end up in not 
 having any. 
 
 Louis was the man who believed in two queens 
 and two tens. He never referred to the subject 
 except when he won a pot on his favorite two pair, 
 and then he would say: "There they are. I tell 
 you, boys, you can't beat them." 
 
 Then the boys would sneer or wink at each 
 other, and privately w^onder how a man could be 
 so simple, although every mother's son had a pet 
 superstition of his own. 
 
 One night Swede Pete opened a jack pot on two 
 queens and two tens. Everybody stayed and on 
 the final show dow^n everybody had him beat. 
 
 ''Now look at that !" he said, indignantly. 'T just 
 thought I'd give Louis' hand a whirl, and see 
 where it's landed me." 
 
 ''That's all right," said Louis, tranquilly. '*I 
 never said they would win for everybody; only for 
 me." 
 
 One night some time later Louis was in a game, 
 and the boys put up a job on him. They couldn't 
 have done it except for the fact that Louis had 
 struck a .good piece of painting, and was flush. 
 Being in more than his usual good humor, he 
 tucked away three hot Scotches in the course of 
 the evening, which, not being his ordinary tipple, 
 made him rather hazy. He was keen enough, 
 
264 JACK POTS. 
 
 however, to keep ahead of the game, but when one 
 of the boys treated him to a fourth drink of the 
 same he was rather silly. 
 
 The hot Scotch was brought in on a tray, and 
 underneath was a cold deck. It was Pete's deal 
 and Louis got his favorite two pair. Pete took 
 three kings and a pair of sevens himself, as a wise 
 precaution lest Louis should draw another queen, 
 as he had been known to do occasionally. 
 
 Louis betrayed no emotion on seeing his favor- 
 ites; firstly, because he was too good a player to 
 give himself away, and secondly, because he always 
 took his favorite hand as a matter of course. 
 
 There was no raising before the draw, and Louis 
 took one card. Pete stood pat, and the other three 
 players dropped out promptly. 
 
 ''You don't want any, eh?" said Louis. 
 
 ''No," replied Pete, in a loud voice, and in a 
 blustering way, trying to make it appear that he 
 was blufifing. "I guess these are good enough." 
 
 "Well, it's your bet." 
 
 Pete laid his cards down, and then with great 
 care counted all his white chips, then all his red 
 ones, and then all his blues. He shoved them all 
 up into the centre of the table, and looked at Louis 
 defiantly. 
 
 Louis looked at his cards, then gazed up at the 
 smoky oil lamp that hung from the ceiling, and 
 then fixed his eyes on Pete. 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS. 
 
 265 
 
 **I wonder what you've 
 got," he said, dreamily. 
 
 "Got you beat," said 
 Pete, briefly. 
 
 "Well, I don't know 
 but you have," 
 draw'led Louis. 
 
 Then he 
 wrapped up his 
 bills, put them 
 in his pocket, 
 stacked up his 
 chips, and called 
 to the barkeeper 
 to cash them. 
 
 "Ain't you go- 
 ing to call?" de- 
 manded ' Pete, 
 not trying to 
 hide his amazement. 
 
 "Haven't got any- 
 thing to call on," said 
 Louis, as he arose to go. 
 
 "Why, you " 
 
 The other three 
 howled with laughter at 
 this give-away, and 
 Louis smiled amiably. 
 
 "Two queens and two 
 
 Queens and two tens," 
 he said, slcwly, "never 
 were beaten in my hand 
 — in a square deal." 
 
266 JACK POTS. 
 
 tens," he said, slowly, ''never were beaten yet in 
 my hand — in a square deal." 
 
 Then he walked out, and no one could ever get 
 him to explain whether he suspected the trick or 
 really weakened on his favorites. But it was 
 noticed that he never played them quite so strongly 
 in the future. 
 
 Speaking of put-up hands, they are not so easily 
 worked as one might imagine, unless the victim is 
 particularly green. With clumsy sharpers the 
 trick is apt to be helped out with violence. 
 
 A young Finlander came into Montana one day, 
 and like other precocious youths fancied that he 
 understood the game of poker. There was no 
 trouble finding a gentleman who was willing to 
 afford him a little amusement, and who knew of a 
 retired room where the cards could be shufifled 
 without molestation. 
 
 The game was strictly for cash, and progressed 
 with varying fortune for about an hour. Then the 
 tricky man concluded it was time to shake things 
 up. So he provided himself with a full hand and 
 gave the Finlander two pair. There was thirteen 
 dollars in the pot. He drew one card. 
 
 It was not intended that the Finlander should 
 have more than two pair, but the dealer made a 
 botch and gave him an ace, making three aces and 
 two kings. The mistake was discovered in time, 
 however, and the superfluous ace grabbed from 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS. 267 
 
 his hand and destroyed. The Finlander drew an- 
 other card, and th'is time he drew a king, making 
 three kings and a pair of aces. When the dealer 
 discovered that the greenhorn had him beaten out 
 in spite of the crooked work, he settled matters by 
 taking the pot anyway, and the final result was the 
 Finlander had to be pried of¥ by the police. 
 
 There used to 1)e a trick worked very success- 
 fully on railway trains, where card playing was in 
 order. Two or four men would be playing euchre, 
 and the cards would be worked around until the 
 victim found himself with a hand containing three 
 aces. 
 
 Then one of the other players would say: 'T 
 wish I was playing poker." 
 
 The man with the three aces would eye them 
 tenderly, and ask: "Why?" 
 
 ''Well," the other fellow w-ould reply, 'T've got 
 a pretty good hand here. If you let me discard 
 tw^o cards, I can beat any hand in the deck." 
 
 Nearly every time the man with three aces would 
 fall into the trap. 
 
 "T'll discard two cards and go you," he would 
 say. 
 
 The discards would be made, the betting begin, 
 and when the show-dow^n came the man with three 
 aces would be confronted with three hearts, clubs 
 or some suit, and be informed that a flush beat 
 three aces. The victim would be mortified, but he 
 
268 JACK POTS. 
 
 couldn't see how he had any kick coming, so he 
 would surrender his coin. 
 
 One day when this trick was played on the Illi- 
 nois Central, just out of Dubuque, the victim had 
 a friend looking over his shoulder. He had made 
 no remark during the preliminary talk or the bet- 
 ting, but when the cards were shown he leaned 
 over and touched his friend on the arm. 
 
 ''Don't pay that money," he said, quietly. 
 
 The flush man looked up angrily. 
 
 ''What's the reason he won't pay it?" he de- 
 moded. "A flush beats three aces, don't it?" 
 
 "Undoubtedly," was the response, "but you 
 haven't got a flush." 
 
 "Haven't got a flush? Well, I'd like to know 
 if I haven't. These are all clubs, and a flush is 
 where all the cards are of the same suit." 
 
 There was a general chorus of "That's so," and 
 "You're right," but the objector was not disturbed. 
 
 "Popular error — pretty nearly right, but not 
 quite," he returned. "A flush, gentlemen, is five 
 cards of the same suit. Now, you cannot play 
 three cards as a hand in poker ; therefore your hand 
 is foul and does not win anything. Of course, 
 neither do the three aces win ; both hands are foul 
 and the pot must be divided." 
 
 As it happened, they all were gentlemen, or pro- 
 fessed to be, and they saw the force of the argu- 
 ment, so the pot was divided, and no one hurt. 
 
SUPERSTITIOUS PLAYERS. 269 
 
 This recalls another railway card story, which 
 has been told several times and fathered on differ- 
 ent men, but the tenor of the story is the same. 
 
 Traveling in a Pullman car one day were a com- 
 mercial traveler and a mining millionaire who owed 
 his fortune to his faculty of taking advantage of an 
 opportunity and of his fellow man. As the train 
 sped along the pair dropped into a friendly game 
 of euchre. 
 
 An hour or so passed, and then the millionaire 
 dealt and turned up a queen. The eyes of the 
 drummer brightened as he gazed at his hand. 
 
 'T w^ish we were playing poker," he ventured. 
 
 The mine owner looked over his cards and said 
 nothing. 
 
 "How^ would you like to change the game?" 
 asked the man of orders. ''I'd like to play this 
 hand at poker." 
 
 The millionaire glanced at his cards again, and 
 remarked pleasantly: "Well, I don't care if I do. 
 But you must let me discard and take this queen." 
 
 "Oh, certainly," was the eager response. "I'll 
 bet you fifty dollars on this hand." 
 
 "I'll see that and go a hundred better," returned 
 the miner. 
 
 The commercial traveler smiled with great glee. 
 "Fll raise you two hundred and fifty," he said, 
 counting out the money. 
 
 "Well," remarked the miUionaire, calmly, "if you 
 
270 JACK POTS. 
 
 insist on playing poker, Fm your man. I'll just 
 go you a thousand better." 
 
 This bold bet staggered the young man, but he 
 had confidence and a thousand dollars, and he 
 called. 
 
 'T have four kings," he said, throwing them on 
 the board. 
 
 "Then I'll take the money," the millionaire re- 
 plied. 'T have four aces," and he threw them 
 down before the astonished eyes of the drummer. 
 
 "That's all right," said the latter, as soon as he 
 caught his breath. "That's all right — the money 
 
 is yours, but — but — but Say! I'd like to 
 
 know what the devil a queen has got to do with 
 four aces !" 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 reminiscences of william hurt, reformed john 
 
 Dougherty's bet of Arizona territory — 
 his adventures in persia. 
 
 A professional gambler is naturally full of poker 
 stories, but the trouble is that he does not care 
 about telling them. Of all professional men the 
 card player is least inclined to talk about his busi- 
 ness. Amateurs will expatiate by the yard, but 
 that is because he plays for the fun of it. It is 
 only when a professional reforms that he indulges 
 in reminiscences to any extent, and then it is sus- 
 pected that he does not tell all he knows. 
 
 William Hurt in his day was a famous player, 
 and his experience extended all over the West, and 
 he was no stranger to the East. He used to say 
 that he had shuffled the papers all the way from 
 the roughest mining camps to the most luxurious 
 clubs. Mr. Hurt reformed, and one day when the 
 conversation turned on poker and some one told 
 about a game in the Pacific Club in San Francisco 
 where a straight flush was held while another one 
 was being played in the same room at another 
 table, he turned loose and gave a rendition of the 
 famous draws he had seen, and some of which he 
 made. 
 
 271 
 
272 JACK POTS. 
 
 *'When I speak about great draws and big hands 
 I refer of course to straight games," he said. 
 ''Nothing is strange in a crooked game. Every 
 man around the table would hold five aces if you 
 dealt them to him, and there would be nothing- 
 remarkable about that; but, speaking about five 
 aces, I knew of five aces being held in a square 
 game. 
 
 ''In New Orleans, in one of the leading clubs, 
 there is big poker going on every night, and there 
 are only gentlemen in the game. At the begin- 
 ning of the game each man takes $500 worth of 
 chips, and no money passes at the table. The 
 game is unlimited — that is, the limit is $5,000, but 
 that is about the same as no limit. They always 
 play with two decks, and while one is dealt the 
 other is shufifled ready for the next deal. 
 
 "One night four gentlemen were playing. One 
 held a straight flush pat, and the other held three 
 aces before the draw. They soon exhausted their 
 $500 worth of chips and then bet their thousands. 
 Finally the man with the three aces called for the 
 draw. In the draw he got two more aces, making 
 five aces in his hand. He showed his hand right 
 away, saying there was evidently a mistake in the 
 deck. • The man with the straight flush claimed the 
 money. Then the two left the decision to the 
 other gentlemen about the table and they decided 
 the bets off. By a mistake the extra ace had been 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 273 
 
 shifted from one deck to the other. Now, per- 
 haps it wasn't so remarkable that one card should 
 get into the wrong deck, but think of that ace 
 being next to another ace and that these two aces 
 should be dealt to a man who already held three 
 aces in his hand. That's what you might call 
 oceans of luck. 
 
 ''Once I was playing in a game in the Russ 
 House in San Francisco, and I borrowed $500 to 
 get into the game, by the way. One time when 
 I was dealing a man across the table had aces up 
 and I had a king full on queens. I knew what he 
 had and I knew that there was another ace right 
 at the bottom of the pack." 
 
 Here one of the listeners suggested that Mr. 
 Hurt was only to talk about square games. 
 
 ''Well, the draw was square," answered the re- 
 formed gambler. "I knew what he had before the 
 draw and I knew where a third ace lay in the deck. 
 I didn't know what card I gave him when he called 
 for one. Now, you know a man might play for a 
 hundred years and not hand out that lonesome 
 fourth ace right from the top of the pack. Well, 
 that was where the fourth ace lay, and the fellow 
 with his ace full broke me with my king full. That 
 was as remarkable a draw as ever occurred. I 
 knew the position of three of the aces and the card 
 he drew was the fourth, to which I paid no atten- 
 tion, because the chance that he would not get it 
 
2 74 JACK POTS. 
 
 was sufficient for me to bet against. Another 
 aggravating feature was that the man who loaned 
 me the $500 thought I purposely played away his 
 money and then divided with the other fellow. I 
 guess he thinks so to this day, but I tell you I was 
 a good deal more surprised than he was when I 
 saw that ace full spread out on the table. 
 
 ''I held four tens pat in a game I was playing 
 in at Sioux City," continued Mr. Hurt, when some 
 one asked him his highest hand that ever was 
 beaten. ''One of the men playing was very drunk 
 and very reckless. He had been plunging all the 
 time, betting high whether he had anything or not. 
 Of course he won many pots by bluffing, because 
 no one would call him for a big bet unless he was 
 well heeled. I was waiting for a big hand, because 
 I knew that as soon as it came I could break him. 
 
 "My four tens came just at the right time. 
 There was a jack pot and I had the first say. I 
 opened it gently, say for $25, because I knew the 
 drunken fellow would come back at me. He did 
 with a big raise. I just called him, because I want- 
 ed more play after the draw, and he was sure to 
 bet everything he had. I looked over my hand as 
 though in deep thought and then called for one 
 card. T'll draw to the strength of my hand; give 
 me three,' said the drunken man. 
 
 ''Then I made a heavy bet and he came at me 
 harder. We kept at each other back and forth 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 275 
 
 until all our money was on the table, and then I 
 showed down my four tens. Blamed if he didn't 
 skin out four queens! Of course I was the one 
 that was broke. 
 
 ''I saw a square hand win in a crooked game in 
 a club house in Butte City, Montana, and I'll tell 
 you about it, if you insist upon something about 
 crooked games when I want to tell you about 
 square games. There were five men playing. Two 
 of them were in together to do up another two, but 
 they did not want to take anything from the fifth- 
 fellow, who was a friend of theirs, though he did 
 not know there was anything wrong about the 
 game. 
 
 "One of the two who were doing the dirty work 
 rung in a cold deck, and he dealt great hands to 
 the fellows who were to be skinned. One was four 
 nines, I think, and the other a jack full. He was 
 careful to give no pair to the man he wanted to 
 befriend, and he dealt his partner the winning 
 hand; or at least he thought it was the winning 
 hand. Well, to the surprise of the men who had 
 put up the cold deck, the fifth fellow with no pair 
 stood right in and saw every raise. They didn't 
 dare to kick him or even wink at him, so he piled 
 his money in with the rest. 
 
 "When it came to a show down there was $3,600 
 on the table, and the fellow that had no pair won 
 it all. The man that fixed the deck had paid no 
 
276 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 attention to suits; he was looking out only for 
 pairs and threes and fours. He dealt the fifth man 
 a four straight of clubs and the one card he drew 
 made a straight flush. 
 
 ''The best draw I ever saw was in Olympia dur- 
 ing a session of the Washington Legislature. One 
 senator there was wild about poker. I suppose he 
 
 had just learned 
 the game and was 
 infatuated; at anj^ 
 rate he wanted to 
 take off the bridle 
 every handi To 
 win a hundred on 
 a bluf^.was worth 
 a thousand to 
 him. 
 
 'Tn one game 
 where this senator 
 was sitting there 
 was a hand on 
 which there had 
 been very heavy 
 betting before the 
 draw. The plunger was in, of course, and raised 
 until all his money was up so there could be no 
 betting after the draw. He put down his cards and 
 I never saw a worse hand. He had no pair, not 
 even a face card, and he was going to throw away 
 
 'W^ 
 
 " I'll draw to a straight flush," said he. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 
 
 2 "^ 7 
 
 the bunch and call for five cards when he noticed 
 that he held the nine and ten of clubs. 
 
 '* Til draw to a straight flush/ said he; and do 
 you know the three cards that came to him were 
 all nines. Of course he then had four nines and 
 raked in the pot. One man had three kings and 
 another had a jack full. I think that was as re- 
 markable as anything I ever saw in poker. 
 
 ''I made a rather good draw myself one day on 
 the train coming from Fresno. Three of the gam- 
 blers that work the Pullmans tried to get me to 
 play cards. I 
 knew their busi- 
 ness as soon as I 
 saw^ them, but as 
 it happened they 
 did not know me. 
 Two of them 
 were dressed as 
 countrymen, and 
 the third did the 
 gentleman play. 
 He looked as 
 much like a gen- 
 tleman as a bull- 
 dog, by the way. 
 
 'They started ,, 
 
 "^ He looked as much like a gentleman as a bull dog. 
 
 in the stale way, 
 
 suggesting a game of euchre. One would remark 
 
-'78 JACK POTS. 
 
 that he would hke to bet his euchre hand in a poker 
 game and another would agree with him. Well, I 
 consented to play euchre with them, but first I 
 looked carelessly at their cards, and then went to 
 my grip. I had a couple of packs of cards in my 
 bag — not for poker; I never gambled on trains. 
 Sometimes I made the acquaintance of gentlemen 
 on trains and afterward played with them in their 
 clubs or hotels, but on the trains I played nothing 
 save an occasional game of whist. 
 
 ''I could not resist, however, attending to the 
 case of those three train gamblers. I happened to 
 have a pack just like the cards with which they 
 w^ere playing and I took from it an ace. Then I 
 joined in the game and bided my time. Then one 
 of them finally said he'd like to bet his hand in 
 poker, and the others said they'd agree to change 
 the game, holding the hands dealt to them in 
 euchre. I consented also and we bet our money. 
 They bet all they had, including a roll of bogus 
 bills, called 'spiels,' used for that sort of work. 
 Then I showed down four aces and pocketed all 
 the money. You should have heard them roar and 
 kick when I took the pot ! 
 
 "At Lathrop I saw a hotel runner I used to 
 know. I pointed out to him the gamblers, and 
 then I handed to him the roll of 'spiels' and told 
 him to give it back to the fellows, but I kept the 
 good money. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 279 
 
 '* 'Great Lord!' said the runner. 'Did them fel- 
 lers try to skin you ?' 
 
 " They did,' I answered, softly. 
 
 " 'The fools!' said he. 'I put up half the money 
 to stake 'em to make a winning on the train, and 
 they played it ofif against Billy Hurt, taking him 
 for a dude.' " 
 
 Another famous gambler is John Dougherty — 
 not reformed. In the palmy days of Tombstone, 
 John first came to the surface and has been on 
 the top wave ever since. He is known from East 
 to West, but his chief stamping ground is in the 
 territories, where his free and easy ways are not 
 likely to cause so much remark. Dougherty never 
 sat down and reeled off a lot of entertaining talk 
 to a reporter, but he had adventures enough to 
 make a book. 
 
 In 1889 Dougherty sat down with a man named 
 Ike Jackson, a wealthy cattle owner and great 
 poker player of Colorado City, Texas, to determine 
 the poker championship of the wild and woolly 
 West. It w^as in Bowen's saloon in Santa Fe, New 
 Mexico. There was no limit to the game and it 
 was understood that both men were exceptionally 
 well heeled. It was also understood that the game 
 was perfectly on the square, as neither man was to 
 be trifled with. 
 
 They played along in a desultory way for hours, 
 when finally both got good hands at the same time. 
 
28o JACK POTS. 
 
 The betting then became fast and furious. More 
 than a hundred citizens of Santa Fe, including 
 every gambler in town, had gathered about to 
 watch the progress of the game. Among them 
 was Governor Prince, who knew and liked Dough- 
 erty. After about $100,000 had been piled on the 
 board the Texas man said to Dougherty that he 
 w^as running a little short of money, but that he 
 had a ranch and ten thousand head of cattle in 
 Texas, and that he would like the privilege of mak- 
 ing a deed of them, should it become necessary to 
 bet $100,000 more. Dougherty replied that it was 
 perfectly agreeable to him, but asked that the same 
 privilege be granted to him if it became necessary 
 to put up real estate as collateral in order to play 
 his hand for what it was worth. Jackson assented, 
 of course. 
 
 After the Texan had exhausted all his ready cash 
 and Dougherty came back at him with another 
 raise, Jackson concluded to bring things to a finish. 
 So he raised the Arizona man $100,000, throwing 
 the deed to his Texas property into the pot. 
 
 Dougherty called for pen and paper, and wrote 
 hurriedly for a few minutes. Then, catching the 
 Governor's eye, he beckoned him to one side, and 
 before Prince knew what had happened he was 
 looking down the barrel of a murderous 45-calibre 
 revolver. 
 
 "Now, Governor, you sign this," said Dough- 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 281 
 
 erty, and he handed his excellency a paper that 
 contained about a dozen lines of writing. ''Sign it, I 
 say, or I will kill you. I like you and would fight 
 for you, but I 
 love my repu- 
 tation as a 
 poker player 
 better than I do 
 you or any one 
 else." 
 
 The Govern- 
 or, w i t h o u t 
 looking at the 
 contents of the 
 paper — in fact, 
 he was pressed 
 for time just then — nervous- 
 ly attached his signature. 
 Then, w^alking back to the 
 table, Dougherty threw the 
 paper in the pot, and said impressively as he did 
 so : 'T raise you the Territory of New Mexico. 
 There's the deed." 
 
 The Texan of course had to lay down, but as he 
 did so he muttered an oath that might have been 
 heard in Lower California. Then, as he saw 
 Dougherty rake in the big pot, Jackson gave a 
 nervous twitch at his mustache and said : ''That's 
 all right, Dougherty ; scoop it in, it's yours, but it's 
 a damn good thing for you that Jim Hogg, the 
 governor of Texas, isn't here !" 
 
 " Now, Governor, you sign this,' 
 said Dougherty. 
 
282 JACK POTS. 
 
 Ill those days Dougherty would not go into a 
 game unless the other players could show at least 
 $10,000 each. There was nothing small about him 
 but his feet. When he ordered a drink he threw 
 a fiver on the counter, and if any change was 
 offered him he felt insulted. But hard times struck 
 the West, and poker — that is, poker of the Dough- 
 erty stripe — became a scarce article. So w^hen he 
 got down to his last $50,000 he, emigrated to New 
 York. While there he learned that in Persia the 
 young men played poker fairly well, and when they 
 got a hand that amounted to anything they bet it 
 until the cows came home. That was the kind of 
 gam'e Dougherty was looking for, and so to Persia 
 he went, or he says he did, and we'll have to let it 
 go at that. 
 
 He had no trouble in being introduced to Per- 
 sian poker circles, and he was soon a popular fel- 
 low, even among the princes, although he could 
 not talk the language of the country. He also had 
 to learn a great deal that was new to him in the 
 way of poker. Four deuces beat four aces, a ''lit- 
 tle dog" topped a sequence, and there were several 
 other wrinkles that caused him to open his eyes. 
 Again, there is never any money in sight. A man 
 sits near the table and^ records the bets, and a set- 
 tlement is made after the game is over. This book- 
 keeper, or whatever they call him, is also a linguist, 
 and whenever foreigners play with these princes he 
 translates the raises and such like. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM HURT. 2S3 
 
 Well, one night Dougherty had 1)een trailing in 
 only to be beaten on the show clown. Finally he 
 caught a pair of sixes at the time one of the princes 
 had four of a kind. There had been a deal of jolly- 
 ing and horse-play going on all night, and Dough- 
 erty, of course, couldn't understand the words that 
 were being slung around, but he laughed as heart- 
 ily as the others and always looked intensely inter- 
 ested. He would simply skin his cards, come in 
 when the notion struck him or lay down. When 
 he picked up the sixes he looked the Persian in the 
 eye and the Persian laughed. 
 
 ''Tre-le-lu," said the Persian. 
 
 "Guying me, I reckon," said Dougherty to him- 
 self; "but ril give you some of your own sort of 
 w^ords. Tru-le-lum," he said aloud. 
 
 ''Tru-le-lili-lo," said the Persian. 
 
 "Tru-le-lele-lili-lole-lum," replied Dougherty. 
 
 Scarcely had he got the words out of his mouth 
 when the young prince threw down his four of a 
 kind, kicked over the table, fell forward on a sofa 
 and broke out in a sob. 
 
 ''Great heavens, man !" exclaimed the interpre- 
 ter. ''You raised him eleven millions that time!" 
 
 Of course Dougherty raked in the pot, and thus 
 having mastered the language he was so successful 
 that when he left Persia he was rich beyond the 
 wildest dreams of avarice. But he bet it all on the 
 elections and lost. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 now THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT TOUCHING 
 
 TALE OF A DOG THAT TIPPED OFF POKER 
 HANDS TO HIS MASTER. 
 
 It is no doubt a slander, but people will persist 
 in saying that when a party of men go on a fishing 
 trip they never start with less than a gallon of liquid 
 refreshment in a jug, and this statement has also 
 been made about hunters. There may be some 
 truth in these stories, but there is certainly no 
 doubt that no expedition was ever properly 
 equipped without a pack of cards. I don't mean 
 a party of boys going after woodchuck, but from 
 two to a dozen of nice men who have had experi- 
 ence and know that there is bound to come a few 
 rainy days, when it is much better for the lungs to 
 stay under the tent and shuffle the pasteboards than 
 go tramping after game that has too much sense 
 to be abroad. 
 
 It is about one of those sensible hunting trips 
 that this story treats. It was a California affair, 
 and the inciting cause of the hunt was a grizzly 
 bear which was supposed to linger around Mono 
 Lake. The party comprised Alex McGregor, Jim 
 Watts, Manuel Lopez and Sing Wong — the latter 
 a servitor — and they pitched a tent near the lake 
 
 23^ 
 
THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT. 285 
 
 to have four weeks fun, but, as the Fates willed it, 
 the fun was all crowded into one week and there 
 was lots to spare. We will let McGregor tell the 
 story. . / 
 
 ''You see, Jim Watts had some notions of his 
 own about how to have a good time in camp, and 
 when we were putting up our stufif for the trip Jim 
 said it wouldn't do for a man to make too radical 
 a change in his way of life, and for his part he 
 didn't propose to break up his constitution by 
 chopping wood or going to bed at an unseemly 
 hour. So he piled in a coal-oil lamp, a deck of 
 cards arid a four-gallon can of kerosene. We had 
 plenty of beans, and Sing was cautioned to reserve 
 from the pot enough to furnish chips for a pretty 
 stiff game. 
 
 "We pitched our tent on the bank of a little 
 stream and got fixed up in shape, and I regret to 
 say that owing to the pernicious counsels and ad- 
 vice of Watts we did no hunting, but sat up all 
 night playing poker and slept every day until noon. 
 Sing did all the work except taking care of the 
 horses, which a Chinaman can't do. Manuel did 
 that, and we allowed him the kitty for it. It came 
 in very handy, because he had the worst kind of 
 luck, and went broke regularly. -every night. 
 
 ''One night we had a fine game going on and 
 were playing for a jack pot which had gone around 
 four times. I had an opening hand. Manuel had 
 
286 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 something good, and Watts wanted only one card. 
 Just as we were calling for cards Sing jumped up 
 
 with a yell from his 
 
 blankets at the back 
 
 of the tent and 
 
 stampeded right 
 
 over our game, 
 
 knocking the oil 
 
 can, on which we 
 
 were playing, 
 
 wrong end up 
 
 and scattering 
 
 the beans all 
 
 around. 
 
 ''Manuel 
 pulled his re- 
 volver and was 
 about to take a 
 shot at Sing, 
 when we heard 
 a growl, and turning our 
 heads saw the gray muz- 
 zle of a grizzly poked 
 through the back of the 
 tent into the syrup dish. 
 Manuel was mad clear 
 through, and crying 
 'Dama you, spoila such a pot like him! Carajo!' 
 he popped at the bear's head. 
 
 \\\v 
 
 Sing jumped up with a yell. 
 
THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT. 287 
 
 'Then we all got up and went out of the tent. 
 I was in a considerable hurry and took the front 
 tent pole with me, and Jim tripped over the lamp 
 en route. The bear came in rather hastily at the 
 back and knocked down the other tent pole. That 
 brought down the whole arrangement about his 
 ears, and in two seconds there w^as more fun than 
 a barrel of monkeys in that camp. 
 
 'The lamp broke and exploded when it fell, and 
 evidently the plug had fallen out of the oil can, 
 for everything was ablaze in no time. Old Bruin — 
 for we discovered afterward by the club-foot tracks 
 that he was- the disturber — got tangled up in the 
 burning tent, and in rolling about he sopped up a 
 good deal of the oil. While he was slamming 
 things around like a fully developed earthquake 
 we stood at a safe distance and plugged revolver 
 bullets into the muss, which didn't improve the 
 bear's temper. 
 
 "It was probably less than a minute when he 
 came out of the ruins, blazing like a Fourth of July 
 celebration. His oil-soaked hair w^as on fire in 
 patches and pieces of burning canvas hung about 
 him like streamers. And of all the howling and 
 roaring I ever heard that was the worst. The old 
 fellow just stormed around that camp, clawing at 
 the fire, tearing the canvas with his teeth, and belt- 
 ing everything that came in his way. When he'd 
 swing a paw and hit a tree the bark would fly up 
 ten feet. 
 
288 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''When he came into view Manuel and I shinned 
 up two tall trees and Sing crawled into a hollow- 
 log and kept quiet, but Jim Watts stood there like 
 a chump and watched the circus. We couldn't 
 kill the bear because our guns were in the tent 
 
 and were being 
 burned up, and 
 revolvers were of 
 no account 
 against a beast in 
 such tantrums. 
 Watts did pepper 
 him, though, and 
 got into trouble 
 for doing it. His 
 bullets finally at- 
 tracted Bruin's 
 attention and he made 
 a rush for the daring 
 marksman. 
 
 'Then Watts con- 
 cluded to leave that lo- 
 cality. He didn't have 
 time to pick out a 
 route. He just had to scoot, and he made a suc- 
 cess of it. He headed for the bank of the creek, 
 which was about ten feet higher th^n the water, 
 with the illuminated bear in hot pursuit. There 
 was no chance to dodge or turn, and W^atts took 
 
 He came out of the ruin blazing like 
 a Fourth of July. 
 
THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT. 289 
 
 the leap. He struck feet first about twenty feet 
 from the bank, and went down ker-chunk. 
 
 "He came up to breathe just as old Bruin piled 
 over the bank and fell into the water with a splash 
 and a sizzle. Watts then swam under water and 
 crawled silently out in a dark place. Old Bruin 
 kept straight across and landed on the opposite 
 bank. His plunge had extinguished him and he 
 was blazing only with wrath, so he tore away 
 through the brush, growling and making the bark 
 
 "Watts came back to camp, and when we gath- 
 ered around the burning ruins of our once happy 
 home he showed up a bobtail flush, which he had 
 held in his left hand all the time, and said : 'Wasn't 
 that a dandy hand to draw to in a jack pot?' " 
 
 When the lower order of animals are spoken of 
 the mind naturally reverts to the dog. To those 
 who have not studied the habits of that sagacious 
 and noble animal the following story will sound 
 fishy, but dog fanciers will readily concede its truth, 
 and could no doubt match it with others much 
 more wonderful. It rests on the authority of a 
 gentleman who made his appearance at the hotel 
 clerk's desk, while that individual was counting a 
 large roll of bills. 
 
 His attire was a sort of black drapery, and fell 
 about his lean form in folds that a decorator might 
 envy. He had a week's growth of anarchistic bris- 
 tles on his dirty though good-natured phiz, and his 
 
290 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 left eye had a peculiar squint that suggested a lat- 
 ent knowledge of 
 something or other. 
 As the shadow fell 
 across the desk the 
 clerk looked up and 
 asked what was want- 
 ed. The visitor 
 leaned easily 
 against the 
 desk, adjusted 
 a greasy tie 
 that showed a 
 disposition to 
 keep company 
 with his right 
 ear, and said in a 
 confidential tone : 
 ''I might not 
 look it, but I'm a 
 college graduate. 
 You may marvel 
 at the state of my 
 toilet, but since 
 leaving the old home in 
 Maine I have had some 
 very strange experi- 
 ences." 
 
 " 1 might not look it, but I'm a college The clcrk DUt awaV the 
 
 graduate." -l v- ^ j 
 
 bills in the safe and then became an active listener. 
 
THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT. 291 
 
 ''You see," continued the stranger, ''being a col- 
 lege graduate I thought I had a head for engineer- 
 ing and went West to prospect in silver mines. 
 Then I drifted north into the Montana gold fields, 
 where I settled in Lone Gulch on Bloody Run. 
 There I published the Lone Gulch Advocate for 
 two months. I forget now what I advocated, but 
 I remember that I printed a true story one day 
 about a prominent official. In twenty-four hours 
 thereafter I was going down the gulch like a long- 
 distance runner. 
 
 ''While filling the important position of opinion 
 moulder on the Advocate a friend of mine comes 
 in one day and says: 'Bill, I have a valuable dog. 
 He can waltz, he can sing and he can play on the 
 piano, but I want a drink and I'll soak him to you 
 for a dime.' 
 
 "So I takes the canine and he followed me here, 
 there and everywhere. Being generally short of 
 cash I had to keep moving, and finally I came to 
 a place where they w^ere building a big irrigating 
 ditch, and there I got a job. I found quite a num- 
 ber of college graduates like myself, and at the 
 end of the first week when we were paid off we sat 
 down to a quiet game of poker. 
 
 "As soon as the cards were dealt I noticed 
 Calamity (that's the dog) take a quiet w^alk around 
 the crowd and then come back and crawl under 
 my chair. Presently I felt something bump 
 
292 JACK POTS. 
 
 against my legs. I looked under the table and 
 doggone if that dog wasn't knocking his head 
 against me in the most systematic way. I didn't 
 know at first what to make of it, and at the next 
 deal I watched him closer. Then I saw that he 
 was taking tab of the other fellows' cards. He 
 just seemed to peek once out of the corner of his 
 eye, and then apparently wrote it down in his mind. 
 
 ''When he got under my chair again and began 
 to bump me with his head I paid strict attention, 
 and soon made out the code. You see, he'd tap 
 me lightly at first to show which player he meant ; 
 one tap signified the first man to my left, two taps 
 the next man, and so on. Having given me that 
 cue, he'd scratch me with one paw to show that 
 the fellow held a king, twice if it was a queen, hug 
 me with his paw if it was a jack, and with both 
 paws if it was an ace. Then he'd bump my leg 
 twice if the man held a pair, three times for threes, 
 and so on. There was much more of the code, 
 which I only learned after several sittings, but I've 
 told you enough to show you what a lollah he 
 was." 
 
 ''But didn't the signaling consume lots of time?" 
 asked the clerk, suspiciously. 
 
 "No, indeed; not a bit of it. Calamity was a 
 very rapid sender, and after I got onto his style 
 it was easy. I'm a pretty good telegrapher myself, 
 and thirty seconds after the dog went around the 
 
THE BEAR SPOILED THE JACK POT. 293 
 
 table I'd know the hands of every man in the game. 
 I could always manage to delay the betting half a 
 minute, you see." 
 
 ''Remarkable dog, wasn't he? Well, sir, I beat 
 all of the boys out of their coin, and my success 
 was so marked that they finally suspected me of 
 being a professional, and run me out of camp. But 
 I didn't mind that, and pretty soon I was cutting a 
 swath all through the West. I got so I wouldn't 
 play with any one but a millionaire or railroad 
 president." 
 
 ''Very remarkable story," said the hotel clerk. 
 "But you don't look like you hurt your back carry- 
 ing around any of the coin now." 
 
 "Lost it all in speculating in grain," replied the 
 stranger, with a sigh. 
 
 "And where's Calamity?" 
 
 "Dead. I was taken ill with the toothache one 
 night and couldn't play. Calamity missed me, but 
 such w^as his thirst for poker that he went into the 
 room and began butting another fellow. He didn't 
 understand the code, and being just then a heavy 
 loser, arose in his wrath and kicked the dog out of 
 the second-story window, and he broke his neck. 
 I wouldn't take a million dollars for that dog." 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 PRACTICAL JOKING HOW THE DENTIST WAS FIXED 
 
 THE FRESH BASEBALL REPORTER AND THE PLAYERS. 
 
 Although poker is a social game it is not one 
 wherein practical jokes are encouraged. It has 
 been discovered that there is more fun when every- 
 body attends strictly to business, barring the few 
 pleasantries that may be exchanged in the way of 
 badinage, and which are frequently useful when 
 one is running a bluff. Yet there are periods when 
 a joke can be worked successfully without danger 
 of making an enemy for life. 
 
 Several traveling men were sitting around the 
 stove in a country tavern one night, wondering 
 what to do to pass away the evening before the 
 hour of retiring, and one man suggested a game 
 of penny ante. The suggestion met with favor, 
 and on being broached to the landlord he said he 
 didn't mind and would join them if they had no 
 objection. They said he would be very welcome. 
 
 ''You mustn't nary one of ye breathe a word of 
 this to my old woman, cos if she hearn tell that I 
 wuz a-playin' of cards she'd naturally everlastingly 
 bang me over the head," cautioned the landlord, 
 and the men cautiously climbed the stairs to a back 
 room. Abe, the boy of all work, brought up the 
 
 294 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 295 
 
 rear of the procession, carrying a big jug of cider. 
 
 The landlord had no chips, but he produced a 
 peck measure of wooden buttons, such as women 
 used to cover and wear on their dresses for orna- 
 ment. Each man took a hundred of these for a 
 dollar, and the game began. It proceeded along 
 with much enjoyment until about 10 o'clock, when 
 one of the traveling men excused himself for a 
 moment but soon returned to the game, having his 
 pockets filled with just such wooden buttons as 
 were used for chips. These were put into the game 
 without the knowledge of the landlord. At the 
 close of the game he settled in full for every chip, 
 but when he came to brush the buttons back into 
 the peck measure he found that he had more than 
 enough to fill it. 
 
 He regarded the measure for a minute with won- 
 der and then he said, scratching his head : ''Gripes, 
 but that durn measure must have shrinked like the 
 devil." 
 
 The traveling men engaged in an argument over 
 the mystery, but did not elucidate it until their next 
 visit, and then they paid the landlord about two 
 dollars and called it square. 
 
 Here is another tale of how a man was skinned 
 in a friendly way. To correctly tell the tale it is 
 necessary to first state that the game occurred in 
 a barber shop which was situated on the second 
 floor of a prominent building in a small city. 
 
296 JACK POTS. 
 
 The barber, who was the proprietor of the shop, 
 was the banker, and to identify him his name shall 
 be Dan. Others in the g'ame were a young lawyer 
 whose first name w^as Sidney, a traveling man 
 known as Frank and a young society man whose 
 Christian name was Harold. These four gathered 
 at the tonsorial parlors at the time vulgarly known 
 as the shank of the evening. A small round table 
 was pulled out from a back room, the curtains were 
 pulled down and the lights turned up and the game 
 began. 
 
 About the time everybody had got his toes warm 
 the banker realized that he was up against it, and 
 he was starting in to cuss his luck when a feeble 
 tap was heard at the door. This was the private 
 signal, but the players supposed that they were, the 
 only ones in possession of it. It must be the police 
 and horrid visions of a night behind the bars filled 
 their minds. 
 
 Quietly the cards were hidden, the table shoved 
 to one side, and all the participants were busily 
 engaged reading newspapers or books when Dan 
 went to the door. The outsider was a well-known 
 character about town, known as Doc, because he 
 was a dentist. He also had the reputation of being 
 a man that knew everything that was going on. 
 He could always tell where everyone was and 
 seemed to know everyone's business. On this 
 occasion he explained that he just happened to 
 
• PRACTICAL JOKIXG. 297 
 
 think that the boys might be playing poker, and 
 he was just dying to take a hand in the game. 
 Incidentally he mentioned that he had a roll of bills 
 in his pocket that he didn't mind losing provided 
 there was a man in the room clever enough to take 
 it from him. 
 
 They made a place for the intruder with no very 
 good grace. This feeling rather increased after 
 nine or ten hands, when no one seemed to get so 
 much as a peek at Doc's bank roll. On the con- 
 trary, everything was traveling his way with mad- 
 dening regularity. Harold in particular was 
 worked up over this state of affairs, and while he 
 was sitting there like a dead man passing out his 
 chips and never taking one in he conceived the 
 idea of working a little joke on Doc and also get- 
 ting even. 
 
 Calling Dan into the back room on some flimsy 
 excuse he advised him of his scheme and how work 
 was to be started to put it into execution. Then 
 Dan took Sidney to one side and quietly told him 
 of the plan and the part he was to play in it. Frank 
 kept up his end by getting into an interesting col- 
 loquy with Doc over the latest scandal in high 
 life, and there is always at least one in a small 
 town. 
 
 The arrangements having been perfected, all sat 
 down again to the game. The cards w^ere dealt, 
 the betting went on and the demon dentist again 
 
2gB 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 swept the table of all the little red, white and blue 
 representations of money. 
 
 ''Let's make the next one a jack pot," said Har- 
 old. 
 
 "All right," responded Doc, carelessly. ''I can 
 win a little quicker in jacks." 
 
 Dan, to whom fell the deal, made ready and shuf- 
 fled the cards. 
 Frank cut 
 them, and Dan 
 was just about 
 to distribute 
 the pasteboards 
 when Sidney 
 uttered a low 
 moan as if 
 gasping for 
 breath and fell backward ofT 
 his chair, apparently striking 
 heavily on the floor. In- 
 stantly everyone was on his 
 feet, hurrying to the aid of 
 the supposedly injured man. That is, everyone ex- 
 cept Dan, who lingered long enough to substitute 
 a cold deck of cards for those in use. 
 
 Then he joined in with the others, and between 
 them they had Sidney on a lounge, rubbed his 
 hands and gave him a drink of water. He rapidly 
 revived, and explained that he had been subject to 
 
 Dan lingered long enough to 
 
 substitute a cold deck 
 
 of cards. 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 299 
 
 these attacks for a year past, but he had been as- 
 sured by his physician that they were not danger- 
 ous, and that he was perfectly able to continue 
 playing. 
 
 So he sat dow^n to the table, the cards were dealt 
 and the conspirators kicked each other as they saw 
 a smile of pleasure spread over the face of the in- 
 tended victim. 
 
 'Til open it," said Doc promptly, as he shoved 
 a stack of ten chips on the table. 
 
 Fr^nk and Sidney scrutinized their hands and 
 announced that the pace was too hot for them. 
 Harold added five to Doc's ten and Dan went five 
 better. Doc tried to look as if he were surprised, 
 and simply saw the raises. \Mien it came to the 
 draw he hummed and hawed for a while and then 
 concluded he would take one card. Harold took 
 one card and Dan two. 
 
 It being Doc's first bet he bet five chips as a 
 feeler. Harold raised it five and Dan raised him. 
 Doc smiled in a satisfied way and lifted it up about 
 twenty. To his surprise he was lifted as much in 
 return. Then there was an epidemic of raising; 
 everyone seemed furiously certain of their hand, 
 and no one would call. Frank and Sidney looked 
 on and seemed paralyzed with wonderment. 
 
 Dan, being the banker, had plenty of chips w^ith 
 which he and Harold covered all of Doc's good 
 money and in the end Doc's money ran out and he 
 
300 JACK POTS. 
 
 had to call. This being agreeable to the other 
 players Dan laid down a pair of queens and three 
 tens. 
 
 *'Was that what you were betting on?" inquired 
 Doc. ''That hand looks like a foot. I haven't 
 got much here; only two little aces, with two more 
 to keep them company." 
 
 Then he smiled a broad smile as he made prep- 
 arations to gather in the big pile of money and 
 chips. But he forgot that Harold was still to be 
 heard from. 
 
 ''Carefully, Doc," said the society leader. "Drop 
 that or you might break it. Your aces are not so 
 warm in this game." 
 
 "You don't mean" stammered Doc. 
 
 "That I can beat them? Take a look at these." 
 
 Doc gazed at the straight flush spread out be- 
 fore him and then at the agonizing spectacle of 
 Harold calmly raking in the pot, and then he arose 
 and left the room without uttering a word. The 
 next day his money was returned to him and he 
 was informed that he had been skinned. And he 
 never heard the last of it. 
 
 Baseball men are famous poker players, and very 
 naturally so. Although we occasionally hear a wail 
 about the way the "magnates" oppress the poor 
 players, buy and sell them, and otherwise woe- 
 fully put on them, it is noticed that they do not go 
 out of the business until they are knocked out. 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 301 
 
 The truth is that they are the best paid class of 
 men in any business, making more in a season of 
 six month than the average professional man does 
 in a year. Then again, their work is play; some- 
 thing that they would do for fun if no one hired 
 them to do it. They travel in first-class cars, put 
 up at first-class hotels, play only when the weather 
 is fine, and a day's work for them is less than four 
 hours. 
 
 \\'ith these advantages it is no wonder that they 
 are inclined to be sportive and wile away their off 
 hours with cards. At the same time it is not to 
 be inferred that they are high rollers; there is no 
 case on record where a ball player has got his 
 name in the papers for making a gigantic winning. 
 It is all between themselves and at the end of the 
 season no player's bank roll is very much depleted. 
 When an outsider gets into their game he is apt to 
 have a peculiar tale to tell. 
 
 "When I started out as a baseball correspondent 
 in — never mind the year," said the sporting editor, 
 'T considered myself as smart as any young man 
 could be. I was personally acquainted with all the 
 players and was admitted to their confidences, con- 
 sequently I thought I was the whole thing. . 
 
 "When we arrived at the first city where the club 
 was scheduled to play it rained and the game was 
 declared off. Time weighed heavily and a game 
 of poker was suggested. Of course I had to be in 
 
302 JACK POTS. 
 
 It. just to show that I was sporty. There were six 
 in the party beside myself, all finished players, but 
 I happened to be in luck, and as a man will do 
 in such circumstances I ascribed it all to my skill 
 and forced the play. 
 
 ''Finally a nice jack pot was on the board and 
 the first man that had a say opened it. I looked at 
 my hand and saw a combination of cards that ordi- 
 narily would be thrown into the deck. But I made 
 up my mind to make a star play, and immediately 
 boosted the pot. The others stayed, but when it 
 came to drawing cards I stood pat. The opener 
 bet and I raised with an air of confidence that 
 threw the others ofT and they dropped. The 
 opener had not bettered his hand and he also quit. 
 
 "Everything would have been all right had I 
 simply thrown my hand into the pot, but I was so 
 delighted at having bluffed so clever a lot that I laid 
 the cards face upwards on the table, at the same 
 time giving one of those idiotic chuckles that a 
 youngster w^ll when he thinks he has fooled men 
 older and more clever than himself. I saw an ex- 
 change of glances go around that I mistook for 
 admiration, but which I afterward learned was a 
 silent comment on my freshness. 
 
 ''Nothing further transpired at the game and I 
 quit a winner. A few days later we reached Cin- 
 cinnati for the Fourth of July games, and being a 
 day ahead of time, a game was arranged with a 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 303 
 
 local club in a near-by town. We started early in 
 the morning, there being a dozen in the party, in- 
 cluding the manager and myself. We were in the 
 smoker, and as soon as the train started the boys 
 began skylarking, much to the edification of the 
 other passengers, who were mostly country folk. 
 
 **I was enjoying the fun immensely when sud- 
 denly I found myself in the hands of a half dozen 
 players, and in a twinkling almost they had 
 stripped me of all my outer garments. Here was 
 a pleasant predicament for a fashionable young 
 man ! I had a light overcoat with me, and with 
 that I covered myself as best I could, but to get up 
 and look for my clothes in that attire was more 
 than I had the courage to do. I called appealingly 
 to the manager but he was at the other end of the 
 coach and apparently deeply engrossed in a news- 
 paper. When the conductor came along he simply 
 gave me the laugh and passed by. 
 
 'Then a chorus came from the players: 'Why 
 don't you bluff it out ?' Then I realized why I was 
 getting the dose. 
 
 ''I rode for about fifteen minutes in that shape 
 and then my clothes were suddenly dumped on 
 me, all nicely tied into knots. I had a great deal 
 of trouble in getting them on, but I took it all 
 good naturedly, for what else could I do? But 
 they had not finished with me yet. 
 
 "When we reached our destination it lacked an 
 
304 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 hour before dinner and some of the players went 
 driving, while the rest lounged around the hotel. 
 Presently one of the players returned riding a nag 
 of the coach variety, apparently about as docile as 
 a cow. The rider announced that he was tired 
 already of such a hard riding beast (I learned after- 
 
 *' He must have been a circus horse at one time." 
 
 ward that he was a splendid horseman) and in- 
 vited me to take his place. 
 
 "I wasn't much of a rider, but to show that I 
 bore no hard feelings for the morning's perform- 
 ance, I mounted the horse, and instantly some one 
 gave him a thundering slap, and away he went. 
 He must have been a circus horse at one period 
 because I never saw one carry on the way he did. 
 He appeared to go most of the time only on one 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 305 
 
 leg, and I was almost shaken to pieces. I finally 
 got him into a walk, and was thinking of return- 
 ing to the hotel when a buggy was driven up rap- 
 idly behind me and I heard the swish of a whip as it 
 fell on my horse's haunches. He was ofif like a shot 
 and I held on with all fours. The buggy kept up 
 with me however and the whip continued to fall. 
 1 had just time to look around and see the laughing 
 faces of two of the players when my horse swerved 
 into a side road and the buggy passed on. 
 
 "Well, I finally got the infernal animal under 
 control again, and rode him back to the hotel, 
 but I was so sore that I could not sit down to 
 dinner with any degree of comfort. The boys did 
 not ask me anything about my adventures, but 
 they talked a great deal about card playing, and 
 how a player who could carry through a grand 
 bluff was sure to beat the game. I didn't join in 
 the conversation, but I smiled an occasional sickly 
 smile to show that I bore no malice. 
 
 ''The final chapter in the hazing, for such it was, 
 came a week later. We were in St. Louis, and 
 after the first game, I went with about four of the 
 boys to a variety theatre. Among the performers 
 was a singer who styled herself La Belle Clarisse, 
 or something like that, who had fluffy hair, and 
 looked very attractive in the glare of the footlights. 
 We applauded her enthusiastically, thereby attract- 
 ing her attention and she smiled sweetly on us. 
 
3o6 JACK POTS. 
 
 "One of the boys professed to know her, at any 
 rate he sent her a note by the waiter, and after the 
 show she came to our table. The Hghts had been 
 turned down by that time and she looked and 
 talked charmingly. An invitation was extended to 
 her to witness the next day's game, and I was de- 
 lighted w^hen I was designated as her escort. In 
 my verdancy I congratulated myself at being thus 
 honored, and pictured myself creating a furore 
 w^hen I escorted that beautiful being to the ball 
 grounds and past the envious multitude. 
 
 ''But I was grievously disenchanted when I went 
 to her boarding house next day and saw La Belle. 
 The bright sunlight was different from the foot- 
 lights and she appeared to have aged about twenty- 
 five years since the night before. Her fluffy hair 
 was gone and her face was seamed and sallow, and 
 there was also a tough look about her mouth that 
 I had not previously noticed. But there was no 
 chance to back out. There she was all togged out, 
 so gay that you could see her a mile off, and I had 
 to take her. 
 
 "Oh, how I suffered ! Instead of creating a 
 furore I attracted attention of another kind. 
 Everybody looked at us, to be sure, but not in the 
 way I fancied. The few acquaintances I had made 
 ignored me, and I would have been isolated if it 
 had not been for the players. They did not forget 
 me. They took every opportunity of grouping in 
 
PRACTICAL JOKING. 307 
 
 front of the stand where we sat and grinning at 
 us in a way that focused all eyes in our vicinity. 
 I sat the game through, but I had alternate cold 
 chills and hot sweats all the time, and after I had 
 escorted La Belle home, I made a solemn vow 
 never to be fresh again. The players evidently 
 thought that I had been properly educated, for 
 they let up on me thereafter. Another result of my 
 experience was that I never bluffed in a poker 
 game afterwards — that is, I never let any one 
 know that I did." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CROOKED GAMBLING AN EXPERT EXPLAINS THE 
 
 MYSTERIES OF SECOND CARD, PAPER MEN 
 AND HOLD OUTS. 
 
 There is no pleasure at all in playing poker un- 
 less it is on the square. If a man in addition to 
 bending all his mind to the proper playing of his 
 hand has also to watch his opponent to see that 
 he does not cheat, he may win a little money at the 
 game but he certainly cannot extract much fun 
 from the pastime. Fortunately for the popularity 
 of the game it is not easy to cheat at poker. 
 Doubtless there are a number of players who have 
 the incHnation but they lack the skill. To stack a 
 pack or even slip a card requires sleight of hand 
 that cannot be mastered without years of practice, 
 and it will not do to cheat unless it can be done 
 without detection. No amateur player cares to 
 be thrown out of a window or booted down the 
 stairs. 
 
 The amateur player who would cheat if he could 
 illustrates his weakness by the way he tries to put 
 up the cards. \Mien he is out of a deal, he will 
 gather together the discard and sort out the aces, 
 kings or other high cards, and bunch them, so that 
 if the cards are not well shuffled on the next deal 
 
 308 
 
CROOKED GAMBLING. 309 
 
 there is a chance of catching three of a kind on 
 the draw. He watches the shuffle and cut very 
 closely, and regulates his draw by what he can re- 
 member of the position of the cards, and if the 
 cards are given him to cut, he cuts them light or 
 deep so as to give him the best chance of getting 
 the stacked cards. 
 
 These and a number of other little devices which 
 are familiar to poker players, are not exactly cheat- 
 ing, but they are efforts to gain some advantage 
 over the other players, independent of the natural 
 run of the cards. It is pleasant to record that the 
 players who resort to such tricks are not remark- 
 able for their winnings. Their calculations fre- 
 quently go wrong and then they come to grief in 
 a way that is a source of merriment to the men who 
 are content to play the game strictly on its merits. 
 
 It would be an interesting sight to run some of 
 these fellows up against a professional card sharp, 
 and see how they would get skinned.^ Their money 
 would not be worth two cents on the dollar, be- 
 cause the professional leaves nothing to chance. 
 
 Professional gamblers may have a home but 
 they do not stay there. They are continually trav- 
 eling from place to place, continually looking for a 
 game. They work a town for a week or maybe a 
 month, and then, when the atmosphere begins to 
 be lurid they move on. That gives an opening for 
 another professional to work the town, with a dif- 
 
3IO JACK POTS. 
 
 ferent kind of game. There is a sucker born every 
 minute. 
 
 Professionals usually travel in pairs, under the 
 guise of legitimate business agents or as wealthy 
 pleasure seekers. They have letters of introduction 
 from prominent people — bogus, of course — and as 
 a result they are introduced into fashionable clubs, 
 and subsequently into the game. Unlike amateurs, 
 who are prone to brag of their winnings, the pro- 
 fessional will try to hide his gains, and very often 
 will claim to be loser when, in reality he has won 
 many dollars. 
 
 There are a hundred ways of cheating, mechan- 
 ical and otherwise, but the most of them cannot be 
 used successfully except in a room and on a table 
 fitted up for that purpose, and these are found only 
 hi crooked gambling joints. The most skillful 
 gamblers rely on the dexterity of their fingers, and 
 carry no appHances that might come to light un- 
 expectedly and put them in a very awkward plight. 
 Some are known as ''paper men" others as "hold 
 outs," while more are called ''second dealers." 
 They all, of course, have a general knowledge of 
 the various methods of cheating, but they excel, as 
 a rule, in some one of these systems. A retired 
 gambler, who, in his day was the most skilled "sec- 
 ond dealer" in the country, explains these methods 
 very entertainingly. 
 
 "It took me more than four years of hard prac- 
 
CROOKED GAMBLING. 3^1 
 
 tice to learn how to deal seconds properly. A 'sec- 
 ond dealer' is a man who can deal cards from any 
 part of the pack without detection, so that, prev- 
 ious to the players drawing cards he skilfully slips 
 his thumb along the bottom of the pack and 
 catches a glimpse of the cards to be dealt. If he 
 sees anything he needs he can deal it to himself 
 as easily as if it were on the top of the pack. If 
 he has a partner he will know by signs just exactly 
 what he wants, and if he can't give it to him he 
 will motion to him to stay out. 
 
 '*If his partner has a pair he will look through 
 the pack, and if he observes the other pair of the 
 same he will make a sign to his partner, who will 
 thereupon raise the price to draw cards. As a rule, 
 partners sit together when they play, so that one 
 can cut to the other's liking, and this is in itself 
 a science, for the man cutting the cards will do it 
 to the satisfaction of the whole board, as he ap- 
 parently mixes them up, while in reality he does 
 not disturb his partner's prearranged cards. 
 
 *'In this instance the man who cuts the cards 
 would naturally be the last to get cards, and his 
 partner has an easy thing giving him what he 
 wants. When he is first to get cards, it is different. 
 It is rather difficult to pull two cards from difTerent 
 parts of the pack, and then all eyes are watching 
 the dealer when he is giving out the first cards. 
 So, while holding the pack in his left hand just be- 
 
312 JACK POTS. 
 
 fore starting to deal to those drawing, he will find 
 some pretext for reaching his right hand across the 
 table, and in this manner he will momentarily hide 
 the deck. In fhat instant he will shift with his 
 fingers one of the cards his partner needs to the 
 top of the pack. He will repeat this movement 
 the same as before, and bring the other card on 
 top. His partner will draw three cards and will, 
 of course, get four of a kind." 
 
 The gambler then showed how he could bring 
 cards from the center to the top of the pack. Hold- 
 ing the pack in his left hand as if about to deal, 
 he would shove his forefinger between the deck 
 and right above the card he was to bring on top. 
 He would then raise his forefinger, thereby lifting 
 the cards above it, and then with the middle finger 
 he would slide the wanted card out about half an 
 inch toward his fingers. Then he would press down 
 on the card and in this manner raise it outside the 
 pack. He would then remove his forefinger, 
 thereby allowing the cards to fall back again. The 
 needed card would be standing on its side outside 
 the pack, and it would then be an easy matter to 
 shift it on top of the pack. In fact, the whole 
 operation looked easy enough until tried, and then 
 it became very difficult. 
 
 'Taper men," explained this expert, "are men 
 who make a specialty of reading cards. They have 
 a system of marking the backs of cards so that 
 
CROOKED GAMBLING. 313 
 
 they can tell all the aces, kings, queens, jacks, and 
 eventually the whole pack, if it is used long enough. 
 This knowledge of course gives them a tremen- 
 dous advantage, especially in a two handed game, 
 for they can tell just what the other player has by 
 looking at the backs of his cards. 
 
 'Til never forget the first time I had an expe- 
 rience with a paper man. I was in a Denver saloon 
 one day, and a fat stranger with whom I had 
 struck up an acquaintance suggested a game of 
 poker. I accepted the proposition with pleasure, 
 and we retired to an ante room for the sport. Be- 
 fore we had been playing very long I discovered 
 that my friend w^as using a pack of readers. I had 
 given him a few good hands, but he wouldn't play, 
 for of course he could see that I had a better hand, 
 so I made up my mind to fool him. 
 
 ''It finally came to my deal w^hen there was a 
 pretty good jack pot. I had lost a little money 
 and I now set about getting it back with interest. 
 So I stacked my fat friend three aces and gave 
 myself three kings. After I had given out the two 
 hands I laid down the deck, and the top card was 
 an ace. Directly under the ace I had a five of 
 clubs and the six of clubs and a king under that. 
 
 "When the fellow saw the ace on top he smiled, 
 for he knew that he had four aces sure. He opened 
 the pot for a small amount and I gave it a lift. He 
 came back at me with another raise, and we kept 
 
314 JACK POTS. 
 
 it up, until he finally said that he had only a little 
 money left to bet with, for he wanted some fun 
 after the draw. I guess he thought I must be soft 
 with my poor kings up against his three and as 
 good as four aces. 
 
 "Well, he drew one and I gave him the five of 
 clubs. I took two myself, taking my king and his 
 ace. As I ex2ected, he drew in the card without 
 looking at it, shoved it under his other four, and 
 then said, with a broad smile: ''Now, I'll bet all 
 I have," and he threw out the few remaining dol- 
 lars he had. I covered it, and called him. 
 
 " 'I have four aces,' he replied, as he turned up 
 his hand, and then when he saw the cards he ut- 
 tered an awful oath, and shouted: 'Well, I'll be 
 damned if they didn't change right before my 
 very eyes !' 
 
 " 'I know they did,' I said, as I pocketed the 
 coin, 'and your paper isn't worth two cents a pound 
 playing with me ;' and I left the place $500 richer 
 for that transaction. 
 
 "Paper men have many ways of marking cards. 
 Some of them carry a small machine which is at- 
 tached to their finger and resembles a ring, and 
 with this they cut the backs of the cards near the 
 corners, so that when dealing they always have 
 an advantage. 
 
 "Hold out men are men who when playing con- 
 ceal cards in the palm of their hand. They do this 
 
CROOKED GAMBLING. 3^5 
 
 very cleverly, sometimes dealing and handling the 
 pack while palming a half dozen cards, and they 
 can get rid of them without detection. Even if you 
 have your eyes on the man it is hard to see any- 
 thing crooked. For instance one of these fellows 
 will hold four of a kind in his hand until it comes 
 his age. Not always four aces, in fact, very rarely 
 anything higher than tens, because high cards are 
 more apt to excite suspicion. After the dealer has 
 given out cards and laid down the deck, the hold 
 out man will put his hand down on the deck, 
 thereby putting his four tens on top, and say, 'Wait 
 a while; this should have been my deal.' This is 
 merely an excuse for his action in putting the cards 
 on top. After a little dispute he will draw four 
 cards, and as he is the first to draw he will get the 
 four tens. Of course he can't play that trick more 
 than twice at least in the evening, so he must se- 
 lect some time when there is a big pot, and that 
 isn't always possible. That is why the second card 
 and the paper man have an advantage over the hold 
 out man." 
 
 It not only requires skill to perform these tricks, 
 but to use them as a gambler a man must possess 
 an iron nerve and never get rattled. Some magi- 
 cians are very clever with cards, in fact more so 
 than any gambler, but they can*t play poker with a 
 crooked card player. No man could handle cards 
 Vvith the dexterity of Hermann but he was a regu- 
 
3i6 JACK POTS. 
 
 lar loser at poker. Of course there is another side 
 to this. Hermann did not try to cheat while play- 
 ing poker. If he or any other expert would de- 
 liberately use his wonderful skill to cheat at cards 
 does any one doubt that he could not defeat any 
 crooked player? I would hate to stake the crook 
 against him. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CLASSIC TALES OF POKER THE ONE-EYED MAN ORIGIN 
 
 OF THE LOOLOO — FOUR KINGS AS BANK COLLATERAL 
 JAY GOULD AS A PHILANTHROPIST. 
 
 Around such an old and venerable institution as 
 poker there has necessarily grown up a crop of 
 classic stories, passed down from year to year, 
 changing their location perhaps but preserving 
 their main features, and losing nothing of their 
 attractiveness from age. You may or may not 
 have heard them before ; if they are new to you, so 
 much the better; if old friends they will be wel- 
 comed heartily. They run the gamut from grave 
 to gay, from lively to severe, although in this col- 
 lection we will omit the grave and the severe. 
 
 In the way of sarcasm where can we find a nicer 
 bit than in the story of the gambler who was in- 
 dicted for running a game of chance, and triumph- 
 antly acquitted on the plea of his counsel that the 
 players who bucked against his bank didn't have 
 any chance? This little bit should be highly ap- 
 preciated by some of the venturesome visitors to 
 the Chicago World's Fair who explored Clark 
 Street. 
 
 A variant myth is equally apt and pithy. A 
 poker player was hauled up before a justice on the 
 charge of gambling. 
 
 317 
 
3i8 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 "So you were playing cards for money?" said 
 
 the magistrate, severely. 
 
 ''No, sir; we were playing for chips." 
 
 ''It's all the same thing. You got your chips 
 
 cashed for money at the end of the game, I sup- 
 
 pose 
 
 ?" 
 
 "You're 
 said 
 
 No, sir." 
 
 'No! How's that?" "At the end of the 
 
 game I didn't have any 
 chip^, your honor." 
 
 discharged," 
 the judge, 
 and he snapped it 
 out so quick that 
 the constable 
 turned pale. 
 
 In Montana to 
 assume that the 
 judge is ignorant 
 of any of the 
 niceties of poker 
 is to be fined for 
 contempt of 
 
 "You're discharged," said the Judge. COUrt. 
 
 A lawyer de- 
 fending a prisoner charged with swindling ex- 
 plained : "Your honor, one of the witnesses alleges 
 that my client rung in a cold deck on him. A cold 
 deck, your honor, it may be necessary to explain, 
 IS a 
 
# CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 319 
 
 "The assumption," said the judge, severely, 
 "that the court doesn't know what a cold deck is, 
 Mr. Sharp, is an impertinence that will subject you 
 to a fine if persisted in. Proceed with your argu- 
 ment." 
 
 The prevalence of poker in the West was once 
 demonstrated to the satisfaction of a traveler in 
 that region. 
 
 "Can we have a little two dollar limit up stairs?" 
 he asked of the hotel clerk. 
 
 "Certainly," answered the clerk, "only be quiet 
 about it." 
 
 "Of course; but how about the sheriff?" 
 
 "I don't know. Here, Front!" the clerk called 
 to the boy. "Run over to the sherifif' s of^ce and 
 ask him if he wants to take a hand in a small game 
 of draw." 
 
 No picture of western license can be more strik- 
 ing than the following, which is located in the rat- 
 tlesnake region of Arizona. 
 
 "I don't see the prisoner," said the judge, as he 
 waked up preparatory to sentencing the culprit. 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 "I'm blest if I know," said the sherifY, looking 
 under the benches. "Just lent him my paper of 
 fine cut, too." 
 
 "Was he a big red headed man with a scar on 
 his cheek?" asked the foreman, who was playing 
 poker with the rest of the jury. 
 
320 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''That's the cuss," said the clerk. 
 
 "Why, then," said the foreman, ''he asked me to 
 go out and take a drink with him about an hour 
 ago, but I showed him~ I had three sixes, and he 
 said, 'Well, next time then,' and walked out." 
 
 "The thunder you say!" roared his honor. 
 "However, he's sure to be in town next week to see 
 the dog fight, and some of you must remind the 
 sheriff to shoot him at sight. The docket is just 
 jammed full of horse stealing cases and there is 
 no time to waste over homicides." 
 
 A common saying, "There's a one-eyed man in 
 the game," meaning about the same as "look out 
 for a cheat," has its origin in a story that bears the 
 stamp of truth. 
 
 A little game of draw was in progress in Omaha, 
 and among its participants was a one-eyed man. 
 He was playing in rather remarkable luck, but no 
 one could very well find fault with that. Pres- 
 ently, however, there came a jack pot, and it was 
 the one-eyed man's deal. He opened the pot, and 
 while he was giving himself cards a certain belli- 
 cose gentleman named Jones thought he detected 
 the one-eyed man in the act of palming a card. 
 Quick as a flash, Jones whipped out a revolver and 
 placed it on the table beside him. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he said, decisively, "we ^ill have 
 a fresh deal ; this one doesn't go." 
 
 The players were surprised, but as none of them 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 321 
 
 had bettered his hand save the opener, who made 
 no sign of disapproval, they wilHngly consented. 
 
 "And now that we start on a new deal," pursued 
 Mr. Jones, carelessly toying with the revolver, "let 
 me announce that we are going to have nothing 
 but square deals. I am not making any insinua- 
 tions or bringing any charges, and I will say only 
 this, that if I catch any son-of-a-gun cheating I will 
 shoot out his other eye." 
 
 History affirms that from that time henceforth 
 that game was the squarest on record. 
 
 A well known sporting man tells this story and 
 swears to it. 
 
 "Half a dozen of us were playing a stiff game. 
 A well known lawyer, known as the Colonel, hap- 
 pened into the room, and though he was some- 
 what the Worse for drink he insisted on taking a 
 hand. A hundred dollars worth of chips were 
 handed out to him and the game recommenced. 
 Only a few hands had been dealt when the Col- 
 onel's head sank softly down on his vest and his 
 eyelids closed. He was fast asleep. 
 
 "On the next hand — a jack pot — one of the 
 players opened on an ace flush. No one came in 
 and he was about to rake in the pot, when he no- 
 ticed that the Colonel had not had his say. He 
 reached across the table and gave the sleeping 
 warrior a dig in the ribs. 
 
 " 'Wake up,' he cried. 'Wake up and play your 
 hand.' 
 
322 JACK POTS. 
 
 " 'Wha's ma'r?' asked the Colonel, wearily. 
 
 '' 'Pot is opened for five dollars. Everybody else 
 is out. Is it my pot?' 
 
 ''The Colonel roused up, picked up his hand in 
 a jumbled careless fashion and sleepily slid ten dol- 
 lars into the pot. 
 
 '' 'It's only five dollars to come in,' said the 
 other, with the jubilant light of hope in his eyes. 
 *Do you raise ?' 
 
 " 'Oh, five dollars, is it? Well, never mind, let 
 her go at that. Raise.' 
 
 ''Then the gentleman with the flush raised again. 
 So did the Colonel. Finally every dollar each 
 player had, went to swell the prodigiously big pot. 
 The boys hated to see the Colonel throwing away 
 his money in that maudlin way, but they couldn't 
 interfere. 
 
 " 'How many cards?' said the dealer. The fists 
 of the two men hit the table with resounding 
 thumps, as a signal that both had pat hands. It 
 was a show-down then. The drowsy Colonel 
 spread out on the table a queen full. The boys 
 shoved him the pot, and he was too drunk to reach 
 for it. The laugh was on the other player, although 
 he did not have much laugh left in him. He said, 
 however, that it was the first time he had ever 
 wakened a man to make him play his hand and 
 it would be his last." 
 
 The story of the origin of the looloo has all the 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 323 
 
 elements of immortality. Every poker player 
 should know it and every poker player who has 
 heard it will enjoy reading it once more. So here 
 it is : 
 
 The locale is a gambling saloon in Butte. A 
 tenderfoot had announced his intention of reliev- 
 ing a few of the miners of what spare change they 
 had left after assuaging their thirst. Without 
 much trouble he found a victim who was willing to 
 try a hand or two at poker. 
 
 Luck favored the stranger and he won the ma- 
 jority of the pots. Finally he drew four aces, and 
 after the stakes had been run up to a very com- 
 fortable figure, he magnanimously refused to bet 
 further. 
 
 ''This is downright robbery," he said, pleasantly, 
 "and I don't want to bankrupt you so early. So 
 here goes." He threw down his cards and reached 
 out for the money. 
 
 "Hold on," said his antagonist. "I'll take care 
 of the dust if you please." 
 
 "But I hold four aces — see?" 
 
 "Well, what of it? I have a looloo." 
 
 "A— what?" 
 
 "A looloo ; three clubs and two diamonds." 
 
 The stranger was dazed. "A looloo?" he re- 
 peated. "Well, what is a looloo anyhow?" 
 
 "Three clubs and two diamonds," cooly repeated 
 the miner. "Guess you ain't accustomed to our 
 poker rules out here. See there?" 
 
324 JACK POTS. 
 
 As he spoke he jerked his thumb over his shoul- 
 der toward a pasteboard card which hung on the 
 wall back of the bar. It read: 
 
 A LOOLOO 
 
 BEATS FOUR ACES. 
 
 The game proceeded but it was plainly evident 
 that the unsophisticated young gamester had 
 something on his mind. Within five minutes he 
 suddenly braced up and his face was wreathed in 
 smiles. Then he began betting with his former 
 vigor and recklessness. In fact he staked his last 
 dollar on his hand. 
 
 Just at this juncture the barkeeper stopped in 
 the midst of manipulating a cocktail, and hung up 
 another card behind the bar and above the dazzling 
 array of glasses and bottles. 
 
 The young man threw down his hand with an 
 exultant whoop. "It's my time to howl just 
 about now !" he cried, as he reached for the money. 
 "There's a looloo for you^ — three clubs and two 
 diamonds." 
 
 "Pshaw!" exclaimed the miner. "Really, this is 
 too bad. You don't understand our rules at all. 
 You certainly don't mean to tell me that you play 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 325 
 
 poker in such a slip shod way down East, do you ? 
 Why, look at that rule over there." 
 
 He pointed over the head of the busy barkeeper. 
 The unfortunate young man read his doom in the 
 handwriting on the wall. The bit of pasteboard 
 bore this legend: 
 
 THE LOOLOO 
 
 CAN BE 
 
 PLAYED 
 
 BUT ONCE A NIGHT. 
 
 They say it was a Chicago man who was thus 
 introduced to this awful innovation. He raised 
 money to take him home, and got even on his dear 
 friends, but the secret soon got out, and the loo- 
 loo now goes in Chicago right along. 
 
 Of course a subject so prolific in possibilities has 
 not escaped the attention of the funny man, and 
 in his efiforts of the imagination he has spared 
 neither age nor position in life. Even the clergy 
 have not escaped. 
 
 There is the story of the gentleman who had in- 
 advertently slipped a blue chip into the contribu- 
 tion box, and called upon hie pastor next day with 
 
326 JACK POTS. 
 
 an apology for his carelessness, and proffered a 
 silver dollar in place of the chip. 
 
 "Ah, yes," said the divine. "Let me see. You 
 belong to the Lake Shore Club, I believe?" 
 
 "I do," replied the gentleman, promptly. 
 
 "Then," returned the clergyman, decidedly, "a. 
 dollar is not enough. A blue chip is worth five 
 dollars in your game." 
 
 Perhaps it was the same minister who remarked 
 from the pulpit, while examining the contents of 
 the contribution box: 
 
 *T regret to say that the heathen have not yet 
 arrived at that point of civilization where they will 
 derive any benefit from poker chips, but if the gen- 
 tlemen who contributed these tokens will step 
 around to the vestry after services, they may re- 
 deem them; otherwise I will keep them until the 
 heathen can be instructed." 
 
 An Oklahoma preacher was even more shrewd. 
 
 "The collection will now be taken," he said, "and 
 I take this opportunity to remark that poker chips 
 don't go any more. Get them cashed before you 
 come and bring the money. I am forced to this 
 decision by the fact that some of the brethren have 
 been shoving off chips of their own manufacture 
 and letting the laugh be on us when we went to 
 get them cashed at the Dewdrop Fortune Parlors." 
 
 A still more alarming state of affairs is revealed 
 '•^ the protest which the Rev. Lettus Hitemhard 
 lelt consiramea to make lo his congregation. 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 327 
 
 "My friends," said he, earnestly, ''the extent to 
 which gambling has been carried on in our town is 
 alarming. From my study I can look across the 
 street into a clubroom, where night after night 
 young men gather to play cards. Last night I 
 saw a sight that made my blood run cold. There 
 at a table sat four young men playing poker — for 
 money! Yes, for money. I don't wonder that 
 you shudder, brethren. Large stacks of money 
 were before them, and would you believe it, I ac- 
 tually saw one young man, who ought to have 
 known better, bet ten blue chips on a pair of 
 kings !" 
 
 The razor and the negro are supposed to be in- 
 separable companions, so in this class of poker 
 tales you naturally expect to run across a razor. 
 As for example, in this dialogue : 
 
 "Did you have a citing game last night?" 
 
 "On'y played one hand." 
 
 "Festivities rather short, hey? What break 'em 
 up?" 
 
 "Dar was seben dollahs on de table an' I had 
 three kings." 
 
 "Berry good foh a stahter." 
 
 "An' Mistah Jinkins held up cards." 
 
 'Tromisin'." 
 
 "She'. An' I drew annuda king." 
 
 ''An' won de pot?" 
 
 "No." 
 
328 
 
 JACK POTS. 
 
 ''Why, what did Jinkins draw?" 
 "Er razor." 
 
 The following story is told about the late la- 
 mented King Kalakaua, who when he ruled the 
 Sandwich Islands was a really good fellow, if his 
 skin was dark. It is also told about the famous 
 
 Tom Corwin, the 
 Southern states- 
 man of ante hel- 
 ium days. . Cor- 
 win had a very 
 dark complexion, 
 and it is told of 
 him that he once 
 attended a ball 
 given in Wash- 
 ington by a very 
 exclusive mulatto 
 set. He was in 
 company with an- 
 other Southern- 
 er also of a 
 sallow hue, and as they presented their tickets at 
 the door, they were halted by the doorkeeper. 
 
 ''Excuse me," said that functionary. "Your 
 friend may enter, but, pardon me — you are a shade 
 too dark." 
 
 However, Paul Newman, who was Attorney- 
 General for Kalakaua, declares that the King was 
 
 'Excuse me," said that functionary « * * "you 
 are a shade too dark." 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER 329 
 
 the hero of this story. He says that the king was 
 an ardent poker player but not a high roller, as 
 generally believed. 
 
 One night Newman, the King and two others 
 were having a friendly set-to when a revolution 
 broke out. Matters were getting interesting — 
 around the poker table — w^hen a messenger came 
 running in to announce that the rioters were on 
 their way to sack the royal palace. It was decided 
 to go home directly after the jack pot, conse- 
 quently the betting was fast and furious. As the 
 King placed his last bet on the board the report of 
 guns was heard. 
 
 *'Run for your lives!" cried Kalakaua. 
 
 The party started to run, but before they got 
 under way, the King showed his hand and raked 
 in the pot. The party was so nervous that they did 
 not notice the cards closely, so the King, who had 
 three jacks, rung in a photo of himself as the fourth 
 jack. After the riot had been suppressed, the trick 
 was discovered, but as Kalakaua had been a steady 
 loser all summer, it was not considered good form 
 to kick. 
 
 When ex-Senator Thomas Fitch lived in Vir- 
 ginia City, Nevada, he was unquestionably the fin- 
 est orator on the Pacific slope, and the best 
 equipped lawyer, with the possible exception of the 
 supreme judge, Stephen J- Field. Tom was the 
 idol of every mining camp in those parts where he 
 
330 JACK POTS. 
 
 was widely known. One of his failings, however, 
 was his carelessness in money matters and his in- 
 trepidity in incurring debts. He also had a weak- 
 ness for cards and never missed an opportunity of 
 getting into a game. 
 
 One Sunday morning in 1874, Jim Merry^ a well 
 known sporting man of Virginia City, rose with 
 the sun and was ambling down K Street for his 
 cocktail, when he met Tom Fitch. 
 
 "Good morning. Senator," greeted Merry, ''and 
 what brings you out so early ?" 
 
 "I've been up all night in a game," answered 
 Fitch, with some acerbity. 
 
 "Well, how did you come out?" queried Merry. 
 
 "Lost $2,530," replied the senator. 
 
 "That's too bad. Senator," said Merry, commis- 
 eratingly. "You must have played in bad luck." 
 
 "So I did," said Fitch. "And the worst of it is 
 that thirty dollars of it was in cash money." 
 
 Of course the following incident happened in the 
 breezy West, and it bears all the earmarks of sacred 
 truth, which always makes a story much more en« 
 joyable. 
 
 One morning the janitor of the bank opened the 
 door and was surprised to see three rather tired 
 looking men sitting on the steps, the center one of 
 whom held a sealed envelope carefully in sight of 
 his companions. A few minutes later the cashier 
 of the bank arrived and they followed him into 
 the building. 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 33^ 
 
 *'Good morning, gentlemen," he said, pleasantly. 
 ''Want to make a deposit?" 
 
 "No ; I want to negotiate a loan," said the man 
 with the envelope, "and there ain't a minute to lose. 
 I want five thousand dollars quicker than Hades 
 can scorch a feather." 
 
 "What collateral have you to offer? Govern- 
 ments or commercial paper?" inquired the bank 
 ofBcial. 
 
 "Governments nothing!" exclaimed the man. 
 "Fve got something that beats four per cents all 
 hollow. You see, I've been sitting in a poker game 
 across the street, and there's more than five thou- 
 sand dollars in the pot. There are three or four 
 pretty strong hands out, and as I've every cent in 
 the center the boys have given me thirty minutes 
 to raise a stake on my hand. It's in this envelope. 
 Just look at it, but don't give it away to these gen- 
 tlemen. They are in the game, and came along to 
 see that I don't monkey with the cards." 
 
 "But, my dear sir," said the cashier, who had 
 quietly opened the envelope and found* it to con- 
 tain four kings and an ace, "this is entirely irregu- 
 lar. We do not lend money on cards." 
 
 "But you ain't going to see me raised out on a 
 hand like this, are you?" whispered the poker 
 player, anxiously. "These fellows think I'm bluff- 
 ing, and I can just clean out the whole gang. You 
 see, we ain't playing straight flushes, so I've got 
 'em right in the door." 
 
332 JACK POTS. 
 
 "Can't help it, sir; never heard of such a thing," 
 said the cashier, severely, and the disappointed 
 applicant and his friends filed sadly out. 
 
 On the corner they met the president of the bank 
 who was himself just from an all night game. The 
 man explained the case again, and the next mo- 
 ment the superior officer darted into the bank, 
 seized a bundle of twenties and followed the trio. 
 • In about ten minutes he returned with the bundle 
 and an extra handful of twenties, which he flung 
 on the counter. 
 
 "Here, credit five hundred dollars to interest 
 account," he said to the cashier. ''Why, I thought 
 you had more business snap. Ever play poker?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 ''Ah, I thought not. If you had you would 
 know what good collateral was. Remember that 
 in future four kings and an ace, with straight 
 flushes barred, are always good in this institution 
 for our entire assets, sir — our entire assets." 
 
 The man who wins a lot of money from another 
 fellow and then gives it back with a sermon, has 
 appeared several times in print, and now he makes 
 his bow in the guise of no less a person than the 
 famous Jay Gould. 
 
 It was in Chicago about twenty years ago. He 
 happened to be at a hotel when a social game of 
 poker was in progress. One of the party was a 
 young man of about twenty-eight, who was plung- 
 
CLASSIC TALES OF POKER. 333 
 
 ing recklessly. He was winning right along, rak- 
 ing in pot after pot, and punctuating every one 
 with a drink. 
 
 Mr. Gould was looking on, but making no com- 
 ment, and as it happened no one knew who he was. 
 Finally one of the party quit, and the others asked 
 Gould to take a hand. He declined. The game 
 went on, the players getting every minute more 
 reckless and drunker. The young plunger at 
 length said, sneeringly, to Gould, "Say, if you come 
 in, we'll make it ten cent limit." 
 
 Gould was stung by the sarcasm. 
 
 "Yes, I'll play," he said, quietly, "but you must 
 not alter your game. I have not played for years, 
 but I guess I can learn again." 
 
 The game started again, and the plunger opened 
 the pot for a thousand dollars. He chuckled as he 
 did so and fingered his winnings, which amounted 
 to nearly $8,000. The others dropped out, and 
 Gould raised it a thousand dollars. 
 
 "Two thousand better," shouted the reckless 
 better. 
 
 "Twenty thousand better," said Gould, taking a 
 roll of bills from his pocket and counting out that 
 amount. 
 
 The young man sank back in his chair, sobered 
 by the shock. Forcing a smile on his face, he said : 
 
 "I have only five thousand in cash. Can I have 
 a show down?" 
 
334 JACK POTS. 
 
 "Yes," said Gould, grimly. 
 
 There was a show down, and you are prepared 
 to hear that Jay Gould had four aces. He always 
 held four aces in every game he played — railroads 
 or anything else. The broken young man arose 
 and staggered out of the room, with the prospect 
 of utter ruin staring him in the face. 
 
 As he was about to leave the hotel a waiter 
 stepped up to him and told him that a gentleman 
 wished to see him in his room. 
 
 ''Young man," said Gould, when the young man 
 was brought into his presence. ''I learn that you oc- 
 cupy a responsible position in this city, and that 
 you have a young wife and a child, both probably 
 waiting for you at this moment. You have ruined 
 yourself, your wife and your little one for an hour^s 
 pleasure. It is quite evident that you are not fit 
 to own anything more than a twenty dollar bill, but 
 your wife must not suffer for you. Here," and 
 he handed him the money he had lost, "take this to 
 her, and ask her to take care of it for you." 
 
 As the young man went out, humiliated but 
 thankful, he stopped at the desk and found out 
 that his benefactor's name was Jay Gould. Now 
 that is the story and they do say that from that 
 
 day Jay Gould developed symptoms of that disease 
 which carried him off — enlargement of the heart. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE POETRY OF POKER DITTIES, WISE AND OTHER- 
 WISE, ABOUT THE GREAT NATIONAL GAME. 
 
 It is a very singular feature about poker that it 
 has no distinctive poetry to commemorate its 
 greatness. There must have been at least ten thou- 
 sand poems, big and little, written about war, while 
 poker has been sadly neglected, although men have 
 been known to get just as mad and excited over the 
 game — particularly when it was not running their 
 way — as any warrior who charged up San Juan 
 Hill. Horse racing has had its poets, and ''How 
 Salvator Won," is a classic. Baseball has been im- 
 mortalized in ''Casey at the Bat," and the football 
 poet has been heard in the land. Then why has 
 poker been neglected ? Where is the man who will 
 send his name thundering down the ages with an 
 epic poem on the great national game? Here is 
 an opportunity for some one to make fame and for- 
 tune. Meanwhile we must be content with odd bits 
 strewn here and there, of most of which the author- 
 ship is unknown. 
 
 The first that comes to my memory is a personal 
 couplet recited on many occasions by William 
 Reece, of St. Paul, Fargo, Bismarck and interme- 
 diate stations. It runs in this wise : 
 
 335 
 
336 JACK POTS. 
 
 I'm Poker Bill, from Poker Hill. 
 I never quit, and I never will. 
 
 The idea conveyed is that Mr. Reece had de- 
 voted his life to the game of poker, and so he had. 
 To be sure he did quit at intervals for meals and 
 sleep, with occasional gaps when his exchequer 
 was exhausted (William's name not being as good 
 as his tin), but otherwise he was very faithful to 
 his motto. 
 
 This same Mr. Reece was not noted for his good 
 luck, and there were times when he became ab- 
 solutely melancholy over his poor success. To ren- 
 der the situation more trying he came into frequent 
 contact with gentlemen who had apparently no 
 dif^culty in filling flushes and helping pairs, and 
 it was to one of these favorites of fortune that Mr. 
 Reece dedicated the following lines: 
 
 He can put up the biggest bluff, 
 
 His gall has turned to liver; 
 And if he for a steamboat drew 
 
 He'd surely catch a river ! 
 
 These two examples show true poetic instinct 
 and make us wish that Mr. Reece had turned his 
 attention to the muse, instead of wasting his time 
 drawing to deuces and bobtail flushes. 
 
 It must have been a gentleman similarly unfor- 
 
THE POETRY OF POKER. 337 
 
 tunate who illustrated the varying fortunes of the 
 game with this chunk of wisdom ; 
 
 When a fellow's ahead of the game 
 
 He can either quit or stick ; 
 But when he's way deep in the hole 
 
 He can't do nothing but kick. 
 
 In all well regulated games of poker the loser 
 has the privilege of kicking. In Helena, Montana, 
 it used to be the custom when a gentleman had 
 vented his feelings over a specially hard or con- 
 tinuous run of bad luck to bid the barkeeper bring 
 in a barrel or a post so that he might kick to some 
 purpose. This w^as calculated to make the kicker 
 feel better. 
 
 It was quite a time out West before the old 
 veterans tolerated any of the modern innovations 
 in the noble game and it was this spirit that dic- 
 tated the forcible poetical remark here given: 
 
 The man who'd play the "joker" 
 In a friendly game of poker — 
 
 He be dam! 
 
 The only poet who has turned his attention to 
 poker and given us a book on it is Mr. George W. 
 Allen, of St. Louis. It is marred, however, by 
 the fact that it is not a poem in the strict sense of 
 the term, being rather a poker code, conveying in- 
 
33^ JACK POTS. 
 
 struction in a rhyme. In fact, Mr. Allen closes his 
 work by giving a lot of plain, prosaic statistics 
 about bettering your hand. Poker players may re> 
 member having seen something of that sort; all 
 about how you ought to draw to this or that, and 
 when to stay in or stay out, and a lot more in the 
 same line that poker players pay no attention to 
 when they are actually locked in deadly comical 
 over the round table. 
 
 However, Mr. Allen evidently knows something 
 about poker, although he slips a cog once in a 
 while, which is not to be wondered at when we 
 consider the complexity of the theme. 
 
 "Let them rave over whist," melodiously chants 
 the poet as a preface to his rhymed essay: 
 
 Let them rave over whist, 
 
 And admit all they say — 
 There's a game that is better 
 
 For seven to play. 
 
 Why seven ? Whist is not played by seven per- 
 sons. Neither is poker, as a rule, unless the players 
 are willing to shufifle up the discard to draw cards, 
 and that is liable to lead to complications. Per- 
 haps there is something more poetic about seven 
 than four or five. 
 
 Having thus attuned his lyre, Mr. Allen sings in 
 a sweeter key of the chances of getting the various 
 
THE POETRY OF POKER. 339 
 
 hands in the great and alluring game. Here is 
 what he savs about the *'draw," that fateful rite 
 upon which destiny hangs breathless. 
 
 Those who go in wdth hands the best 
 Will come out better than the rest 
 
 It's what they *'draw to" and have *'cold" 
 And not "all in the draw" as told. 
 
 Of course it is not ''all" in the draw, but Mr. 
 Allen is too rash when he makes the bold state- 
 ment that the man who goes in with the best hand 
 will come out in the same situation. Then what 
 would be the use of going in with a bobtail flush, 
 which, as it stands, is worth nothing at all? And 
 \vho has not elevated the^pot on two pair and been 
 beautifully flaxed by some one who stayed on a 
 measley pair of fours and caught the other one? 
 Go to, Mr. Allen ! 
 
 Then he sings right along like a bird and de- 
 scribes the chances of the draw for various hands. 
 
 Drawing for flushes ought to pay 
 When five or six go in and stay ; 
 
 Or when there's any chance to win 
 Five times the cost of going in. 
 
 That's what you miight call playing them close to 
 your stomach. There may be men who can do it, 
 but they are few. It requires a strong constitu- 
 
340 JACK POTS. 
 
 tion to resist the temptation to draw to a four 
 flush, with ace or king up, even if there is only one 
 other in the game. Still, that's business, no doubt. 
 Here is a verse on a mooted point, that has in its 
 meter the ring of sage experience. 
 
 With four flush and tens or under, 
 
 Break the pair — more chance for plunder. 
 
 With aces up, and threes to beat. 
 Draw three, if others don't compete. 
 
 Plunder? More chance for plunder? What sort 
 of cold blooded talk is this coming from a poet? 
 One is bound to suspect that the St. Louis rhyme- 
 ster is in the game for keeps, and not merely a 
 joyous delineator. No one would care to buck up 
 against a man who could write such cold and cruel 
 lines. And he is artful, too. Just listen : 
 
 When you have threes and the pot is small, 
 Then you draw one to fool them all ; 
 
 That you improve, is one to 'leven, 
 As fours make once in forty-seven. 
 
 There is more truth than poetry in that. But he 
 does not believe in this decoy draw except when 
 the pot is so little that one can afford to monkey 
 with it indifferently. 
 
 In the following our poet gets right down to 
 hard pan and friendship ceases. 
 
THE POETRY OP POKER. 34^ 
 
 Sometimes with threes you have more fun, 
 By holding up and drawing one; 
 
 But in big pots where all go in, 
 
 Draw two — you may need fours to win. 
 
 Got it down fine, hasn't he? Yet w^e have all 
 seen the time when a really terrific hand has been 
 made by holding up a side card, and it requires a 
 man of iron nerve to throw away a fat ace or a lusty 
 king when it accompanies three Uttle deuces or 
 treys. And then you don't get as good a play 
 when you draw two cards to threes, and thus give 
 your hand away, as if you can make the boys 
 think you are drawing to two pair. 
 
 But for real, downright duplicity just lend your 
 ear to this song of the serpent as he lays a snare for 
 his victim. 
 
 Sometimes it pays when naught you hold, 
 To play "pat" hands, and bet 'em bold. 
 
 Then others call — you win two-fold 
 
 When you have straights or flushes ''cold." 
 
 The man must be a perfect demon. Is it right to 
 play on the innocence of your friends in that way? 
 You w^iil notice that the poet intimates that when 
 he stands pat with nothing in his hand and gets 
 away with the stakes he is going to let the other 
 fellows see that he has bluffed them, so as to lure 
 
/ 
 
 Siflt 
 
 342 JACK POTS. 
 
 them on to ruin, when he subsequently holds a pat 
 flush or full. It is just as well that young players 
 should be w^arned against such frightful tricks,- so 
 that they will not burn up their good rnoney in 
 playing against poets. 
 
 On the very heels of this he comes out with a 
 lyric on a "dead blufif." 
 
 Most any pair, and little **sand," 
 
 Will often beat a first rate hand. 
 Bluf^ng pays one hand in twenty, 
 
 Sometimes more when chips are plenty. 
 
 And so on, through all the varying features and 
 vicissitudes of the great national game, the poet 
 rides his Pegasus against and amidst chips, jack 
 pots, kitties and the like. Some of his advice 
 sounds worldly and unfeeling, but it is poetical, and 
 beginners must always bear in mind that the vast 
 majority of poker players do not sit down to the 
 table for the benefit of their health. Indeed, at 
 almost any friendly game, it appears at times as if 
 the players were out for the heart's blood of their 
 friends. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 '\