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THE GAMBLER 
 
 A STORY OF CHICAGO LIFE 
 
 FRANC B. WILKIE, 
 
 (POLIUTO) 
 
 AUTHOR OF "sketches BEYOND THE SEA," "tHE GREAT INVENTIONS 
 
 AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON CIVILIZATION," "tHE CHICAGO 
 
 BAR," "walks about CHICAGO," AND "ARMY 
 
 AND MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES," ETC. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 T. S. DENISON, Publisher, 
 
 163 RANDOLPH STREET. 
 
COPYRIGHT, i8S3, 
 
 — BY — 
 
 FRANC B. WILKIE. 
 {All rights reserved^ 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 3LAKELY PRINTING CO. 
 I84- isa Monroe St. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The moral purpose of this work is the pre- 
 sentation of some of the more salient phases 
 of one of the most dangerous and prevalent 
 vices of the age. To fairly accomplish this 
 end, it has been found essential to touch 
 here and there on the concomitants of 
 gambling. 
 
 Some of these adjuncts are not of a pleas- 
 ant character when offered for public inspec- 
 tion ; but in their portrayal, such limitations 
 have been provided as to offend as little as 
 possible the sensibilities of the most refined 
 reader. 
 
 Nothing of this objectionable nature has 
 been written which is not absolutely neces- 
 sary to enforce the lessons of the book in 
 reference to the curse of gaming. 
 
 If this work shall so exhibit the hell into 
 which gaming leads, as to prevent here and 
 there some curious youth from journeying 
 thither, it will have served one of the main 
 purposes of the author in its preparation. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 I. He is Born. — II. A Town with a Boom. — III. He Im- 
 proves His Opportunity. — IV. A Countryman in Town. — V. 
 He Inspects the City. — VI. A Detour to Slaughter Hollow. — 
 VII. Paul Journeys East.— VIII. The Fetich Temple.— IX. 
 The Pretty Typewriter. — X. Jew and Gentile. — XI. The 
 Brute of the Horse-Car. — XII. The Creme de la Creme. — 
 XIII. A Woman Enters the Scene. — XIV. Trouble is Brew- 
 ing. — XV. Friendship, Marriage and Love 7-127 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 I. An Incantation. — II. Preparing the Way. — III. A Nest 
 of Hawks. — IV. A Rattling Game. — V. They go a-fishing. — 
 VI. Tempter and Priestess. — VII. The Fish Takes the Hook. 
 — VIII. Hawks and Doves. — IX. The Composite of the 
 Gambler. — X. Mother and Babe. — XI. Tricks of the Trade. 
 XII. The Bats in Search of Prey.— XIII. More Bait Offered. 
 —XIV. The Fish is Landed 129-253 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 I. The Beautiful and the Vile.— II. A Streak of Luck.— 
 III. Eleanor Makes a Discovery. — IV. Deeper in the Slough. 
 — V. A Vigorous Set-To.— VI. The Sacrifice is Found.— VII. 
 A Hand from the Further Shore 255-325 
 
 Supplementary Notes 326-328 
 
 5 
 
PART FIRST. 
 
 HE IS BORN. 
 
 Paul Calkins was born of poor and pious 
 parents in an Eastern State. The event oc- 
 curred some years ago, and was not attended 
 with any commotion in the other planets, or 
 any other indication that nature was in the 
 least perturbed by the new arrival. No 
 silver spoon was found to be in his mouth 
 when he came into the world. 
 
 The infant, in fact, was the average brat. It 
 had the color of a boiled lobster, and pos- 
 sessed like all others of the same kind, a dis- 
 position to make itself heard through smoth- 
 ered utterances. Life begins as it ends ; there 
 are a gasping for air and a rattling in the 
 throat. 
 
 There was nothing about the infant to in- 
 7 
 
8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 dicate the nature of its future. It was not 
 hooded with a cowl ; it was washed, dressed, 
 wrapped in a warm flannel blanket, and then 
 was left to its own reflections with intervals 
 for refreshments. What it occupied itself 
 with at this early stage of its existence can- 
 not even be guessed at. If the teachings of 
 heredity be true, it had already tendencies 
 to good or evil ; but if it possessed them it 
 gave no sign. 
 
 It progressed from a flannel blanket to long 
 clothes, and then into short clothes, having 
 meanwhile been labeled Paul by his good 
 parents, who took it for granted that he 
 would emulate and adopt the example of that 
 pious saint. In one sense their wishes were 
 realized, for the young Paul, in later life, like 
 his illustrious namesake, was accustomed to 
 "go blind" on many occasions. 
 
 He grew up like other boys in the country. 
 He fed the pigs and the chickens ; he cared 
 for the baby that came along a year later ; he 
 was often and properly switched by his 
 mother, scratched by the cat, and kicked and 
 choked by big and older boys. 
 
 He learned his letters in the frame school- 
 house ; he went to church and Sunday school ; 
 
THE GAMBLER. g 
 
 he was slightly converted at each of the an- 
 nual "revivals ;" he fell in love when he was 
 nine, and again when he was twelve, four- 
 teen, and sixteen ; each time with a different 
 girl, and each time with the firm conviction 
 that his present love was the only true, 
 genuine one, and that it would be eternal. 
 
 He grew to be a slender youth, well built, 
 with gray eyes, light hair, and fingers which 
 would have been soft and shapely had he 
 handled fewer sticks of stove wood, and a less 
 number of hoes and pitchforks. He was 
 strong, healthy, with a good amount of 
 brains of an average quaUty. He "ciphered" 
 through the arithmetic, made a bad break in 
 the grammar, could read well, and was 
 well posted on crops, cattle, dogs, pigs and 
 poultry. 
 
 Such was his condition, when he became 
 infected with the Western fever. A boy liv- 
 ing over in Swan Holler had gone west 
 several years before, and was now home on a 
 visit, and was turning the settlement upside 
 down. He wore store clothes, sported a 
 cane, chewed tobacco, smoked cigars, and 
 was a tremendous swell of at least eighteen 
 karats fineness. 
 
lO THE GAMBLER. 
 
 He related most marvelous yarns of the 
 wonderful West. Golden shiners illuminated 
 the sod of the prairie. Diamonds could be 
 had for the picking up. When he invited the 
 boys to "Join me, gentlemen !" at the village 
 tavern, he pulled out a handful of coins, 
 slapped them down on the counter, and 
 grandly told the awe-struck vender, "Pay 
 yourself out o' that !" 
 
 After one of these meetings the soul of 
 Paul would be filled with unrest. Th^ oxen 
 as they pulled the plow or harrow, seemed 
 with their wooden yokes, their tedious gait, 
 their stupid endurance of blows and curses, 
 to be a type of himself. The pitchfork began 
 to weigh a ton, the armsful of stove wood 
 weighed down his sensitive being, while the 
 odors of the hog-pens, and of the chicken- 
 coops became unendurable. The crimson- 
 robed west wooed him to her arms, and he 
 yielded. 
 
 Loud were the complaints of father and 
 mother when he finally announced his inten- 
 tion. There was no one to tend the "critters" 
 if he left ; his own particular colt would be 
 ruined without his personal attention ; and 
 besides all that, the old man had expected to 
 
THE GAMBLER. II 
 
 hire the twenty-acre field of Deacon Hopeful 
 for the next season to raise a crop of flax, and 
 if Paul went away, he would have to give 
 it up. 
 
 Nevertheless, Paul persisted, and finally 
 went. There was a cousin of the family in 
 the Western town of Burst, and this cousin 
 was made the objective point of Paul's 
 journey. He sold his colt, and secured 
 money enough to purchase a railway ticket ; 
 the old lady, who was sniffling grievously as he 
 was leaving, furtively slipped six half dollars, 
 four quarters, and some dimes and nickels in- 
 to his hand, and thus he was supplied with 
 ample funds. 
 
 It was not a joyful separation. The old 
 man pottered around grumpy and silent save 
 an undertone of muttering ; several neighbors 
 were on hand and overwhelmed him with 
 directions and advice; and the little sister flew 
 about and fluttered and piped with grief like 
 a wounded bird. 
 
 His small trunk and himself were hoisted 
 into the wagon of a farmer who was going to 
 town with a "jag" of barley; and amidst a 
 hurricane of " Good-bye," and " Be a good 
 boy ! " — the last from the maternal lips — the 
 
12 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 farmer whipped up his nags, and Paul dis- 
 appeared in a cloud of country dust. 
 
 In due season he was landed at the famous 
 town of Burst, in which lived his cousin. 
 The latter was a station agent, had a wife 
 and six children, lived in a small house, was 
 in receipt of only a moderate salary, and 
 naturally was not overcome with joy over the 
 arrival of his Eastern kinsman. However, he 
 invited the traveler to his house, assuring 
 him that he was welcome if it did crowd 
 them ; that they could get along for a night 
 somehow, even if they had to double up, or 
 even sleep three in a bed, and take turns at 
 the table, and then remarked that just now 
 times were hard and money scarce, and there 
 wasn't much doing, and no chance for a poor 
 man, any way. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 3 
 
 II. 
 
 A TOWN WITH A BOOM. 
 
 Paul Calkins looked around him when he 
 rose the next morning in Prairie City. There 
 was one main street with wooden sidewalks, 
 one brick building in which were the bank, 
 four saloons, a general store, a livery stable, 
 a wooden " hotel," seven one-story frame- 
 houses, on the fronts of which were signs 
 affording information of choice acre and 
 building lots, farms for sale, and money 
 loaned on real estate. At various distances 
 from the single street were houses scattei-ed 
 over the prairie, a couple of small white 
 wooden churches, one pretentiously rearing 
 a spire, and the other with the base of a con- 
 templated steeple unbuilt, and which looked 
 like the stump of a finger pointing upward ; 
 and a gorgeous schoolhouse of brick, with a 
 dome and French roof. 
 
14 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 As far as his eye could take in the sur- 
 rounding prairie, it was a dead level, without 
 a house, a fence, a plowed field, or an im- 
 provement of any kind in sight. 
 
 "This is a great town," said his cousin, as, 
 after their morning meal they strolled over 
 to the station. "What do you think that lot 
 is worth ?" asked he as he indicated a vacant 
 piece of prairie — vacant save as to scores of 
 old tomato and meat cans, a couple of dead 
 dogs, and the hind-axle and wheels of a 
 broken-down wagon, without fence or other 
 indication of improvement. 
 
 Paul ran over in his mind the value of land 
 in his native region, and recalling that 
 some of the best in that country was 
 held at the enormous figure of one hundred 
 dollars an acre, concluded that it would be 
 only complimentary to his relative to place 
 the figure on the vacant lot as high as that 
 on the improved farms in his own section. 
 And so he answered : 
 
 " I guess about a hundred dollars an acre. 
 There's about a quarter of an acre in that lot, 
 and it might be worth two hundred and 
 fifty." 
 
 "Two hundred and fifty dollars!" repeated 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 5 
 
 the station-agent with supreme scorn. "Why, 
 that property is held at one thousand dollars 
 the front foot!" 
 
 "What!" Paul's eyes were so pushed out 
 with wonder that they had the appearance of 
 a large lorgnette. " You're joking!" 
 
 " No sir'ee, I aint ! Why, look at the lot 
 on which that brick building stands! That 
 is held a good deal higher. That piece of 
 property there where the saloon is, was sold 
 as it stands, for ten thousand dollars." 
 
 Paul glanced at the little wooden shanty 
 with a high, false front, and couldn't under 
 stand it. " I don't see how it can be so high. 
 Father bought an acre with a house and car- 
 penter shop on it, only a hundred rods from 
 the Corners, and got it for one hundred and 
 fifty dollars." 
 
 " Oh, this aint the East," said the other 
 scornfully. " You're played out down there. 
 Here is the coming country, the great center 
 of population and business!" 
 
 " But what is there to make this town so 
 valuable?" 
 
 "Everything! In the first place we are on 
 the great Inter-Oceanic railway which, when 
 finished, will reach from sea to sea. Then a 
 
l6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 road is projected from the great valley of the 
 Pratt River which will tap the line at this 
 point, and will give an outlet to the soda 
 beds and coal fields of the Wyoming mineral 
 region. Another line is being thought of to 
 the Southwest which will connect us with the 
 cattle lands of Texas, and the arable lands of 
 Arizona. Why, sir, this is bound to be the 
 great center and distributing point of the 
 trans-Mississippi region." 
 
 ** Have you any sawmills or flour mills?'' 
 " Not yet, but they're a coming. A move- 
 ment is on foot to bring the shops of the line 
 to this town, and to move them from the 
 worthless town of Sky-high, where they are 
 at present. All this region around here, as 
 far as you can see, is the best grazing and 
 farming land in the world. It is all taken up, 
 and is worth already two hundred dollars 
 an acre." 
 
 Paul glanced over the surrounding region. 
 There was not a vestige of improvement in 
 sight, from horizon to horizon. The dense 
 population that was to fill this fertile and for- 
 tunate area, was all in the future. It made 
 him dizzy as he attempted to comprehend all 
 the teeming possibilities of the favored cen- 
 
THE GAMBLER. I7 
 
 ter. He saw in imagination a great city, 
 incoming and outgoing trains, the smoke of 
 innumerable manufactories, and heard the 
 roar of vast multitudes. 
 
 That night as he slept in a shake-down on 
 the sitting room f^oor, visions of wealth filled 
 his dreams, and he saw himself the possessor 
 of corner lots for whose possession great 
 crowds of people struggled, and with out- 
 stretched hands tendered him bags of gold. 
 He awoke, fevered and restless, and deter- 
 mined to become the possessor of some of 
 the precious real estate. 
 
 For two or three days he was treated by 
 the business men of the town, to whom he 
 was introduced, with distinguished consid- 
 eration. 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Calkins, happy to know you. 
 From the East, I believe! You have struck 
 just the right place, sir. No point in the 
 West offers such facilities as the town of 
 Burst. Real estate is doubling up every six 
 months, and operators are making fortunes 
 in a year. Here, for instance,'' pointing to 
 a map on the wall showing streets, addi- 
 tions, boulevards, parks, court-house square, 
 churches, and schoolhouses — " is a map of 
 2 
 
1 8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Burst. That lot there was sold last week for 
 eighty-five dollars a front foot, and the pur- 
 chaser is about to erect a business block of 
 brick, four stories high, and with all modern 
 improvements. Right next to this property is 
 a choice piece which is owned by an Eastern 
 man who has just failed in his business, and 
 must sell this property at a sacrifice. It can 
 be had for nothing, sir! No such bargain 
 was ever before offered! Why, sir, you will 
 not believe me when I tell you that I am 
 authorized to sell these lots at seventy-five 
 dollars a foot! It is really a shame to sacri- 
 fice such a splendid property. It is just the 
 thing for you. One-half down, the balance 
 to run five years on a mortgage at eight per 
 cent, a month. It is hterally cheap as dirt. 
 What do you say?" 
 
 Paul thought, but did not state, that such 
 was the condition of his finances, that he 
 could not have paid cash down for more 
 than a quart or two of the precious soil, but 
 he pleaded that he would look over the mat- 
 ter and give his decision later. 
 
 Successively he was offered all four of the 
 saloons, the hotel, a butcher's shop and any 
 number of vacant lots at a tremendous bar- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 19 
 
 gain. He was very much interested, but 
 declined to come to terms for reasons satis- 
 factory to himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, his hospitable cousin, althou2:h 
 constantly assuring Paul that he was wel- 
 come to stay when he hinted about going, 
 was evidently a little uneasy. Then Paul 
 thought he would secure some emplo3'mcnt. 
 There ought to be no difficultv. he con- 
 cluded, in getting something paying to do in 
 so flourishing a place^ and one with so mar- 
 velous prospects. The extreme suavity and 
 cordiality of the men to whom he had been 
 introduced, led him to believe that an appli- 
 cation to any one of them would result in an 
 immediate engagement. 
 
 The first one on whom he called was the 
 gentleman who had offered tosacrifice the lots 
 of the bankrupt Eastern manufacturer for 
 Paul's exclusive benefit. When Paul entered 
 somewhat hesitatingly the office of the dealer, 
 the latter jumped from his seat, came forward 
 with extended hand, while a broad, sunny 
 smile irradiated his yellow visage, and said : 
 
 "How do you do, Mr. Calkins? What 
 beautiful weather we are having!" (It was 
 blowing a gale whose icy lances went through 
 
20 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 and through the shivering frame of the vis- 
 itor). "We always have such magnificent 
 weather in this section ! No malaria here, 
 no consumption, no ague ! Ah, it is delight- 
 ful !" And he swelled out his chest with an 
 inspiration of air, as if it were as stimulating 
 as champagne. 
 
 " I suppose you have called to close out 
 that trade, this morning? You are a lucky 
 dog ! Since you were in yesterday, no less 
 than sixteen different men have been in 
 trying to get that same property. They even 
 offered an advance over the price I agreed to 
 let you have it at, but I refused. To be sure, 
 there was no binding agreement between me 
 and you, but 1 refused to listen to them, as I 
 considered myself in honor bound to stick to 
 my offer." 
 
 Poor Paul listened with throbbing heart, 
 and a face that began to show flashes of crim- 
 son. He at first concluded that he would 
 make some excuse and go away without 
 broaching the question of employment ; and 
 then determined that he viust make a begin- 
 ning at this point. It occurred to him that 
 the man had shown himself so friendly and 
 so anxious to benefit him, he probably would 
 
THE GAMBLER. 21 
 
 be glad to assist him to obtain employment. 
 On the spur of the thought he said : 
 
 " I am not really just now in a condition to 
 purchase any real estate. I am a farmer's son 
 who has come west to seek his fortune in your 
 new and glorious country, and what I now 
 want is some employment — " 
 
 At this point he hesitated and stopped. A 
 change had been rapidly passing over the 
 countenance of his listener. The innumerable 
 wrinkles all over his face which had done 
 yeoman service as co-adjutants of a smile, sud- 
 denly resolved themselves into a frown, while 
 his brows were corrugated and his lips closed 
 firmly against his teeth. 
 
 " What ! You don't want to buy any prop- 
 erty ? You're no capitalist looking for invest- 
 ment? And all you want is a job of work? 
 Good God! what deceit! Young man, you 
 have grossly deceived me ! You have 
 wounded me ! No sir ! you can't get any job 
 here. Get out; you have outrageously mis- 
 led me ! Good-morning, sir." 
 
 Humiliated beyond expression, Paul, re- 
 straining an ardent desire to throttle the old 
 wretch, walked out into the street. He then, 
 within the next few days, made the rounds of 
 
22 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the town, inquiring in each place of business 
 for employment. Some gave him an insolent 
 refusal; others thought they might need help 
 when the fall trade began to come in. AH 
 who offered any remarks beyond a curt re- 
 fusal, said it was a dull season ; that they had 
 never known anything just like it, and hadn't 
 as much to do as they could attend to them- 
 selves. 
 
 He had a trifle better luck at the " hotel." 
 The landlord had heard his request and after 
 looking the applicant over critically, said : 
 
 " Wall, I dunno. Mebbe there may be 
 suthin'. Pete has been on a bender for three 
 months, and isn't no good any more. I think 
 I'll kick him out. There aint much to do, 
 and I can't afford these dull times to pay you 
 anything. You can come and board an' 
 lodge and wait around till somethin' better 
 turns up." 
 
 This was not all that was in the enthusi- 
 astic dreams of Paul when he resolved to go 
 West, and seek his fortune; but it was " Hob- 
 son's choice," that or nothing. He deter- 
 mined to accept the place till he could look 
 around and find something better. 
 
 He cleaned, trimmed and lighted the lamps; 
 
THE GAMLiLER. 
 
 23 
 
 he went to the train to meet an occasional 
 traveler ; he attended to the fires ; swept out 
 the pubUc room, dusted the furniture, and 
 made himself generally useful. 
 
 And this was the initial step of Paul Calk- 
 ins' taken in his march toward good or bad 
 fortune in the great West. It was along dis- 
 tance to his goal, and for the present, he was 
 compelled as soldiers do, to " mark time," 
 which means motion without advance. 
 
24 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 III. 
 
 HE IMPROVES HIS OPPORTUNITIES. 
 
 " Inter-Oceanic hotel, sir?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Any baggage ?" 
 
 " Only this sample case." 
 
 This conversation occurred one day at 
 Burst station, between Paul, the runner of 
 the Inter-Oceanic hotel, and a middle-sized 
 young man who dismounted from the west- 
 ward-bound train. The latter was about 
 twenty-three, with a light, active figure, a 
 swarthy complexion, dark hair, keen black 
 eyes, a mouth with full, sensual lips, and a 
 nose that just leaned in the direction of the 
 aquiline. He spoke in a musical voice with 
 rapidity and emphasis. 
 
 It was in January, and the traveler was 
 warmly wrapped in a heavy overcoat, richly 
 furred at the cuffs and collar. He wore a 
 
THE GAMBLER. 25 
 
 seal-skin cap, and thus clad, with a moustache 
 that curled up at the ends, he was a hand- 
 some, dashing, rakish young fellow in appear- 
 ance, with an expression of entire self-satis- 
 faction on his mobile countenance. 
 
 Reaching the hotel, he wrote on the thin 
 book of registry in a bold, handsome script, 
 the name — 
 
 "John Lafarge, Chicago." 
 
 He did not add " 111,,'' after the name of 
 the city. No Chicago resident ever does. 
 Chicago stands by itself, and to place the 
 name of the Slate after it would be to lower 
 the dignity of the city. 
 
 " Fine town you've got here," he remarked 
 ironically as he surveyed the rutted and frozen 
 streets, the cheap wooden houses and the 
 illimitable stretch of prairie. " Why, look at 
 it !" he continued indignantly ; " I was told 
 by a business man in Chicago who owns some 
 property here, that Burst is the finest town 
 between the Missouri River and the Rocky 
 Mountains. He's never been here, that's cer- 
 tain. Where are all the business houses which 
 he told me of ? He said I could put in a week 
 here and find business humping every minute. 
 I can go through every house in town in 
 
26 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 twenty minutes. I'll do it, and leave on the 
 next train." 
 
 The next train did not appear on time. A 
 sudden blizzard, accompanied by a heavy 
 snow, went howling over the desolate prairies 
 and obstructed railway travel. It was two 
 days before the visitor was able to leave 
 Burst. 
 
 During this period the commercial traveler 
 was ill at ease. There was but one girl who 
 waited on the *table, and she was at once 
 stoop-shouldered, heavy-jawed, viragoish in 
 expression, and withal suspicious apparently 
 of the purity of the motives of the male sex. 
 She scowled savagely at the drummer, evi- 
 dently looking on him as an exceedingly 
 dangerous young man who should be assidu- 
 ously guarded against at the very outset. 
 
 Thus debarred from one of the most com- 
 mon and interesting diversions of the drum- 
 mer, that of flirting with the dining-room 
 girls, Lafarge was horribly enniiie . 
 
 " Isn't there any pretty girls in Burst?" he 
 would inquire impatiently of Paul, as he 
 gazed dismally through the narrow window 
 frames, and saw everywhere only the falling, 
 driving snow. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 2/ 
 
 " \es, one or two, but they are all snowed 
 in." 
 
 During the course of the evening Paul went 
 into Lafarge's i oom with some fuel, when the 
 other suddenly broke out: 
 
 " Say, young fellow, can you play any games 
 of cards ?'' 
 
 " Not many. 1 learned to play old sledge 
 in the haymow when I was a boy, and since 
 then I've picked up a little euchre." 
 
 " Can you play poker?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "No? Well, now you go and get a box of 
 gun wads, some coffee beans, kernels of corn, 
 or anything that we can count with, and I'll 
 teach you the game. A young man in the 
 West who can't play poker is not half edu- 
 cated." 
 
 Nothmg loth, Paul secured the requisite 
 material for "chips," and was soon initiated 
 into the mysteries of the great American 
 game. " I'm mighty sorry," said his instructor, 
 " that you haven't any ' stuff,' " meaning 
 thereby cash, " but even a game for corn is 
 better than none at all." 
 
 Paul proved an apt student, and his teacher, 
 pleased with his quick appreciation, his ex- 
 
28 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 cellent memory and willingness, instructed 
 him in all the minutise of the game. He con- 
 ceived somewhat of a fancy for the young 
 man, who was natural, intelligent, and utterly 
 unlike the average hotel-runner. 
 
 When the commercial traveler finally found 
 opportunity to leave, he shook Paul's hand 
 warmly as he was getting on the train, and 
 said in his rapid, cheery manner : 
 
 "So long, old fellow! Come to Chicago 
 just as soon as you can, and don't rot out in 
 this infernal wilderness. You know my ad- 
 dress, and if you ever come to the city, come 
 and see me." 
 
 One day, some months later, in the spring, 
 his relative, the station-agent, rushed into the 
 hotel and asked for Paul. He soon found 
 him, and all excitement, burst out with : 
 
 "Paul, 3^our time has come at last ! The 
 brakeman of No. 65 fell off the roof of a car, 
 and is badly hurt. They have laid him off, 
 and they want some one to take his place. 
 Come right along! You have thirty minutes 
 before the freight starts, and if you attend to 
 business, as I know you will, you'll get a 
 job." 
 
 In a brief time Paul took leave of the land- 
 
THE GAMBLKR. 29 
 
 lord, who wished him much luck, and within 
 the half hour was an employe of the Intcr- 
 Oceanic system of railways. 
 
 He was strong, active, fearless, and so well 
 did he perform the temporary duties assigned 
 him that, on the report of the conductor, he 
 was given a permanent place. 
 
 It might possibly be of interest to the 
 reader to present some details of the life of 
 Paul as a brakeman. One might speak of 
 the arduous character of his labors, of the 
 savage storms which he had to face, the icy 
 car-tops which he had to clamber over in the 
 darkness of midnight, of the freezing cold 
 which assailed him durmgthe wmter months ; 
 and how, in a quiet way, like other brave 
 men of his calling, he filled an unnoticed, 
 albeit a heroic part in the great system with 
 which he was connected. 
 
 During all this period he was saving, frugal, 
 abstemious, and he soon succeeded in clothing 
 himself in good shape, and in accumulating a 
 snug sum of money. 
 
 The advantages of Chicago as portrayed in 
 glowing colors by Lafarge had never faded 
 from his mind, and Chicago always presented 
 itself as the Mecca of his worship. At length 
 
30 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 he earned the right, to ask for a vacation which 
 was readily granted him, and in less than a 
 week thereafter he found himself in the Gar- 
 den Citv. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 31 
 
 IV. 
 
 A COUNTRYMAN IN TOWN. 
 
 It was his first visit to a great city and de- 
 SDite tiie fervor of his dreams as to its maafni- 
 tude, the reahtv was far in advance of his antic- 
 ipations. 
 
 The first impressions produced on one who 
 stands in the presence of London, Paris, or 
 any of the great cities, are of awe, overwhelm- 
 ing-, prostrating. They have all the elements 
 of the stupendous; massiveness, concentra- 
 tion, vast dimensions. The hum of their 
 activity vibrates the solid earth. There is 
 infinite confusion for the visitant just from the 
 country, in the innumerable streets, the mass 
 of vehicles, and the crowds of hurrying people. 
 
 There comes to such a stranger at once the 
 feeling of littleness in the presence of such 
 magnitude, and of elasticity as he witnesses 
 the rush of the multitudes. The sluggish 
 
32 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 countryman, the moment his feet strike the 
 pavements of the city, elevates his stooping 
 shoulders, quickens his step, inspired by the 
 atmosphere of energy and activity which 
 environs him. 
 
 As Paul rolled along in the omnibus to a 
 hotel he was dazed by the shifting panorama 
 of the streets, the clamor of the vehicles on 
 the granite, and the throngs of men and women 
 on the sidewalks. It seemed to him as he 
 saw the rush of the people that there must be 
 some tremendous thing happening, to the 
 scene of which the entire population was 
 hurrying. The while, there penetrated his 
 soul a strange and powerful exhilaration; it 
 was the passage through him of the electricity 
 generated always by the impact and fric- 
 tion of human units. 
 
 After supper, he strolled out for a walk. It 
 was nearly eight o'clock and the sidewalks 
 were crowded with people hurrying to places 
 of amusement. Electric lights filled the night 
 with splendid views of marble facades, the 
 gorgeous and parti-colored windows of the 
 druggists, and the variegated entrances of 
 palatial saloons. It was a scene in Fairyland, 
 and he wandered on as if exhilarated by some 
 intoxicating potion. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 33 
 
 He felt a light tap on his shoulder, and 
 glancing to his side he saw a young man with 
 a grip-sack in one hand and a wallet in the 
 other. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said the young man 
 in a soft, insinuating voice, "you've dropped 
 your pocketbook.'' 
 
 Paul ran his hand into his breast pocket and 
 answered, "No, mine is all right ; I haven't 
 lost one." 
 
 " Oh, I thought you must have dropped it. 
 Dear me, I'm sorry! What would you do if 
 you were me? I've got to catch a train, and 
 I'm a stranger in town. This wallet must be 
 a valuable one. See!" He undid the clasp 
 and opened the covers between which were 
 many greenback bills, and also papers. 
 
 "My! my! what shall I do? I'm on my 
 way to California, and I must go on this train. 
 Hold on, rUtell you what. You take it. You 
 can advertise it and thus find the owner. And 
 see here, there will be a reward for it and as 
 I am only a poverty-struck theological student, 
 I would be glad to have a portion of the 
 reward. I'll give you my address, and you 
 can forward the amount to me." 
 3 
 
34 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 He began to fumble in his coat pockets as 
 if for a card and pencil, and then said : 
 
 " I'm so confused ! Im sure I'll miss the 
 train! Say, just give me five dollars and if 
 there is any more of it my share, you can keep 
 it. 
 
 " All right ! " said Paul, who was very much 
 impressed with the conscientiousness and 
 honesty of the young student. He took the 
 wallet and was about to open it when the other 
 said hastily : 
 
 "No, no! don't take it out of that! When 
 the owner calls for it he should be able to find 
 the contents untouched, and the same bills 
 that were in it when he lost it." 
 
 Paul saw the justice of this suggestion, and 
 pulling out his own roll he selected one of the 
 limited number of fives in the package, and 
 handed it to the student. 
 
 " Thank you ! God bless you, young man ! 
 I should judge that you are a stranger in this 
 great city. Look out for swindlers and con- 
 fidence men. Luck to you ! I must be off, 
 good-bye ! " and he rushed away and was soon 
 lost in the darkness. 
 
 Paul was much pleased over the incident. 
 He would find the owner of the lost wallet ; 
 
THE GAMBLER. 35 
 
 he might prove to be some wealthy nabob who, 
 appreciative of the honesty of the findei, 
 might give him a start in the world. That 
 night he slept with the precious wallet under 
 his pillow. No thief was going to deprive 
 him of the benefits of picking up this treasure. 
 
 When he woke in the morning his first 
 thought was as to the wallet. What to do 
 he did not know. He pondered over the 
 matter for some time, and then suddenly 
 bethought himself of Lafarge. He had his 
 address; he would go and see him, and he 
 would advise him what to do. 
 
 He at once proceeded to put his idea into 
 effect. By several inquiries heat last reached 
 a building on Wabash avenue which occupied 
 nearly an entire block, and was a half dozen 
 stories in height. He did not have an}- trouble 
 to find Lafarge. Before he entered the door 
 he discovered that gentleman through one of 
 the plate-glass windows seated in a chair and 
 tipped back so that his heels rested on a pack- 
 ing box at a point considerably above his 
 head. 
 
 Paul walked directly up to the other, 
 stretched out his hand, and said : 
 
 " Mr. Lafarge, how do you do? " 
 
36 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Instantly Lafarge straightened up his chair 
 with such celerity that he nearly upset him- 
 self, then cordially seized the hand of his vis- 
 itor and warmly ejaculated, "How do you do ! 
 how do you do! I'm awfully glad to see you. 
 VVhen'd you come in?'' 
 
 "Just got in last night." 
 
 " Oh, last night, eh ? Where you stopping ?" 
 
 Paul informed him of the name of the cara- 
 vansery at which he was domiciled. 
 
 It was very evident that the smiling drum- 
 mer, for once, was " off his base." It is a 
 cardinal sin on the part of one of his profes- 
 sion to ever forget the face or name of a cus- 
 tomer; and yet here was a man whom he 
 knew to be a country acquaintance, and he 
 could not recall his name, or even the bill of 
 goods he had sold him. 
 
 Ashamed to confess his ignorance, he at- 
 tempted to gain his point by circumlocutory 
 finesse. 
 
 "How did you leave all the boys?" he 
 asked, assuming that whoever the visitor 
 might be, there were always some boys in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 " All the same as usual." 
 
 The drummer was baflied. He had ex- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 37 
 
 pected that when he asked about the " boys " 
 the visitor would mention the name or pro- 
 ceedings of some of them, which would give 
 him the needed clue. He tried another tack. 
 
 " What road did you come in on?'' 
 
 "TheC. Q. X. Y." 
 
 The road thus designated with its branches, 
 covers half the continent. Again the inter- 
 locutor was repulsed. 
 
 A brilliant idea seized him, 
 
 " Let's step over to your hotel for a mo- 
 ment. I want to see Johnson, the clerk." He 
 hurried his visitor over to the hotel, nodded 
 to Johnson familiarl}', rmd said, " I see you 
 have one of my old friends here," indicating 
 Paul by a nod over his shoulder, " and you 
 must give him the best in the house. By the 
 way, does your room suit you ? If not, you 
 must have one that does. What number are 
 you in ?" 
 
 Paul informed him that No. 808 was a very 
 good room, although pretty well up, and as 
 he was speaking Lafarge ran his eye over the 
 page of the register for the day before, 
 saying : 
 
 " I wonder if there is anybody here from 
 Dakota." 
 
38 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Opposite 808 he read, "Paul Calkins, Burst.'' 
 
 "Well, Paul," said he in a manner as if 
 Paul were his constant associate, and he knew 
 his name as well as that of his brother, " how 
 do you like Chicago, what you have seen 
 of it?" 
 
 Thej chatted about matters and things in 
 Burst, and after a little Paul said he would 
 like to get his advice on a certain matter. 
 
 "Cert!'' said the drummer; "what is it?" 
 
 " It is about the disposition of a large sum 
 of money that has come into my possession." 
 
 Lafarge's black eyes flashed. "That so? 
 Well, blaze awa}'. Anything I can do you're 
 very welcome to, Pm sure." 
 
 He then proceeded to relate the incident of 
 the night before of his meeting with the theo- 
 logical student, and the finding of a heavily- 
 laden wallet. At the beginning of the narra- 
 tion Lafarge's face indicated intense eagerness, 
 but it speedily changed to one of amusement, 
 and then of good-natured contempt. As Paul 
 carefully pulled out the precious wallet, the 
 drummer asked, with poorly concealed irony : 
 
 " What do you guess is the amount in the 
 wallet?" 
 
 " A very large one, I have no doubt, from 
 the bulky appearance." 
 
THE GAMBLER. 39 
 
 " And what do you suppose the ^^rateful 
 owner will do for you when he gets back his 
 wealth? Set you up in business, eh?" 
 
 " Well, I don't really know," answered 
 Paiil. " I shall at least expect that he will 
 make good the five dollars I gave to the 
 student." 
 
 " Student ! Oh my, this is too good ! Ha, 
 ha, ha!" and he roared with laughter. 
 
 Paul watched him with great surprise. 
 " What is it?" he finally asked when the roar- 
 ing drummer stopped for want of breath. 
 
 It is unnecessary to give the language in 
 which Lafarge characterized poor Paul, or 
 the humiliation and chagrin of the latter 
 when he learned that he had been the victim 
 of a venerable swindle. 
 
 "However," said Lafarge, "it wont hurt 
 you. Five dollars is not a large amount to 
 pay for the lesson. From this out, you will 
 have your eye teeth cut, and will be on the 
 lookout for young theological students, and 
 other confidence operators," 
 
40 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 V. 
 
 HE INSPECTS THE CITY. 
 
 Paul kept his "weather eye" open after 
 this, and was on the constant lookout for 
 breakers. He was two or three times seized 
 by the hand by affable young men who ad 
 dressed him as Mr. Johns()n, and who mis- 
 took him as an old acquaintance from Osh- 
 kosh, and who handsomely apologized when 
 assured that they were mistaken. The fact 
 that Paul, in these cases, while stating his 
 real name always gave the little town in the 
 East as his residence, effectively prevented 
 the bunko operators from carrying out their 
 projects. There were no means by which 
 they could claim an acquaintance with any- 
 body in that remote locality. 
 
 Paul was an ingenuous youth and im- 
 mensely susceptible to the smiles, bright 
 eyes, and shapely foot of a pretty woman. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 41 
 
 He was sufficiently well formed and hand- 
 some to have an excellent opinion of his 
 attractions; and hence, he was not at all 
 astonished, albeit, much gratified to discover 
 that many women whom he encountered on 
 the street regarded him with marked evi- 
 dences of interest. Often would he meet a 
 couple of girls who would gaze at him with 
 undisguised admiration, looking him straight 
 in the eyes with a freedom and a strength 
 that would bring a blush to his cheek, and a 
 shrinking sensation about his heart. 
 
 Accustomed all his life to the sturdy figures 
 of the country lasses, to their sunbrowned 
 complexion, substantial hands and their not 
 always well-fitting garments, the slenderness, 
 sprightliness, trim garb, bright and languish- 
 ing eyes of the city belles, produced on him 
 a marvelous effect. They seemed beings of 
 a finer mould than those he had known all 
 his life, and he worshiped them in accord- 
 ance with this superior estimate. 
 
 He visited the theaters, and if his admira- 
 tion was excited by the women whom he met 
 on the street, he was enraptured by the di- 
 vinities whom he saw on the stage. All the 
 arts of the toilette, assisted by the gor- 
 
42 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 geous surroundings, and the artistically ar- 
 ranged lights, gave to the heroines of the 
 stage a beauty which to him seemed more 
 than earthly. It was something supreme, 
 divine. 
 
 The realism of the ballet, with its rounded 
 limbs, swelling busts, gleaming arms, with 
 its ravishing poses, its graceful movements, 
 its rhythmic advances and retreats, its tender 
 wooings, and scornful repulses, affected him 
 until the sensuous chords of his nature 
 thrilled like the strings of a fingered harp. 
 
 It was a fairy world into which he had 
 been thrown. A world which far exceeded 
 in its splendor the wildest and most extrava- 
 gant of his dreams. Often while at the play 
 did he believe that the heroine of the drama 
 distinguished him among the upturned faces ; 
 and again and again was he certain that in 
 her careless glance over the audience the eye 
 of the premiere danseuse had dwelt for a 
 single instant on his glowing face. 
 
 Ah, glorious youth ! Youth, with its ef- 
 fusiveness, its exquisite sensitiveness,, its im- 
 pressiveness, its susceptibility ! Youth which 
 suspects not, dreams not of the agency of 
 bran in the shapely ankle, of carmine on the 
 
THE CAMTJLER. 43 
 
 g'lowing cheek, of belladonna in the languish- 
 ing eyes, ot pencil-point in the arched eye- 
 brows and in the long lashes behind which 
 the mischievous orbs play bo-peep! 
 
 One night after having been to the theater, 
 Paul started for a walk to cool his heated 
 blood. It was close to midnight, and the 
 streets in the vicinity of the place of amuse- 
 ment were thronged with theater audiences. 
 He turned into a deserted side street to 
 escape the jam, and strolled leisurely in the 
 direction of the courthouse. It was an hour 
 when the moon, at its full, shone with a 
 silvered brightness that revealed ever3^thing 
 with a distinct fidelity. Just then a light 
 footstep came tapping along behind him, and 
 then there swiftly passed him the slender 
 figure of a woman. 
 
 A cloth cloak, close-fitting, showed a deli- 
 cate and yet perfect figure. The feathered 
 hat was wound with a veil which covered the 
 upper portion of her face as if to prevent 
 recognition on the part of the public. In her 
 hand she carried a package wrapped in pa- 
 per, and which seemed too heavy for one of 
 her slender build. Paul saw the figure as it 
 passe.l, and thought how late it was for so 
 
44 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 young a girl to be abroad in the streets of a 
 great city, and sympathized with her in her 
 apparent loneliness. 
 
 She passed him with a swiftness which in- 
 dicated her fear of his presence in the lonely 
 place, reached the corner some distance ahead 
 of him, crossed to the middle of the street, 
 then halted, hesitated a moment, turned, and 
 came back directly toward Paul. She searched 
 her pocket as she came, and as she reached 
 near him, she stopped, glanced at him, started 
 again, stopped once more, and wheeling about 
 faced him, and as she did so threw up her 
 veil, revealing a most charming face, and eyes 
 that were swimming with tears. 
 
 " Oh, sir !" she said, and then her voice was 
 interrupted with sobs. 
 
 Paul was immediately interested in this pic- 
 ture of distress, and inquired kindly : 
 
 " What is it, miss? Can I do anything for 
 you ?" 
 
 " Yes. I fear I've lost my purse, and can't 
 pay my car-fare, and shall have to walk home. 
 I'm so afraid ; it's so late, and so many wicked 
 people are out this time of night!" 
 
 Paul was about to volunteer the price of 
 car-fare or his escort to her home, when a 
 
THE GAMBLER. 45 
 
 voice suddenly broke the momentary stillness. 
 
 " Here, now! None o' yer thrickson trav- 
 elers ! Be off wid yerself, or Oi'll run you in." 
 
 At the same moment a blue-coated, brass- 
 buttoned giant issued from a recess in the 
 corner building, holding in his hand a club 
 which he swung vigorously in order to give 
 emphasis to his remarks. Paul glanced at 
 him for an instant, and then turned to look at 
 the girl. He was just in time to see her scur- 
 rying like a quail along the sidewalk, and dis- 
 appear in an alley. 
 
 " Why," said Paul, "that lady—" 
 
 " That lady !'' repeated the policeman with 
 a tone of intense scorn. " That lady ! begod 
 that's good! Oh, come off! Ye'd better go 
 home yerself," said the guardian of the night, 
 after looking steadily for a moment into 
 Paul's face. " An' whin ye git there, ye'd 
 best stay there an' attend to feedin' the pigs 
 an' the chickens." 
 
 A great wave of humiliation swept over 
 Paul ; and bitterly reproaching himself for 
 his stupidity, he went to his hotel and to bed, 
 where he lay and cursed himself for an idiot 
 till lonof after midnisfht. 
 
46 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A DETOUR TO SLAUGHTER HOLLER. 
 
 Meanwhile something- of importance had 
 occurred down in Slaughter Holler, the na- 
 tive town of Paul. One day there straggled 
 into the neighborhood an invalid geologist 
 laden with a hammer for chipping rocks, and 
 a bale of medicines, for his dyspepsia. He was 
 from a college many miles away, and had 
 been ordered by his medical adviser to go 
 into the country for a month, and to climb 
 hills, and to eat the food of the farmers — 
 boiled pork and rye-and Injin bread. 
 
 A small stream cut through the Calkins 
 farm, leaving exposed here and there walls of 
 slate to which the economical children of the 
 neighborhood had from time immemorial re- 
 sorted for material for " cipherin'-pencils." 
 The invalid geologist happened by sheer ac- 
 cident, one day, in nosing around, to cncoun- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 47 
 
 ter this wall of rock. He replaced his spec> 
 tacles which had been jarred off by his head by 
 coming in contact with a projecting shelf, and 
 then looked angrily at the obstacle against 
 which he had bumped. He saw it was a dark, 
 laminated mass, and with his hammer he 
 broke off a scale which he felt of with thumb 
 and finger, tasted of it with the tip of his 
 tongue and smelt of with his nose. Then he 
 bit off a little morsel, which he proceeded to 
 chew. 
 
 " Fissile, clayey, argillaceous !" he ex- 
 claimed. He pried off a thin layer with a 
 small chisel, and balancing it on his finger, he 
 tapped it lightly with his hammer, meanwhile 
 listening intently with an inclined ear; having 
 smelt, felt, tasted of it, he was now trying to 
 hear it. 
 
 " Has the right ring," he said, and then he 
 brought the remaming sense into operation, 
 and carefully looked over the mass. 
 
 " The lines of stratification have no refer- 
 ence to those of cleaveage," he soliloquized 
 in an audible tone, " although this often oc- 
 curs in true slate. It has the right color, 
 hardness, and it cannot be that it is schist.'' 
 
 He took some specimens away with him, 
 
48 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 and that evening astonished the wife of his 
 farmer host by asking for a kettle of water in 
 which he put some black pieces of stone, 
 and then placed it on the stove to boil. Af- 
 ter a time he took the pieces, examined them 
 carefully with a microscope, placed them in 
 the hot oven of the stove, baked them for an 
 hour, and then put them to soak in cold water. 
 
 " My gracious me !" said the lady that night 
 to her husband, when they had sought the 
 seclusion of their bedroom, " what on airth 
 was that professor man tryin' to do with them 
 stones? He biled, roasted 'em and put 'em 
 to soak just as reg'lar as if they'd a-been 
 suthin' to eat!" 
 
 " Mighty queer, them city chaps !" was the 
 response of the husband. " They're alius 
 pokin' aroun', nobody knows wot fur, and as 
 fur me, I don't care a darn, nohow !" 
 
 As for the professor, he vouchsafed no in- 
 formation. His dyspepsia soon after seemed 
 to disappear, and he at once followed its 
 example. 
 
 It was not many moons after this incident 
 that a surprising increase in woodchucks, or 
 rather in woodchucks' holes, was discovered 
 by one of the neighboring boys. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 
 
 49 
 
 " When I was out to the wood pasture," he 
 said, " I seen more'n a dozen new woodchuck 
 holes. There's a lot on 'em comin' here." 
 
 " P'raps," said the farmer, " it's goin' to be 
 a hard winter, an' the woodchucks is gittin' 
 ready fur it. The husks is pooty thick on the 
 corn, an' that's another sign of a tight winter." 
 
 The boy had ecstatic visions of digging out 
 some of the woodchucks by the aid of a 
 shovel, some other boys, and a splay-footed 
 cur that helped drive the cows to the pasture. 
 
 Meanwhile the nights in the vicinity suf- 
 fered from strange noises. The slumbering 
 neighbors were aroused in the sniall hours of 
 the morning by the roll of wheels, the clatter 
 of the feet of swift- moving horses, and the 
 voices of men. One 3^oung man had re- 
 mained at home one Sunday, while the others 
 went to the village church. 
 
 " I swow,'' said he when relating what he 
 saw when the rest were absent, " I seen three 
 men come along in a two-hoss spring wagon, 
 with some long things in their arms and lean- 
 in' against their shoulders which looked like 
 guns. Thinks I them's some city fellers goin' 
 a shootin'. They went on over the hill out-a- 
 sight, and bimeby I heerd some lafhn over 
 4 
 
50 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 in the swale. I kinder sneaked up the ridge, 
 and there was them three fellers a workin' a 
 machine like a big auger," 
 
 All these occurrences mystified exceedingly 
 the population of Slaughter Holler and the 
 vicinit}^ ; and the excitement was increased 
 when a rumor prevailed that there was a chap 
 stopping over at Calkinses who wanted to 
 buy a farm somewhere in the up country. 
 The new comer was a plain, farmer-like per- 
 son, with heav}' cowhide boots, a shock head 
 of auburn hair, and rough in speech and man- 
 ners. He'd been living, he announced, on the 
 flats about sixty miles up the river. 
 
 " I got a good place," he said, " of two 
 hundred acre, and I'm suited well enough, 
 but she'" — they always allude to the wife as 
 "she," — "thinks there is ager thereabouts and 
 is bound to move up in the hills. I'm lookin' 
 aroun' for suthin'. I want a snug place of 
 one hundred, or a hundred and fifty or two 
 hundred acres. Ef I can find somethin' that'll 
 suit Jicr, I'll pay all it's wuth." 
 
 He made his headquarters at the Calkins' 
 farm. 
 
 " Wot mought you consider this piece o' 
 land wuth ?" he asked the owner. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 5 I 
 
 " It aint for sale," was the reply, " but cf 
 it was in the market I'd consider it cheap at 
 one hundred dollar an acre." 
 
 " Phew !" whistled the gentleman from the 
 lowlands. " Why, it's half hill and swamp, 
 and there aint no woods on it wuth speakin' 
 of ; there's stones on all the land, the fences 
 is out of repair, the barn wants a ruff, and the 
 house aint in good shape, and that well's 
 cavin' in and it'll cost a sight o' money to put 
 the farm in shape.'' 
 
 Farmer Calkins responded with the state- 
 ment that while the fences might " need a 
 little fixin' up, and there ought to be some 
 little tinkerin' here and there, there want no 
 better piece o' land in all the upper country. 
 Only 'leven miles from tlie railroad, three 
 churches within four miles, affordin' gospel 
 privileges that few other places had, and only 
 eight miles to the county seat." 
 
 The other pooh-poohed the farmer, but still 
 hung around and dickered. He went off to 
 look at other property in other directions, and 
 always came back to the Calkins', and related 
 to them what bargains he had been offered in 
 this and that town. 
 
 " Somehow," he would say, " I've taken a 
 
52 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 sneakin' likin' to this ere farm, on account of 
 its manner of bein' located, and 'twould suit 
 ]ier. What d'ye say now to fifty dollar an 
 acre, and you to throw in that yearling bull 
 and the span of black mares?" 
 
 The price did not suit Calkins ; he wanted 
 a hundred, although he well knew that the 
 land was worth no such figure; but it was a 
 matter of pride in that vicinity among the 
 farmers, to value their land at an even hun- 
 dred per acre. It was a high-sounding figure, 
 one calculated to elevate the importance of 
 the owner, and to astonish the casual inquir- 
 ing stranger who was curious as to the worth 
 of property. 
 
 Finally, the would-be purchaser with great 
 reluctance advanced his offer to seventy-five 
 dollars per acre. 
 
 " It's my ver}^ last offer," he said. " It's a 
 darn sight more'n the place is wuth, but I 
 can't find anything hereabouts which will suit 
 Jlcy. Wot d'ye say ?" 
 
 That night the farmer and his wife had a 
 long talk. Said she, " Dannel, there's some- 
 thing behind all this. Wot duz that man want 
 of this farm at any such fancy price? It aint 
 wuth one-half wot he sez he'll give fur it. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 53 
 
 Now, you jest hang on and see wot he'll do. 
 He may go a good deal higher, but ef he don't, 
 then we kin let him have it at a lower figger." 
 
 To shorten the proceedings of a long confab, 
 it may be stated that the stranger kept raising 
 in his figures, until he finally amazed Farmei^ 
 Calkins b}' jumping at once to the astounding 
 figure of five hundred dollars per acre. The 
 stranger was red-hot with rage when he 
 finally made this proffer. 
 
 ''Take this offer or go to the devil; it's 
 your very last chance!" 
 
 Calkins thought that his visitor was an es- 
 caped lunatic, and attempted to temporize : 
 
 " Five hundred an acre is high enuff, and 
 I'll be glad to sell at that price. When do 
 you want possession ?" 
 
 " Don't you worry about that ! " said the 
 man, who clearly saw the suspicion of the 
 farmer. "Come into the house and sign this 
 paper." 
 
 He seated himself, and taking writing ma- 
 terial from his satchel, he rapidly wrote the 
 following, which he pushed over to Calkins: 
 
 " There, sign that! " 
 
 Calkins with confused vision managed to 
 spell through the note, which read : 
 
54 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " For the sum of one thousand dollars whose 
 receipt I acknowledge herewith, I agree to 
 sell the farm known as the Calkins farm in 
 Slaughter Hollow, and by me owned, for the 
 sum of five hundred dollars an acre, to Jabez 
 Coffin, providing that the property be trans 
 f erred to the new purchaser within ninety 
 days, and the total amount in cash be paid 
 when the transfer is made." 
 
 Silas Calkins, it is needless to say, first 
 dutifully consulted her and then signed the 
 paper. A roll containing ten one-hundred 
 dollar bills was handed him by the purchaser, 
 who at once left, saying he would be around 
 in a week or two to look over the property. 
 
 He never came back, but in due time others 
 did with machinery and proceeded to take 
 possession. It was only then that Calkins and 
 the neighbors discovered that underneath his 
 farm was located the best quarry of slate on 
 the American continent. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 55 
 
 VII. • 
 
 PAUL GOES EAST, 
 
 Paul received the news as to the sale of the 
 farm just a couple of days before the expira- 
 tion of his vacation. He at once resii^ned his 
 position and went home to share the family 
 excitement over the possession of great wealth. 
 On his arrival he found himself a tremendous 
 lion. People who had scarcely noticed him 
 when a lad on the farm, now extended to him 
 a fulsome worship. The daughters of 
 "Square'' Weckford, who had always ele- 
 vated their noses at such an angle in his 
 presence that he was far below the line of 
 their vision, now lowered their organs of 
 smell to a point which permitted them to 
 look him squarely in the face. 
 
 Paul was pleased, of course, with this def- 
 erence, but it left no deep impression. The 
 Weckford girls were the aristocracy of 
 Slaughter Holler, and their smiles in an earlier 
 
56 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 day would have been to Paul a priceless favor. 
 But he had traveled since then, and he could 
 not but contrast the freckled sisters with their 
 dull gray eyes, with the artistic beauties he 
 had encountered in his travels. 
 
 " I should be pleased to have you write me 
 when vou go West," said the elder Miss 
 Weckford, with a girlish giggle. 
 
 " Thank you !" was the sole response. 
 
 He became nauseated with the odor of the 
 incense incessantly burned under his nose, 
 and despite all the pleas of his friends he 
 determined to return to Chicago. His father 
 gave him a small sum of money, promising to 
 do better when the final payments were made 
 on the land. 
 
 Two weeks after the total sum had been 
 paid over, Silas Calkins was carried to the 
 graveyard on the hill. The shock had been 
 too much for him, and it killed him. He 
 illustrated the truth of the assertion that 
 " men die just as they are ready to live.'' It 
 is often seen that many men who have accu- 
 mulated fortunes and completed a fine house 
 in which to live in idleness and comfort, die 
 within a brief period. 
 
 He died without a will. The family held 
 
THE GAMBLER. 57 
 
 a conference, and the one hundred thousand 
 dollars was divided among them by agree- 
 ment ; the widow receiving twenty thousand 
 dollars, while the other eighty thousand was 
 equally divided between the two children, 
 
 Paul, being of age, came into possession of 
 his share at once, and having changed it into 
 sight drafts payable at Chicago, he soon after 
 left for the West with the intention of making 
 it his permanent home. 
 
 This determination was based largely on 
 the results of a conversation held with La- 
 farge when he had heard of the discovery of 
 the slate quarry. 
 
 " Now, my boy," said his friend, "you are 
 going to get some money, which did not cost 
 you an hour's thought or labor. You can 
 afford to be generous with it. Put away two- 
 thirds of whatever you may get in some 
 secure place where it will be drawing inter- 
 est, put the remainder in a bank where you 
 can draw it as you need, and devote this 
 amount to seeing the world, and learning 
 something of life." 
 
 " Would you advise me to travel?'' 
 
 " No, not for the present. You can get 
 your degrees here in Chicago as well as you 
 
58 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 can in any other city in the world. This place 
 has all there is of any consequence. It has 
 the sins of Paris, the piety of a Quaker settle- 
 ment, the good women and the bad ones, the 
 revivals, gambling, champagne, opportunities 
 for goodness and dissipation, for legitimate 
 business and swindling, for speculation and 
 desii'able investment, and plenty of smooth 
 highways which lead direct to heaven and the 
 other place; in fact, there is nothing which 
 is longed for by the regenerated or the de- 
 praved souls that cannot be had in this won- 
 derful city. You stay right here !" 
 
 Paul's eyes sparkled as he listened to the 
 enthusiastic utterances of Lafarge. 
 
 The latter seemed to be inspired by his 
 own thoughts and words. He leaped into 
 the middle of the room, and then with his 
 head thrown on one side, and arms flung aloft, 
 with the weight of his body resting on one foot 
 while the other touched its extended toe on 
 the floor, he said : " Would you dance, then 
 behold !'' and he capered and swung like an 
 agile danseuse. " Here you have the beauties 
 of the stage, ravishing, full of sensuous sug- 
 gestions. Would you have the music ? Be- 
 hold again!" Assuming the attitude of a 
 
THE GAMBLER. 59 
 
 singer, with languishing and appropriate ges- 
 tures, he sang and trilled in a wonderful fal- 
 setto a bar from Don Giovanni. "This is 
 your Patti, your Nevada, and you have them 
 here in this glorious city. 
 
 " Would 3'ou ride on a powerful trotter 
 along the thronged boulevards; would you 
 drive in a luxurious carriage on fashionable 
 afternoons when beauty and wealth are abroad 
 in their fullness ; would you occupy the most 
 conspicuous boxes when the world of fashion 
 is out in force to witness a Salvini, or listen 
 to a Patti? If so, 3'Ou must stay here !" As 
 Lafarge referred to each of these phases, he 
 illustrated them with sweeping gestures and 
 movements of his bod3^ He rose and fell 
 gracefully, as if in the stirrups of the rider; 
 with folded arms and look of supreme repose, 
 he leaned back against the carriage cushions 
 in the drive, and with impassioned expression 
 mimicked the imagined artist on an imaginary 
 stage. 
 
 Paul witnessed these singular actions of 
 Lafarge with a bounding heart. The envi- 
 ronment became filled with swift music, the 
 soft rhythm of dancing feet, the fiush of the 
 crimson cheeks of the dancers, and the lan- 
 guishing harmonies of social enjoyments. 
 
60 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " You are right !'' he ejaculated with enthu- 
 siasm. " I will stay here and take my degrees 
 in this famous school, and you shall be my 
 preceptor." 
 
 " I accept ! And now to commence your 
 education. First, business, afterward pleas- 
 ure. You will go to a tailor, and so soon as 
 possible shed your rustic wear. Meanwhile, 
 you will give many hours each day to athletic 
 practice, and you will also secure a private 
 teacher, and be taught to dance. Look out 
 for yourself during this period. Do not be 
 induced by 'mine owners' to invest in gold 
 bricks ; do not waste your money in trying to 
 guess under which tlumble the elusive pea is 
 hidden ; do not bet 3^our w^ealth in efforts to 
 discover the location of the agile jack in three- 
 card monte ; don't loan your cash to stran- 
 gers who offer you bogus bonds for security. 
 In short, never play against another man's 
 game." 
 
 Paul was just twenty-two years of age, of 
 medium size, with a compact, well-knit figure. 
 His life on the farm in the open air, had given 
 him powerful lungs, a perfect stomach, and 
 muscles of iron. He was neither handsome 
 nor the opposite ; but he had a strong, pleas- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 6l 
 
 ant, engaging face, a frank manner, and was 
 an easy conversationalist. 
 
 He had a good common school education, 
 and had improved his mind by reading. He 
 was conscientious in his composition, unac- 
 quainted with evil save in name, ambitious, 
 and anxious to please those with whom he 
 came in contact. 
 
 He was now at the critical point in his 
 career. He was easily influenced, fond of 
 admiration, and amidst the proper surround- 
 ings had capabilities for the development of 
 a high order of life. It was a perilous point 
 in his career when he parted with Lafarge ; 
 how important then, he failed to comprehend. 
 
 Paul diligently followed the advice of La- 
 farge as to athletics and dancing. He made 
 unexceptionably rapid progress in both ; he 
 led in a few months, the boxers, fencers, bell 
 and club-swingers of the classes. He was 
 noted for his unusual strength and activity. 
 He became a good dancer, one sufficiently 
 taught to appear with credit in any of the 
 various dances in vogue in modern society. 
 His correct deportment and easy manners 
 commended him to the favorable consider- 
 ation of his teacher, who invited him to meet 
 
62 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 with his classes, and in time, to assist at his 
 occasional soirees. 
 
 As a result he established some acquaint- 
 ance with the young people, by whom he 
 was invited to their homes. Six months after 
 commencing the course prescribed by La- 
 farge, he was a fairly-accomplished society 
 man, and had obtained the entree into many 
 excellent families. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 63 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE FETICH TEMPLE. 
 
 It was a stormy night in November. A 
 cold rain from the northeast swept the city 
 and a humid wind chilled to the marrow all 
 who were exposed to it. Through the dark- 
 ness, and splashing wide the mud, went a car- 
 riage with a single occupant, that soon left 
 the main thoroughfares and turned into the 
 narrow streets of one of the most depraved 
 quarters of the town. 
 
 The driver evidently was acquainted with 
 the locality, for after a few minutes' rapid prog- 
 ress he pulled up in front of a tall brick 
 house and halted. He dismounted, opened 
 the door, and the passenger jumped out, ran 
 swiftly up the steps, and rang the bell. The 
 door opened instantly, as if by the operation 
 of the bell wire, and the man entered and the 
 door was at once closed so speedily that the 
 visitor almost appeared lo have entered 
 throuofh the wall. 
 
04 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Within the vestibule was a young woman, 
 a quadroon, plainly dressed, and with noth- 
 ing to distinguish her from the average 
 servant. 
 
 " Is Natalie in her room ?'' asked the 
 visitor. 
 
 " She was in the parlors a few minutes 
 ago." 
 
 " Tell her I wish to see her in her room. 
 I will go up there." 
 
 " Yes sir." 
 
 As the caller passed along the hall to reach 
 the stairway, open doors permitted a mo- 
 mentary glance through the spacious parlors 
 on that floor. The furniture was flame- 
 colored, ornate ; and on sofas and gorgeous 
 chairs were seated, or half reclining, several 
 young negresses, black as midnight, and clad, 
 or half clad, in yellow, crimson and purple 
 staffs. He caught a glimpse of these things 
 as he passed swiftly, and then lost sight of 
 them as he climbed the stairway. 
 
 Pushing along two or three passages and 
 cross-halls, as if they were familiar to him, 
 the visitor finally reached a room through 
 whose partially opened door there poured a 
 fluod of liirht. He entered. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 65 
 
 " Good-evening, Natalie, I'm glad to find 
 you in." 
 
 " Good-evening, Jean, my son," was the re- 
 sponse in a tone as deep and hoarse as the 
 call of a raven. 
 
 It Vv^as a woman who received him, and one 
 of the most extraordinary in appearance that 
 even the imagination could create. She was 
 a jet black negress, over six feet in stature, 
 and with a vast bony frame, that showed 
 through where her dress permitted, like the 
 bones of a skeleton. Her face was long, 
 almost grotesquely like that of a horse; her 
 eyes were small, piercing, and black as coal, 
 and nearly buried from view beneath heavy, 
 overhanging brows. Her hair was inky in 
 its hue, with the coarse texture of the mane 
 of a wild animal, and flowed down her back 
 and over her shoulders in a disordered mass. 
 Her nose was of enormous dimensions, long, 
 and like her lips, had no suggestion of African 
 blood. Her mouth was of immense width, 
 and was made remarkable and hideous by the 
 upper teeth which projected far out over the 
 lower lip, and being separated from each 
 other by a little space, presented the appear- 
 ance of tusks. 
 5 
 
^6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 She seemed some gigantic and curious 
 animal as she stood there as erect as a stone 
 column. 
 
 " Sit down, Jean, and tell me what you 
 want. I know, it is the same as always ; you 
 wish a lucky number, or day, or something 
 that you may win on." 
 
 It was John Lafarge to whom she spoke, 
 and who remained standing in a despondent 
 attitude befor-e her, with a bent head and a 
 troubled face. 
 
 " Yes, all that and more. I needn't tell 
 you what it is ; if you can read the future, you 
 can also read the present." 
 
 " It is perfectly easy. You are in love, and 
 are disappointed." 
 
 Lafarge glanced up with astonishment in 
 his countenance. 
 
 " Well, suppose you have hit it, what 
 then ?" 
 
 " Not much, perhaps. In this cold, foggy 
 region, I can't see into the future as I could 
 in the warm, melting South. My grand- 
 father was a fetich priest in Africa, and when 
 he died a slave in this country, he transmitted 
 the gift to his son, my father, who gave it to 
 me. In the South I was a real priestess and 
 
THE GAMBLER. 67 
 
 prophetess. There, destiny could be wooed 
 with the blood of sacrifice. Way up the 
 bayous, deep in the tangled cedar swamps, 
 blood could be offered, and the world be none 
 the wiser for it, nor the loser. 
 
 " But here in this stupid North they will 
 not allow sacrifices. Without blood I can do 
 but little. 1 see only dim visions in the 
 dark." 
 
 She spoke with deliberation and earnest- 
 ness. There was something awesome in her 
 utterances, her appearance, and her surround- 
 ings. The room was furnished in dark shades, 
 and she was in funeral black from neck to 
 heel. Overhead, on the wall, behind a large 
 fauteuil was extended a stuffed alligator, and 
 on other portions of the walls were dried 
 snakes, snails and other fetiches. She believed 
 herself the direct descendant of an African 
 priest of Fetichism, and assumed all the 
 grandeur that she thought the dignity con- 
 ferred on her. 
 
 Taking from a shelf a little wooden image 
 shaped somewhat in human form, she held it 
 to her ear, closed her eyes as if to listen with- 
 out interruption, and after a little said : 
 
 " I am ready. 1 will write." 
 
68 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Going to a little table where there were 
 writing materials, she rapidly penned the fol- 
 io wino^, which she handed to Lafarg-e : 
 
 " Monday and Saturday are your lucky 
 days for cards ; Wednesday for speculation, 
 and Thursday for lottery tickets. There is no 
 day this month for women. You have a 
 rival. You are in danger." 
 
 He read it, and folding it, thrust it in his 
 pocket, with a fierce scowl. 
 
 " By — , you are right ! I am in love, and I 
 have a rival ; but I fancy that it is he that is 
 in danger!" 
 
 " Be cautious, mv son. There is a battle 
 between you and another, and I cannot dis- 
 tinguish the victor. Oh, for the blood of 
 human sacrifice to clear my vision !" As she 
 concluded, she ground her teeth till they 
 were flecked with foam like the tusks of a 
 wild boar. 
 
 Lafarge soon after left the house, jumped 
 into his waiting carriage and was driven away. 
 
 John Lafarge, ostensibly a commercial trav- 
 eler, was in reality largely interested in 
 gambling. Like others of his class he was 
 superstitious, and was influenced by omens 
 and portents of every conceivable character. 
 
THE GAMELEK. 69 
 
 Like other gamblers, both card and board of 
 trade, he was in the habit of consulting trance- 
 mediums, clairvoyants, and professionals who 
 claimed to be able to read the future. 
 
 Natalie — " The Ogress," as some called her 
 — was a favorite oracle with Lafarge. She 
 was mysterious, and frequentl}^ either from 
 good guesswork, or shrewd judgment, had 
 given him valuable hints as to card-play- 
 ing, and operations on the Board of Trade. 
 Whence this 'strange woman had come, no 
 one seemed to know. There were rumors to 
 the effect that many years before she had 
 been driven from the South for " voudoo " 
 practices, which involved the sacrifice of 
 human life. However this may be, she was 
 a profound mystery whom nobody was able 
 to solve. 
 
 Lafarge was not a professional gambler. 
 He had a connection with a first-class house, 
 and gave prompt attention to his duties. He 
 was a successful solicitor, and earned large 
 sums by his efforts. He had, however, ac- 
 quired a liking for gambling, and when not 
 on the road or engaged in the store he gave 
 many of his spare hours to the infatuation of 
 his passion. 
 
70 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 At first his gaming- transactions were lim- 
 ited to small poker encounters with other 
 commercial men who happened to meet at 
 hotels in the country. The stakes were small, 
 the risks insignificant, and the entire purpose 
 simply to " pass away the time." What at first 
 was a simple pastime grew slowly into a habit 
 of vast dimensions. It included a fierce de- 
 sire to gamble on all possible occasions; to 
 bet on horse races, and prize fights ; to invest 
 in lottery and policy tickets, and in margins 
 or options in the grain market. 
 
 At this time his social standing was good. 
 He was regarded as a rising young man, and 
 was liked and respected by his employers, 
 who perhaps dreamed of a day in the future 
 when the active, industrious and sagacious 
 drummer might have a position as a partner 
 in the firm. He had the entree into a social 
 circle of a good quality, although it began to 
 be noticed of late that his calls were becom- 
 ing less frequent, and his attendance at social 
 gatherings were more and more irregular. 
 
 In truth, all his hours not employed in busi- 
 ness were given to the new fascination. He 
 progressed rapidly from the poker to the faro 
 layout, and in both cases wagered his money 
 with the freedom and insouciance of a veteran. 
 
THE GAMBLER. /I 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE PRETTY TYPE-WRITER. 
 
 Among the large force employed by the 
 firm with which Lafarge was connected was 
 a pretty type-writer and stenographer. She 
 was a slender girl about eighteen years of age 
 with the delicate figure and large, soft blue, 
 melting eyes of a Marguerite. There was 
 much speculation among the other employes 
 as to her antecedents, but no satisfactory con- 
 clusions could be obtained. 
 
 An expression of sadness rested on her 
 handsome features, and gave an additional 
 charm to her attractiveness. She was petite, 
 being scarcely larger than the average child 
 of twelve years of age. She had the appear- 
 ance of being fragile, and yet she performed 
 all the labors of her position, and endured the 
 long hours of each day's confinement without 
 exhibiting signs of weakness. Her perfect 
 ear retained its pink, and on her cheek there 
 rested the rich crimson of health. 
 
72 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Who is she ? " was a constant inquiry 
 among' those who saw her day by day. That 
 she was a Miss Wright, and that she came to 
 the office every morning at ten o'clock and 
 promptly went away at three, and that while 
 on duty she gave exclusive attention to her 
 work, that she was reticent and reserved, 
 were all that was known of her. Where she 
 lived, who were her relatives, and why one 
 apparently so aristocratic and dainty should 
 resort to manual labor, were profound 
 mysteries. 
 
 She never volunteered any conversation 
 with those about her, and only spoke when 
 the necessities of her employment demanded 
 speech. She always returned politely and 
 gracefully the morning greetings of the clerks 
 and members of the firm, but on all other 
 occasions resolutely remained shut within 
 herself. 
 
 The veil may be lifted that rested on this 
 young and solitary girl. Her name was 
 Eleanor Wright and she was the daughter of 
 an excellent family living in the city. Her 
 father died, leaving a widow, three grown-up 
 sons and Eleanor. There was also an adopted 
 son, who was the offspring of a relative, who 
 
THE GAMBLER. 73 
 
 had been taken when an infant and had grown 
 up with the others, and was regarded by 
 them as one of themselves. 
 
 The adopted son was the presumptive heir 
 to a considerable property, and in the course 
 of time, it dawned on the ambitious mother 
 that he would make an excellent and most 
 desirable husband for Eleanor. 
 
 Eleanor had been reared tenderly. She 
 had the advantages of a select school for 
 children, and of an Eastern seminary for the 
 education and finish of young ladies. She 
 was an accomplished musician, linguist and 
 conversationalist. She was a constant reader, 
 was well informed on current and historical 
 events, a student of men and women, and 
 exquisite in her manners, and amiable in her 
 disposition. 
 
 A year or two before this period, her 
 mother one day, when they were alone, said : 
 
 "My chila, do you know that I am almost 
 fifty years old ?" 
 
 " Well mamma, you may be nearly half a 
 century old but you don't look it. Why, do 
 you know that yesterday I met Mr. Wheeler, 
 who saw us at church Sunday and who asked 
 me if we were not twins ! " 
 
74 
 
 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Mrs. Wright, although fresh in complexion, 
 and well preserved, had some crows' feet 
 beneath her eyes, some silver in her abun- 
 dant hair, and a very decided corpulence ; 
 and yet knowing all these things, she flushed 
 over the compliment, and was as pleased with 
 it as if she had been in her teens. 
 
 Women may grow old in their affections, 
 their aspirations and in years, but never in 
 their vanity. A well-turned compliment 
 expressed with apparent sincerity in regard 
 to her appearance will dehght the young 
 woman, the matron, and even the grandmother. 
 A woman never becomes too old to be sus- 
 ceptible to complimentary remarks. 
 
 " Thank you, dear," responded Mamma 
 Wright, as there tingled through her veins a 
 sensation of downright ecstacy, born of the 
 flattery. " But I did not speak of my age to 
 get a compliment. I was not 'fishing.' I 
 brought it up because it reminded me of your 
 age. Do you know, Elee, dear, that you are 
 past seventeen ? " 
 
 "Yes mamma, I know it, but what is there 
 very stunning about that?" 
 
 " Nothing very 'stunning' if 1 may be per- 
 mitted to also speak in female seminary slang. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 75 
 
 But you will soon be eighteen, then nineteen, 
 and then — " 
 
 " Yes, you are quite right, and you can 
 finish it all up by adding, and so on. But 
 what are you driving at, to use another bit of 
 slang ?'' 
 
 " I am hinting at that which is always near 
 the heart of a mother who has a grown 
 daughter whom she loves, and whom it is 
 her duty to see established in life." 
 
 " Yes, mamma !" 
 
 " I have been thinking that you are close to 
 the age when young men will seek you as a 
 wife." Here Eleanor dropped her eyes, and 
 a soft crimson touched her cheek. " I want 
 to see you settled while I can assist you. I 
 sometimes feel that there is something wrong 
 in me, and that at any moment something 
 may happen." As she said this her voice 
 grew faint, and tears came into her eyes. 
 Alas, it is always the destiny of a matured 
 woman to believe that something mysterious, 
 unknown, undistinguishable, menaces her 
 health and life. 
 
 " I have thought the matter all over," con- 
 tinued the matron after ostentatiously wiping 
 away the tears, "and I believe that I can 
 select for you the man you should marry." 
 
76 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 "Why, mamma, what do you mean?" 
 asked Eleanor, with her face in a flame, and 
 her gentle eyes flashing with something like 
 anger. " Who is it ?" 
 
 " It is a most worthy young man, one with 
 good rearing, excellent habits, a moderate 
 fortune, and fine prospects. In short, I 
 mean your adopted brother, William !'' 
 
 Had a thunderbolt suddenly torn through 
 the house, shattering and rending it from roof 
 to basement, it would not have created more 
 surprise than did this blunt announcement. 
 She stared at her mother a moment as if 
 hysterical, and then sprang up and fled from 
 the room. 
 
 A few moments later she was in her own 
 room with her head buried in her shawl, and 
 sobbing with convulsive energy. Thus she 
 lay for an hour or more, and then there came 
 a soft step across the floor, a warm hand 
 clasped her icy fingers, there was an imprint 
 of a kiss on her hair, and a pit3'ing voice said : 
 
 " Don t weep so, my darling !" 
 
 Eleanor sprang to her feet, turned her tear- 
 stained face toward her mother, and with 
 her head thrown back defiantly, screamed : 
 
 " Marry William ! Never!'' 
 
THE GAMBLER. yj 
 
 Nothing more was said by Mrs. Wright 
 for some weeks, and then she again broached 
 the subject. The daughter heard her in 
 moody silence, and finally vehemently de- 
 clared that if the marriage was ever again 
 mentioned, she would leave the house and 
 earn her own livelihood. 
 
 Thereafter she devoted many hours each 
 day to the study of shorthand and type-writ- 
 ing. She learned with great rapidity, and in 
 six months was perfect in the latter, and suf- 
 ficiently competent in the former to take 
 down with ease the dictation of an average 
 speaker. 
 
 She might not have gone, but one day 
 William attempted to take her hand, accom- 
 panying the act with some words of admira- 
 tion. She jerked away her hand, ran from 
 the room, and in a few moments appeared 
 before her mother, hatted and dressed for the 
 street. 
 
 " I'm going !" she said. " I shall stay a 
 few days with" — naming a young lady friend 
 — "until I can get work. There is no use in 
 your remonstrating. I am determined, and 
 shall go. I might have endured your perse- 
 cution, but when William attempts to ap- 
 
78 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 proach me, it is too much. I would no more 
 marry him than one of my own brothers." 
 
 The mother entreated, and wept. The 
 girl went, brushing a few tears from her eyes 
 as her feet touched the street. 
 
 She went to the home of her friend. Ad- 
 vertisements were inserted detailing her 
 wants and capabilities, and in less than a 
 month she had secured the position of cor- 
 respondence clerk, at a fair salary, in the 
 wholesale house where she first appeared in 
 this history. 
 
 The small body contained the soul of a 
 giant. She was remonstrated with by her 
 relatives and entreated to return home, but 
 she persisted in her refusal. She boarded 
 with her lady friend, she earned enough to 
 pay her living expenses, and to purchase 
 such articles of clothing as she needed. She 
 may not have been happy, but she was at 
 least independent, and the mistress of the 
 disposal of her hand and her affections. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 79 
 
 X. 
 
 JEW AND GENTILE. 
 
 When Lafarge returned from one of his 
 commercial trips and entered the office, he 
 was struck by a beautiful figure seated at a 
 desk and engaged in writing. Her superb 
 complexion, her wonderful purple-black hair, 
 so unusual with a blonde complexion and blue 
 eyes, her slight, childish figure and girlish ap- 
 pearance, at once attracted his attention, and 
 his admiration. He had never before in all 
 his varied experience seen anything so sweet, 
 so enchanting in every outline and detail. 
 His dark eyes flashed, his chest heaved, his 
 very soul was stirred to its lowermost depths 
 by this vision of loveliness. 
 
 Lafarge was a Jew by blood and education. 
 He was of the more intelligent class, and had 
 received a liberal schooling in the city of his 
 birth, New York. He was a fine musician, 
 and an artist in his tastes, and in many of his 
 
8o THE GAMBLER. 
 
 pursuits. He sang a splendid baritone, played 
 the violin and piano, and possessed most of 
 the better qualities characteristic of his race. 
 
 The Jew is a sensuous being. He is tropi- 
 cal in his loves, and inherits the oriental 
 warmth of his Abrahamic ancestors, although 
 separated from them by thousands of years. 
 
 Each Jew, even of to-day, has the feelings 
 of the writer of the Songs of Solomon ; his 
 fervid imagination, his admiration of women, 
 his devotion to the sensuous, his voluptu- 
 ousness. Even to the modern " Sheeny," 
 whether engaged in selling second-hand 
 clothes or hawking about a basket of pins 
 thread and needles, the woman whom he 
 adores is the perfection of the passionate and 
 the perfect. Could he express himself he 
 would say of her: 
 
 " Behold thou art fair, my love ; behold 
 thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within 
 thy locks; thy hair is as a flock of goats that 
 appear from Mount Gilead. 
 
 "Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that 
 are even shorn, which come up from the 
 washing. 
 
 ■' Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and 
 thy speech is comely ; thy temples are like a 
 piece of pomegranate within thy locks. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 8 1 
 
 ** Thy neck is a tower of ivory ; thine eyes 
 like the fishpool in Hishbon, by the gate of 
 Bath-rabbim ; thine head is upon thee like 
 Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple. 
 
 " How fair and pleasant art thou, O love, 
 for delights ! 
 
 " Thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy 
 breasts to clusters of grapes." 
 
 Such would be the utterances of every son of 
 Jacob were his thoughts embodied in fitting 
 measure. 
 
 Civilization and progress have much eroded 
 the pure animalism of the chosen people ; 
 and yet there still exists a trace of the old, 
 original sentiment which permitted the patri- 
 archs to raid the homes of the heathen for fair 
 captives with which to stock their ample 
 harems. 
 
 It is true that among the beiter elements of 
 the race the virtue of women is esteemed as 
 high as among Christian peoples ; and yet 
 there is a class of the type of Lafarge, that 
 does not consider it a mortal sin to assault the 
 virtue of the Gentile woman. 
 
 Often when traveling on the cars, for in- 
 stance, will the blood of the Christian be 
 heated to the point of almost insanity, as he 
 6 
 
82 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 overhears conversations among Jewish drum- 
 mers in adjacent seats, who discuss the 
 " Christian girls " with whom they claim to 
 have had liaisons at this or that hotel. 
 
 Thin-faced, hook-nosed, swollen-lipped 
 wretches, with converging eyes and cunning, 
 lecherous countenances, are the fellows who 
 thus exchange their amorous adventures, 
 and boastingly allude to their victims as 
 " Christians." 
 
 These curs are Jews, and yet they are not 
 Jews. They in no sense represent the better 
 qualities of their race. They are thieves and 
 swindlers in business, debauchees in their 
 relations with women, and a disgrace to their 
 own people, and equally to civilization. The 
 better classes of the Abrahamic race are in 
 no sense inferior in culture, honesty, dignity 
 and worth to the best specimens of other 
 peoples. 
 
 The sensuality in the nature of Lafarge 
 was aroused to a boiling point the instant 
 after his eyes saw the girl in front of the type- 
 writer. She was poor, or she would not be 
 engaged in this employment. She was prob- 
 ably alone, for had she brothers or other rela- 
 tives, they would care for her, and not allow 
 
THE GAMBLER. 83 
 
 her thus in the world without protection. All 
 these were reasons which flashed through his 
 mind why she would be an easy victim. 
 
 She was a Gentile, and this left her outside 
 the pale of race protection. He was debarred 
 by his blood and his religion from wedding 
 her, although, to his discredit be it said, this 
 thought never entered his soul. 
 
 A connossieur in beauty, he was over- 
 powered by her splendid attractions, and he 
 was ready to fall at her feet and declare his 
 almost insane worship. 
 
 He staid in the office settling up his busi- 
 ness long after he had ample time to con- 
 clude it. He glanced frequently in her direc- 
 tion in hope of catching her eyes, but she 
 never moved her face so that he could have 
 other than a profile view, and which was as 
 clear cut and as shapely as that of a goddess 
 on a cameo. He essayed various jocular re- 
 marks, and told some exciting incidents of 
 his late trip, and looked toward her as to dis- 
 cover if she would become interested. So 
 far as he could see, his brilliant efforts, or his 
 amusing ones, affected her equally ; she never 
 paid the slightest attention to either, or 
 showed by a change in her side face that she 
 knew of his presence. 
 
84 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 He was piqued, enraged, at her total un- 
 concern, and yet comforted himself with the 
 reflection that in time he would unbend that 
 haughty indifference, and command the direc- 
 tion of those eyes that now gazed as httle at 
 him as if he were non-existent. 
 
 As a matter of fact she ignored him from 
 sheer lack of interest, and out of respect to 
 her own dignity. She felt that she was im- 
 measurably superior to her surroundings, 
 and determined to have no more contact 
 with them than was rendered necessary by 
 her official duties. Had she been willing, 
 under the circumstances, to take an interest 
 in a handsome, engaging man, she would 
 have found such an one in Lafarge. He was 
 fine looking, intelligent, a good talker, and 
 possessed of a deep, melodious voice. His 
 conversation was bright, epigrammatic, with 
 a flash here and there of both wit and humor. 
 
 She neither knew nor cared as to the man 
 who was engaged so long in talking with the 
 proprietor. He might have been a porler or 
 a millionaire, for all that she comprehended. 
 She simpl}^ never thought of him at all. 
 
 Failing to attract her attention, the audacity 
 of the drummer came to his rescue as it had 
 
THE GAMBLER. 85 
 
 in many instances when he had been rudely 
 repulsed by merchants whom he had ap- 
 proached to solicit their patronage. 
 
 Starting as if to go out, he passed near her, 
 and purposely stumbled, and so managed to 
 drop forward that one of his hands struck and 
 deranged some of the papers piled on the 
 desk at which she was seated. He recovered 
 himself instantly as she looked up with a 
 slight air of vexation, and with a profound 
 and respectful bow said in his softest tone : 
 
 " I beg a thousand pardons ! I am inex- 
 cusabl}' careless !" 
 
 " It isn't of the slightest consequence," she 
 answered in an unconcerned manner, as she 
 proceeded to replace the disturbed papers. 
 
 " I'm awfully sorry, I'm sure," he said, and 
 waited as if for a reply. She resumed her 
 labors as if the incident had never occurred. 
 
 '< By — !'' he ejaculated, " I made her 
 speak, anyhow, and I got a view of her pretty 
 face! My God, isn't she a beauty! If I'm 
 not mistaken I shall hear more of that sweet 
 voice, and see more of that proud, pretty 
 face," 
 
86 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE BRUTE OF THE HORSE-CAR. 
 
 One of the severest trials to which 
 Eleanor was subjected was from the rude be- 
 havior of men on her way to and from her 
 business, especially on the street cars. Al- 
 though generally veiled so as to conceal her 
 face and hair, there was, nevertheless, some- 
 thing in her springy step, and the lithe undu- 
 lations of her form that attracted the atten- 
 tion of men and women. 
 
 There was a class of brutes that haunted 
 the streets, lounged at street-corners, and in 
 front of drinking places, who stared insolently 
 and lascivioush' at every pretty woman who 
 passed, who uttered audible and insolent 
 comments on her appearance, and if she 
 were modest, put her to infinite shame as she 
 interpreted their actions to mean that she 
 was vile. 
 
 On the street-car this nuisance was re- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 8/ 
 
 doubled in its hatefulness. Seated next to 
 a modest girl one of these animals would 
 annoy her by pressing his knee against her; 
 or standing in front of her, would gaze per- 
 sistently at her with an insolent and insult- 
 ing glance. 
 
 These lecherous blackguards yet abound. 
 Their existence is a disgrace to human 
 nature. The person who would exhibit an 
 obscene picture before the eyes of a young 
 girl in a crowded street car, would be sum- 
 marily kicked into the street by the outraged 
 spectators, and yet the cur who, by his 
 glances and actions, conveys libidinous sug- 
 gestions to the same young girl, under the 
 same circumstances, escapes without punish- 
 ment. His offence is as gross as if conveyed 
 in actual speech. 
 
 Such assaults are never the work of a 
 healthy, robust, virile man. They are the 
 occupation of debased creatures who are 
 compelled to enjoy in imagination that 
 from which they are debarred in reality. 
 Old men are often thus offensive; lecherous 
 old wretches who enjoy in memory the 
 passionate experiences of their youth. 
 
 The men who participate in this cowardly 
 
88 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 work of annoying and insulting defenceless 
 women, are slender boys, whose self-abase- 
 ment is apparent in their attenuated necks 
 and dulled eyes; thick-lipped, paunchy, mid- 
 dle-aged men stimulated by rum into desire, 
 and by the same agency rendered impotent 
 in action ; and shattered old libertines, long 
 since past the period of their capabilities, 
 and who labor to revive into a flame the 
 long-dead embers of their passions. 
 
 One day, Eleanor was detained beyond 
 her usual time at the office by a press of 
 business, and it was not far from midnight 
 when she entered the car to go home. The 
 seats were all taken, principally by men, one 
 of whom, after glancing ciiriously and fixedly 
 at the slender, veiled figure, rose and offered 
 her his seat. She would have preferred not 
 to take it, but knowing that a refusal would 
 attract more attention than accepting, she 
 took it, thanking the donor as she passed him. 
 
 No sooner was she seated than he placed 
 himself directly in front of, and close to her, 
 meanwhile holding on the strap overhead. 
 Then he fixed his eyes on her face, and 
 stared at her persistently with an impudent, 
 salacious expression. 
 
THE GAMBLER, 89 
 
 He was a young man with an enormous 
 paunch, flabby jowls, beery cheeks, big 
 hands and feet, and a stupid, leering face. 
 Very soon the passengers began to notice 
 that the young girl was ill at ease. His 
 glance annoyed her, and from her frequent 
 shiftings of position, it was evident that he 
 was otherwise annoying her by pressing his 
 leg against her. 
 
 There were two or three women in the car 
 who saw the performance, and who whis- 
 pered am(jng each other : 
 
 " Shameful young thing !" was probably the 
 burden of their discourse. " Isn't it outrage- 
 ous that she should carry on at such a rate 
 right here in public?" 
 
 "Sst, Tist!" hissed another, "the idea of 
 her trying to get up a flirtation with that 
 gentleman !" 
 
 The majority of the passengers became 
 interested in the proceedings. Finally the 
 paunchy persecutor leaned down and putting 
 his face close to hers, whispered something. 
 In an instant, Eleanor sprang to her feet, as 
 if to reach the door, when the big black- 
 guard deliberately interposed his huge body 
 to bar her passage. She flimg up her arm 
 
90 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 with a gesture of despair, and just then a 
 hand seized the collar of the brute, pushed 
 him backward a couple of steps, and then 
 another hand doubled into a fist, smote him 
 under his vast jaw, sending him in a lump to 
 the floor. 
 
 "There, you cursed dog! " said the owner 
 of hand and fist, a blond and rather slender 
 young man, as with face blazing with indig- 
 nation he surveyed the limp carcass on the 
 floor, and which was making feeble efforts to 
 pull itself together; "I'll teach you not to 
 insult defenceless women ! " 
 
 The big animal slowly regained his feet 
 and took a seat. 
 
 " I wa'n't doin' nothin'," he muttered feebly. 
 
 He was a rank coward ; he had no thought 
 of resenting the blow, and sneaked off the car 
 at the next crossing. All loafers who thus 
 insult women are cowards of the meanest 
 kind. They may be kicked, spit upon, buffeted, 
 and they will take it all without resistance. 
 
 There was some little commotion in the 
 car after the knockdown, but as the cowed 
 wretch offered no protest either by word or 
 blow, the excitement soon subsided. Eleanor 
 resumed her seat, as did her defender. When 
 
THE GAMBLER. 9I 
 
 sne reached her crossing she lifted her veil, as 
 she passed him, and with a warm " Thank 
 you, sir ! " disappeared. The vision of beauty 
 that for a moment flashed across the glance 
 of the blond young man, dazzled him into 
 almost blindness, and at the same time im- 
 pressed itself on his memory with a distinct- 
 ness never to be effaced. 
 
g2 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE CREME DE LA CREME. 
 
 Lafarge, baffled in his first attempts to make 
 the acquaintance of Eleanor, was rather made 
 more determined to succeed in conquering 
 her, by his rebuff. He made various excuses 
 to avoid going- out on the road for some time, 
 in order that he might increase his opportu- 
 nities for seeing her. He was constantl}^ in 
 the ofifice during her hours, and was inde- 
 fatigable in his efforts to secure her friendly 
 notice. As he was constantly about she could 
 not wholly ignore him, so that in time there 
 grew up a certain, but limited intimacy. 
 
 Lafarge flattered himself that he was gain- 
 ing ground. 
 
 One day as she was unpacking her lunch- 
 basket, he happened to be present and said : 
 
 " That's a cold lay-out for this weather. 
 Wont you join me? We'll go over to the 
 Creme de la Creme " — the name of a famous 
 
THE GAMBLER. 93 
 
 and fashionable restaurant — " and have a quiet 
 luncheon." 
 
 She hesitated a moment to find some 
 excuse for refusal. She could think of none 
 that she could give him, and concluded with 
 some inward reluctance, to go. 
 
 They went over to the Creme de la Creme 
 and climbed the richly-decorated stairway, 
 with its showy dado and glaring panels, and 
 entered the public dining-room. 
 
 " Let's go further back," said he ; " this is 
 too conspicuous." The idea of publicity 
 alarmed her, and so she willingly followed 
 him along a hallway on either side of which 
 were stalls, rising a little higher than the head 
 of a man of average height. They entered 
 one of these ; there was a table resplendent 
 with china and silver ware, and there were 
 pictures on the main wall ; otherwise there 
 was nothing in the furnishing of the room 
 that was remarkable. Everything was rich, 
 and rather warm in tone. 
 
 A luncheon of French dishes was ordered 
 and partaken of. During its progress, Lafarge 
 was at his best. He chatted about French 
 cookery, concerning which he was well 
 informed. He ran over the amusements in 
 
94 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 town, and the various artists who were on the 
 boards, and their excellencies. In all these 
 matters he was interesting, and most respect- 
 ful. Eleanor was carried away by his gossip, 
 his shrewd analyses of characters and persons, 
 and joined quite unreservedly in the con- 
 versation. 
 
 A deeper light came into the eyes of her 
 companion as he saw her reserve unbending, 
 and she, for the first time, chatting with him 
 familiarly as if they were old acquaintances. 
 He believed that the hour of his triumph was 
 approaching. A species of exultation perme- 
 ated his voice and his demeanor. 
 
 He diverted the conversation to French 
 wines and on this theme he was eloquent. 
 He enlarged on their bouquet, their exquisite 
 purity. There was one brand in particular 
 which was a nectar such as the gods drink. 
 There was but one place in Chicago where it 
 could be obtained, and that was the Creme 
 de la Creme. He would order some of it, so 
 that she might sip the most delicious potation 
 which had been ripened by the sun since the 
 days of Olympus. 
 
 She made no objection, seeing no reason 
 why she should make any. The waiter was 
 
THE GAMBLER. 95 
 
 called, and a card with something written on 
 it by Lafarge was given him. He returned 
 in a few minutes with a bottle covered with 
 dust and cobwebs. He pulled out the cork, 
 when a singular, pungent, and nevertheless 
 delicious and stimulating aroma filled the 
 room. Two crimson and slender wine-glasses 
 were filled by the attendant, and then, when 
 he had left the stall, closing the door behind 
 him, Lafarge passed one of the glasses to 
 Eleanor, and raised the other toward his lips. 
 
 " To your health, happiness and our better 
 acquaintance," he said, in his softest tones. 
 Eleanor raised her glass, and just then natu- 
 rally glanced into the face and eyes of Lafarge. 
 
 There was something whicli she saw, she 
 knew not what, which thrilled her soul with 
 an indefinable terror. She knew nothing of 
 the passions save in a sweet, unconscious way ; 
 she knew little of life outside her own limited 
 and pure experiences ; and there seemed noth- 
 ing which she had reason to dread. 
 
 Something in his looks alarmed her. It 
 sent thrills along her nerves and awakened a 
 frightful terror. His eyes had taken on a 
 new expression ; they shone with unnatural 
 brightness, they were humid ; they shifted as 
 
96 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 if there were revolving circles beneath the 
 surface ; but above all their strangeness and 
 terrible energy, they were fixed on her with 
 a glaring intensity as if they were penetrating 
 her deepest nature. A wave of faintness 
 flowed over her. She was seized by a name- 
 less dread. She put down her glass untasted. 
 
 " What ! you wont taste this nectar, this 
 extract of all that is poetical in the product 
 of green vineyards and summer skies?" 
 
 " No !" she said faintly. " I cannot drink 
 it. I am weak ; I must go." 
 
 She glanced apologetically into his face. It 
 had changed. The bright and intense light, 
 the mysterious circles revolving with light- 
 ning-like rapidity in his eyes, the fixedness of 
 his gaze all had disappeared, and in their 
 place instead of the expression at once woo- 
 ing and commanding, there had come one 
 more suggestive of hate. The black brows 
 were lowered and corrugated into a savage 
 frown, the lips a moment before parted with 
 smiling expectanc}^ were tightly drawn to- 
 gether into a thin line. 
 
 She shrunk from him as if with a fear of 
 her life. His look suggested murder, or some 
 horrible danger. She rose and made her way 
 
THE GAMBLER. 97 
 
 through the door. He accompanied her, and 
 thence back to the office without the exchangee 
 of a word. From that moment she feared 
 and distrusted him. Had she attempted to 
 explain the cause of her dishke she would 
 have failed. 
 
 It was the pure instincts of an untainted 
 soul which had alarmed her, and preserved 
 her from a danger she did not comprehend. 
 
 It was the next night after this meeting that 
 Lafarge visited Natalie, the Ogress, as before 
 recounted. 
 
 It would be unjust to dismiss this incident 
 at the Creme de la Creme without comment. 
 The interview between Eleanor and Lafarge 
 in all its details, is one that is occurring every 
 day and night. There are Cremes de la 
 Cremes all over the city ; some resplendent 
 with rich garniture, fine wines and liveried 
 attendants ; and others with hideous, narrow 
 pens built out from the walls, with daubs for 
 ornamentation, with greasy, beer-stained table- 
 cloths, and poisoned beer and whisky handed 
 in by boisterous, profane, ill-smelling waiters. 
 
 Unlike as these are in their appearance and 
 surroundings, they are exactly alike in their 
 purposes and their results. 
 7 
 
98 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 It is said that the woman who hesitates is 
 lost; it may be affirmed with equal certainty 
 that the woman who drinks at one of these 
 fashionable or unfashionable places is on the 
 verge of ruin, if she have not already passed 
 over its brink. 
 
 The shop-girl who dines and drinks under 
 these circumstances finds herself dizzy, semi- 
 unconscious, dazed, in a carriage, and often, 
 a little later, in an infamous house. 
 
 Few classes of women are not represented 
 among the victims of these resorts. Many 
 married women, "just to have a little fun," 
 accept invitations to dine with some man at 
 one of these places, and go home late at night 
 with their chastity blasted, and a lie on their 
 lips to account for their detention. 
 
 Many of the fallen creatures who secure a 
 livelihood by ministering to the coarse pas- 
 sions of men, can date their descent from the 
 time when they drank their first glass at some 
 one of the Creme de la Creme establishments 
 that flourish in Chicago. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 99 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A WOMAN ENTERS THE SCENE. 
 
 After Paul Calkins had spent some months 
 in athletics, dancing- and the like, and had vis- 
 ited all the theaters, he became somewhat en- 
 nuied, and resolved to enter on some occupa- 
 tion not only to give him something to do, 
 but also to establish a business. In due sea- 
 son he succeeded in purchasing an interest in 
 a book-house, and entered it as a junior 
 partner. 
 
 His business location made his hotel resi- 
 dence inconvenient, and he determined on a 
 change. Carefully scanning the advertising 
 columns of the newspapers, he finally learned 
 of rooms to rent, in various parts of the city. 
 One of these appeared to furnish what he 
 needed, and he visited the place. 
 
 It was a three-story house on a fashionable 
 street, and bore external evidences of wealth. 
 
 He found a small parlor and bedroom ad- 
 
lOO THE GAMBLER. 
 
 joining- which exactly suited, and on giving his 
 bank and book-house as references, he was 
 readily rented them by the proprietress. It 
 was the property of a Mrs. Jackson, whose 
 husband had not long since died. He had 
 l)een supposed to be wealthy during his life, 
 but when a settlement of his affairs came to 
 be made, it was found that but little more 
 than the homestead could be preserved from 
 the rapacious grasp of the creditors. 
 
 Forced to fall back on herself for a sup- 
 port, Mrs. Jackson resolved to utilize her 
 room.y house as a source of income. She had 
 only one child, a girl named Helen, aged about 
 twenty, and possessed of considerable beauty 
 and refinement. The Wright and Jackson 
 families had been intimate for many years; 
 and it was by her friend Helen, that Eleanor, 
 when she had left her home, had been offered 
 a home. 
 
 For some weeks Paul came and went with- 
 out attracting much attention on the part of 
 the inmates of the house. However, he was 
 so punctual in his hours and his weekly pa}'- 
 ments, so quiet in his occupancy of the rooms, 
 and so polite and deferential to the widowed 
 landlady, that she began to regard him as a 
 
THE GAMBLER. lOI 
 
 rather particularly fine young man — a convic- 
 tion that she, of course, communicated to the 
 young ladies. 
 
 As Paul climbed and descended the stair- 
 way, he now and then caught a glimpse of a 
 dress as its owner went into the parlor, or 
 turned a corner in the upper hall ; but for a 
 long time he was not favored with the sight 
 of a face. One morning just as he was open- 
 ing the street door to go out, a key was in- 
 serted in the lock from the outside, and the 
 door was mutually opened by two persons. 
 
 Eleanor — for it was she — was returning in 
 haste for something which she had forgotten. 
 They glanced at each other, and then he recog- 
 nized the girl whom he had defended against 
 the insults of the brute on the street-car, and 
 she saw in him the man who had protected 
 her. Both were so struck with astonishment 
 and so confused that they stammered, begged 
 pardons, and rushed by each other, he with 
 dazed feelings, and she with a blush on her 
 cheek and a throbbing of her heart. 
 
 She flew like a sparrow to the room of her 
 friend Helen, burst in on her with a whirl 
 and a flutter, and asked almost incoherently, 
 so much was she out of breath from her speed 
 and agitation : 
 
102 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Who is that young man that just left the 
 house?" 
 
 Helen saw the anxiety of Eleanor, and with 
 feminine tact saw an opportunity to tease, 
 and availed herself of it. 
 
 " Young man leaving this house ! I'm 
 astonished ! How could a young man bear 
 to leave a house in which there are two sweet 
 young things, not to mention a well-preserved 
 widow ?" 
 
 "Oh, nonsense ! Tell me who it was?" 
 
 " I think," responded Helen slowly, as if 
 trying to recall an obscure memory, " that it 
 may have been the plumber's assistant. Did 
 he have on blue overalls, ragged at the 
 knees—'' 
 
 " You wretch ! It was no plumber's assist- 
 ant, but a gentleman, and the same one that 
 protected me against the rufifian on the cars." 
 
 Helen's manner at once changed, and an 
 expression of satisfaction played over her 
 face. 
 
 " Why, you dear girl, that's mamma's 
 young man lodger ! What a remarkable 
 coincidence that you should both happen to 
 be occupants of the same house !" 
 
 " Are you sure ?" asked the other. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 103 
 
 " Sure as that you stand there with won- 
 dering eyes, and mouth open, as if to drink 
 in all the astounding news. My goodness, 
 but isn't this a romance ! It beats everything 
 in fiction !" 
 
 Eleanor fled. " I'll be late, good-bye !" 
 
 Helen at once communicated to her mother 
 that the young hero who had so gallantly 
 protected Eleanor, and concerning whom 
 they had speculated and chatted for two or 
 three whole weeks, was her lodger. 
 
 The elderly lady was delighted with the 
 discovery. She had become very favorably 
 impressed with the quiet and gentlemanly de- 
 meanor of the young man, and now to learn 
 that he had performed so acceptable a service 
 for Eleanor, added immeasurably to her esti- 
 mate of him. 
 
 All women admire manly men. They may 
 have an indefinite impression that there is 
 something worthy of respect in brains, and 
 all that sort of thing ; but they much prefer 
 the statue of Apollo or Adonis to that of 
 Ben Franklin, or the crooked-backed Vol- 
 taire. The youth who wins a discussion in a 
 debating school, is to them something to be 
 regarded with mixed fear and admiration; 
 
104 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 but a handsome youth whose cheeks are 
 ruddy with health, and whose potent fists can 
 strike to the earth an offensive bully, is looked 
 on with pure respect. 
 
 The mother and daughter exchanged their 
 impressions. The former lauded the man- 
 ners and appearance of her lodger, and the 
 latter reveled in contemplation of his strength 
 and courage. The result was that, Eleanor 
 not dissenting, the hero was invited to call 
 down to the parlor that evening to receive 
 the thanks of the ladies for his meritorious 
 act. 
 
 With many misgivings as to his ability to 
 well carry himself in the approaching crisis, 
 Paul betook himself to the salon. The host- 
 ess, who was waiting for him, received him 
 very graciously, spoke of the incident on the 
 car, and how deeply she appreciated a service 
 performed in the interests of dear Eleanor, 
 the friend, almost sister, of her own daughter. 
 
 The young ladies, tastefully and charm- 
 ingly dressed, came in soon after, and Mr. 
 Calkins was formally presented to the pair. 
 The usual commonplaces were exchanged, 
 and then there followed awkward breaks of 
 silence. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 105 
 
 It is not often that a meeting occurs under 
 similar circumstances, and there are few peo- 
 ple who have the tact to know just what to 
 say on such an occasion. Paul felt that he 
 was the hero of the hour, and the knowledge 
 bore him down like a great weight. He 
 wished the occurrence could be forgotten, 
 be passed over as it never had existed. This 
 fact shows the modesty that cliaracterizcd 
 him. It is something very uncommon in 
 man. 
 
 Time passed, and little by little the awk- 
 wardness wore away and the conversation 
 became easier and less interrupted. After an 
 hour or so had passed, Paul excused himself 
 and took his leave, with a cordial invitation 
 on the part of the hostess to repeat the call. 
 
 It was with wildly-beating pulses that Paul 
 entered his room. Eleanor had fascinated 
 him with overwhelming force. He was lost, 
 confused, like a child that gazes for the first 
 time on some gorgeous spectacle on the stage. 
 He was bewildered, dizzy, and it was hours 
 after he retired before the events of the even- 
 ing would leave him and permit him to sleep. 
 He had never, in all his experience, seen a 
 woman half so beautiful as Eleanor. Her 
 
I06 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 wonderful hair, clear and limpid eyes, her 
 melodious and often caressing voice, her 
 dainty hands and slight figure, all united to 
 make of her an irresistible, almost a fearsome 
 attraction. 
 
 When he woke in the morning after a 
 feverish sleep, he was conscious of one thing ; 
 it was that in his whole heart, soul and spirit, 
 he was enthralled by the beautiful girl. 
 
 And Eleanor? It is not to be expected 
 that she shared to any considerable extent 
 the raptures which had affected Paul. She 
 had seen more of the social world than he, 
 and was not so impressible. But she liked 
 him. He had a manly and modest face ; he 
 conversed intelligently ; he had the appear- 
 ance of a gentleman ; and above all, he was 
 the hero who rescued her when she was in 
 dire peril. All these united, left the young 
 man — not a lover — but an admired acquaint- 
 ance who could easily become a friend. After 
 that, what? The question presented itself, 
 but she put it away and declined to answer it. 
 
 Although young, Eleanor had seen much, 
 and was a close observer. Paul presented 
 himself as unlike any young man she had ever 
 before known. Most of the men who had ap- 
 
THE GAMBLER. IO7 
 
 proached her when she lived at home were 
 obsequious, full of flattering remarks, often 
 awkward, impertinent, too familiar, and fre- 
 quently inane and feeble in their conversation. 
 Paul used no slang ; he was not in the least 
 cringing, obsequious, nor insolent ; while 
 grave, he was not stupid. He had a mine of 
 humor and mild irony at his command, and 
 when he caught the glances of Eleanor, he 
 returned them with a look which, while it 
 expressed admiration, did not fail to embody 
 a high respect. His broad, square shoulders, 
 his deep chest, erect figure, and well-poised 
 head commanded the respect which is always 
 accorded to physical excellencies. 
 
I08 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 TROUBLE IS BREWING. 
 
 Lafarge immediately after the incident at 
 the Creme de la Creme, went off on a long 
 trip through the Southwest, and Eleanor saw 
 no more of him. 
 
 Some weeks passed ; and he returned, 
 reaching the city after business hours. Tak- 
 king a bath, and having eaten his supper, he 
 concluded to spend the evening at some place 
 of amusement, or at least to drop into one 
 place or more, for a brief inspection of the 
 plays, and more especially, the actresses. 
 
 Lafarge was like many other city men, a 
 good deal blase . To engage a seat and oc- 
 cupy it for an entire evening was something 
 too intolerable ; and so, he and others of his 
 kind, u^ould drop in here and there, look over 
 the audience to see who was present, inspect 
 critically the dress and appearance of the 
 heroine of the play and equally critically the 
 
THE GAMBLER. IO9 
 
 undress of the ballet and the figures of its 
 members. 
 
 What a thing- of beauty, what a joy forever 
 are some of the daughters of Ballet as they 
 appear under the glare of the footlights, en- 
 riched by the high colors of their surround- 
 ings ! Cheeks glow with crimson glories ; 
 eyes flash with supernal brilliancy ; rounded 
 forms swell out and curve in unbroken lines 
 of voluptuous beauty, and the tiny slipper 
 scarcely would crush a fragile violet so lightly 
 does it press the floor! 
 
 Go around the next forenoon and rap at the 
 unpainted door of a den on the third floor of 
 a tumbling tenement-house. It opens and 
 reveals a broken stove, a small wooden table, 
 a four-legged stool, with one of the members 
 missing, no carpet, a dirty rug, ami other fur- 
 nishings among which is an elderly woman 
 with wrinkled face, pinched mouth, sallow 
 complexion, complaining eyes, and a ragged 
 stocking with a broken shoe encasing the 
 trim ankle and the shapely foot that were so 
 admired the night before. 
 
 Such are not always the contrasts between 
 the fairy of the footlights and the denizen of 
 the rookery, but such are the differences in 
 innumerable instances. 
 
no THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Lafarge strolled negligently into several 
 theaters, yawning dismally after he had re- 
 mained a few moments, and then resolved to 
 go around and spend a few hours in a poker- 
 club. He was turning to carry this resolu- 
 tion into effect when he happened to cast his 
 eye to the upper tier of boxes, and there came 
 over him a sudden change. He rubbed his 
 eyes, stared intently, and as he did so, his 
 breathing grew deeper, the swarthy hue of 
 his cheeks became almost inky in its hue, 
 and his eyes glittered with a malignant light. 
 
 In one of the boxes were seated Eleanor, 
 Paul Calkins, and a young lady whom he did 
 not know. 
 
 Could all the hatred concentrated in his ex- 
 pression have been launched in a single cur- 
 rent on the occupants of the box the}- would 
 have been struck dead as surely as by the 
 blow of a thunderbolt. 
 
 After the performance, the three occupants 
 of the box took the street-cars in the direc- 
 tion of their home. They were happy, chatty, 
 and smiling as they rolled along; but they 
 failed to notice a dark, scowling face which 
 glared at them through the window from the 
 front platform. Nor did they know that 
 
THE GAMBLER. Ill 
 
 when they left the car for their residence, 
 they were followed at a short distance by 
 a stealthy figure belching- oaths and blas- 
 phemies, with volcanic vehemence. 
 
 When they all entered the house, and the 
 door closed behind them, Lafarge waited. 
 He supposed that Paul would soon take leave 
 of the ladies, and then he would meet him. 
 
 Would he murder him ? Would he strike 
 him dead in his tracks ? Lafarge felt like the 
 commission of any crime. Here was the only 
 woman whom he had ever loved with his 
 whole intense soul, in company, and on 
 familiar terms with the "country-jake" that 
 he himself had been the means of rescuing 
 from the insignificance of the station of a 
 hostler. 
 
 The reflection drove him to the very bor- 
 ders of insanity. Unbeliever in Jesus Christ, 
 like the other profane men of his faith, he 
 used His name in a thousand varied forms of 
 blasphemy. 
 
 The time passed, and Paul did not come 
 out. Slowly the lights on the various floors 
 were extinguished, and save a dim hall-light, 
 the residence slept in darkness. 
 
 Here was another perplexing mystery. 
 
112 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Could it be that Paul was married to Eleanor, 
 or could it be that she had become his mis- 
 tress, and that this was an infamous house ? 
 The possibility was suppressed almost before 
 born. He was too good a judge of faces. 
 The girl with Paul and Eleanor, he knew to 
 be a pure woman, and as such, she would not 
 be a party to any wrong-doing. 
 
 He remained moodily and mechanically 
 watching the house till long after midnight ; 
 and it was only when a suspicious policeman 
 asked what he was standing around there for, 
 that he moved away. 
 
 Late as it was, he determined to see 
 Natalie. Scarcely believing in a God, a 
 future immortality, nor in aught outside the 
 appreciation of the senses, he yet was as 
 superstitious as a savage. In a general way 
 he recognized a deity called Chance, and to 
 whom he paid constant worship. 
 
 A strange power this god of the gamblers ! 
 Impersonal, without location, unapproachable 
 through prayer, or sacrifice, intangible, and 
 yet everlastingly in the mind of the card- 
 player. 
 
 Perhaps a solution of this strange belief 
 may be found in the fact that there is in the 
 
THE GAMBLER. II3 
 
 minds of most people a conviction of the ex. 
 istence of some superior power, and which 
 is known as God. 
 
 This power is one that punishes evil ; but 
 such is not the God desired by the gambler 
 whose mission is one of unmitigated wrong. 
 To escape the consequences of his acts, he 
 repudiates the God who damns the wicked ; 
 but, unable to rid himself of the behef of a 
 controlling power he changes its nature. 
 He calls it Chance, something that is potent 
 and yet which will wink at a life of iniquity ; 
 whose good will or the reverse can be learned 
 in advance through dreams, signs, and the 
 divination of women. 
 
 It is a curious god, this deity of the profes- 
 sion. Its will and intentions are not learned 
 through a written revelation. These are to 
 be discovered through legend and personal 
 experience. If the player is unlucky in his 
 seat, he attempts to placate his deity by get- 
 ting up and walking round his chair. If one 
 player puts his foot on the chair of another, 
 it is unlucky. Sometimes the erratic god of 
 the sport is induced to lend his assistance by 
 an odd coin, a piece of metal of some kind, 
 or any unusual thing laid in front of the 
 player. 
 
114 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 There may be something used to placate, 
 which enrages Chance ; if so it is a "hoodoo ;" 
 if it is successful, it is a "mascot." 
 
 All these and ten thousand other trivialities 
 and absurdities are in use among the wor- 
 shipers of Chance. They are more stupid 
 than the worship of savages for bits of rags, 
 pieces of stone and knotted sticks. They are 
 calculated for the cult of a class that is with- 
 out conscience, without a God, without a 
 hope in the future, and with no higher inspi- 
 ration than greed of gain. 
 
 Lafarge found Natalie in her old place, and 
 with no noticeable change in her environment. 
 She glanced at him sharply as he seated him- 
 self, and said : 
 
 "More trouble, my son. What is it? 
 Have you gambled for a woman and lost?" 
 
 "Yes," he responded in a bitter tone, "3^ou 
 told me when I was here last that I have 
 a rival. It is true. I have found him, and 
 w^hat grinds my soul is that he is my own 
 work. I found him and brought him here. I 
 warmed the frozen viper that has stung me! 
 I shall kill him ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Natalie. " Blood is good. Kill 
 him and we will (^ffer hini as a sacrifice. Tell 
 me about him." 
 
THE GAMBLER. I I 5 
 
 Lafarge related all the details concerning 
 his meeting with Paul, his falling in love 
 with Eleanor, the lailure of his attempt at the 
 luncheon, and his meeting them at the theater. 
 
 " You have the right to be angry, poor boy," 
 said Natalie, in a soothing tone. " You have 
 suffered ; you must and shall be avenged. 
 Revenge is taught by my religion, and blood 
 is the only atonement.'' 
 
 " You are right ; I will kill him ! " 
 
 " Not now. To kill him now would be 
 right, but it would be a poor revenge. You 
 are too wise a man to think that the kiUing of 
 your enemy would wipe out a great injury. 
 You kill him, he suffers for an instant, and 
 then he is dead. He suffers no more. Your 
 revenge can be carried no further." 
 
 " What then would you do? " 
 
 " Kill him, but not with a sudden blow. 
 Kill him by inches. Let him suffer the pains 
 of death for years. Let him always fcQl the 
 agonies of dying and yet not die till you give 
 the word." 
 
 The words of the Ogress seemed to produce 
 a favorable impression on Lafarge. The 
 frown melted away from his brow, and a 
 smile came over his face. 
 
tl6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Till daylight came, the two sat there and 
 talked. When Lafarge finally rose to leave, 
 his face was of a ghastly yellowish pallor, and 
 his eyes deeply shotted with blood. 
 
 " Is it agreed ? " said Natalie, as he was 
 leaving. 
 
 " Yes, by G — ! You shall have the sacri- 
 fice ! " 
 
 Upon his appearance at the office the same 
 day, he saw Eleanor at her desk and bowed 
 to her in respectful silence. He remained 
 about for some time, and while speaking now 
 and then of business matters, he made no 
 allusion to the visit to the Creme de la Creme. 
 
 She had been very much alarmed for a long 
 time after her visit to the restaurant, and was 
 disposed to avoid Lafarge as an enemy. But 
 as she came to reflect carefully over all the 
 details of the occurrence, she could recall 
 nothing at which she could really take alarm 
 or offence. Why she had been affected as 
 she was she could not divine. In fine, after a 
 time she began to feel more kindly toward 
 Lafarge and to think that she had treated him 
 unjustly. 
 
 His scrupulous politeness after his return ; 
 his avoidance of any allusion to the incidental 
 
THE GAMBLER. II7 
 
 the luncheon so far affected her that she forgot 
 all her terrors and prejudices against him and 
 henceforth treated him as she had before the 
 meeting at the Creme de la Creme. That is, 
 she did not treat him at all as an intimate 
 acquaintance, but the same as she did the 
 manager and other leading employes in the 
 establishment. 
 
 Very soon after his visit to the Ogress, 
 Lafarge called at Paul's place of business. 
 He was more than usually polite and affable 
 and made himself especially agreeable. 
 
 " I think you are a little pale," remarked 
 Lafarge, as he was about to leave. " You are 
 keeping yourself too close. I must think up 
 something to amuse you. Why you have 
 been here only a year, and are already getting 
 blase! That wont do! I'll come around 
 some day and introduce some new diversion." 
 
 " Thanks ! Anything you can propose must 
 be good ! Let me know when you are ready." 
 
 They parted with an exchange of expressions 
 of mutual good will. 
 
Il8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 XV. 
 
 FRIENDSHIP, MARRIAGE AND LOVE. 
 
 It may be readily surmised that the constant 
 association of Eleanor and Paul would result 
 in a warm friendship, even if it should not 
 proceed further. 
 
 " Further," in this instance is not the proper 
 form of expression, for friendship is, beyond 
 question, a higher condition than that termed 
 love. The former is founded on mutual es- 
 teem, active sympathies, harmonious tastes ; 
 the latter is often no more than an expression 
 of passion. Friendship may, and often does 
 survive marriage, love rarely or never. 
 
 So often is this the case that a cynical view 
 of these conditions would lead to the sugges- 
 tion for the benefit of a woman, — if you wish 
 to preserve your lover, marry some one else. 
 The same advice will apply to the man. 
 
 It is unfortunate, and yet it is true that 
 love, so-called, very often dies of a surfeit at 
 
THE GAMBLER. II9 
 
 the setting of the honeymoon. Marriage, 
 considered with reference to the protection 
 given it by law, the church and public senti- 
 ment, should result in a high state of felicity. 
 If all that it is claimed to be by dreamers, 
 poets and lovers, the union of two souls by 
 matrimonial ties should be the very maximum 
 of human enjoyment. 
 
 Ah, this beautiful marriage, what a part it 
 plays in the dreams of the young ! The altar 
 crowns the height on which the ideal dwells. 
 Up there, as the young girl climbs slowly 
 from the monotonous vales of childhood, her 
 humid eyes see an unsurpassable glory. It is 
 as holy as w^as the ground at Sinai. Myste- 
 rious clouds conceal somewhat and reveal 
 somewhat of its ineffable blessedness. With 
 springing step, bounding pulses and soul 
 thrilling with she knows not what ecstacy, she 
 ascends, she enters, the glorious cloudland. 
 
 There are the fragrance of orange-blossoms, 
 low, sensuous strains of music, and billows of 
 lace that float about her in rhythmic undula- 
 tions. Superb is she, if never before, at this 
 divine moment. Sweet emotions blossom 
 redly on her cheek; her eyes droop tenderly 
 and languidly with the weight of timid and 
 
I20 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 blissful anticipations. She clings with a deli- 
 cious, with a caressing dependence to the arm 
 of her ideal, and then she disappears in the 
 cloudland of matrimony. 
 
 Two, five, ten years pass, and one meets the 
 same person, no longer a girl but now a 
 woman. There is no trace of the fair, clinging, 
 crimson-cheeiied novice, with step light as the 
 weight of a thistle-down, who knelt before 
 the altar. The cheek is hollow ; the eyes 
 with their tender light effaced, have grown 
 hard, steely, unsympathetic. The ripe and 
 rosy lips have become bloodless, and the cor- 
 ners of the mouth over which smiles once 
 played bo-peep with the world, have flattened, 
 and lines, before arched like the bow of Cupid, 
 have become thin, firm, compressed, with a 
 querulous droop in their extremities. Indif- 
 ference stamps a face once beautiful with 
 mysterious inquisitiveness. Lines have fur- 
 rowed through the velvety soil of the face, a 
 tinge of sailowness has supplanted the bloom, 
 and something suggestive of satiety has hard- 
 ened the expression and taken the place of 
 the eager inquir}^ and innocence which were 
 once so dominant. 
 
 And he? What of him? During the love 
 
THE GAMBLER. I2I 
 
 period, who more chivalrous, devoted, tender, 
 considerate than he? Every moment that he 
 could not bask in the sunshine of her pres- 
 ence was bleak and glacial. How caressingly 
 he held her hands and brushed back the hair 
 from her brow ; how frequent the light kisses 
 on her eyelids, and how clinging those on her 
 lips! 
 
 With his arm about her slender v/aist, her 
 fair head on his shoulder, and her glorious 
 eyes looking directly into his, how had they 
 dreamed and discoursed of the future ! 
 
 Hear them as they murmur softly as the 
 cooing of doves : 
 
 " Sweetheart,'' quoth he, " will you always 
 love me as now ?" 
 
 "Yes, my own." 
 
 "And we will never quarrel, and we will 
 ever be patient with each other; and kisses 
 shall take the place of buffets ; and gentle 
 words exorcise all threatening storms?" 
 
 " Yes, my sweet!" 
 
 "Shall we always be forbearing, loving; 
 shall we be the model husband and wife, who 
 all their lives shall live as lovers and die with 
 unbroken affection and their arms intertwined 
 as we are at this moment?" 
 
122 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 *' Yes, my blessed !" 
 
 We have seen her, a couple or more years 
 after marriage ; what of him, the cavaher, the 
 devoted lover? 
 
 He comes home disappointed with his busi- 
 ness, and brings his ill-nature with him. No 
 kiss greets him at the door. The wife, with 
 her hair in bang-papers, and an ill-fitting wrap- 
 per, meets him. He storms at the grocery 
 bills, at the accounts of the dry-goods mer- 
 chant. The cooking is vile, the house too 
 warm or too cold, there is nothing as it should 
 be. Night after night he stays at the " club, 
 detained by business," and comes home with 
 a reeking breath, and an unsteady step. Once 
 he would spend every possible moment at 
 her side, and now he spends every possible 
 moment somewhere else. 
 
 Where, in these two, does one find a ves- 
 tige of the once-bright and hopeful lovers? 
 Not a trace of them remains. 
 
 Their case is the average one. Its experi- 
 ence proves the truth of the cynic's state- 
 ment : " If you wish to keep your lover, do 
 not marry him." 
 
 Paul and Eleanor, being human, might com- 
 mit the same error that is committed by the 
 
THE GAMBLER. 123 
 
 majority — that of mistaking a passion for a 
 sufficient basis on wliich to found a permanent 
 union. Fortunately for them, neither was of 
 a nature to rush to extremes, and to hastily 
 form a conclusion which would last a life 
 time. 
 
 They were thrown together a good deal, 
 and found their mental and moral atmos- 
 pheres to be congenial and harmonious. 
 
 They gradually became friends ; insensibly 
 they were attracted to each other without 
 effort on their part. Marriage formed no 
 part of their thoughts or lives — at least for a 
 long time. There grew up between them a 
 species of camaraderie that was not based on 
 passion, but on pure regard and sympathy. 
 Without any assurances on his part, she felt 
 that he was her friend, on v\diom she could 
 depend for her life ; and he knew without be- 
 ing told, that she respected him and enter- 
 tained for him a lasting regard. 
 
 This period in their lives was one of court- 
 ship, although they did not know it. They 
 were preparing themselves unconsciously for 
 a higher union. Their ideas, tastes, hopes, 
 were gradually being assimilated by associa- 
 tion with each other. 
 
124 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Such an intercourse is not perturbed by the 
 interference of troublous passions. Two 
 souls thus communing on lofty spiritual planes 
 are not subject to the disturbances which pre- 
 vail in the lower atmospheres. They avoid 
 the contact of the fleshly lovers ; they breathe 
 an air free from base, stimulating, erotic ele- 
 ments ; and are never distracted by emotional 
 anticipations which impair the purity of their 
 affections. 
 
 It was not till they had firmly become 
 united as friends that the thought of a closer 
 union presented itself. 
 
 " We are friends," said Paul to Eleanor, as 
 the family was assembled in the parlor, one 
 evening. " Don't you think we should always 
 remain so?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Eleanor. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Mrs. Jackson. 
 
 " Why not, of course," said Helen. 
 
 " Well, then," rejoined Paul, " I think we 
 should marry." 
 
 The remark seemed to cause no surprise 
 in the little circle. For months the mother 
 and daughter had anticipated such an out- 
 come. Eleanor dropped her eyes and made 
 no immediate reply. Paul continued: 
 
THE GAMBLER. I25 
 
 " It is not at all necessary that we should 
 marry to retain our friendship. That I be- 
 lieve is so well built as to be indestructible. 
 But friendship is better with its own home. 
 We might be thrown apart by circumstances. 
 Marriage is simply the permission of society 
 for us to live together. As her husband I can 
 assist in her support ; I can relieve her from 
 the drudgery which is now inflicted on her." 
 
 Few proposals of marriage have ever been 
 made in this abrupt manner ; and yet it can- 
 not be said that it appeared thus to Eleanor. 
 Her life and that of Paul had drifted closely 
 together, and for some time had been moving 
 side by side. The proffer of Paul seemed 
 a natural thing under the circumstances. It 
 was only to cement by a form the union 
 which in spirit already existed. 
 
 They were soon after this conversation 
 united by the ceremony of marriage. A few 
 friends gathered at the house of Mrs. Jack- 
 son, who gave away the bride. The latter 
 was simply attired in a handsome traveling 
 dress. There was no ostentatious display 
 whose splendor would afford a pointed con- 
 trast to later, and possibly, wretched sur- 
 roundings. 
 
126 THE GAiMBLER. 
 
 The relatives of Eleanor refused to sanction 
 the union, or even to be present at the wed- 
 ding. 
 
 " Eleanor is married, I understand," re- 
 marked Mrs. Wright, in the course of a little 
 chat with a sympathizing female neighbor. 
 " The man she married may be all right so 
 far as youth, health, good habits and business 
 are concerned, but he is not in our set. His 
 father was a plain farmer. We had other 
 plans for her marriage, and my heart is 
 broken over her obstinacy. She has made her 
 bed, and she must lie on it ! " 
 
 Helen Jackson shed no end of tears when 
 the carriage came to take the newly-married 
 couple to the station, but she was somewhat 
 mollified with the promise that the pair would 
 continue their residence in her mother's house. 
 
 At the depot they met Lafarge. He con- 
 gratulated them on their marriage, and fer- 
 vently wished them a happy journey, not only 
 on their wedding trip, but through life. As 
 the train disappeared from the station, his 
 countenance changed to a demoniac expres- 
 sion, and he muttered through his closed 
 teeth : 
 
 " And now it is my turn to deal ! We'll see 
 what will be the outcome ! " 
 
THE GAMBLER. 12^ 
 
 At the end of a month, Mr. and Mrs. Calkins 
 returned from their wedding trip to their 
 rooms at the Jackson residence. She had 
 become transformed. Her face had lost its 
 prevailing expression of indifference, and now 
 gleamed with a beautiful light. A divine 
 tenderness shone softly from her eyes, and 
 her lips seemed attuned only to the utterance 
 of caressing words. 
 
 He too, had changed. His face had grown 
 stronger, more manl}^ and yet more tender. 
 His tones vibrated with ihe inspiration of a 
 deep affection. 
 
 The friends, without ceasing to be friends, 
 had become lovers. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 I. 
 
 AN INCANTATION. 
 
 It is past midnight, and a strange scene is 
 presented in the room of Natalie, the Ogress. 
 The windows are carefully screened with the 
 curtains so as to prevent the entrance or exit 
 of the smallest ray of light. The gas-jets are 
 turned off, and a dim illumination is furnished 
 by some twisted pieces of cloth which are 
 burning and soaking in a shallow dish filled 
 with some fluid. 
 
 These burning wicks emit a yellow flame 
 which distorts while half concealingthe objects 
 in the room. A bureau against one side of the 
 apartment is covered with black cloth. A tall 
 wardrobe is hung with the same somber 
 material. 
 
 It is a diabolical arrangement, suggestive 
 9 129 
 
130 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 only of the sinister, of the demoniac. On a 
 lounge is seated Lafarge, who gazes with 
 curiosity and terror at the figure of Natalie. 
 She stands before the black-draped bureau, 
 on the top of which amidst the dense sur- 
 roundings of black, there gleams a skull. She 
 has stripped her shoulders of clothing, and is 
 naked to the hips. Her bony form, her flat 
 bosom are hardly distinguishable in the ray- 
 less gloom of the room. Her long, mane-like 
 hair falls in a tumbling cataract almost to her 
 feet. 
 
 The white gleam of her protruding tusks 
 and the bony glare from the skull accentuate 
 the darkness. She holds in one hand a small, 
 sharp-bladed knife, and in the other a slender 
 branch of cedar. 
 
 She regards fixedly the skull with its double 
 rows of large and perfect teeth. 
 
 " Hear me, oh father !" she says. " Hear 
 me, the priestess, and thy daughter! Give 
 what I wish! Give me the revenge I seek!" 
 
 At this point, with the keen knife she gashes 
 herself on her shoulder, arm and breast. 
 The dull red blood flows over the black skin 
 and covers it with a hideous stam. She drops 
 the knife, seizes a sponge and carefully passes 
 
THE GAMBLER. I3I 
 
 it over the spreading blood, and absorbs it. 
 Then she squeezes the sponge over a little 
 cup and places the vessel in front of the grin- 
 ning mouth of the skull. 
 
 " Hear me," again she exclaims in pleading 
 tones. " Hear me, oh, my father ! It is the 
 priestess, thy daughter, who calls ! Grant my 
 wish ! Give me the revenge which I seek !" 
 
 She remains silent for a few moments star- 
 ing into the bony caverns where the eyes of 
 the skull once gleamed ; and then a menacing 
 look comes into her countenance, and she 
 ejaculates in a commanding tone : 
 
 "I have given thee my blood to drink; I, 
 the priestess, thy daughter. Dare not to 
 refuse my request! If thou dost refuse, 
 beware!" and so saying she strikes the skull 
 across the bony cheeks with the branch of 
 cedar. 
 
 The worship and the incantation and invo- 
 cations of the Fetich priestess are ended. She 
 wraps a shawl around her blood-stained shoul- 
 ders and breast; lifts the drapery and covers 
 the skull, lights the gas and extinguishes the 
 sputtering wicks in the shallow dish. In the 
 strong light, her face is ghastly as that of the 
 corpse of a strangled man ; her eyes seem 
 
132 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 sinking out of sight in their deep cavities, and 
 her tusks gnaw convulsively her lower lip. 
 
 " Go now !" she says faintl}^ to Lafarge. 
 Pale as death he unlocks the door, and noise- 
 lessly descends the stairway to the street. 
 
 There may be those who doubt the exist- 
 ence of this horrible class of occurrences in 
 Chicago. If so, it is entertained by people 
 who know nothing of the real nature of the 
 gambler. He is as much a Fetichist as ever 
 was found in Central Africa. He is a mate- 
 rialist the same as the other; he believes in 
 " mascots " and " hoodoos," and like the sav- 
 age worshiper he honors or curses his Fetich 
 according to the luck he encounters.* 
 
 " Fetichism," says an eminent writer, " is 
 conditional. If it insures prosperity, it is 
 highly honored ; otherwise it is cast away as 
 worthless." 
 
 Who that is familiar with the habits of 
 gamblers has not noticed this phase of wor- 
 ship? If the coin, or the key, or whatever 
 be the Fetich of the player, is accompanied 
 by prosperity, it is honored ; otherwise it is 
 cast away as worthless. 
 
 In fine, the gambler is a Fetichist, with all 
 
 *Sec Supplementary Notes. 
 
THE GAMBLER. I33 
 
 the unbelief, the savagery, the insensate su- 
 perstitions, the brutal material which the 
 name impHes. 
 
 A couple of days after the occurrences in 
 the room of the Ogress, Lafarge made his 
 way to the apartments of a clairvoyant. He 
 was apparently determined to spare no effort 
 to secure guarantees of the success of his 
 purpose — whatever his purpose may have 
 been. 
 
 The woman on whom he was gomg to call 
 had a wide reputation among card and grain- 
 gamblers. She occupied a suite of rooms on 
 the second floor of a house on one of the 
 principal streets in the West division. 
 
 Entering a narrow stairway, Lafarge 
 climbed to the first floor, and went into a 
 waiting room in which a dozen people had 
 gathered. They were of both sexes, some 
 old, others young girls, some well and others 
 shabbily-dressed. It was to be noticed that 
 in this gathering as in others for the same 
 purpose, certain facial traits predominated. 
 What mio:ht be called the averaare man and 
 woman, was not to be seen. They were vari- 
 ations from the regular type. They wore 
 their hair longer or shorter than most people. 
 
134 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 The faces were either longer or more con- 
 tracted than the common face ; there was an 
 appreciable difference in the dress and the 
 manner in which it was worn. 
 
 In fine, an experienced observer would have 
 discovered in an instant's glance that the 
 waiting people differed from the masses. 
 Even where a man or a woman, in clothing, 
 style of hair and the like resembled the speci- 
 men, there was some little thing in the glance 
 of the eye, in the arrangement of the lips 
 that indicated aberration — a variation from 
 the regular type. 
 
 Those waiting entered another room as 
 they were called by an attendant, who also 
 gave evidence of a variation ; and those whcj 
 had interviewed the clairvoyant, came out 
 slowly, and went down the stairwa3\ There 
 was infinite variety in their appearance as 
 they issued from the other room. Some 
 wore looks of elation ; in fact, the majority 
 were of this kind. It was evident that one of 
 the efforts of the seei'ess was to console. 
 
 Yovnig girls, especially, were comforted by 
 what they heard. Some of these who went 
 in with handkerchiefs over their eyes, came 
 out with sunny faces. 
 
THE GAMBLER. I35 
 
 Lafarge's turn finally came, and he was 
 ushered in. He nodded familiarly to the 
 occupant, and it was at once evident that they 
 were not strangers. 
 
 It was a woman above middle age that 
 greeted him. There were no paraphernalia 
 characteristic of sorcery. A plain wooden 
 table, without covering, stood near the clair- 
 voyant, and there was an extra chair for the 
 visitor. 
 
 Madame La Blanche, as she styled herself 
 in her advertisements in the daily newspapers, 
 was the "World-renowned clairvoyant," and 
 whose notice further read : "At once know 
 the future ; consult Madame La Blanche on 
 love, marriage, divorce, lawsuits, lucky num- 
 bers ; nativities given, tells whether stocks 
 will rise or fall, and charms and love affairs 
 a specialty." 
 
 More concise than grammatical ! 
 
 The madame was a short, slender woman, 
 with her hair cut very close to her scalp ; her 
 nose was thin and pointed, her breast flat, and 
 her general tendency in the direction of bones 
 and emaciation. Her eyes were gray and as 
 bright as polished steel, and her lips thin and 
 compressed, giving her an appearance of see- 
 ing everything and telling nothing. 
 
136 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Well, madame," said Lafarge, "what have 
 you to tell me to-day?" 
 
 She scanned his face for a second with her 
 bright, piercing eyes, and answered, " We'll 
 see !" 
 
 She raised her right hand and swept it 
 across and near to her face. After this had 
 been done several times, her eyes rolled up 
 in their sockets till only the whites were 
 visible^ her face twitched violently, her form 
 was convulsed by vibrations ; her eyelids 
 closed, and then she sank back in her chair 
 with a long sigh. She appeared to be asleep 
 or unconscious. Then, in a voice, lower, 
 thinner than her own, and very like that of a 
 young girl, she began speaking in rapid 
 tones : 
 
 " You are in trouble. You are in love with 
 a beautiful woman, and there is a blond man 
 in your way. You have enemies. You are 
 going on a journey. You will get letters 
 with bad news. Wheat is going to advance. 
 There will be a fall in Reading and Wabash. 
 
 " I see some one in the air above your head. 
 It is an old person with long gray hair, and 
 a long, full beard. He is an Israelite, and he 
 seems disturbed. He is gone." 
 
THE GAMBLER. T37 
 
 " It must be my father," muttered Lafarge. 
 
 " You are going to be exposed to a great 
 danger. Don't venture too much in unpro- 
 tected quarters of the city. I see in the air 
 444666. Don't play lottery till the last 
 quarter of the moon. 
 
 "You will be lucky in cards for a month. 
 Don't meet the blond man in a lonely place 
 in the dark." 
 
 Here the clairvoyant shuddered, her face 
 twitched, she passed her hand across her 
 brows and hair, opened her eyes, and 
 straightened herself up. 
 
 " Was it good?" she asked in her natural 
 voice. 
 
 " Not so very d d good !" was the sharp 
 
 reply. *' I've heard worse, but not much. 
 I'll buy 50,000 wheat, and go -'short' on 
 Reading." 
 
 He gave her a greenback, and went away. 
 
138 THE GAAlBLliR. 
 
 II. 
 
 PREPARING THE WAY. 
 
 One afternoon Lafarge dropped into the 
 place ot business where Calkins was en- 
 gaged. The usual friendly salutations passed 
 between the two, after which the conversation 
 wandered in various directions. 
 
 " You are, of course, enjoying your married 
 life?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, immensely. I have a good wife. 
 a pleasant home, excellent health, and a fair 
 business. What more could one wish in this 
 life?" 
 
 " No more, to be sure ! I think, however, 
 that there is one direction in which you might 
 find a good deal of enjoyment, and which, in 
 addition, would increase your social import- 
 ance, get you acquainted with desirable men, 
 and extend your business clientele." 
 
 " All that is desirable, most certainly. What 
 is the direction you refer to ?" 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 39 
 
 " It is that of club membership. The best 
 elements in commercial and other great cen- 
 ters always aggregate their forces, not in a 
 single body, but they crystalize with reference 
 to tastes, business pursuits, and other causes 
 which are harmonious. Already, Chicago is 
 demonstrating its cosmopolitan character by 
 the organization of clubs. As in London, 
 club membership is getting to be the stamp 
 of social and intellectual value.'' 
 
 " I see no objection to my following the 
 example of other men in this matter. Have 
 you any club that you would suggest as a de- 
 sirable one ?'' 
 
 '' I can't say, just at this moment. 1 will 
 think of the matter. I belong to two or three 
 commercial and social organizations, and I 
 will look them over, and see which I can rec- 
 commend to you." 
 
 " Thanks !" 
 
 " What you need is not a membership in 
 some aggregation of antiquarians, or old 
 fogies, fellows with gray hair, or no hair, 
 with spectacles, and vv^ho mumble thi^ough 
 their gums, and discourse only of antiquities. 
 On the contrary, you are young, and you 
 would naturally prefer association with men 
 
140 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 of your own age. We grow old fast enough 
 in the natural course of things ; if we can 
 postpone the evil day, we ought to do it. 
 One way to bring it about is to associate with 
 those whose cheeks are red, and pulses bound- 
 ing with the vigor of youth and health. We 
 are salamanders in a certain sense ; we become 
 characterized by our surroundings. In the 
 company of the old we insensibly affiliate 
 with them, and the same is true of the 
 young." 
 
 They parted, Lafarge promising to report 
 at an early day the result of his inves- 
 tigations. 
 
 That evening Paul communicated to 
 Eleanor the substance of the conversation. 
 She said, after hearing all the reasons ad- 
 vanced : 
 
 " I think it would be a good thing for you 
 to join some one of the popular clubs, not 
 onl}^ for the reasons given, but for the further 
 reason that I do not believe that a husband 
 can always be satisfied to spend all his time 
 at home. I — " 
 
 Paul here interrupted her to say something 
 about the impossibility of a husband, having 
 such a wife as he had, and so comfortable a 
 
THE GAMBLER. I4I 
 
 home, being in the least anxious to spend any 
 time elsewhere. 
 
 She smiled pleasantly, and added : 
 
 " I am of course, not experienced in the 
 ways of life, but I have observed much and 
 thought some. It seems to me that nothing 
 could be m(3re injurious to the happiness of 
 a husband and wife than to insist on their 
 eternal companionship. The child does not 
 always cling to the apron string of its mother, 
 but often wanders off for a little freedom, 
 and association with its own fancies. The 
 husband or wife that is made to feel that con- 
 stant association is obligatory, will soon be- 
 gin to feel tiiat he or she is wearing a chain. 
 
 " I do not believe that the Siamese twins 
 were ever happy in their union. Could they 
 have separated at will, they would doubtless 
 always have remained near each other, but 
 their enforced connection must have been 
 intolerable. 
 
 " I should be pleased if you would join 
 some worthy organization. An occasional 
 separation will benefit us both. No husband 
 and wife, however forbearing, kindly-hearted 
 and loving they may be, can stand the test of 
 everlasting contact. Unintermitting famil- 
 
142 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 iarity is sure to breed contempt, as well in 
 the case of many married people as among 
 others.'' 
 
 This gracious and reasonable consent on 
 the part of his wife increased, if possible, his 
 admiration of her broad common sense. 
 
 There is a difference in wives. 
 
 Mr. Skinner comes home from business. 
 His wife, with deranged hair, an old wrap 
 and a frown greets him with querulous tones. 
 The ice-man is swindling them, there is a leak 
 in the water-pipe, the range wont work, and 
 there is the devil to pay. It is then that Mr. 
 Skinner, tired out with his day's work and 
 ill-tempered over the shape his affairs are 
 taking, sighs for a retreat where there are no 
 defective ranges nor leaky water-pipes. 
 
 He ventures some evening when Mrs. Skin- 
 ner is a trifle less perturbed than usual, to 
 state that he has been asked to join the Jolly 
 Boys' club, and adds with considerable hes- 
 itation and an unsettled voice, that he has half 
 a notion to do so. 
 
 "You have, have you?" interrupts Mrs. 
 Skinner in a mild and unmistakably ironical 
 tone. " It's just what you need to rest your 
 poor old body, and brace up your shattered 
 
THE GAMBLER. I43 
 
 nerves !'' Then Mrs. Skinner drops the 
 low, sympathetic key and soars away on her 
 usual high pitch. 
 
 " What do you want of a club ? Isn't this 
 place good enough for you ? You seem to 
 think it's good enough for me. You never 
 offer to take me anywhere ! If a club's what 
 a man needs, why aint it something that is the 
 proper thing for his poor wife? How'd you 
 like to have me out nights attending the club 
 of the Jolly Girls and a-coming home at all 
 hours of the morning, whoopin' like a Co- 
 manche Indian ? 
 
 " And where you going to get the money, 
 I'd like to know, to spend in the rantanker- 
 ous doings of the Jolly Boys ! I haven't had 
 a new dress in a year ; I haven't got a bonnet 
 to my name — that is lit to be seen on the 
 streets !" 
 
 And thereupon Mrs. Skinner bursts into an 
 ngony of weeping, and goes into a prolonged 
 period of sulks which are only ended when 
 Mr. Skinner humbly asks her to allow him to 
 furnish the funds for a new dress and bonnet. 
 
144 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Til. 
 
 A NEST OF HAWKS. 
 
 A few da3^s after the club conversation, La- 
 farge called on Paul, and announced that he 
 had decided to recommend the Hawk club 
 as the most desirable one for him to unite 
 with. 
 
 " The Hawk club,'' he said, " was orig- 
 inally organized by some newspaper men, 
 which, you see, gave it an excellent intellect- 
 ual foundation. Then actors and professional 
 men were admitted until the club is now the 
 most cosmopolitan in the city." 
 
 " That is about the thing I need, I sup- 
 pose ; at least it must be if you recommend 
 it. I'll depend on you for all the necessary 
 steps." 
 
 " All right, Paul. I'll propose you, and 
 within a month you will be a Hawk in full 
 fellowship with the brood in the nest." 
 
 Within the promised time Paul was pro- 
 posed, voted on b}' the directory, elected 
 
THE GAMBLER. I45 
 
 without dissent, and admitted to membership. 
 
 The Hawk club, as Lafarge stated, was 
 originally organized by some newspaper men. 
 It was about the fifteenth club of the kind 
 which had been formed by the same class of 
 workers, and of course, like all its predeces- 
 sors, was doomed to financial failure. When 
 the funds in the treasury had all disappeared 
 and ruin faced the club, it was determined to 
 let in some men of other professions who 
 were the possessors of cash. 
 
 Some actors — there are some of the frater- 
 nity that have saved a few dollars — were first 
 allowed admission, and as the contributions 
 of this new class were exhausted, the nets 
 were again thrown out over a larger surface, 
 and a great haul resulted. In time the Hawks 
 included representatives of almost every- 
 thing. There were lawyers, editors, actors, 
 Board of Trade men, merchants, clerks, doc- 
 tors, and in fine, all sorts of people from all 
 kinds of professions. 
 
 Its rooms were located on the second, 
 third and fourth floors of a palatial building 
 on one of the principal streets in the South 
 division. Two broad staircases led from the 
 street to the first floor, on which was a series 
 10 
 
146 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 of rooms en suite, and the parlors, assembly 
 rooms, and smaller apartments for the ac- 
 commodation of committees, or cloak-rooms, 
 in case of receptions. 
 
 The next floor contained a capacious bil- 
 liard-room, a magnificently decorated bar, 
 and smoking and card-rooms. On the fourth 
 floor was one immense room suitable for danc- 
 ing parties, theatrical performances, or for 
 any purpose which involved the collection of 
 large audiences. 
 
 All the furniture and the decorations were 
 of the best. Costly paintings were suspended 
 on the lofty walls ; fine statuai-y gleamed 
 from the niches of the stairways ; expensive 
 carpets and rugs covered the floors, and 
 exquisite panels, finished by the best local 
 talent, emblazoned the ceilings. 
 
 All these things were pointed out to Paul 
 by Lafarge, who introduced him to the club, 
 and was showing him the interior. 
 
 " Isn't this gorgeous?" queried Lafarge. 
 
 " It is, certainly, very," was the response of 
 Paul, who was in excellent humor at finding 
 himself a member of a club which possessed 
 surroundings so opulent and so striking. 
 
 " It shows the cosmopolitanism of this 
 
THE GAMBLER. I47 
 
 wonderful city," continued Lafarge. "You 
 will meet here every class that has brains, 
 and go ; there isn't a fool, an imbecile, nor a 
 nincompoop in the entire club. In fact, they 
 are all hawks, as their name implies. They 
 all have keen beaks, sharp claws, and wing- 
 power that will carry them to the very pres- 
 ence of the sun !" 
 
 It was in the nature of fairyland to the 
 new member. A light inundated the room, 
 which was as powerful as sunlight, and yet 
 was modified by colored globes to an agree- 
 able softness. It was night, and the rooms 
 were filled with visitors. The musical click 
 of the ivory spheres of the bilHard table came 
 down the stairways ; a grand piano in the 
 main salon was surrounded by a half dozen 
 young fellows who, to an accompaniment of 
 one of their number, were roaring an inspirit- 
 ing chorus. 
 
 The hum of conversation, and the bursts of 
 laughter rose and fell through the lofty 
 rooms. Everywhere wei'e life, art, beauty. 
 Colored waiters in neat uniforms hurried 
 through the rooms, their black faces and 
 faultless white shirts and aprons affording a 
 pleasant contrast. 
 
148 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 *' Well, Paul, were you pleased with your 
 experience ?" asked Eleanor, as her husband 
 promptly came into the house at 1 1 P. M. 
 
 " 1 am delighted with the club and its mem- 
 bers. The place is a palace ; its fittings are 
 elysian ; in short, it is a poem in plush, ma- 
 hogany, and colors. But how have you 
 passed the evening? You did not find it un- 
 endurable, I hope?" 
 
 " Not in the least. I have read a little, 
 practiced the new song, and spent some time 
 in dreaming. I am not sure," she continued 
 with a smile and a mischievous glance Irom 
 her eyes, "that I am not more glad to see you 
 now than I would have been had you come 
 at the usual hour." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! Then to have you value me 
 as priceless, it might be well for me to remain 
 away several evenings in a week." 
 
 " That might result in a reaction, you 
 know ; there is a condition which is known 
 as 'too much of a good thing.' However, 1 
 am glad that you have joined the club. I 
 know that men like to meet their own kind 
 the same as we. There are times when 
 women have a thousand things to say which 
 can onl}' be developed in the isolation of their 
 own sex." 
 
THE GAMBLER. I49 
 
 Paul then proceeded to narrate enthusi- 
 astically all that he had seen in the nest of the 
 Hawks. His wife shared his enthusiasm, as 
 he anticipated great intellectual benefits from 
 the eminent men he would meet there, and 
 the other grand advantages which would 
 certainly accrue from his membership. 
 
 " I have no doubt at all," she said affection- 
 ately, "that you have taken a step which will 
 materially influence your future. That it 
 will be for good, I am sure." 
 
 Will her prophecy, or her hope, be 
 realized ? 
 
 Time will show. 
 
 After Lafarge had shown Paul through the 
 club-house, he bade him good-night at the door, 
 saying as the other left : 
 
 " Now, old fellow, you see what we have 
 here, and don't forget us. Drop in as often as 
 you can." 
 
 Paul readily promised compliance and went 
 away. 
 
 Lafarge reascended the stairway to the 
 main floor, and then climbed a narrower stair- 
 case to the floor above. Passing through the 
 billiard room, he entered a hallway which led 
 by several rooms on either side and terminated 
 in a door covered with green baize. 
 
I50 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 At this point no noise could be heard save 
 the notes of the piano from the grand salon, 
 and the metallic click of the balls in the room 
 behind him. 
 
 With a pass-key he opened the green door 
 and found himself in a vestibule, or short hall. 
 Three feet in front of him was another door 
 also covered with green stuffs. As he reached 
 this second door a confused clamor came 
 faintly from the other side of it. He applied 
 another pass-ke\', opened the door and entered 
 a large apartment in which was a score of 
 noisy men. 
 
 The room was spacious, and adjoined the 
 main street. There were several windows 
 each of which was curtained on the lower 
 portion so as to permit only a view of the 
 roofs of the houses across the way. 
 
 Three circular tables with green coverings 
 were distributed about the room, and at each 
 of these were seated from iour to seven men. 
 Many of them were in their shirt-sleeves. 
 Smaller tables were placed about the larger 
 ones on which were beer-bottles, glasses, and 
 other appurtenances of imbibition. 
 
 As Lafarge opened the door scarcely a 
 glance met him from the men at the tables. 
 One man saw him and called out: 
 
THE GAMBLER. I5I 
 
 " Hello, boys, here's Lafarge with fresh 
 money ! " 
 
 Dense volumes of tobacco smoke rolled 
 from the center of each table. This, with the 
 shadows thrown by the gas-jets, obscured the 
 air of the room and gave it the appearance of 
 a miniature inferno. 
 
 " Here's a seat," bawled a man at the table 
 where there were but four players ; " come 
 and sit here ! The man that's just left it got 
 broke and we want to break you ! " 
 
 " All right," said Lafarge. " Give me a 
 stack ! " he called to the attendant. A stack 
 of red, white and blue chips was deposited 
 before him, and the next minute he was 
 absorbed in the game. 
 
152 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A RATTLING GAME. 
 
 It was the poker-room of the Hawk club. 
 
 Only the initiated knew of its existence and 
 locality. Staid old members who lounged in 
 the salons, and sipped their wine and chatted, 
 or read the newspapers, never suspected that 
 there was gambling in the club. 
 
 It was so remote from the occupied rooms, 
 and so padded on the doors, that the rattle of 
 chips and the voices of the players never 
 reached the other portions of the club. 
 
 It was a curious, and to one not accustomed 
 to such things, a bewildering scene. The gas- 
 lights took on a yellow tint in the dense 
 medium of tobacco-smoke, and gave a somber 
 tone to the environment. 
 
 A study of the players would afford much 
 of interest. Before each was a pile of chips; 
 some with a small quantitv, others with great 
 stacks, thus at once distinguishing the lucky 
 
THE GAMBLER. I53 
 
 from the unfortunate. There were changes 
 in the location of these parti-colored represen- 
 tatives of money. Now they were at rest, 
 so to speak, in front of the players, in squads, 
 companies, battalions. The pla3^er was the 
 leader in command of each of the forces in 
 front of him. 
 
 And now there is a rush of two or three of 
 these privates to the center of the green field. 
 They remain alone for a few moments as if 
 they had selected the position, and were wait- 
 ing for further events. Suddenly reinforce- 
 ments begin to advance from the forces on 
 the outskirts of the field. They rush in, some 
 in regular oider, with closed ranks ; others 
 come pell mell and dash themselves at the 
 central point. 
 
 Their variegated uniforms of red, white and 
 blue give them a picturesque appearance. 
 They are like gaily-dressed soldiers, gathered 
 for a holiday observance. As they cluster 
 about, with the background of green, they 
 please the eye, and seem filled with a species 
 of animation, a sort of still life. 
 
 " The combat deepens ! On ye brave ! " 
 Suddenly there is a charge from the main 
 bodies lying around on the outskirts. They 
 
154 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 rush to the center, they hide the green with 
 their masses. And then the combat ends. 
 The victorious leader who has captured the 
 struggling hosts, marshals them in front of 
 his standard, his tent. And thus the contest 
 momentarily ceases, to be again resumed at 
 short intervals, and with ever-varying results. 
 
 Not the least curious phase of the plaving 
 is the attitudes and expressions of the play- 
 ers. Some of the faces are flushed with alco- 
 hol, and some of the eyes are shotted with 
 blood. Others are pale or sallow, and on the 
 countenances of all is fixed an expression of 
 eagerness, of intensity. Each is absorbed in 
 the play as if he were a surgeon engaged in 
 tying up an artery whose results would be 
 deadly were he for a single instant to turn 
 his attention elsewhere. 
 
 Other faces reveal satisfaction ; on others 
 there is a drawn appearance as if some power 
 like the Spanish rack had lengthened out the 
 face, and left it filled with long, slender, con- 
 cave furrows. Here and there is a man 
 whose body sinks listlessly in his seat, and 
 whose countenance is eloquent with sugges- 
 tions of rage and defeat. Most of the play- 
 ers, when their hands are free, incessantly 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 55 
 
 fondle their chips, piling them by dropping 
 one on the other from a little height, or with 
 the fingers of one hand, running two adjacent 
 piles into one so that in the process each 
 alternate chip from the two piles will pass in, 
 one above the other. 
 
 He who can thus " butt in" chips is to be 
 avoided. It is a certain evidence of long ex- 
 perience in gambling, with the probabilities 
 that he is an expert professional gamester. 
 
 The words that issue from the lips of the 
 players mainly relate to the movement of the 
 game. 
 
 " It is your ante;" " Come up ;" " I raise 
 that ;" " I see you ; " "I pass ;" " It's a jack- 
 pot ;" " I open it ;" " I stay ;" " That's good !" 
 " Take your foot off my chair !" and dozens 
 of other terms peculiar to the game, fly about 
 without cessation. Intermingled with these 
 technical utterances, one catches often the 
 sound of a savage oath, an expression of dis- 
 a ipointment, and which not unfrequently is 
 a tended by some epithet too vile for written 
 expression. 
 
 Now and then a player with overcast face 
 throws down his cards, and with a string of im- 
 precations leaves the table. He may have lost 
 
156 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the last dollar which stood between him and 
 the starvation of his family, and the fact may 
 be well known to the men who have won his 
 money, and yet from not one of them is there 
 an expression of regret, or condolence. Such 
 occurrences are regarded with brutal indif- 
 ference. 
 
 " The damned sucker is broke again !" is 
 probably muttered by some player as he 
 scans his cards, when the door closes on the 
 despairing victim. And that is all. 
 
 Something of the haste, the scramble, the 
 voracity, the ravenousness of starving swine 
 feeding out of a trough is suggested by the 
 demeanor and acts of a table of gamblers. 
 
 The dominant types are usually the same. 
 There is the paunchy player, with cherry 
 cheeks, enormous hands, thick lips, bulging 
 eyes, and labored breath. There is a pock- 
 marked person, dull, silent, save when now 
 and then he launches a vehement blasphemy 
 over his ill-luck. There is generally a youth 
 of nineteen, perfectly-dressed, with an incipi- 
 ent moustache, hair parted in the middle, and 
 who smokes cigarettes. There is always a 
 " board-of-trade" man, who talks, when oppor- 
 tunity offers, of July wheat and September 
 
THE GAMBLER. I57 
 
 corn. There is also a bluff, unkempt farmer- 
 like man, with stubby fingers and uncleaned 
 nails. In nearly every game accessible to the 
 public, there is one person with long, slender 
 fingers, a hooked nose, an imperturbable face, 
 and keen eyes that scan every movement of 
 his companions. 
 
 Drinks become frequent, faces redder, eyes 
 more blood-shot, tones louder and now and 
 then menacing, the lines about the mouth 
 deeper, the fumes of the atmosphere more 
 intolerable, until the early dawn comes and 
 peers over the curtains, and sees a frightful 
 yellowish pallor on the countenances of the 
 players. At this point Lafarge rose, and 
 left the game. Two others stopped play at 
 the same time. Lafarge beckoned them 
 aside. 
 
 " See here, boys, I want to speak to you a 
 moment, on the quiet." 
 
 They passed into a corner of the room, and 
 conversed in low tones. 
 
 " What I want to say is this," explained 
 Lafarge. " I have a friend, a very nice gen- 
 tleman, who is fond of draw, but who does 
 not care to play in a semi-public place like 
 this. He has plenty of ' stuff,' and will ' bleed ' 
 
158 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 without squealing. I want to make up a 
 party of four to meet him, and they must be 
 nice gentlemen — at least in manners and ap- 
 pearance," he added, with slight contraction 
 of an eyelid. 
 
 The two to whom he spoke readily agreed 
 to the scheme, and two other names were 
 mentioned as men desirable to complete the 
 party. 
 
 " We will all meet at the club in the salon, 
 one week from to-night. We will meet there 
 as if by accident, and I will bring my friend. 
 We will become acquainted and chat and 
 smoke awhile, and a suggestion as to a little 
 game to pass the time, can be made. I will 
 have one of the private card-rooms of the 
 club all in readiness, and we can adjourn to 
 it without notoriety." 
 
 *' That scheme ought to work, sure," re- 
 marked one of the listeners. 
 
 " You bet it will," said the other, and they 
 separated. 
 
 It was many hours after daylight before the 
 poker party had all gone. The winners left 
 at various periods in the game, and the losers 
 remained to combat each other in a desperate 
 endeavor to reduce their several losses. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 59 
 
 Three men outstayed the others, and then 
 one of these was soon forced to leave by his 
 business, and then the two alone remained. 
 It was nearly noon when with feverish pulses 
 and throbbing veins, the two left the tobacco 
 and whisky-poisoned atmosphere, and crawled 
 away. 
 
l6o THE GAMBLER. 
 
 V. 
 
 THEY GO A-FISHING. 
 
 Paul Calkins was promptly at the club on 
 the evening when his arrival was expected by 
 Lafarge. He had decided to give one even- 
 ing each week to the Hawks, and determined 
 to be at home as early as eleven o'clock. 
 
 On this second visit he found Lafarge in 
 the main salon, in conversation with a gentle- 
 man — the latter a rather fine-looking person, 
 and well-dressed. Lafarge beckoned Paul to 
 join them, which he did, and was introduced 
 to the stranger, Mr. Evans, a " Board-of-Trade 
 man, "a member of the club," Lafarge ad- 
 ded, "and a particular friend of mine whom 
 I'd like you to know." 
 
 En passant, it is odd as to the importance 
 and extended utility of " Boai'd-of-Trade 
 men " in the make-up of games of poker. 
 The stranger, or neophyte, who is invited to 
 join a game, when he inquires as to who com- 
 
THE GAMBLER. l6l 
 
 pose it, is always informed that it is made up 
 of " Board-of-Trade men.'' It seems to be 
 the impression that this designation is a guar- 
 antee of respectabihty, of perfect integrity, 
 and especially of entire fairness in card- 
 playing. 
 
 The exact value of this class of recommend- 
 ation is not " listed " in any of the authorized 
 quotations of moral values, and hence, it is 
 impossible to stale just what it is really worth 
 in the markets. 
 
 The trio chatted for a little while on club 
 matters and affairs in general, when they were 
 joined by the other young man to whom La- 
 farge had spoken at the close of the last week's 
 poker-seance. 
 
 " Draw up a chair, and join us," said La- 
 farge as he shook hands with the new-comer. 
 " Mr. Easton, you should know my friends. 
 This is Mr. Calkins, and this is Mr. Evans.'' 
 
 As is the case always, each gentleman was 
 very pleased to meet the other gentlemen, 
 and shook hands with as much fervor as if 
 they were really delighted to make each 
 other's acquaintance. Messrs. Easton and 
 Evans, the same two with whom Lafarge had 
 concerted the meeting, were more than de- 
 II 
 
l62 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 lighted to become acquainted. Each re- 
 marked that he had often heard of the'other, 
 and had often wished to have the pleasure of 
 meeting him. Each winked at his vis a vis, 
 as he said this, and appeared to tnink it a 
 great joke. 
 
 Some refreshments were ordered, cigars 
 were lighted, and conversation flowed 
 smoothly on. After a little, Lafarge took 
 advantage of a break in the talk to say to 
 Easton : 
 
 " Do you ever amuse yourself in any game 
 of cards?" 
 
 " Very rarely. I sometimes play a little 
 whist, and now and then a game of cribbage." 
 
 " Don't you ever indulge in draw ?" 
 
 " Well, yes, I have once or twice, but 1 
 don't know anything about the game." 
 
 " How is it with you, Evans ? Do you play 
 anything ?" 
 
 " Oh, now and then euchre or some mild 
 thing of the kind." 
 
 " As to you Paul," said Lafarge, " I know 
 what you can do, as you were one of my 
 pupils. What do you say, gentlemen ? Shall 
 we go up stairs and have a game of something 
 to kill time ?" 
 
THE GAMBLER. 163 
 
 No one objected. Paul said, "Of course." 
 The others said, "Anything that suits the rest, 
 suits us." 
 
 On the upper floor, in the biUiard-room, 
 Lafarge shook hands very cordially with a 
 man who was watching a game of pool. 
 
 " Come along," said Lafarge, "we are go- 
 ing to have a bottle of beer." 
 
 The stranger consented, and the party then 
 proceeded to one of the small rooms off the 
 hall, and which could be used for serving re- 
 freshments, card-parties, or private inter- 
 views. 
 
 " What'll the game be?" asked Mr. Evans. 
 
 " Whist !" 
 
 " Cribbage !" 
 
 " Draw-poker !" 
 
 " Don't care !'' 
 
 These were the answers. Lafarge had sug- 
 gested whist, but the man who had joined 
 them in the billiard-room insisted on "draw," 
 as he termed it. 
 
 Such was finally the decision of the others, 
 and thereupon the table was arranged, cards 
 and chips produced by an attendant, and the 
 players seated themselves. 
 
 " I can't stay long," said Mr. Easton. 
 
164 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Nor I !" came from two or three others. 
 
 This is the regular formula which precedes 
 a game of poker. The person who utters it 
 really means that he purposes to leave the 
 game whenever he is the winner. He does 
 not say so, but that is what is intended. If 
 he should be a winner, and should start to 
 leave, and any one should plead with him to 
 stay, his answer would be, " I told you when 
 1 sat down that I couldn't stay long. I have 
 an engagement and must go.'' 
 
 The play began, and proceeded without 
 interruption. All were well-behaved gentle- 
 men, who took with coolness their losses 
 and gains. Lafarge had well selected the 
 players. They were of the kind that would 
 not offend the ear with blasphemies and 
 ribald conversation. 
 
 Paul entered into the game with interest. 
 The room was comfortable and quiet, the 
 players were gentlemen, and fortune seemed 
 to favor him from the start. He won small 
 amounts, was cautious, and in time was a 
 substantial winner. 
 
 Time passed noiselessly and without fric- 
 tion. One of the players glanced at his 
 watch. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 165 
 
 "What's the hour?" indifferently queried 
 another. 
 
 " Half-past eleven !" 
 
 " Half-past eleven !" repeated Paul. "Great 
 heavens! I was due at home at eleven ! 1 
 must go !" 
 
 " It's a good time to go!" said Mr. Evans, 
 with a trace of irony in his tone, as he glanced 
 significantlv at the accumulations of chips in 
 front of Paul. 
 
 The latter felt the jeer of the other as if the 
 thrust of a dart. He hesitated a moment, and 
 then said : 
 
 " ril play half an hour longer, and then I 
 must go." 
 
 Luck turned against him and he lost, al- 
 though not much. Absorbed in his efforts 
 to stem the tide of ill luck, he forgot the pass- 
 age of time. Suddenly the matter occurred 
 to him, and with a start he pulled out his 
 watch. It was after one o'clock ! 
 
 He at once settled his game, bade the 
 players good-night, and left. 
 
 " Well, what do you think of your new 
 man ? " asked one of the players of Lafarge. 
 
 " He's panning out all right. You don't 
 expect to strike pay-dirt right on the surface, 
 
l66 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the first blow you make with your pick, do 
 you ? Give him time." 
 
 As eleven o'clock approached Eleanor began 
 to expect her husband. The hour came, and 
 as an occasional footstep sounded on the side- 
 walk she thought, " That is he." 
 
 Half-past eleven came and went, and then 
 midnight, and still no husband. She had 
 retired to her sleeping apartments and was 
 alone. The delay began to annoy her. What 
 could detain him? It could be nothing less 
 than accident. A subtle apprehension of 
 approaching evil vibrated through her, but 
 took no tangible form. It was the more ter- 
 rifying that it was unformed and undistin- 
 guishable. He had been attacked by footpads 
 and she saw his prostrate form, bleeding and 
 helpless! Her memory brought up cases she 
 had read in the newspapers of men who had 
 been waylaid and thrown into the turbid 
 river ; and of mysterious disappearances of 
 citizens who had stepped from their homes 
 to be gone an hour or so and of whom no 
 trace had ever after been found. 
 
 All these horrible visions came into her 
 presence in the still night, and mocked her 
 with their threatenings. Although high- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 167 
 
 Spirited and possessed of extraordinary inde- 
 pendence, as must be known by those who 
 have read her history, she was, nevertheless, 
 acutely sensitive. She shivered with pain 
 at the slightest blow. 
 
 Thus sensitive, and with a powerful imag- 
 ination, she conjured up phantoms as she sat 
 there, whose jibings drove her almost insane. 
 Wounded, dead, dying, mutilated, floating 
 beneath the black waters of the river, she saw 
 constantly her husband. 
 
 Her head pained her, and she unbound her 
 hair to secure relief. Her eyes were wetted 
 with tears like a violet with dew-drops. Her 
 baby-mouth was contracted with suffering, 
 and the lips were pinched across her teeth. 
 
 And thus, with her long, purple-black hair 
 falling down her back and breast, she looked 
 like an infant Niobe wrapped in a cloak of 
 mourning. 
 
 It was this picture that greeted Paul when, 
 with fleet footsteps, he flew up the stairway 
 and opened the door of her room. She had 
 shrunk in the corner of a large easy-chair, and 
 lay there cold, shivering and helpless. 
 
 Paul I'aised her tenderly in his strong arms 
 and held her sobbing form to his breast. 
 
l68 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 "Oh, darling, you are not dead?" was all 
 that she could utter with her broken voice. 
 
 " No, no ! I'm safe and you are in my arms." 
 
 He lifted her from the chair, seated himself 
 with her across his lap, and placed her head 
 tenderly on his shoulder. The blue eyes 
 opened to their full extent, glanced appre- 
 hensively into his; then their expression 
 changed to one of joy and trustfulness, and 
 the lids with their long lashes settled slowly 
 down on her cheeks. She " cuddled " closer 
 to him, threw one arm across his breast and 
 fell asleep. 
 
 For hours Paul held her in his arms fearing 
 to move lest he should disturb her slumbers. 
 At first heavy shudders ran through her 
 frame, and a deep sob here and there inter- 
 rupted her breathing. It was the swell after 
 the tempest. In a little time, with long-drawn, 
 even breath, with her white face as placid as 
 marble, she lay like a sleeping infant on its 
 mother's breast. 
 
 The sun glanced into the room in the morn- 
 ing and saw Paul carefully bear his burden 
 to the bed where he placed it, wrapping it 
 about with a shawl, and then stretch himself 
 beside it without disrobing. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 169 
 
 VI. 
 
 TEMPTER AND PRIESTESS. 
 
 A couple of days after Paul's evening in 
 the gambling-room of the Hawks, Lafarge, 
 at the usual after-midnight hour, visited 
 Natalie. 
 
 She was found in her room sitting in a 
 large arm-chair, with a placid expression on 
 her face— that is, placid in comparison with 
 its usual stormy character. She glanced at 
 Lafarge and said, after a close examination of 
 his face : 
 
 " You look happier, my son. Has fortune 
 favored you ?'' 
 
 " Yes, maumee," a familiar address which 
 he applied to her in his good-natured mo- 
 ments; "yes, luck has favored me to some 
 extent, and the future is full of promise." 
 
 " It was the blood that has done it. I knew 
 that this was all that was needed. Do you 
 see?" 
 
I70 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Lafarge admitted that the connection be- 
 tween his good fortune and her sacrifice was 
 a palpable one. 
 
 " Tell me," said he after her excitement 
 over the announcement of his bettering for- 
 tune had subsided, " why do you use sacri- 
 fices in your worship?" 
 
 " Because it was done by my father, who 
 was a priest of Fetich, and by his father, and 
 so on by all the long line of priests and priest- 
 esses back a thousand or ten thousand years 
 in Africa. Then the Fetich demanded human 
 offerings, and bodies were cheap and sacrifices 
 plenty. Then was Fetich powerful, and 
 mighty monarchs knelt at his feet. 
 
 " My father's great grandfather was a Fetich 
 priest and was stolen and brought here as a 
 slave. In secret he kept up the worship of 
 our deity. In the deep swamps was his altar, 
 and now and then a wandering piccaninnj^ 
 was caught and offered for sacrifice. The 
 freedom of the poor slaves was a cause for 
 which my father labored in secrecy, and in 
 the hours of darkness. Many is the wench 
 who gave her life to aid in supplicating Fetich 
 for the deliverance of our enslaved people." 
 
 " Is the skull of your father a real Fetich ?" 
 
THE GAMBLER. I7I 
 
 "Yes. It can bring us good and bad for- 
 tune as it wills. Its wishes must be respected. 
 It has hunger, and must be fed ; it has thirst, 
 and must be satisfied." 
 
 Much more did this savage old woman 
 communicate to him in regard to the mys- 
 teries of Fetichism. So earnest was she, so 
 impressive in her gigantic stature, and so em- 
 phatic in glance and gesture that the super- 
 stitious nature of the gambler-element in her 
 listener was awakened to an extent that almost 
 led him to become a firm believer in the po- 
 tency of Fetich. 
 
 He learned that her mother was a quadroon 
 of French parentage on her father's side, 
 which fact would account for the peculiarity 
 of her hair, and the absence in her features 
 of marked African characteristics. 
 
 " Give me the Red Sacrifice," she said as 
 Lafarge was leaving, " and you shall have all 
 ihat your heart can desire." 
 
 " I think," he said with an expression on 
 his face of gloomy introspection, "that I can 
 foresee a time when I shall be able to gratify 
 all your wishes." 
 
 The Ogress, as soon as the door was closed 
 on her visitor, put the black cloth over the 
 
1/2 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 bureau, dropped the curtains, brought out 
 the skull, and laid it in place on the impro- 
 vised altar. Then into a saucer she poured a 
 powdered substance to which she touched a 
 piece of burning paper. The powder burned 
 slowl}^ and gave out little clouds of vapor 
 that filled the room with an aromatic, pungent 
 odor. She passed the smoke again and again 
 beneath the nostrils of the skull ; and then in 
 an impassioned voice, said : 
 
 " Good father, thou hast heard thy daugh- 
 ter, the princess! Thou hast listened to her 
 cry for help! Thou art good, oh, mv father! 
 Thou shalt have food and drink in plenty! 
 My nostrils inhale the odors of gurgHng blood, 
 and my ears hear the cry of the victim ! 
 Thou art good, and 1, thy daughter, the 
 priestess of Fetich, love thee !" 
 
 And then changing her language to French, 
 she chanted in a low, hoarse tone : 
 
 '■ By the blood, by the censer — arise! 
 
 " I have given thee cymbal and song, 
 Much praising with censer and knee ; 
 
 Such scent of sweet blood for so long, 
 Shall no reward follow from thee? 
 
 "Wilt thou list to the drone of my hymn 
 And glaze thy dull eyes to a stare? 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1/3 
 
 Wilt thou bring me dark days for a whim. 
 And send as a handmaid, despair?" 
 
 She bowed her head on her folded arms as 
 they rested on the altar close to the skull and 
 seemed to sleep. Daylight penetrated dimly 
 into the room, irivinof the black woman the 
 appearance of some gigantic creature of 
 darkness. 
 
 The extraordinary exhibition of sensitive- 
 ness by Eleanor on the night of his absence 
 from home, very much surprised as well as 
 annoyed Paul, who had estimated her to be a 
 woman whose singular independence would 
 sustain her under any circumstances, however 
 distressing or unfavorable. The fact that she 
 had left her comfortable home, had engaged 
 in the labor of supporting herself, and mar- 
 ried- him against the decision of all her rela- 
 tives, had led him to think her a woman who 
 would yield to no adverse conditions. Mean- 
 while, however, he took much blame on him- 
 self, and made a solemn vow that nothing of 
 the kind should ever occur again. 
 
 Women are a fragile, complex, delicate 
 piece of mechanism. It is most difihcult to con- 
 struct general rules, or to establish deductions 
 
1/4 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 that will apply to all, or even a considerable 
 number of them. 
 
 A man is machine-made. He is like a mod- 
 ern watch, any one piece of which will fit 
 any other time-keeper from the same manu- 
 factory. The woman is hand-made, so to 
 speak ; each part of her has reference only to 
 her own mechanism, and will not fill the same 
 place in any other feminine machine. 
 
 The machine-made watch may be dropped, 
 jarred, shaken up and not injured ; the reverse 
 is the case with the more delicate works in 
 the other. The slightest blow will often seri- 
 ously derange its mechanism, and produce 
 disastrous results. Whatever ma}' be the 
 apparent dominant quality of a woman, it is 
 subject to constant variation from the action 
 of subordinate causes, and which are mainly 
 emotional in their nature, and originate in 
 her sex. 
 
 She has periods of exaltation and depres- 
 sion concerning which men, by their own ex- 
 perience, know nothing. There are occasions 
 when she weeps without apparent reason ; 
 when she suffers agonies from intangible 
 causes, and which, she herself does not 
 always comprehend. Often men witness 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 75 
 
 these developments with brutal indifference, 
 not unmingled with contempt. . They fancy 
 that these alternations, these extremes of en- 
 joyment and suffering, these frequent depres- 
 sions are the results of the imagination, of 
 whims, of unstable character. And thus it is 
 rarely the case that the unhappiness of a 
 woman is appreciated by the other sex. 
 
 Prominent among the causes which influ- 
 ence women, and mingle grave perturbations 
 in their lives are those mysterious agencies 
 connected with prospective maternity. It is 
 during this period that the woman often be- 
 comes fitful, exacting, incomprehensible. It 
 is then that, more than during any other 
 period of her life, hysteria, with its complica- 
 tions, its obscurities, takes possession of her. 
 
 Tears, exaggerated laughter, frantic sob- 
 bings, derangement of the emotional func- 
 tions, all these assail her until her life, at 
 times, becomes an intolerable burden. 
 
 Yet when the hours are not afflicted with 
 these disturbances, the gestation period is one 
 of supreme enjoyment. 
 
 All the beautiful possibilities of a future 
 are unrolled before her. Her dreams of what 
 may be, fill her with lofty exaltation. She 
 
1/6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 contemplates the approaching ordeal with a 
 mingled feeling of joy, apprehension and sor- 
 row. She must suffer ; she may lose her life 
 in the struggle, and yet so powerful and 
 peculiar are the maternal instincts that she is 
 willing to encounter any danger for the life 
 of her unborn babe. 
 
 Three months after the night scene re- 
 corded, Eleanor lay on her couch, white as 
 the snow, with feeble breath, with her blue 
 eyes filled with an expression of divine ten- 
 derness, and by her side, next to her heart, a 
 tiny babe. 
 
 It was a violet bud which had drifted 
 ashore from the unknown sea which encom- 
 passes life. 
 
 Long ere this event had Paul found the 
 solution of the mystery connected with the 
 condition of his wife, on the night of his re- 
 turn from his first visit to the gambling-rooms 
 of the Hawk club. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 7/ 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE FISH TAKES THE HOOK. 
 
 Haunted incessantly by the vision of the 
 tearful and appealing face which he met on 
 his return, at so late an hour from the Hawk 
 club, Paul determined never again to visit it. 
 As time passed his regret somewhat subsided 
 as he discovered the real cause underlying 
 the hysterical condition of his wife. 
 
 Nevertheless, he did not go to the club, 
 his time being taken up in devoted attention 
 to her during the period of her maternal 
 crisis. 
 
 A couple of months or so after he found 
 himself the father of a girl-baby, he received 
 a call from Lafarge. That gentleman had 
 been absent on a long trip and had not seen 
 Paul since meeting him on the last visit of the 
 latter to the Hawk club. 
 
 " How is it," asked Lafarge, after the con- 
 versation had drifted for a time on the 
 
 12 
 
178 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 weather, health, and other commonplaces, 
 "that you no longer go to the club? " 
 
 Paul gave as an excuse the condition of his 
 family affairs and the absolute necessity of his 
 spending all his spare time at home. Lafarge, 
 with a genial smile and a cordial shake of the 
 hand, congratulated him on the accession to 
 his family. 
 
 " Well, now that a baby is born, and mother 
 and child are doing well, I suppose you will 
 honor the Hawks with your occasional 
 presence? " 
 
 " I am not altogether certain that I shall 
 continue my membership. 1 am now the 
 father of a family, you know, and ought prob- 
 ably to give my entire spare time to domestic 
 matters." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Are you going, at your age, 
 with all your qualities at their very prime to 
 settle down as a domestic drudge, and coddle 
 the baby, feed it its pap, and clean its nose ? 
 Why, man, you have seen nothing of life ! 
 You are like an Aladdin who penetrates as far 
 as the door of the enchanted cave, who sees all 
 the treasures spread out before him, and then 
 deliberately turns around, abandons every- 
 thing, and goes home to continue to be the 
 slave of his mother." 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 79 
 
 Paul was somewhat abashed at this out- 
 burst, and stammered : 
 
 "Aladdin might have done worse than 
 waiting on the old woman — " 
 
 ''But that is not all there is of this matter. 
 Your honor is more or less involved in it. 
 You remember that the night you played at 
 the club, you took away some of the ' stuff ' 
 belonging to the other gentlemen and myself. 
 Now, so far as I am concerned, it does not 
 make an}- difference. We are old-time ac- 
 quaintances and 1 understand just how you 
 are situated. But it is different with Easton 
 and Evans. They have asked me several 
 times as to what had become of that slick- 
 looking stranger whom I introduced to them, 
 and inquired with some sarcasm, if they are 
 never to have an opportunity to get their 
 money back? " 
 
 This was an entirely new view of the situa- 
 tion to Paul. 
 
 "Ah, yes, I see! That puts a different 
 phase on the matter. Of course it doesn't 
 look just right for me to go in there, make a 
 winning, and then not show up to give them 
 opportunity for revenge. If you can get them 
 together, I shall be happy to have a return 
 game any evening " 
 
l8o THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " That's right, old fellow ! I knew it you 
 once understood the situation you would do 
 the right thing. So long ! I must go." 
 
 When he reached the street, he muttered, 
 "A baby? So much the better! The more 
 the merrier ! " 
 
 In reality Paul was in his inner soul pleased 
 that there had been offered an excuse to 
 repeat his visit to the club. The wonderful 
 fascination of gambling had already made 
 itself felt in his disposition. He was not 
 wholly possessed by it, for it rarely seizes its 
 victims at once. It is slow and insidious in 
 its approach. It commences its work as 
 lightly and delicately as the fiend, habitual 
 drunkenness. In the case of the latter, unless 
 the result of congenital taint, the advance of 
 the novice from an occasional sip of the 
 exhilarating bowl to the fiery draughts of 
 perpetual inebriety, is generally a slow one. 
 Men do not become drunkards nor gamblers 
 in a night. 
 
 Ah, no ! It is a picnic at the starting of the 
 procession ; it is a long time before the pil- 
 grims reach the hell to which they were 
 surely destined from the very start. 
 
 When he went home that evening, and in 
 
THE GAMBLER. l8l 
 
 connection with his wife, had held a love-feast 
 over the baby, and had admired its puny fist?, 
 its minute feet, its mite of a nose, and its 
 chubby little checks, Paul related to his wife 
 the substance of the conversation he had that 
 afternoon with Lafarge. 
 
 " I had made up my mind to drop the 
 Hawks altogether, for I am happy enough at 
 home, and especially so since this speck of a 
 woman," here he looked fondly at the bit of 
 humanity in the arms of his wife, " has come 
 to stay. But it seems to me that there is 
 something in what Lafarge says, and that I 
 am due to give those gentlemen a chance to 
 win their money back." 
 
 " I think you are right, and I wish you 
 would go. Baby and I can get along for a 
 night in a week very well, can't we, missie?" 
 she said, as she gazed passionately into the 
 face of the infant. 
 
 There was a faint "goo" from baby's lips, 
 which might, bv a fond and partial parent, be 
 regarded as an affiimative answer. 
 
 Eleanor had none of that congenital horror 
 of cards which possesses so many women. 
 She had not been taught as a child that they 
 were harmful. In addition to this, her nature 
 
1 82 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 was pure and unsuspicious. She saw no evil 
 in gentlemen playing cards for money. She 
 did not fear that her husband might be con- 
 taminated by evil associations, for the reason 
 that she did not know of their existence. 
 The wounds, the cicatrices on the social body 
 she knew nothing of, as her attention had 
 never been called to them. To be sure, she 
 had heard of fast women and men, and of 
 many others of the sinful people and things, 
 but they impressed her very much as do the 
 visions one has of the figures, habits and lives 
 of the inhabitants of other planets — dim, un- 
 definable and remote. 
 
 Thus informed and educated, she found 
 nothing against which to object in Paul's con- 
 clusion that he would resume his visits to the 
 club for the purpose, in part, of giving the play- 
 ers their revenge. In truth, she regarded it 
 as only a fair and manly decision. 
 
 With her full consent he resumed his visits 
 to the Hawk club. The grade on which they 
 had married, that of friendship, still carried 
 them smoothly along its lofty level. She be- 
 lieved in him without any questioning, as 
 freely as the soil drinks the dew. That he 
 wished to take any course of action was an 
 ample reason to her why he should take it. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 183 
 
 One night in each week found him in the 
 private room which he had first visited, and 
 always engaged in playing. Almost always 
 Lafarge was one of the players; sometimes 
 there was a change in the personnel of the 
 game, and the places of Easton and Evans 
 were filled by recruits. These changes were 
 always managed by Lafarge. He selected 
 the men who were to fill the vacant spaces. 
 
 All the men whom he thus furnished were 
 gentlemen in appearance and demeanor. 
 They never exhibited anger over their losses, 
 nor undue exultation over their winnings. 
 So far as appearances were concerned, it 
 seemed a " gentlemen's game." 
 
 The results of the play fluctuated. Some 
 nights one or two of the players would win, 
 and now and then one man alone would be 
 the victim. For a few weeks Paul was fairly 
 fortunate, and he usually left the table with 
 more money than when he sat down. He 
 had established an understanding with the 
 party that he should be excused from the 
 game at an hour which permitted his reach- 
 ing home before midnight. 
 
 His attachment for the game had grown 
 during this period, and being a regular win- 
 
1 84 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 ner, it seemed a profitable as well as a most 
 enjoyable diversion. 
 
 One evening he won considerably at the 
 outset, and he felicitated himself on the pros- 
 pect of securing a substantial addition to his 
 gains. Then the luck suddenly changed. 
 Strong hands which hitherto had been victo- 
 rious, were now beaten. Irritated at this 
 turn in his luck, he endeavored to recoup by 
 larger bets. The more vigorously he pur- 
 sued this policy, the heavier his losses. Soon 
 all his winnings in the early part of the game 
 were lost, and then followed a demorahzing 
 rout. He lost and lost till the hour came for 
 his drawing out, when he found he was a 
 thousand dollars loser. 
 
 Of course he had not that amount with 
 him, but his checks were good. One of the 
 players happened very singularly and oppor- 
 tunely to have checks issued by the bank 
 with which Paul did business, and these were 
 promptly produced when the hour for settle- 
 ment came. 
 
 " That's very odd," remarked the owner of 
 the checks, when he found that Paul and 
 himself were depositing in the same bank. 
 "Do you know old Sanks, the president? 
 
THE GAMBLER. 185 
 
 I've known him ever since he opened the 
 Thirtieth National, and he has always carried 
 my pile since he began banking. An accom- 
 modating old chap, too ; he'll discount my 
 personal note without any collateral, for five 
 or ten thousand." 
 
 The gentleman who thus vaunted his fa- 
 miliarity with the president of the bank, and 
 his ability to secure unlimited discounts, was 
 a salesman in a shirt-store, on a salary of 
 twelve dollars a week. 
 
 Paul went home that night with a half-pain 
 in his heart. He had been elated by his suc- 
 cess, and he hated to lose. All that night 
 thoughts and dreams of the game haunted 
 him. He recalled situations in which he held 
 the best cards at the beginning of a deal, when 
 a card filling his hand would have made him 
 invincible, and which he failed to get, while 
 some player with substantially nothing to be- 
 gin with, had " come in,'' bettered and won. 
 Why could not fate have given him the 
 needed card at that critical moment? 
 
 In his sleep, he cut, shufHed and dealt ; he 
 tried to fill impossible flushes, and to better 
 two-pairs, and was always baflfled. He found 
 the next morning after his first losing, the 
 most unsatisfactory of his life. 
 
l86 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 As the sun came up and the prattle of the 
 infant was heard, he shook off his despond- 
 ency, and with something of a revengeful 
 spirit animating him against the men who 
 had beaten him, he cheered himself with the 
 thought that at the next session he would 
 recover his losses, and punish the people 
 who had won his mone}'. 
 
 However " gentlemanly" the game, a loser, 
 at least at the time of playing, is very apt to 
 entertain a personal dislike for the man who 
 has been the main winner of his money. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 18/ 
 
 VII. 
 
 HAWKS AND DOVES. 
 
 Paul continued the game with varying for- 
 tune. Now he made a small winning, but as 
 a rule he lost. He began to be irritable and 
 suspicious ; he saw no reason why he should 
 be a constant loser. 
 
 " Suppose you try the other game," said 
 Lafarge, to whom he communicated his dis- 
 content. " It is a larger game as to the num- 
 ber of players, and new men are coming in 
 all the time. It might change your luck.'' 
 
 Paul availed himself of the suggestion, and 
 was supplied with a pass-key to the main card- 
 room. 
 
 In this room, at some hour during the 
 twenty-four, there would be met all the 
 toughest elements of the Hawks. An almost 
 perpetual orgy prevailed in which gambling 
 and intoxication were the dominant features, 
 and which in intensity, and often in indecency, 
 
l88 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 put to shame the frantic revelries before the 
 altars of Dionysus. There were many cul- 
 tured gentlemen among the members, but 
 they rarely penetrated further than the bil- 
 Hard-roora in their juurneyings through the 
 club-rooms. 
 
 The fast element was recruited from no 
 particular class. It was composed mostly of 
 young men, although among the most rapid 
 of the lot, bald heads and gray hairs were not 
 without representation. All professions and 
 occupations had sent delegates to this branch 
 of the Hawk club. 
 
 They gambled heavily and drank to the 
 dregs the deepest of bowls. All seemed to 
 have plenty of money which they flung out 
 with unsparing lavishness. They dined at a 
 French restaurant, and ate the costliest of 
 food a.nd drank the most expensive of wines. 
 Coupes called for them at any hours of the 
 day or night, on the touch of an electric sig- 
 nal, and well-trained and obsequious servants 
 stood ready at the club to attend to their 
 lightest wishes. 
 
 Glorious days were these for the gilded 
 youth of the Hawk club ! Each night was 
 the occasion for a festival to Bacchus, to Cyp- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 1 89 
 
 lian rites, to the universal genius of Dis- 
 sipation. 
 
 In the late hours of night, at the out-of-town 
 road-houses, the passer-by heard the clamor 
 of the oppressed piano as its aged voice qua- 
 vered to the airs of the dance, to whose 
 rhythmic utterances swiftly revolved Hawk- 
 club men, and in their arms women with 
 painted cheeks, and shameless eyes. 
 
 Home along the outlying boulevards, as 
 dawn glanced shyly over the walls of the 
 eastern sky, went hacks, at a funeral pace, 
 the driver nodding on his perch, and within a 
 woman with disheveled hair, reclining on the 
 shoulder of a Hawk, he leaning back in a 
 corner, and both of them drunk and asleep. 
 
 Carriages driving furiously at midnight, 
 would head for certain famous and infamous 
 localities, carrying four young men, each 
 puffing furiously at a cigar, and who, talking, 
 singing, yelling all at once, would dismount 
 in front of a house emblazoned with the scar- 
 let insignia of the woman of Babylon, and a 
 moment later, would inundate an apartment 
 filled with women such as served in the tem- 
 ple of old Paphos. 
 
 In a vast apartment, gaudy with pictures. 
 
1 90 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 rugs and tapestry, a half-dozen vestals, swart 
 as night, nude as Venus rising from the foam, 
 capered and posed lasciviously for the 
 delectation of Hawks, who drank from bub- 
 bling champagne glasses, and with hoarse 
 laughter watched the curious spectacle. 
 
 Jolly, jolly boys were they ! The fumes of 
 the fruit of the wine penetrated the chambers 
 of their brain, and thence, carried along a 
 thousand nerve-routes, touched every tissue 
 till they were stimulated, drunken, roaring in 
 every molecule of their bodies from scalp to 
 toe-nail. 
 
 The aroma of the wine titillated their nos- 
 trils ; its flavor gratified their palate; song 
 and the laughter pleased their ear; and their 
 eyes were charmed with visions of crimson 
 cheeks, and the naked busts of voluptuous 
 lorettes. 
 
 Thus in turn were all the senses ministered 
 to, and made the source of libidinous enjoy- 
 ment. Oh, so jolly were they ! They kept 
 fast horses and women, and blooded dogs ; 
 they wagered on horse-races ; they " played 
 bank ;" they invested their money in " draw " 
 and " stud-poker," the wheel and keno ; they 
 became drunk and visited their friends, the 
 
THE GAMBLER. I9I 
 
 filles dejoies, and sobered up and grew drunk 
 again ; and thus alternated their efforts at 
 happiness between wine and women, between 
 the gambling-den and the meretricious splen- 
 dors of the temples of Aphrodite, 
 
 What poor clerk, slaving sixteen hours a day 
 for a pittance of seven dollars a week, and 
 with this amount trying to support a sick 
 wife and several children, does not envy the 
 life of these roysterous, boisterous youths, as 
 they carried on their labors of decorating the 
 town with carmine? 
 
 Lucky dogs were they ! Each of them 
 had his mistress whom he supported, or who 
 supported him according as luck varied in 
 July wheat, the turn of the card in faro, or 
 the filling of hands in poker. 
 
 It was a school with such a course of 
 instruction that Paul Calkins was about to 
 enter. Up to this point his life had been pure 
 and he had no taint save the slight one that 
 had been planted by gambling. What would 
 happen to him when he joined this procession 
 which went dancing, staggering, roaring 
 Bacchanalian choruses, and committing all 
 possible lewdnesses, hell-ward at a rattling 
 pace? 
 
192 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 It was a whirlpool in and about which the 
 human waves ran with incredible swiftness, 
 and irresistible fury. Would he be caught in 
 its howling vortices, and drawn under and 
 strangled in the whirling depths? 
 
 He is approaching a crisis in whose outcome 
 much is involved. He has a beautiful wife, 
 a lovely babe, a good business position, a 
 reputable social standing, a substantial fortune 
 already accumulated, and prospects that 
 promise him even greater wealth. All these 
 are now on one end of the balance while on the 
 other is the new-born desire to gamble. 
 Which of these will outweigh the other? 
 
 Time will show. 
 
 As for Paul himself, he never dreamed of 
 the imminency of danger. He left his wife 
 at home smiling and happv, with the infant 
 sleeping on her knees. What is there to sug- 
 gest a catastrophe? Nothing whatever. No 
 man in Chicago is better situated than he. 
 
 He entered the main card-room under the 
 escort of Lafarge, who introduced him to the 
 players. A seat was offered him. PuUmg 
 out a roll of bills, he called for a stack, and 
 the play went on. 
 
 The die was cast. The crisis of his life 
 came and passed, and he knew it not. 
 
THE GAMBLER. I93 
 
 That same night Lafarge visited Natalie. 
 
 " I see joy in your face, my son," said the 
 Ogress as she closely scanned his countenance. 
 " The Fetich has heard my prayer." 
 
 " Yes, maumee, you are right. The work 
 goes on and the reward will soon be paid." 
 
 The great eyes of Natalie flamed with 
 excitement, and her smile drew her upper lip 
 far above her protruding teeth till they shone 
 like the white fangs in the mouth of a snarling 
 wolf. 
 
 Lafarge departed without asking for his 
 usual " tip " as to lucky days and numbers. 
 Some other matter seemed to possess his 
 thoughts. 
 13 
 
194 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE COMrOSTTE OF THE GAMBLER. 
 
 What was originally a diversion, an amuse- 
 ment, to Paul Calkins, fast passed through va- 
 rious stages until it became a pnssion. It 
 took hold of him as the disease of opium- 
 eating fastens itself on the body, soul, brain, 
 and moral and spiritual nature of its victim. 
 
 Hitherto prompt in his business hours, and 
 in attention to his duties, he began, little by 
 little, to neglect them. Now and then, on 
 some excuse, he would leave his labors, and 
 go to the club in the afternoon in order to 
 gratify his desire to play. His hours of leav- 
 ing the club to return to his home gradually 
 grew later. 
 
 He had naturally no desire for stimulants, 
 but the frightful mental depression attendant 
 on long sessions at the gaming table, and the 
 chagrin of losses, made him weak and nerv- 
 ous, and almost forced the use of alcoholic 
 
THE GAMBLER. I95 
 
 drinks for recuperation. Tn the due course 
 of events, the reaction following the use of 
 stimulnnts demanded an increase of their 
 strength and quantity, so that he was forced 
 by a double necessity to use, and constantly 
 enlarge the amount of agents to keep some- 
 thing like an equilibrium in his vital and 
 moral forces. . 
 
 And thus it happened that week by week 
 the habits of gambling and intemperance 
 grew on him, and, devil-fish like, coiled their 
 slimy tentaculce about him till escape was 
 impossible. 
 
 Not only does this infernal habit of gam- 
 bling necessitate the use of stimulants, but it 
 enwraps its victims in further meshes. It is 
 but a short step from the hell of the gambler 
 to that of the courtesan. With his moral na- 
 ture deadened by the benumbing qualities of 
 gaming; with alcohol rousing his viler pas- 
 sions, and at the same time smothering his 
 moral sense, the gambler is in a condition to 
 resort to any excitement, however vicious or 
 degrading. 
 
 The gin-mill, the gambling-room and the 
 bagnio are the stakes which mark out the 
 triangle of the gamblers' area, and in which 
 they " live, move and have their being." 
 
196 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Paul " went with the boys," not at first into 
 the domain of Cyprus, but in the Baccha- 
 nalian processions in which intoxication was 
 the presiding genius. Frequently the taint 
 of liquor was on his breath when his wife 
 kissed him on his return from the club ; and 
 once or twice, his step was unsteady, and his 
 utterance thick and husky ; and at last, one 
 night, he climbed the stairway to his sleep- 
 ing-room so intoxicated that he fell at full 
 length and helpless on the ffoor. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that his descent 
 was unaccompanied with regret or reflec- 
 tion. He fully appreciated the peril that 
 menaced him, and the degradation which en- 
 thralled him. He fought against his vicious 
 environment like a lion caught in a net. A 
 thousand times, when his losses were excep- 
 tionally large, did he solemnly resolve that 
 that night should be the very last one that he 
 should touch a card, or a glass of stimulants. 
 
 Again and again did the degradation of his 
 course present itself to him in flaming colors, 
 and a thousand times did he regard himself 
 with horror, and determine on reformation. 
 Scores and scores of times would he leave a 
 game blaspheming over his infatuation, and 
 
THE GAMBLER. I97 
 
 solemnly vowing that he would never again 
 visit a card-room or participate in the accur- 
 sed practice. In such cases, the next morn- 
 ing brought a mitigation of his self-abase- 
 ment. The sin seemed less hateful ; and later 
 in the day he was again in his seat, conscience 
 for the moment stifled, his desire for gain 
 whetted to its keenest edge, and his nerves 
 thrilling with the swift variations of the play. 
 
 The real game of poker is in a certain sense 
 a mental entity. It is something which exists 
 within the soul of the player, and all we learn 
 of it is through its visible manifestations. 
 Primarily, the game considered from this 
 standpoint, is the energizing of a desire for 
 gain. This qualit\- is the same as that which 
 inspires commercial operations, the painting 
 of pictures, the use of the jimmy by the 
 burglar, and the grinding of a hand-organ by 
 a blind beggar. In the game of poker the 
 desire for gain assumes the character of greed. 
 It is a voracious, pitiless, insatiable appetite 
 for money. It is a special development of 
 the instinctive desire for accumulation, and 
 in this direction, it loses its original qualities 
 and becomes malignant. 
 
 One can judge of the character of the real, 
 
198 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the underlying game, and the changes it 
 undergoes, by watching the outward and vis- 
 ible indications of its progress as afforded by 
 the table with chips and players. These man- 
 ifestations are alwa^-s curious. They assume 
 forms of infinite variet}'. When specially 
 examined as indicative of the quality of greed 
 referred to, they are marked and interesting. 
 The player becomes totally absorbed as if in 
 a trance ; he does not hear the story which is 
 being related by a disengaged associate; his 
 entire being is concentrated in the stake im- 
 mediately at issue ; it may be -the last cent 
 which one of them possesses, and yet his 
 opponent, knowing this, is as eager to obtain 
 it as if it involved the retention of his own 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 Greed, grasping, profound, swinish, is the 
 controlling element in this subjective game 
 of poker, this, tlie inward, real contest. It 
 does not involve the possession of some stake 
 offered as a prize for strength or skill, but is 
 really for the vulgar possession of money. 
 It is not a contest between chivalrous knights, 
 but is in the nature of a hoggish rush for the 
 provender poured in the trough. 
 
 Other qualities than those of greed develop 
 
THE GAMBLER. I99 
 
 themselves in this underlying game. Intense 
 antagonisms are generated. The loss of a 
 pile of chips begets in the loser a momentary 
 hatred which in its intensity is murderous. 
 These constantly-occurring ebullitions of 
 anger constitute, in the course of a few hours 
 a sufficient aggregate to incite the commission 
 of a homicide or almost any other deadly 
 offence. This manifestation permits the con- 
 clusion that the real game of poker pos- 
 sesses another element in addition to greed — 
 that of hatred. 
 
 In what is termed a " gentlemen's game," 
 in which the players at least pass for gentle- 
 men in society, in their symptomatic role as 
 players, they become demoralized in tone and 
 speech. Ribaldry trickles into the conversa- 
 tion ; profanity makes its appearance here 
 and there ; a curse wrung by disappointment 
 or an oath elicited by triumph punctuates the 
 flow of conversation. Indecent narrations, 
 foul expressions, bald and offensive vulgarity 
 are among the frequent developments. 
 
 This permits another deduction as to the real 
 qualities of the game. Greed and hatred 
 have been shown to be essential portions of 
 Its composition; and now, when indecent nar- 
 
200 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 rations, oaths, curses are exhibited, there is 
 established the existence of another quality 
 which may be termed moral laxity. 
 
 A marked lack of sympathy is constantly 
 manifested in the game. Men under its influ- 
 ences become as hard as steel, and as void 
 of sympathy as a dead hog. Cases in which 
 players have lost to the extent of crippling 
 them and their families never excite the com- 
 miseration of the gamester, but rather afford 
 him something in the nature of a feeling of 
 triumph. 
 
 The rank superstition developed at the 
 gaming table has manv horrifying phases. 
 It often happens that hours will pass and a 
 player will never have a winning hand dealt 
 him, while the other players are getting some- 
 thing. He begins to think that there can be 
 no mere chance in this condition in which, 
 sit where he will at the table, cut and deal the 
 cards as he may, he gets nothing. 
 
 " How can blind chance," he asks angrily, 
 " arrange to give these men good cards in 
 every deal, and thus skip me for hours? 
 Chance cannot do it!" And then the idea of 
 some intelligent potency presents itself as 
 interfering to prevent his success. There is 
 
THE GAMBLER. 20I 
 
 but one power that can do this and that, God. 
 A feeling of hatred arises. " What have I done 
 that He should interfere?" Often this idea 
 finds expression in words. The name of Deity 
 is foully aspersed for His supposed malignant 
 influence in the game. 
 
 One sometimes hears God cursed as if He 
 were a beast. Revolting blasphemies are 
 heard which do not spare the Virgin nor the 
 Son. 
 
 And thus in addition to greed, hatred, lack 
 of sympathy and the like, the underlying 
 game of poker develops blasphemy of the 
 most shocking nature. It is not the same as 
 the average oath of execration, or the savage 
 curse hurled at intangible luck, but a direct, 
 blind and furious assault directed against the 
 very throne. 
 
 Such are the detestable qualities which un- 
 derlie, and energize the average game of 
 poker. An analysis of the motives inspiring 
 any species of gambling will show the same 
 component elements. 
 
 Every confirmed gambler is at once a brute, 
 a blasphemer, and often a drunkard and a 
 debauche. He is the sum of all wickedness. 
 
 All these depths were being gradually ex- 
 
202 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 plored by Paul Calkins. He did not limit 
 himself to the^ame in the Hawk club. Once 
 Lafarge said to him, late one night, when he 
 had been a loser : 
 
 " Let's go over and get even at the bank.'' 
 They went to a faro-den, and thenceforth 
 Paul added this branch of dissipation to his 
 sum-total. Sometimes he made a large win- 
 ning, by which he was elated, and led to be- 
 lieve that he had discovered the process by 
 which he might recover his already enormous 
 losses. But the belief was illusory ; while he 
 now and then won at the new game, the aver- 
 age results were against him, and he contin- 
 ued to be a regular loser. 
 
 In proportion as he lost, he drank to drown 
 his regret; his humiliation and the remem- 
 brance of his losses. Alcohol is a speedy 
 builder ; it reconstructs fortunes, restores 
 lost happiness, but its works are ephemeral. 
 The castle of to-night, with its turrets, its 
 barbacans, its merlons, and its lofty ramparts, 
 which alcohol builds at the prayer of the 
 homeless vagabond, is very beautiful, statel}', 
 and apparently imperishable, and yet the sun 
 of morning melts it away like frost-work. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 203 
 
 IX. 
 
 MOTHER AND BABE. 
 
 Eleanor Calkins, unlike a majority of women 
 in her character, her experiences, and her 
 marriage, was utterly unlike them in many 
 other particulars. The increasing absences 
 of her husband at night ; the evidences that 
 he was guilty of excess in his drinking, the 
 changes to the worse in his appearance and 
 temper, all these did not cause her to lose her 
 confidence in him. 
 
 He had told her that he was much embar- 
 rassed in business matters, and she believed 
 him. She was willing to conclude that to 
 this fact were due his late hours, his over- 
 stimulation, and his altered demeanor. That 
 he was engaged in gambling, she never for a 
 moment suspected. In fact, in this respect, 
 there was exhibited one of her characteristics 
 in which she differed essentially from most 
 other wives. She did not have a particle of 
 
204 THE GAMBLER, 
 
 the mischiev^ous element, suspicion, in her 
 composition. 
 
 The average wife too often regards the 
 husband as a piece of personal property, some- 
 what as if he were a poodle to be led by a 
 string. She is everlastingly haunted by a 
 suspicion that when not in sight, he is en- 
 gaged in something wrong. That he is ever 
 kept out late by business, billiards, or in an 
 innocent drinking bout with some old cronies, 
 is preposterous. There are, in the estimate 
 of some wives but two reasons why their hus- 
 band remains out late at night ; one of these 
 is gambling, and the other, women. 
 
 Eleanor lacked the possession of this brutal 
 incredulity in her husband's integrity, and as 
 a consequence did not overwhelm him with 
 innuendoes, and complaints. In fact, Paul 
 often wished that she might greet him with 
 tears and reproaches ; "For," as he thought, 
 " her gentle patience makes my misdoings 
 seem all the more inexcusable. Should she 
 play the termagant, it would afford me an 
 opportunity to fly into a passion, and give me 
 some sort of an excuse for my offences." 
 
 Unfortunately the downward career of Paul 
 was so swift that nothing less potent than 
 
THE GAMBLER. 205 
 
 annihilation could stop it. However, her un- 
 complaining' endurance could have done more 
 than any ordinary obstacle to slow his des- 
 cent, although it would have failed to arrest 
 it. Persistent "nagging,'' querulous complain- 
 ing, denunciation, scolding, abuse, whimper- 
 ing, tears, on the part of a wife, never yet 
 reformed the faults of a husband; on the 
 other hand, the result is generally to arouse 
 a spirit of defiance, and to intensify and con- 
 firm, the habits complained of. 
 
 Not irritated by suspicions as to the cause 
 of her husband's absence, the burden she 
 was called on to bear was, for the time, 
 much lightened. She felt concerned, of 
 course, that he was embarrassed in business 
 matters, but even this was not oppressive. 
 She had shown when she left her paternal 
 home that she held considerations of wealth 
 much lower than others relating to her per- 
 sonal preferences. Hence, the possible loss 
 of fortune did not greatly distress her. 
 
 The only thmg that disturbed her was the 
 mental condition of Paul. That he was suf- 
 fering intensely was shown by his appearance, 
 his extreme nervous irritation, and his inflam- 
 matory temper. From an equable, ever- 
 
206 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 pleasant companion, he had become irascible 
 to an extraordinary extent. She could, had 
 she been of the ordinai"y mould, have taken 
 advantage of the opportunity to retaliate by 
 sharp retorts, and a clamorous antagonism. 
 She did nothing of the kind. She bore his 
 impatience without resistance, and by every 
 means which gentleness could suggest, en- 
 deavored to alleviate rather than to aug- 
 ment the unpleasantness of the situation. 
 
 If, in after life, Eleanor had occasion to 
 review this period with all its surroundings 
 plainly within her vision, she would be able 
 to at least say : 
 
 " Had I made myself a thorn in his side at 
 that period it would only have increased his 
 wretchedness !" 
 
 The jaw, as its use was illustrated by Sam- 
 son, is destructive of human life; and in no 
 case on record has it been of value in the 
 cure of deep-seated maladies like intemper- 
 ance, gambling, and similar afflictions. 
 
 One warm afternoon, Eleanor and her babe 
 were alone in the sleeping-room. It was a 
 most charming picture, the mother, the child, 
 and their surroundings. Soft-hued curtains 
 gave tone to the light, and modified furniture 
 
THE GAMBLER. 207 
 
 and pictures into a harmonious unity. Elea- 
 nor lay extended on the white counterpane 
 of the bed reclining partly on her right side 
 and shoulder, while the babe lay in the bend 
 of her arm, with its face to that of the 
 mother. She wore a wrap of some thin stuff 
 that revealed beneath it the exquisite out- 
 lines of her form in all their rounded beauty 
 from her slippered feet to her snow-white 
 neck. Her purplish hair was uncoiled, and 
 flung back and lay in broad, and charming 
 confusion over the white couvcrtnrc, affording 
 a beautiful contrast in color effects. 
 
 The infant, now something over a year in 
 age, was a slender little figure with a coronal 
 of flossy gold. Its face was turned toward 
 the mother's, and its tiny hands wandered 
 over her shapely bosom with caressing 
 touches. 
 
 Eleanor's face exhibited some indications 
 of change since the day when she first put on 
 the wedding ring. She was perceptibly a 
 trifle older. Her face had thinned a shade; 
 her eyes had deepened a little in their blue- 
 ness. The change was not, however, for the 
 worse. The virginal shyness no longer 
 shone from cheeks, eyes and forehead, but in 
 
208 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 their place had come a something suggestive 
 of maturity. It was the ripe, rich maternal 
 bloom that characterized her countenance, 
 and gave it a mellow warmth. 
 
 A close observer may have noticed in 
 addition to these changes, a hint, a trace, of 
 anxiety which had found lodgement in tiny 
 depressions at the corners of her mouth and 
 beneath her eyes. It may have been the 
 tone of the softened light that produced this 
 impression, it may be that the lines were 
 there, but so faint that they were more in the 
 nature of a foreshadowing than a reality. 
 
 There is no period in a mother's life so full 
 of unalloyed happiness as when she watches 
 the progress of the slow developments of her 
 baby. She sees indications of recognition 
 and intelligence long before they can be de- 
 tected by others. Its inchoate utterances 
 assume form and meaning early to her mind ; 
 and what to others is mere sound is to her 
 ears the intelligent expression of a thought. 
 She distinguishes the word " Ma-ma," days, 
 weeks before it becomes tangible to the ears of 
 other hearts. 
 
 How her thoughts wander out into the 
 remote distance as she gazes fondly into the 
 
THE GAMBLER. 209 
 
 face of the little dot ! If it be a girl, the 
 mother sees her full-grown, and in the far fu- 
 ture the attendant, the affectionate servitor of 
 a gray-haired woman ; if a boy, she sees him 
 a healthy, robust man, beautiful in his face 
 and in his life, and the willing staff of her 
 old age. 
 
 Alas, how many of these sweet imaginings 
 fail to become realized ! It is a grand provi- 
 sion in the construction of things that the 
 future is veiled against human vision. What 
 mother would dare risk the view of the real- 
 ity to come, as she sits dreaming over her in- 
 nocent and helpless child ? 
 
 Like all mothers, Eleanor babbled to, and 
 gossiped with, her baby. She pretended to 
 receive wonderful secrets from its lips, and in 
 turn told it impromptu fairy tales relating to 
 the present and the future, and the while, 
 punctuated her narrations with quick kisses 
 snatched from the rose-bud lips. Papa, 
 Mamma and the Baby, the trinity of the ma- 
 ternal worship, were mainly the theme of her 
 caressing words, and thus it ran in some of 
 its phases: 
 
 " Does she love her mamma ? Does she 
 love her papa? Poor papa! It must love 
 14 
 
210 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 papa ! Papa loves the baby, and baby must 
 love papa ! Give me a great big kiss, if you 
 love papa ! There ! that's awful sweet ! Now 
 I know that you will love poor papa ! Will 
 my sweetie always stay with her mamma, 
 and always love her, and always be her bles- 
 sed little darling?" 
 
 To the musty nature of the old maid and 
 that of the confirmed old bachelor, and in 
 fact to very few people outside the mother 
 and child, is the baby-talk of the former of 
 surpassing interest. In truth, however, it is 
 among the choicest of human utterances, for 
 it is the unalloyed inspirations of pure af- 
 fection. 
 
 The kiss of the wife may in reality mean a 
 seal-skin cloak ; that of the maiden b}^ a youth, 
 betrayal; that of XX^q fiancee the splendor of 
 the engagement ring, that of the child the 
 prospect of cake or candies. But the kiss of 
 the babbling infant by its mother has no ulte- 
 rior motive ; it is an emanation straight from 
 the depths of the maternal heart. 
 
 It is possible that in the prattle of Eleanor 
 to her infant she may have unconsciously 
 indicated something in the nature of a faint 
 foreboding. The frequent allusic^ns to " poor 
 
THE GAMBLER. .211 
 
 papa" may have been the expression of one 
 of those deeper impressions which, without 
 premonition, or apparent reason, giv^e exist- 
 ence to a menacing note. It may be that 
 there are certain instincts, located deep in 
 the composition of men, which, like the rattle 
 of the snake, present warning of coming 
 peril. 
 
 Often in the night there rises to the sur- 
 face of the stream of slumber ncjxious bub- 
 bles which burst and taint the atmosphere 
 breathed by the sleeper. In whatever shape 
 they appear, they are intangible, evanescent, 
 indefinable, and in some vague wa}-, afford 
 an augury of evil. 
 
212 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 X. 
 
 TRICKS OF THE TRADE. 
 
 One morning after Paul had risen from his 
 bed, after having slept with the feverish un- 
 rest growing from intoxication and nervous 
 irritation, he presented an unusually haggard 
 appearance. Black sacks had formed beneath 
 his e3'es, deep lines had been plowed from 
 the corners of his mouth, his complexion had 
 a tinge of yellow, and his voice was tremulous 
 and husky. 
 
 Eleanor was startled by the change in his 
 appearance, and said : 
 
 "You are not well this morning, are you?" 
 
 "No, I'm feeling wretched." 
 
 " What do you think is the trouble ?"' 
 
 " Well, in fact, I think it is mental, and 
 comes from business difficulties." 
 
 " Indeed !" 
 
 " Ves, I'm in deep waters, and whether or 
 not I shall be drowned is as yet uncertain." 
 
THE GAMBLER. 213 
 
 " Wovild there be any use in your telling 
 me the situation? Could I be of any assist- 
 ance in any way ? 
 
 " I'm afraid not. Women do not compre- 
 hend business details. It would only worry 
 you. Still, I suppose you might understand 
 that I have already lost a good deal of money 
 in my business, and unless some change comes, 
 I shall lose a good deal more." 
 
 " I'm very sorry to hear it," said Eleanor 
 with a sympathetic voice. " Is there no pos- 
 sibility that things may change for the 
 better?" 
 
 " They may, and they may not. I have a 
 lai-ge sum in the Crystal Gold-mining Co., 
 which IS about certain to be a dead loss. I 
 bought a large quantity of wheat, and the 
 price is dropping every day. Some South- 
 western which I sold is going up, and some 
 St. Louis and Mackinaw securities which I 
 took on a debt at 33 have dropped to 7." 
 
 "Why, that is perfectly awful! I don't 
 wonder that you are ill. But never mind ! 
 Health is far better than money ; don't worry ! 
 What can't be helped must be endured.'' 
 
 It will be seen that Eleanor in this matter 
 as in so many others, differed from the aver- 
 
214 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 age wife. She did not ask him why he hadn't 
 more sense than to buy wheat when he ought 
 to have sold it; or why he hadn't asked her 
 advice in his investments, on the ground that 
 two heads are better than one ; which was 
 always the way with the men who never think 
 women have any sense ; and if they would 
 consult them oftener and take their advice, 
 they would be much better off! 
 
 As may be inferred by those who are famil- 
 iar with the career of Paul up to this date, he 
 showed himself, in his communications to his 
 wife, to be an "able-bodied liar." All the 
 investments and losses which he detailed were 
 pure inventions. He had not a dollar in 
 grain, mines, or stocks; it was true that his 
 business was irretrievably embarrassed, and 
 that he had lost large amounts of money. All 
 of it, however, had gone across the " lay-out " 
 of the faro-dealer, or over the table of the, 
 poker-players. 
 
 He did not tell her that through his neg- 
 lect of his duties, he had quarreled with his 
 partners of the book-house with which he had 
 been connected, and that he had been forced 
 to withdraw, and that now he had no legiti- 
 mate occupation — his entire time when absent 
 
THE GAMBLER. 21$ 
 
 from home being spent in the card-room of 
 the Hawk club or in other localities devoted 
 to gambling. 
 
 In fine, in his babble about wheat, South- 
 western. Crystal and the like, he had made 
 no mention of the fact that he was already 
 near the brink of bankruptcy. 
 
 " Let us hope for the best!" were the last 
 words of the womanly nature of his wife. 
 They were not the utterance of an average 
 wifely feeling, for that would have insisted 
 that whatever he had done was wrong, and 
 that if there was anything he contemplated 
 doing, he should do something else. 
 
 He derived little comfort from the hopeful 
 suggestions of Eleanor. He knew that unless 
 chance reversed the existing conditions, that 
 if things went on long as they were now 
 going, there was nothing before him but ab- 
 solute ruin. 
 
 One may wonder that at this point in his 
 career, appreciating all the evils of his posi- 
 tion, and foreseeing all that menaced him in 
 the future, he did not at once change his life 
 and devote himself to rescuing the remnants 
 of his property, and the rebuilding of at least 
 a portion of his fortune. Manhood would 
 
2l6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 suggest such a course; the thought of wife 
 and child should be an imperative command 
 to him to take such action ; the good opinion 
 of the world, decency, honesty, the love of 
 family ; in brief, everything good and virtuous 
 called on him to at once change the course of 
 his life. 
 
 As well ask the confirmed inebriate to 
 abandon his appetite for drink; the idiot to 
 shake off his imbecility ; the consumptive to 
 throw aside the lesions of his lungs, as to ask 
 the hardened gambler to give up his infatua- 
 tion. The confirmed drunkard, the incurable 
 imbecile, and the doomed consumptive may 
 ardently desire relief, but it is beyond their 
 power. 
 
 There may be cases where the gambler has 
 reformed, but they are rare. Statements 
 prevail here and there through the ages, of 
 the dead having been restored to life; but 
 the instances are few, and their authenticity 
 doubtful. 
 
 At that period in the history of Chicago, as 
 is true of substantially all other periods, 
 gambling possessed a thousand advantageous 
 points. It was sustained by the police 
 authorities ; it was not condemned by a unan- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 21/ 
 
 imous public opinion; and in view of the 
 gigantic speculations in real estate, and the 
 products dealt with on the Board of Trade, a 
 speculator, alias a gambler, was not tabooed 
 as he should have been. In fine, gambling 
 was tolerated. 
 
 Men who owned gambling-dives, or had an 
 interest in them, were in some well-known 
 instances, members of the Board of Trade. 
 They went on the board during business hours, 
 bought and sold grain in larger or smaller 
 quantities, but mainly used their positions to 
 secure customers for their private business. 
 Such men gave gambling a quasi respect- 
 ability. They visited the corridors of the large 
 hotels and skillfully introduced themselves to 
 strangers, and lured them to their dens. 
 
 In every establishment devoted to faro 
 there were rooms for poker parties. In the 
 rear of a great majority of all the whisky dens 
 there were inclosed stalls in which poker was 
 played night and day. Over all the business 
 portion of the city, and along the avenues, 
 there were " clubs " organized under the laws 
 for one purpose and devoted exclusively to 
 gambling. 
 
 All sorts of devices were resorted to for 
 
2l8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Lhe securing of patronage. Dignified men 
 haunted the hotels and places of amusement 
 to make the acquaintance of strangers, to 
 invite them to a quiet place to drink a bottle 
 of wine, and which was always decanted in 
 the ante-rooms of a gambling hell. No man 
 was safe from the influence of this far-reaching 
 agency. A well-dressed, polite, genteel per- 
 son would enter the ofSce of a business man : 
 
 " Good-morning, sir ! 1 hope you are quite 
 well, sir." 
 
 " Good-morning," the occupant would nat- 
 urally respond. And then, scannmg the caller 
 with some hesitation, " I can't justrecall your 
 name, although your face is very familiar — 
 let me see — " 
 
 " Guess you don't remember me. My 
 name is Johnson of the firm of Crooks & Co., 
 and I met you at the banquet of the Herring 
 club." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I remember," says the other with 
 that mendacity which seems to be an essential 
 part of the amenities of social life. " Sit 
 down, Mr. Johnson. What can I do for you, 
 this morning?" 
 
 " Well, this is it: You know the manager 
 of the St. Bacchus hotel.? No? Well, he 
 
THE GAMBLER, 219 
 
 knows you, and he asked me to call on you 
 and say that Mr. Jones, and Mr. Brown and 
 two or three other gentlemen are anxious to 
 have a quiet place w here tliey can meet and 
 have a little game of poker, and they would 
 like to have you join them." 
 
 The names of Brown and Jones are those 
 of well-known citizens, and the business man 
 is flattered that they have thought of him as 
 a member of their part}'. 
 
 " Yes, I don't mind dropping around some 
 evening." 
 
 " All right, come this evening. Brown and 
 Jones have both promised to have a little ses- 
 sion at eight o'clock." 
 
 "I'll see. Perhaps I may drop in." 
 
 The slick Mr. Johnson bids him a polite, 
 an almost obsequious adieu, leaving the bus- 
 iness man under the impi'ession that he is 
 a highly-esteemed citizen. 
 
 The agile Johnson next flies to the business 
 places of Messrs. Brown and Jones, introduces 
 himself in about the same fashion to those 
 two gentlemen respectively, and tells each 
 the hotel romance, and simply changes the 
 recital by introducing the name of Mr. Smith, 
 whom he had just visited. Both gentlemen 
 
220 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 feel highly complimented with the invitation, 
 and promise to be on hand. 
 
 Mr. Johnson then hiiriies back to the St. 
 Bacchus caravansera, ascends three flights of 
 stairs, knocks in a peculiar manner at a door, 
 which is at once opened, admitting him 
 into an ordinary hotel sleeping-room, by a 
 slim young man with traces of small-pox 
 ravages on his countenance, and up-ended 
 moustache, and with hair well-sfreased and 
 parted exactly along a line perpendicular to 
 the axis of his ears. 
 
 "Got 'em, by , cully !" he ejaculates in 
 
 a triumphant voice. *' Each old 
 
 bit without even stoppin' to nibble. 
 
 They'll all be on hand this evenin', and we'll 
 have a fine racket, for they've got no end of 
 stuff," 
 
 " Who'll we get to entertain 'em ?" 
 
 "Well, there's 'Cracker Jack;' how'U he 
 do?" 
 
 " First class, only he's stayin' under cover 
 because his 'uncle' has his clamps on his 
 clean shirt." 
 
 •'• So .' Well, you'll have to fix him out the 
 best you can. He'll be a clerk in a real estate 
 office. He ought to do it well, because he 
 always has samples on hand with him." 
 
THE GAMBLER. 221 
 
 When the smiling- Brown, Jones and Smith 
 climb up to the room in the evening, they 
 find Mr. Snapp, a real-estate dealer; Mr. 
 Gobble, a board of trade man, and Mr. 
 Shuffle, cattle-dealer from Montana, a bluff, 
 honest-looking old gentleman, all waiting for 
 them. 
 
 They are delighted when they see the 
 cloth removed from a table in the center of 
 the room, and discover that the piece of 
 furniture has a slit in the middle, while a 
 moment later a pack of cards is tossed on the 
 green cloth, and the pock-marked person 
 produces a rack of chips, and then stands 
 patiently to get a response to his query: 
 "How many will you have, gentlemen?" 
 Each of the trio is pleased over all these 
 things, because each of them believes that it 
 was all done for his special benefit by the 
 others. 
 
 This "fake" is one of the most common, 
 even at this time. It is successful in "rop- 
 ing" any number of good-natured business 
 men into a game where they are fleeced by 
 sharpers without the slightest difficulty. 
 
 With these inducements meeting one at 
 every step, it was and is almost impossible to 
 
222 THE GAMBLER, 
 
 avoid the entanglements of the gambling 
 dens. Always is the "sucker," as the con- 
 templated victim is universally known among 
 the fraternity, informed that it is a " little 
 game" among " business men," and "no gam- 
 blers admitted." 
 
 The multiplicit}' of these avenues hellward ; 
 the attractions which environ their entrance ; 
 the bursts of music and hilarity which come 
 up from the distance, render them pop- 
 ular, and the crowds about them fight for 
 entrance. 
 
 Enveloped in an atmosphere of speculation ; 
 with gambling everywhere about him ; with 
 constant inducements about him to lead him 
 nsti'ay, it is not to be wondered at that Paul 
 Calkins traveled the beaten pathway's, in 
 company with the crowds, and swiftly made 
 his way toward perdition. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 223 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE BATS IN SEARCH OF PREY. 
 
 Lafarge had given up his commercial posi- 
 tion and now had an interest in a faro-bank. 
 He was not able to supply the necessary capi- 
 tal himself, but had found no trouble in obtain- 
 ing all that was needed. A well-known pro- 
 fessional gambler acted as the figure-head of 
 the new adventure; Lafarge took charge of 
 the outside business, such as "plugging" — that 
 is drumming for customers — and the main 
 amount of capital was furnished by a wealthy 
 and prominent business man. 
 
 It is a curious fact in Chicago that a large 
 share of the money used to back faro-banks, 
 is supplied by men who, as a rule, belong to 
 what are kno^^ n as the better classes. The 
 same thing is seen in other directions. Much 
 of the property used for sexual traffic, in 
 many parts of the city, is owned by citizens 
 of high social standing, and large wealth, and 
 
224 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 who are perfectly informed as to the uses 
 made of their tenements. 
 
 Without the backing of this class of men 
 who are possessed of money, the faro-bank 
 would be a much smaller factor than it now 
 is. It is a capital investment, and pa3'S a 
 much larger percentage than any legitimate 
 business. 
 
 " You see," said Lafarge, in conversation 
 with a man whom he finally induced to fur- 
 nish the means, "there is nothing that pays so 
 well as a gc^od faro-bank. You are certain to 
 get from hfty to a thousand per cent, on your 
 money." 
 
 "But isn't there a chance of losing?" 
 queried the cautious capitalist. 
 
 " No, sir ! Not one chance in ten thousand. 
 Faro is for the owner as near a sure thing as 
 can be operated." 
 
 " How, if such be the fact, is it that 1 see 
 now and then in the newspapers accounts of 
 the winning against a bank of five, ten and 
 even twenty thousand dollars, by some 
 player ?" 
 
 " Oh, that's a ' fake !' That is done to catch 
 the ' chumps.' By an understanding with 
 some chap, he is reported to have made a 
 
THE GAMBLER. 225 
 
 tremendous winning against a ceitain bank, 
 which the newspapers all publish. Every- 
 body sees the item, and every one thinks : ' A 
 bank which would lose so much, must be on 
 the square ; and if Dinks can win five thou- 
 sand, there is no reason wh}' I shouldn't have 
 the same luck.' As a consequence, such a 
 rumor always brings hundreds of new cus- 
 tomers, and the bank, without losing a cent, 
 gains largely in custom." 
 
 "Ah, I see!" said the capitalist grinning, as 
 he spoke, over the smartness of the trans- 
 action. 
 
 " Yes, that's the racket. It is as old as gam- 
 bling. It was done in the same way, and for 
 the same purpose three hundred 3'ears ago." 
 
 " Is it possible ! And why don't people 
 see through it ?" 
 
 "The people as a rule are gulls. It is true 
 that this * fake' is hundreds of years old, and 
 has been perpetrated on each generation, and 
 exposed a million times, and yet the idiots 
 fall into the trap every time it is baited with 
 this ' Big Winning' meat. It is the same 
 in lotteries. Every few months it appears in 
 the press that a tailor, or a blacksmith, or 
 some obscure person has won a large prize in 
 15 
 
226 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 a lottery. His name, residence and all partic- 
 ulars are given, and thereupon people say, 
 ' If this were not true the papers would not 
 give the name and address of the winner. 
 Lotteries are honest, after all ; they do give 
 prizes ; there is a chance of winning, and so, 
 let's all buy tickets.' " 
 
 " I should think that men would get wiser 
 in this age, when ever3'body can read the 
 newspapers, and learn of all these things and 
 the manner in which they can avoid being 
 over-reached." 
 
 " One would naturally think so, it is true ; 
 but as a fact, the race does not imprdve in 
 sagacity. It is as gullible as it ever was. 
 Some new thing is now and then required to 
 catch the ' suckers,' but not many. As you 
 can see by the papers, every da}- there is a 
 ' jay' who is caught on the old bunko-swindle, 
 or on the bogus check or bond ' racket;' the 
 thing is exposed by the newspapers, and yet 
 the green ones are none the wiser. I tell 
 you that there is more money in working on 
 the credulity and stupidity of people than in 
 any of the regular methods of business." 
 
 The capitalist readil}'' advanced the money 
 after hearing the statements of Lafarge. It 
 
THE GAMBLER. 22/ 
 
 is unnecessary to state that he regularly re- 
 ceived a substantial dividend on his share of 
 the " bank-roll." 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that men will 
 dare almost any risk, fine, imprisonment, po- 
 lice surveillance, and social ignominy to estab- 
 lish and operate faro-banks. " There's mil- 
 lions in it!" A faro-banker rents and fits up 
 most expensively, capacious and princely 
 rooms. He puts in appliances for gaming 
 that cost thousands of dollars. He employs 
 dealers, " look-outs," " cappers," " pluggers," 
 and numerous other assistants. Often the 
 patrons of his establishment are furnished 
 with a midnight dinner at which the choicest 
 of viands and potables are served without 
 stint. He pays from one hundred to five 
 hundred a month for " protection" to influ- 
 ential local politicians. 
 
 This involves a royal outlay. And yet the 
 "banker" is able to purchase and own fast 
 horses, to build palatial houses, and to expend 
 hundreds of thousands per annum on his 
 mistresses. 
 
 The people see all this, they throng his 
 apartments under the imbecile impression 
 that the man who is spending all this money 
 
228 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 is going to allow them to win some of it. 
 He cannot afford to give away money ; he 
 needs all that comes to him to supply his com- 
 forts, and to afford opportunity for extrav- 
 agance. 
 
 Does that ass, the faro-player, suppose that 
 the faro-banker is going to fit up sumptuous 
 apartments, give banquets and all that, and 
 then allow the public to win his money? 
 
 Lafarge invited Paul Calkins to visit the 
 new bank without informing him that he had 
 in it a personal interest. The rooms were 
 newly-furnished, bright, attractive, and so 
 pleased Paul that he spent considerable time 
 there, and also gave the " bank" an occa- 
 sional douceur of his remaining capital. At- 
 tentive colored servants waited on the vis- 
 itors ; there was an ample supply of liquors 
 and cigars which was distributed with free- 
 dom. Alcohol is the lubricating material of 
 the Juggernaut of gambling. Without it the 
 axles would become rusted, and the machine 
 could not move. 
 
 Paul strolled into the den one evening and 
 found Lafarge reading a newspaper. He 
 was particularly affable. He warmly shook 
 the hand of Paul, saying : 
 
THE GAMBLER. 229 
 
 "Old fellow, how are you? I'm devilish 
 glad to see you. You are not looking tip-top, 
 bj'-the-way ; what's the matter ?" 
 
 " Oh, nothing in particular. Possibly too 
 much 'budge' now and then, and lateness in 
 getting to bed on an occasional night." 
 
 In fact, dissipation was plainly recording 
 its advance on the face of Paul. It had 
 grown much thinner, his eyes were percep- 
 tibly dulled, and an expression of anxiety, 
 care, and fatigue had taken possession of his 
 features. 
 
 " Come in the other room and let's cheer 
 up with a small bottle." 
 
 The champagne was ordered, poured out 
 and drunk. 
 
 " That touches the exact spot,'' said La- 
 farge. "It's glorious medicine, and I'm going 
 to try another dose. Here, boy, bring an- 
 other bottle, and a quart, this time !" 
 
 The second bottle was dul}' opened and its 
 contents drained to the bottom. Paul's face 
 was flushed, and his eyes sparkled with 
 excitement as they reached the end of the 
 second bottle. 
 
 " We must have a little cogniac to regu- 
 late this Veuve Cliquot. The widow may be 
 
230 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 disposed to be fractious and uneasy. A little 
 brandy will just nicely settle her, and insure 
 good behavior," said Lafarge. 
 
 Two glasses of cogniac were brought and 
 swallowed. Paul's face grew more crimson, 
 and the blood leaped like lightning through 
 his veins. 
 
 " Let's take a hack and drive around awhile, 
 and see what can be seen," said Lafarge, after 
 they had finished their brandy. 
 
 " All right, my boy !" responded Paul with 
 a considerable thickness on his tongue, and a 
 slight inequality in his gait. They de- 
 scended to the street, hailed a passing hack, 
 entered it and drove away. 
 
 A few nights before this meeting, Lafarge a 
 couple of hours before midnight descended 
 into a basement saloon on one of the prin- 
 cipal thoroughfares in the business portion 
 of the city. He entered a spacious and irreg- 
 ular room in which was a bar, with its shin- 
 ing furniture and its parti-colored fluids, a 
 counter over which men in white aprons 
 passed dishes of food in obedience to de- 
 mands from a half score of busy waiters; and 
 a large number of small, plain tables about 
 which were seated many people, both men 
 and women. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 23 I 
 
 The men wore their hats, and sat, ate, 
 drank, smoked, singly or in groups, in which 
 here and there women mingled. There were 
 couples of women seated alone ; there was 
 now and then a solitary woman sipping beer 
 at a table, and evidently a stranger, and 
 waiting for some companion. 
 
 It was a fairly well-dressed crowd ; many 
 of the men wore silk hats and frock coats, 
 with clean linen, while the women were about 
 the same class as to clothing. As to other 
 qualities, all were young; that is the major- 
 ity of both sexes were on the sunny side of 
 life. There were two or three quite young 
 girls, not yet out of their teens ; some youths 
 with boyish faces and faint shadings of down 
 on their lip, and a few specimens of elderly 
 men with red eyelids and locks of thin gray 
 hair showing under their hats. 
 
 Lafarge took a seat at a vacant table, called 
 for a glass of beer and commenced sipping it 
 leisurely as he glanced over the assembled 
 people. It was a scene full of a certain sort 
 of animation. There was a steady flow of the 
 sound of conversation, over which broke 
 bursts of laughter, the clatter of glasses, the 
 calls of the waiters for drinks or food, and the 
 
232 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 scuffling of moving feet. Everybody seemed 
 at fiome in his ease, and while the men filled 
 the atmosphere with smoke, apparently with- 
 out thought that there were women in the 
 room, the latter inhaled the vaporous fumes 
 with complete indifference. 
 
 Who are, and whence come the women in 
 this resort? 
 
 When the shadows of night begin to settle 
 over the city, and the light grows crepuscular, 
 figures unknown to the day suddenly appear 
 and flit hither and thither along the streets. 
 Their movements are irregular ; they pass up 
 one thoroughfare, down another, across, and 
 they wind in and out. They remind one of 
 the dimly-visible bat whose erratic flight maj^ 
 be detected in the growing darkness. 
 
 These figures with the eccentric movements 
 are alike in nothing save their sex as women. 
 They are infinitely variable in appearance, 
 dress, gait, demeanor, and attractiveness. 
 They are infantile, mature. Some of them 
 have faces full of charm, others are plain, 
 some repulsive, and many have the calloused 
 expression of countenance which comes from 
 contact with long and painful experience. 
 
 A novice in city life would not comprehend 
 
THE GAMBLER. 233 
 
 the character of these persons. The stranger 
 meets one, and sees, perhaps, a slender figure 
 with a modest face and downcast eyes, and 
 who walks with a hurried step. In her hand 
 is a little bag like that in which the working- 
 girl carries her luncheon ; she seems belated 
 as if she had been detained at shop or office, 
 and pushes swiftly on as if anxious to escape 
 notice and reach her home. Furtive glances 
 shoot from her downcast eyes, and, as it were, 
 are appeals to the grou]3s of loungers on the 
 street-corners to respect her 3'outh, innocence 
 and unprotected situation. She shrinks away 
 from contact with the men gathered in front 
 of the saloons, as if there were infection in 
 their touch. 
 
 If the stranger who noticed the passing of 
 this home-hurrying girl, with her modest 
 carriage and her timid glances, should happen 
 a little later to stray from the main street into 
 a side one, where the lights are dim and the 
 pedestrians few, he will notice a feminine 
 form strolling leisurely along the deserted 
 sidewalk. Her gait is dilatory and easy ; she 
 is apparently waiting for some one to over- 
 take her; and should some man pass her she 
 murmurs softly, " Good-evening ! " 
 
234 I^^IE GAMBLER. 
 
 If the stranger should meet her under the 
 gas-hght, he will be surprised to recognize 
 the timid creature whom he saw a few min- 
 utes before, hurrying along the main thor- 
 oughfare. The mystery may puzzle him ; 
 he may return to his country home and never 
 be able to explain the metamorphosis of the 
 pretty shop-girl with her shrinking, modest 
 demeanor into the woman who strolled leis- 
 urely along the side-street, and stared at him 
 with brazen glances as he passed. 
 
 He will perb.aps never know that the woman 
 whom he met is one of the potent factors of 
 civilization ; that the timid creature in the 
 Garden City is the same as the woman, all 
 rouge, silks, feathers and blasphemy, in the 
 Strand and Haymarket in London, the trip- 
 ping bonne, or shy-faced coufuricre on the 
 boulevards of Paris. 
 
 I She is the bat, the vampire of the woods, 
 the picuvre of the waters, the rapacious beast 
 of the jungles of society. She w^as born when 
 the world received its supply of women. 
 She is older than the pyramids, and she is 
 limited by the extent of the human race. 
 She and her kind walked the streets of Athens 
 and Rome centuries ago ; they were present 
 
THE GAMBLER. 235 
 
 in Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, and throughout the 
 orient. They have overspread China; they 
 abound in Japan, and the thousand isles of 
 the ocean are haunted b}' their presence. 
 They are in Thibet, Madagascar, India, 
 Burmah, Tonquin; in fine, wherever there 
 is humanity to be born, to labor, suffer, weep, 
 die, they are to be found without limit. . 
 
 Wherever nigiit comes, and there is human 
 life, the shy shop-girl, as she appears on the 
 streets of Chicago, may be seen in one guise 
 or another. She trips along the highways of 
 the towns which lie at the base of the Him- 
 alayas, on the borders of the Adriatic, and on 
 the vast levels of Asiatic Russia. No climate 
 is too inhospitable, for her existence; no phase 
 of life too savage for her endurance. Each 
 night she is hurrying shyly home in the dark- 
 ness ; each night she idles in the by-places 
 and — waits ! 
 
 It was this woman and her sisters that sat 
 around the tables in the saloon in the base- 
 ment. 
 
236 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 XII. 
 
 MORE BAIT OFFERED. 
 
 The gambler and the courtesan unite with 
 a wonderful affinit}-. It may be that this 
 comes from a S3'mpathy in evil-doing, or for 
 the reason that both are rejected by society, 
 and are thus driven into contact like the 
 lepers banished from cities into some appointed 
 place. 
 
 Some little time after Lafarge entered, 
 there came down the stairway a young woman, 
 who glanced over the room, caught sight of 
 Lafarge, recognized him with a movement of 
 her eyes, and then seated herself beside him. 
 
 "Good-evening, Elise," said Lafarge, with 
 a smile, as he shook her gloved hand. " You're 
 on time. How have you been?" 
 
 " Pretty well, thanks. I should be entirely 
 well if I were not so thirsty !" 
 
 " Ah, pardon me ! What will it be? Beer?" 
 
 " Not to-night. Something deeper and 
 
THE GAMBLER. 237 
 
 Stronger. Some absinthe and whisky would 
 about meet my case." 
 
 " Of course, anything you like ! Y(Hi might 
 have a few drops of aqua fortis added to the 
 whisky and absinthe to take off the rough 
 edges," he said, with an intonation of irony. 
 
 " Don't try to be sarcastic ! I know what I 
 want, and intend to have it !" 
 
 " Good enough ! You shall have it!" 
 
 The concoction was ordered and brought, 
 and then the young woman commenced sip- 
 ping it with an expression as if she liked it. 
 She was a light blonde, about twenty years 
 of age, with a voluptuous figure, strong 
 features and cold gray eyes. The last-named 
 retained none of the modest light peculiar to 
 sweet girlhood ; they were bold, staring, 
 unflinching. This chaste beacon had been 
 extinguished by the tempests of passion which 
 had already swept over her young life. 
 
 The two chatted for a few moments, and 
 then she suddenly said with considerable 
 sharpness in her tones : 
 
 " Why haven't you been to see me for so 
 long a time? It's years and years since I 
 have seen the light of your ugly face.'' 
 
 " I've been awfully busy." 
 
238 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 "Oh, yes, of course! 'Busy' I suppose, 
 with some other woman!" Her tone was 
 threatening, and her hard gray eyes blazed 
 as she spoke. 
 
 " Honest, I have been awful busy. We 
 have just got the bank into operation and it 
 has been a hard job. But we are all right 
 now, and we shall have more time." 
 
 " So ! And how is the ' run ' of ' suckers ' at 
 this season of the year ? Is the river full of 
 them ?'' 
 
 "The 'run' is pretty good, these days. 
 Judge !" and he put his hand in the pocket of 
 his vest and extracted a roll of greenbacks. 
 " Here are some specimens of the new 
 ' run ;' nice and fat, ain't they ? " 
 
 " My e3^es are weak ; I can't see them. I 
 can tell better by feeling them." 
 
 " All right ! Feel of them !" and he threw 
 the roll into her lap. She seized it with 
 something of the swoop of the hawk on its 
 prey, and rapidly turned down the edges of 
 the bills to note their denomination. 
 
 "Nearly all centuries!" she exclaimed 
 rapturously, as she saw that the majority of 
 the bills were each $100 in denomination. 
 "The suckers are coming in ! Many thanks!" 
 
THE GAMBLER. 239 
 
 and she lifted the skirt of her dress and 
 deposited the money somewhere' underneath. 
 
 EHse was under the "protection'' of La- 
 farge. He had met her somewhere a year 
 before, had become smitten with her volup- 
 tuous appearance, and had induced herto let 
 him provide for her. She was not an inno- 
 cent girl when he first met her ; she had 
 drifted into her present condition from heaven 
 only knows where, and was adrift when he 
 encountered her. She lived in a couple of 
 rooms on the upper fioor of a business block. 
 
 " Don't make a pauper of me !" he remon- 
 strated, as she thus summarily disposed of the 
 entire roll of bills. " Give me a little change, 
 enough for car-fare, can't you ?" 
 
 "Not a nickel! The walking is first-class, 
 and it'll do your legs good to stretch 'em ! 
 Oh, no ! Not a red ! " 
 
 "All right, keep it, but don't thro w^ it away. 
 No one knows what may happen," 
 
 "Don't fret yourself; I'm in the 'lookout' 
 and nobody is going to be robbed in the 
 game !" 
 
 A little later, he said : 
 
 " I have a friend who has a ' bundle' which 
 is worth picking up. Now I want you to 
 
240 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 select one of the most taking girls among 
 your acquaintances. .She must be young, 
 beautiful, bright, fascinating, and accom- 
 plished !" 
 
 " Is that all you want in her ? I shall have 
 to send up among the angels for so perfect a 
 specimen." 
 
 " Well, all right ; an angel be it, but she 
 must be a fallen one. As soon as you find the 
 party let me know. 1 will then make an 
 arrangement to meet her at your rooms in 
 company with my friend." 
 
 She promised to find the style of woman 
 wanted. She had, during the conversation, 
 emptied several glasses of beer after a 
 draught of whisky and absinthe ; and leaning 
 on the arm of Lafarge, she left the saloon and 
 proceeded down the street without exhib- 
 iting the least evidence of intoxication. 
 
 It was a week or so after this interview in 
 the saloon, that occurred the conversation 
 between Lafarge and Paul Calkins. The car- 
 riage in which they seated themselves drove 
 for some distance and finally halted in front 
 of a tall building whose street-floor was 
 used for shops, and whose upper floors were 
 occupied as residences. It was here that 
 Elise had her apartments. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 24I 
 
 " Come in with me," said Lafarge. " I wish 
 to see a friend. It wont take but a minute." 
 
 Paul went up with him. Ehse was at home 
 and received them very graciously in her 
 snug and cosy rooms. As they came in, she 
 appeared to be greatly amused at something. 
 
 " Ex'cuse my laughing," she giggled, " but 
 you nearly frightened the life and wits out of 
 a friend of mine. She just dropped in to 
 have a chat, and we were not expecting any 
 one, and when she heard your knock, she 
 thought it might be some one she did not 
 wish to see, and in her hurry to getaway, she 
 fell over a chair, and almost broke her neck." 
 
 " We're awfully sorry, I'm sure, to have 
 disturbed you, and especially to have alarmed 
 your friend. Can we 'square' ourselves in 
 any way ?" 
 
 "Oh, it is of no consequence. I'll call her 
 out and you can settle with her yourself." 
 
 She went to the door leading into her 
 sleeping-room, opened it, and said: 
 
 " Here, Babet, come out ! I have some par- 
 ticular friends here, who would like to see 
 you and apologize fur frightening you." 
 
 A moment later, a young woman came into 
 the room. 
 16 
 
242 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " This is Babet, or sometimes known as 
 ' the Panther.' " Elise then presented the 
 two men, giving the real name of neither. 
 
 The new-comer was a figure to attract 
 attention. She was not more than twenty in 
 years, with a face as dark as that of a Span- 
 iard. Her eyes were large, black as night, 
 and the iris so extended that it frequently 
 excluded the appearance of the white portion 
 of the eye, giving her a sinister expression. 
 Her head was small, her nose narrow and 
 straight like the Grecian pattern ; her lips 
 were thin, her chin pointed, and her hair as 
 black as her eyes. 
 
 Her hands were faultless in shape, her 
 form svelte almost to emaciation, and yet 
 was proportioned like a statue from the chisel 
 of an artist. She did not seem to move by 
 steps, but came forward with a species of 
 glide, something like the stealthy movements 
 of a cat. 
 
 She wore a close-fitting dress with a "pull- 
 back" attachment, and which revealed every 
 motion and outline of her form. The supple 
 movements of her limbs, the litheness which 
 seemed to pervade her, suggested still more 
 strongly feline characteristics, and accounted 
 for the nickname of " The Panther.'* 
 
THE GAMBLER. 243 
 
 At first sight, she was not in the least 
 attractive for beauty ; and yet as one studied 
 her, she grew and expanded until she became 
 fascinating. She was a dark mystery, at first; 
 then she interested one as one gazed into the 
 unfathomable eyes, scanned the determined 
 mouth, and watched the ceaseless play of her 
 form within her constricting dress. Her 
 voice was inexpressibly melodious, as was 
 shown in the course of the evening, when to 
 her own accompaniment, she sang an Italian 
 air from Traviata, which showed that she 
 possessed vocal powers of a high order. 
 
 She was a marvel in many respects. She 
 used no slang; she had evidently seen much 
 of the world, both old and new, and conversed 
 intelligently and gracefully on all the topics 
 that came up in the course of the evening. 
 Nothing in her language or actions would 
 permit the inference that she was anything 
 but a woman of culture and refinement. 
 
 Both the visitors became especially inter- 
 ested in her, which soon resulted in the 
 appearance of an angry gleam in the eyes, and 
 a crimson spot on the cheeks of Elise. There 
 was a compression of her lips, as if she were 
 restraining the outflow of something within, 
 
244 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 which was struggling- powerfully for exit. 
 She caught the eyes of Lafarge, who glanced 
 at her curiously for a moment, and then he 
 dropped his e3'es with some confusion. 
 
 " None of that, my friend !" she hissed a 
 little later, when she could do so without 
 attracting the notice of the others : " None of 
 that, my friend, do you understand?" A 
 half-frown gathered on his forehead, but with 
 a smile intended to be reassuring, he answered : 
 
 "Don't worry yourself! I'm only curious. 
 She's a rattler, isn't she ? " 
 
 Paul appeared as deeply interested in Babet 
 as his companion was. He was 3^et in the 
 condition of exhilaration produced by his 
 potations at the bank. Alcoholic vision 
 always exaggerates; it intensifies the mys- 
 terious, enlarges beauties and defects, and 
 presents everything in some form of ampli- 
 fication. 
 
 The peculiarities of Babet, her swarthiness, 
 her wonderful eyes, her brightness, and her 
 entire unlikeness to any other woman whom 
 he had ever met, worked on his excited fancy 
 and made of her something possessed of mar- 
 velous fascinations. 
 
 A couple of hours later the visitors depart- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 245 
 
 ed. As they were going away, Paul said to 
 Babet : 
 
 " Shall I see you again?'' 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Where and when?" 
 
 " I will let you know. Good-night," and 
 she gave him her hand which was as soft as 
 that of an infant, and but a trifle larger. 
 
 " Hooked in good shape, isn't he?" asked 
 Lafarge, in an aside to Elise, as they passed 
 along the hallway. 
 
 " Somebody is ' hooked ' beyond all doubt!" 
 she answered, with a tinge of sarcasm in her 
 tone. "Which 'he,' may be a question. 
 Now," she said in a vehement whisper, " just 
 you remember, I won't have any nonsense! 
 Hands off!" 
 
 Lafarge scowled at her as if he would have 
 liked to strike her in the face with his fist, 
 but suppressing his anger, he responded : 
 "You are an idiot! Don't fret yourself!" 
 
 " Well, what do you think of her?" asked 
 Lafarge, as they rode away. 
 
 " Which ' her?' Elise or The Panther?" 
 
 " Oh, Babet, of course !" 
 
 " A very remarkable sort of a girl ! I never 
 met anything like her," was the non-committal 
 answer. " Who is she?" 
 
246 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " I can't say. I never saw her before this 
 evening. She's Spanish or Italian probably. 
 She's a thoroughbred, that's certain !'' 
 
 While the influence of his intoxication 
 remained, Paul thought only of the fascinat- 
 ing stranger. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 247 
 
 i XIII. 
 
 i 
 
 ! THE FISH IS LANDED. 
 
 " Have you seen The Panther since that 
 night?'' 
 
 " No, have you ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " As for me, I never expect to see her 
 again. In fact, I don't wish to see her. She 
 is, I believe, a a dangerous woman." Thus 
 Paul to Lafarge in his sober moments. 
 
 " Oh, bosh ! You're off your feed just now, 
 but you will come around after awhile. I 
 was a good deal struck myself. She's a 
 charmer, but Elise is in the ' lookout, ' and I 
 don't dare to try anything crooked. But you 
 are bound to * go in' there. You may kick 
 all you like, but you can't help yourself. 
 What is to be will be." 
 
 " Ah, well, we shall see !" 
 
 A week or so after the visit of the two men 
 to the rooms of Elise, Paul received a note 
 
248 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 beautifully written, and whose contents were 
 as follows : 
 
 " If you wish to renew an acquaintance 
 which 1, at least, found to be pleasant, you 
 can see me on Friday evening at 1 1 o'clock 
 at the New Rest. 
 
 " Babet." 
 
 He read the missive, and for an instant a 
 flash of his earlier manhood came over him. 
 
 " Infamous !" he ejaculated ; " I will not go ! 
 I am already sunk in degradation, but there 
 are still profounder depths, and into these I 
 shall not fall ! Gambler, drunkard, defaulter, 
 I will not crown my infamy by deceiving my 
 wife !" 
 
 At the hour named in the note, Paul Calkins 
 found himself seated in the saloon-restaurant 
 before described. He was under the influ- 
 ence of stimulants. He reasoned with him- 
 self with drunken logic : " There is no harm 
 in going; nothing will come of it. She wishes 
 to see me ; it may be on some matters that 
 are outside of evervthing improper. There is 
 no use in being frightened before one is hurt. 
 Assumed dangers always lessen as they are 
 approached. I will see, and nothing shall 
 come of it. I can take care of myself!" 
 
THE GAMBLER. 249 
 
 He had not long to wait. The Panther 
 glided through the door-way as if she were 
 as substanceless as a shadow. She caught 
 sight of Paul as by intuition, and then in her 
 willowy, indescribable way, crossed the room, 
 and^took a seat by him at a table. 
 
 "You are prompt," she said, with a deli- 
 cious smile, as she ungloved and laid her vel- 
 vety hand in his grasp. " I hardly expected 
 that you would come," she continued. " You 
 saw so little of me that — " 
 
 " I saw enough to bring me here," he inter- 
 rupted with an attempt at gallantry. 
 
 "You are polite," she said with a smile that 
 showed rows of teeth white and gleaming as 
 sun-kissed ivory. 
 
 To detail their conversation would be use- 
 less, except so far as it may be necessary to 
 say that during the interview she dazed him 
 with her brilliancy, her caressing glances and 
 gestures, her flexible and changeful poses. 
 
 She drank only lemonade, but encouraged 
 Paul to imbibe something stronger. She 
 refused his escort from the place, saying with 
 a mischievous glance from her great eyes : 
 
 " I'm not sure yet that I can trust you. PU 
 have to see you again. I have but a step to 
 
250 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 go, and I can take the street-cars as well as 
 not. Good-night !" she said, as she beckoned 
 a passing horse-car, and a moment later dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 Her refusal to permit him to escort her 
 piqued him, and increased his interest in the 
 mysterious creature. She had given him 
 nothing of her life, her occupation, or her 
 purposes, during their conv^ersation. She 
 had apparently limited herself to exciting his 
 curiosity, and then in baffling it. This treat- 
 ment had the effect to stimulate his interest 
 in her, and induce him to wish to see her 
 again. As usual in the case of men, the 
 obstacles thrown in his way by Babet, only 
 stimulated the pursuit. 
 
 During the next few weeks, notes from 
 Babet summoned him to meet her at the 
 same place. He resisted less and less, and 
 each time he went more willingly, and left 
 her more fascinated than before. She was 
 irresistible in her melodious voice, in her 
 caressing manners, and the glances of her 
 marvelous eyes. Her touch thrilled him, 
 and went shivering along his nerver. 
 
 At last, one evening when she was about 
 to leave, he implored her to allow him to 
 accompany her. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 25 1 
 
 "Come!" she s'mply said. He went with 
 her, his brain on fire, and his heart throbbing 
 with violence. 
 
 As they left the restaurant they did not 
 notice Lafarge who sat in an obscure corner, 
 and watched them with angry eyes. 
 
 " Strange," he soliloquized, " how this 
 country-devil eternally crosses my path! 
 He interfered with me in the case of the type- 
 writing girl, for which I will never forgive 
 him. And now when 1 have worked to get 
 him in the hands of a woman who will utterly 
 destroy him, and have succeeded, I find that 
 I am jealous of him ! He seems to have inter- 
 ested her ; she, a woman who would see her 
 mother on the rack without a particle of 
 sympathy ; she, who is soulless and heartless, 
 and who has plundered and sent more men to 
 the devil than any other hundred of her kind! 
 I hate him all the more for her favor to him. 
 He has run up a heavy account, and the day 
 of settlement is not far away! That she- 
 fiend will hurry up the end." 
 
 Impossible as it may seem to the decent 
 soul, the degrading fact nevertheless exists, 
 that innumerable men have special relations 
 with courtesans who are inmates of infamous 
 
252 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 houses. It is often the case that the woman 
 is the victim of some man, who, unable or 
 unwilling to support her, sends her to a 
 bagnio where she earns her livelihood 
 through the prosecution of her nefarious pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Meanwhile she claims the man to whom 
 her downfall was due, or some other man to 
 whom she has taken a fancy, for her lover. 
 He visits her as such, is so accepted by the 
 other inmates. Strangely enough, they have 
 their jealousies, and their disagreements. 
 She resents the slightest attention he may 
 pay to any other woman, and is constantly 
 on the watch to learn of any infidelity on his 
 part. 
 
 If she discovers that he is unfaithful to her, 
 she experiences all the agony, the rage of a 
 virtuous woman, under similar circumstances. 
 She weeps, she raves, blasphemes, and not 
 unfrequently ends her life with poison to 
 relieve her sufferings. 
 
 Meanwhile, in addition to his fealty he is 
 expected to contribute to her liberal sums of 
 money. These she keeps, expends to suit her 
 necessities or her whims, and often stands 
 ready to " stake " her lover in case he meets 
 
THE GAMBLER. 253 
 
 with financial misfortune. Indeed, there are 
 many of these women who not only do not 
 receive a cent from their lovers, but actually 
 furnish the money to support them. 
 
 Fancy the ineffable degradation of the 
 masculine wretch who thus lives on the earn- 
 ings of a woman's shame ! Can there be any- 
 thing more revolting, more disgusting, more 
 damnable than the character and the life of 
 these male dependents on the bounty of a 
 prostitute ? 
 
 There are other women of this class whose 
 sole purpose is to secure all the gifts possible 
 from their victims. To meet the demands of 
 these cormorants, more crimes are conceived 
 and carried into effect, than from all other 
 motives. The first movement of the burglar, 
 the foot-pad, the sneak-thief, is to go and lay 
 the spoils of his crime in the lap of his 
 favorite. 
 
 It was the influence of one of these women 
 that Lafarge, through Elise, had invoked to 
 put the finishing touches to the ruin of Paul 
 Calkins. 
 
 More than any other class of men, gam- 
 blers sustain intimate relations with lewd 
 women. In truth, gambling, drunkenness and 
 libidinousness are inseparable. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 1. 
 
 THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE VILE. 
 
 Five years had elapsed between the date of 
 Eleanor's marriage and the events just 
 recorded. Her baby had grown into a little 
 fairy, full of vivacity, sweetness and affec- 
 tion, whose prattle was ceaseless, and a source 
 of constant enjoyment to the mother. 
 
 The child filled the place vacated by Paul 
 in the household. Its voice broke a silence 
 that otherwise would have been intolerable, 
 and supplied a companionship which the 
 father had ceased to furnish. As he receded 
 the child advanced, and thus prevented that 
 vacuum in the soul of Eleanor which the 
 situation would have created 
 
 Paul now came home but little, and had 
 ceased to offer excuses for his absences. He 
 had grown moody, irritable, and savagely ill- 
 255 
 
256 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 natured. He was silent and sullen when he 
 was at home, and his presence oppressed the 
 atmosphere till it almost choked his wife to 
 inhale it. She no longer asked him concern- 
 ing his business, his outgoing or incomings, 
 his purposes, or his prospects. In fact, she 
 saw but very little of him. If he came home 
 at all it was always long after midnight, and 
 often was it that he did not return for several 
 days. 
 
 On such occasions, when the night was far 
 advanced and he did not come, she drew her 
 child closer to her heart, and with a half-whis- 
 pered prayer to heaven for protection, and a 
 gentle, regretful sigh, she sank into peace- 
 ful sleep. 
 
 " Sweet, do you love mamma ?" as she laid 
 her cheek against that of the babe, and the 
 almost unconscious reply, " Yes, Mamma!" 
 often was heard in the stillness of the night, 
 and afforded a consolation of inexpressible 
 sweetness. 
 
 Her life had become an isolated one. The 
 large circle of friends and acquaintances 
 .which surrounded her at the time of her mar- 
 riage had gradually been alienated. The 
 habits of her husband prevented the return- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 257 
 
 ing- of evening visits, and slowly her call- 
 ing acquaintances drifted away. And then 
 rumors began to circulate that Paul was 
 gambling, and this frightened others of the 
 few that remained. 
 
 Eleanor felt the slight involved, but not 
 keenl}^ ; she was too proud to be hurt by this 
 disaffection. 
 
 " I, at least, have not changed," she thought. 
 " If they really cared for me, now is the time 
 when they would show it. They are fair 
 weather friends only, and I shall not grieve 
 that they are leaving me." 
 
 " We must cut down expenses," growled 
 Paul one day after he had risen from a 
 drunken sleep. His voice was husky, his eyes 
 bloodshot, his brows knitted with pain, and his 
 features contracted with nervous irritation. 
 " Business has all gone to the devil ! Nothing 
 prospers with me ! I am evidently accursed." 
 
 " I am so sorry !" said his wife in a sooth- 
 ing and sympathetic voice. " PU do any- 
 thing I can. What can we do?" 
 
 " Pm sure I don't know," he said, " unless 
 we move into less expensive quarters." 
 Eleanor cheerfully agreed to adopt the sug- 
 gestion, and that same day, after scanning 
 17 
 
258 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the advertisements in the newspapers, she 
 commenced her rounds, and in a couple of 
 days managed to secure smaller apartments 
 in a less fashionable quarter, at about one- 
 half the expense of their first location. 
 
 Into these rooms their furniture was soon 
 moved, and again they began housekeeping 
 on a level far below that on which they first 
 started. There was no one to bid them good- 
 bye as they left their pleasant home. Helen 
 Jackson was on a visit to the East, and her 
 mother had been dead some years. 
 
 That Eleanor left the beautiful rooms in 
 which she was married, in which her baby 
 was born, without regret, is not probable, but 
 she made no sign. She entered the new 
 rooms as cheerfully as if they had been in a 
 palace, and resumed ever3^day life with her 
 old courage and her usual smiling face. 
 
 In one respect her feelings toward her hus- 
 band had changed. The ardent love which 
 had followed her wedding, had almost com- 
 pletely disappeared. She occuped a sepa- 
 rate sleeping-room, and no longer kissed him 
 as he went to and from their home. 
 
 " He is no more mv lover," she reflected, 
 " he is my friend. He respects me ; he is the 
 
THE GAMBLER. 259 
 
 victim of his surroundings. He has the same 
 qualities that he had when our friendship was 
 first established, but they have been paralyzed. 
 They are not obliterated. The extinction of 
 the immortal is, of course, impossible; our 
 friendship was spiritual, and the spiritual can- 
 not die. 
 
 " His love for me was earthly, constructed of 
 ephemeral passions which die when their 
 purpose is gratified. As his friend I shall 
 cHng to him, labor for him, and save, or, if 
 necessary, die with him." 
 
 Paul saw the chasm that was rent between 
 them, and he never dared to attempt to cross 
 it.- Even in his degradation, he was able to 
 feel that an impassable distance had come 
 between them, and would remain for all time. 
 He knew that she made a distinction between 
 his spiritual and animal self ; and that she 
 held to the one and rejected the other. 
 
 However, these thoughts were not very dis- 
 tinct in the mind of Paul. It was rather in the 
 nature of a dim impression that he had lost 
 her affections. His pursuits enthralled all 
 his thoughts. Gaming and the gratification of 
 his affection for the courtesan who had 
 enmeshed him, absorbed his attention. The 
 
26o THE GAMBLER. 
 
 transitory nature of what is known as love 
 was shown in his case by the comparative 
 ease with which he transferred it from a 
 woman pure, beautiful, spiritual, to one 
 unchaste, a social outcast, and a crealure of 
 immeasurable wickedness. 
 
 Let us, for a moment, contrast the surround- 
 ings of the two women. 
 
 In an humble room, in a rocking-chair, 
 engaged in some needle-work, sits Eleanor, 
 She has divested herself of the dress worn dur- 
 ing the day, and has thrown around her form a 
 wrapper of some gray material which har- 
 monizes with her exquisite complexion, and 
 which, soft and yielding, clings to her figure 
 in its statuesque outlines. Her masses of 
 purple-black hair pour down her back and 
 over her shoulders, restrained only by a band 
 of blue ribbon. 
 
 Beside her is a small couch beneath whose 
 snowy covering is revealed the delicate form 
 of a child. It rests on its side, with its face 
 turned toward the mother. The right hand 
 is under tlie cheek, and the left arm is thrown 
 carelessly on the white cover which it rivals 
 in its purity. Heavy locks of hair color the 
 pillow with the lich hue of gold. The long 
 
THE GAMBLER. 261 
 
 lashes recline on the cheek and afford a relief 
 to its diaphanous white. A soft crimson has 
 touched the face and a scarlet hue paints the 
 slightly parted lips. It is an exquisite picture, 
 that of the babe, softened by the lamp so 
 shaded as to screen the face from the bright 
 light; a living picture mellowed by sleep, 
 and with its suggestions of life in the coming 
 and going of the just-perceptible breath. 
 
 Around both these charming features there 
 is an atmosphere of gentleness and purity. 
 The infant, in its calm slumber, is an expres- 
 sion of supreme repose, and trust in the guar- 
 dianship of the mother. 
 
 The countenance of the latter is glorified 
 with the light of maternal love. Her violet 
 eyes wander now and then to the countenance 
 of the slumbering child, and are softened with 
 an expression of divine tenderness. Her lips 
 move slightly at these moments ; she probably 
 murmurs a prayer for the life and happiness 
 of her darling. 
 
 In another room in another part of the 
 city, at the same hour of the evening, there 
 is another scene. It is a vast drawing room 
 in whose furnishing no money has been 
 spared. There are gorgeously-framed pic- 
 
262 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 tures, rich gilding-, mahogany panels, thick 
 carpets, an ornate piano, chandeliers shim- 
 mering with gold ti'immings, and sofas and 
 chairs with coverings of resplendent colors. 
 
 The view is rich beyond comparison, but 
 suggestive of gaudiness, and over-decoration. 
 The pictures are coarse daubs of colors and 
 licentious in their themes. The material of 
 the room is tawdry, oppressive, vulgar. 
 
 But the attention attracted to the furnishing 
 of the apartment lingers but a moment on the 
 inanimate objects, and hastens unavoidably to 
 scan its living inmates. They are mostly 
 women. They recline on the highly-colored 
 sofas or sit in the chairs and outshine in their 
 apparel, and their cheeks, the most flaunting 
 bedizenings of the decorations. Clad in the 
 brightest of silks and velvets, with their fingers 
 glittering with gems, their ears carrying 
 priceless diamonds, their long trains reaching 
 far out on carpets, their lace-trimmings, and 
 their innumerable other articles of dress and 
 ornament, dazzle one like a sudden glance at 
 a noonday sun, kaleidoscopic in its hues. 
 
 With all their abundance of dress, they are 
 but barely clad. The waists of the robes are 
 shorn far dow^n, revealing the greater portion 
 
THE GAMBLER. 263 
 
 of the naked bust ; and their arms are bared 
 to their shoulders. Their cheeks are flaming 
 with rouge, their brows are heightened with 
 pigments; their eyeUds are stained to give a 
 languisliing expression to their eyes, and their 
 lips are colored till they are inflammatory 
 crimson. 
 
 Notwithstanding the coarse attempts with 
 colors to plant roses on their cheeks, the col- 
 lection might be beautiful and artistic were 
 it snnply considered with reference to form 
 and nudity. With their faces veiled, they 
 would constitute a group instinct with beauty. 
 The feminine form, in its natural outlines, is 
 the most attractive and admirable thing in 
 creation. 
 
 But the faces destroy the momentary illu- 
 sion. They are repulsive without exception, 
 and the knowledge that the exposure of form 
 is to simply stimulate the grossest passions, 
 and not to please the artistic eye, at once de- 
 prives the exhibition of all charm. 
 
 It is one of these semi-nude creatures, with 
 garish dress, painted cheeks, vermilion lips 
 and pencilled eyebrows that has won the love 
 of Paul Calkins. 
 
 Several men are present who sit with their 
 
264 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 hats on their heads, cigars in their mouths, 
 and glasses of champagne at their elbows. 
 They are all more or less intoxicated, for no 
 man patronizes one of these infernos when in 
 his sober mind. Some of them sit in the laps 
 of the women. The eyes of the latter blaz- 
 ing with effrontery, stare the men in the face, 
 and they essay by their lascivious caresses to 
 rouse the passions of their visitors. Coarse, 
 equivocal and direct expressions of lewdness 
 flow from their lips. There is not a shy look, 
 a modest feature in any of the painted faces. 
 Even the very atmosphere of the room has a 
 flavor of carnality, and so to speak, is a vile 
 lubricity on tongue and palate. 
 
 In another room, nearly as spacious as the 
 one just described, a half dozen female occu- 
 pants lounge about, pose, attitudinize, dress, 
 and in every possible w^ay endeavor to imitate 
 their white sisters. They are negresses, jet 
 black, with bared bosoms. Their natural wool 
 is clipped from their heads, and wigs of black 
 hair, coarse as the mane of a horse, cover 
 their heads. 
 
 White men mingle with them ; the cham- 
 pagne circulates, and ribald conversation 
 abounds ; lascivious gestures are to be seen ; 
 
THE GAMBLER. 265 
 
 and in short, this room is the black counter- 
 part of the other, only differing in the hue of 
 its inmates. 
 
 It is the house occupied by Natalie, "The 
 Ogress.'' 
 
 Such the conglomerate stew, the home of 
 miscegenation, the perpetual abode of unchas- 
 tity and all foulness, in which resides the new 
 love of Paul Calkins. Compare it for a mo- 
 ment with the purity, the simplicity, the ex- 
 quisite charm of the home of the old love, in 
 which are Eleanor and her baby ! 
 
266 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 II. 
 
 A STREAK OF LUCK. 
 
 The Hawk club began to "come to grief." 
 One or two of the " tough" element com- 
 mitted suicide ; there were two or three shoot- 
 ing occurrences among the waiters who had 
 become demoralized by the example of a por- 
 tion of the white membership ; and at last 
 the club went out of business on the occur- 
 rence of the cold-blooded assassination of a 
 Hawk by his mistress. 
 
 It was then that Paul Calkins lost what had 
 been his home. He was in the habit of sleep- 
 ing at the club after being- worn out by long 
 sessions at the poker-table, and when the club 
 was closed permanently for repairs, he 
 drifted to the faro-dens and became a regular 
 habitue of these places. Occasionally he 
 went to his own house, but it was only at 
 long intervals. His infatuation for gaming 
 had alienated his affection for his domestic 
 life. 
 
THE c;ambler. 267 
 
 At tliis period he had substantially ex- 
 hausted his fortune, and was on the eve of 
 becoming penniless when there came West 
 Mrs. Calkins, his mother. The old lady had 
 determined to visit the great West and see 
 her eldest son once more before she joined 
 Mr. Calkins in his long- sleep in the church- 
 yard in Slaughter Hollow. 
 
 She was gladly received by Eleanor, who 
 was delighted to have some company in her 
 loneliness. The old lady staid some months, 
 during which she saw but little of Paul, who 
 was so " engaged in business" that he found 
 time only occasionally to visit his own home. 
 
 " It's very sing'lar,'' said the old lady, " that 
 a man should work himself out of house and 
 home for the sake of gittin' a home. Paul is 
 lookin' real peaked, and he'll kill hisself if he 
 don't take more rest." 
 
 She always concluded this class of remarks 
 by recommending the use of certain roots 
 and '• yerbs" by Paul to brace up his consti- 
 tution, and whose value she illustrated by the 
 cases of Nancy Syms, and Deacon Boggins 
 who had used these remedies and had recov- 
 ered their health after " bein' giv up by the 
 doctors.'" 
 
268 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 The kind old lady took a great liking to 
 the little girl, Aline, her only grandchild, 
 and who conceived an equally strong attach- 
 ment for the visitor. The grandmother iiad 
 wonderful stories to tell the child of country 
 life; about a "painter" which her grand- 
 mother had met in the woods one day when 
 going to drive up the cows ; about how, when 
 she was a little girl, she fell into a goose-pen 
 and was nibbled and pecked almost to death 
 by the naughty "gooses;" and about a won- 
 derful dog that they once had that pulled her 
 out of the mill-pond when she was a " little bit 
 of a tinty-taunty girl !" 
 
 All these wonderful narrations, and others, 
 including a muley cow that " bunted jest aw- 
 ful," and was the " most viciousest creature 
 you ever seen," and the phenomenal cat 
 that would " suckaigs," and whip all the " na- 
 borin' dawgs quicker'n you could say scat ;" 
 and others so interested the little Aline that 
 she twined her arms about the nice old lady, 
 and pronounced her the "darlinest old danma 
 that ever was." 
 
 One of the results of this association was 
 that just before she concluded her visit to 
 the West, she took Paul aside one day when 
 
THE GAMBLER. 269 
 
 she happened to find him at home, and an- 
 nounced to him that she had concluded to 
 give him five thousand dollars which he was 
 to invest for Aline to remain at interest until 
 she was eighteen, and then be given her with 
 her grandma's blessing. 
 
 The money was forwarded immediately on 
 her arrival at her Eastern home. In addition 
 to this amount, she sent an equal amount 
 which she asked Paul to invest for her in 
 Western lands or other securities. In her 
 letter she wrote : 
 
 " I heard from a Boston man whom I saw 
 on the cars that everybody in his part of the 
 country who has a thousand dollars to spare, 
 sends it West where it draws a bigger inter- 
 est. I can spare five thousand dollars for 
 investment on my own account. By econ- 
 omy I can live on the rest of my money ; and 
 if nothing happens when I get through with 
 it all, I may give the money invested for me, 
 to Aline, besides the amount of which 1 now 
 make her a present of." 
 
 For sometime before the reception of the 
 mone}^ Paul had been reduced to substantial 
 penury. He had not even a dollar of his 
 own. In this strait, he lived by borrowing. 
 
270 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Many of his old acquaintances did not know 
 of his actual condition, and I'eadily responded 
 when he asked them for five or a ten, as he 
 " had left home without his wallet." All 
 these loans he regularly carried to the faro- 
 bank, and lost. Once in a thousand times, he 
 would closean evening by winning a few dol- 
 lars, the most of which he at once gave to 
 Babet, and a few dollars to Eleanor for house- 
 hold expenses. 
 
 The arrival of the drafts from the East for 
 ten thousand dollars was at a moment when 
 he was at the end of his resources. Babet 
 was menacing him with disfavor, and cursing 
 his stinginess. 
 
 "1 have none for to-night," he would answer, 
 when with outstretched palm she would greet 
 him with : 
 
 " Give me a fifty ; I must have a new hat !" 
 
 " Wait a day or two ; I have had awful 
 luck ! It must turn some day. It can't 
 always last !" 
 
 " Ah, you are lying ! You deceive me ! 
 You men always have money, and if you 
 haven't got it, you know how to get it. Go 
 way ! I've no use for a pauper !" 
 
 Abashed by her vehemence, and the sharp 
 
THE GAMBLER. 271 
 
 glances of her angry eyes, Paul would humbly 
 sa}' : 
 
 " Don't be impatient ! You shall have some 
 to-morrow." And then he would slink away. 
 
 It was on one of these occasions when Babet 
 had been more than usually importunate for 
 money, that the drafts came from his mother. 
 His heavy heart at once became lighter. 
 
 " I will give Babet a nice little present, and 
 then I'll set aside a small sum which I can use 
 against the bank. I can replace it all in a 
 week! I'm sure to win. Luck must change! 
 It can't forever run against me." 
 
 Innumerable are the occasions on which 
 this same style of reason has done duty for 
 the trusted employe who has become infatu- 
 ated with gambling ! He has lost enough of 
 his own money to cramp him for the moment, 
 and then he lays his hands on funds belonging 
 to his employers. 
 
 " I'll just borrow this for to-night, and will 
 replace it to-morrow. What, Conscience, you 
 tell me this is theft? You lie! It is only a 
 loan. Nobody will miss it, and its use for one 
 night will not in the least harm its owners ! " 
 
 Constantly he loses ; but he must win in 
 the end, soon, and he will borrow a little 
 
272 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 more from the employer's safe. Deeper and 
 deeper he sinks in the mire ; the cash-book is 
 doctored, and for a time, discovery is averted. 
 Nevertheless, exposure comes, and the rob- 
 ber either flees to Canada, or is arrested, con- 
 victed, and sent to the penitentiary. 
 
 It is one of the peculiarities of the gamb- 
 ling habit that it thus lures its victim on with 
 promises of success. It makes downright 
 theft seem a simple loan. It assures him that 
 no harm can come, for good luck at the bank, 
 the wheel, or the poker-table will certainly 
 bring him out of the furnace unscathed by 
 flame or smoke. 
 
 Babet received her " nice little present," 
 which she accepted with the ferocious shrieks 
 of the delight of a panther as it pounces on a 
 tender, juicy lamb. A smaller portion was 
 handed over to Eleanor for household and 
 personal expenses. Her share was much less 
 than that given to Babet, but she received it 
 with thanks, and made no complaint. 
 
 And now Paul gave himself up to the labor 
 of winning back the amounts he had bor- 
 rowed from the funds sent him by his mother. 
 He came for a brief period out of the de- 
 spondency which had constantly possessed 
 him. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 273 
 
 " I think,'' he said to his wife, " that things 
 are going to be better. I've invested the 
 money for Aline in a government bond, and 
 that sent me by my mother I shall soon find 
 opportunity to place on some good land 
 security at a fine per cent." He went away 
 with something on his face the nearest ap- 
 proach to a smile that Eleanor had seen for 
 many months. He even noticed Aline a lit- 
 tle, and patted her on the head and called her 
 a "good little girl," whereat Aline did not 
 seem to know whether to be pleased or 
 frightened. 
 
 For a few months he had a " streak of 
 luck.'' He won some small amounts and was 
 elated to the very skies. Luck had at last 
 turned ; " it was coming his way ;" there were 
 stories current among the players, of Bill 
 Tarvish, who had won twenty-five thousand 
 dollars at a sitting; why should he not have 
 the same good fortune? He would have it; 
 he knew he would ; he had a " hunch " that it 
 was coming. 
 
 One night he sat down to play faro, and 
 
 won at the outset. " Everything came his 
 
 way." He felt that this was his opportunity, 
 
 and he would push it to the utmost. He did, 
 
 18 
 
274 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 and staked the largest bets allowed by the 
 game, and won until he had before him win- 
 nings to the amount of three thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Ah, fortune had at last come to his relief ! 
 He had three thousand, and he would make 
 it ten thousand, or all that the bank had in its 
 roll. 
 
 Alas, he had reached the climax of his good 
 fortune. As so often happens, luck took a 
 sudden turn, and he descended with greater 
 rapidity than he had risen. He lost all his 
 winnings and a thousand dollars more. The 
 reaction nearly cost him his life. His heart 
 beat like a trip-hammer ; the blood surged 
 into his brain in torrents, and overwhelmed 
 him with its rush and roar. His vision grew 
 clouded, his legs weak, his head dizzy, and he 
 believed that he was dying. 
 
 A glass of whisky was handed him by some 
 one who saw his distress. He swallowed the 
 liquid, and then rose and reeled from the 
 room. 
 
 " He's hit purty hard, I reckon,'' remarked a 
 man at the table, as he availed himself of the 
 little confusion of the incident to pick up a 
 " sleeper" which somebody had overlooked. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 275 
 
 " He aint got no ' sand,' that's certing," re- 
 marked another player, a cattle-dealer from 
 Montana, "and he'd better — who in — — 
 ' pinched ' that bet on the queen ?" 
 
 The gentleman who had " pinched " the bet 
 declined to make himself known, and after 
 much cursing on the part of the Montana man 
 directed at loafers, tramps and thieves who 
 managed to smuggle themselves into a " gen- 
 tleman's game," the deal went on, and Paul 
 and his losses were forgotten. 
 
 It may be mentioned that at the point in 
 the game when Paul reached the maximum 
 of his winnings, something went wrong with 
 the " box" from which the cards were being 
 dealt. Some considerable effort was made to 
 fix it, but without success. The players be- 
 came impatient at the delay. 
 
 " Get another box !" was the cry. 
 
 The dealer was not sure they had another ; 
 he would see. He was successful. He found 
 another box from which he proceeded to 
 deal, and thenceforth Calkins lost without 
 intermission. 
 
 The difihculty in the first box was pretended; 
 it was simply an excuse to put it away, and 
 to supply its place with another in which was 
 
2/6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 concealed mechanism which enabled the 
 dealer to perfectl}- control the issue of the 
 cards in the interest of the bank. 
 
 It was at the bank in which Lafarge had an 
 interest that the pla}^ occurred. When the 
 winnings of Paul grew large, he left, partly 
 because he was permeated by the supersti- 
 tion of some faro-bankers that their presence 
 in certain games brings the house bad luck. 
 Paul lost immediately after his departure, 
 but the reason was not his absence, but the 
 swindling box. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 277 
 
 III. 
 
 ELEANOR MAKES A DISCOVERY. 
 
 At the end of a twelvemonth, Paul had 
 ventured and lost every dollar of the money 
 left him by his mother excepting the sums he 
 had poured into the lap of his Delilah, Babet, 
 and the limited amounts he had from time to 
 time doled out to his wife. 
 
 It might be thought that this addition to 
 his burden — the theft of the funds intrusted 
 to him by his mother — would have crushed 
 him into the earth. He had robbed both his 
 mother and his daughter, and it would seem 
 that now, if ever, his conscience would have 
 driven him to desperation, even to suicide, 
 but he was possessed by the demon of gamb- 
 ling. It has no conscience ; it is calloused ; 
 it constantly suggests to the victim that he is 
 not to blame ; that it is to chance that he owes 
 all his misfortunes. He refuses to regard 
 himself as responsible ; he says : 
 
2/8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " I was honest, and I am vet honest. I have 
 not desired to deceive my mother, and rob 
 my child ; chance has done it. If chance, or 
 fate, or destiny did not wish me to spend my 
 fortune, why did it not aid me to wm ?" 
 
 There is another feature in the composition 
 of a confirmed gambler that braces him up 
 even at the moment when he is weakest. This 
 is the belief always held by him that luck will 
 turn, and he may yet win. The gamester who 
 has passed a hundred thousand dollars over 
 the poker and faro-tables, and the one who 
 has played in his month's rent and the money 
 to buy the Sunday dinner of his wife and chil- 
 dren, are both sustained by the hope that they 
 will yet win. 
 
 The dead-broke tramp who hangs about the 
 doors of a gambling-i-oom is always encour- 
 aged by the certainty as he regards it, — that 
 if he but had a stake he could make a win- 
 ning. There are always rumors among the 
 gambling fraternity of this or that man who 
 invested a solitary nickel on tlie wheel, or the 
 turn of the card, and which won and speed- 
 ily swelled up to the thousands. What has 
 happened may happen again ; and thus one 
 may often see in a gambling-room some 
 
THE GAMBLER. 279 
 
 cleaned-out victim, rushing into the recesses 
 of his pockets in the hope ot finding some 
 overlooked coin with which he may once 
 more attempt to woo fortune. 
 
 Hence, to the ruined gamester, any amount 
 however trivial, maybe the means of unlock- 
 ing the gates of wealth. Five dollars, one 
 dollar, fifty cents, even a quarter, or a dime, 
 may have value in this direction. One who 
 has watched the play about a faro-table will 
 often have seen some emaciated face with 
 hungry eyes gazing eagerly at the piles of 
 chips on the board, and a moment later will 
 notice a long, lean arm steal over the should- 
 ers of the players, and with crooked fingers, 
 garnished with long, dirty nails, deposit a 
 dime or a quarter on some one of the cards. 
 
 His hungry eyes are glued on the cards as 
 they come from the box. His cheeks pale 
 with the excess of his emotion, and the pal- 
 lor gleams with distinctness beneath the sal- 
 lowness and the dirt. His card is a winner, 
 and his eyes flashes with a triumph such as 
 would illuminate the face of a general assured 
 of a victory, involving the fate of a half mil- 
 lion men. 
 
 He leaves the doubled stake and waits a 
 
28o THE GAMBLER. 
 
 new turn. Beads of sweat stand on his fore- 
 head. He has the appearance of one suffer- 
 ing intolerable agony. The card falls, and 
 the calloused dealer, without a thought of the 
 agony he inflicts, coolly sweeps the chips into 
 his pile. And then the impecunious gamester 
 slouches away with a curse that would blast 
 the universe, had it all the force he wishes. 
 
 When his money was all gone, Paul was 
 still possessed b}' the belief that all he needed 
 to recover ever3^thing was a stake. To at- 
 tain this he again fell into the practice of bor- 
 rowing small sums from anybody who could 
 be induced to lend. He was every day a liar 
 and a sneak. Nothing was too small for his 
 purpose. 
 
 " My sister has just telegraphed me that 
 she is coming in on the Blank train, and I 
 have to meet her inside of ten minutes. I 
 haven't a cent, and haven't time to go around 
 to the office. Let me have a couple of dol- 
 lars until to-morrow, enough to pay for a 
 carriage." 
 
 The two dollars would be given him, and a 
 moment later he would hurry with it to the 
 nearest " bank.'' 
 
 One day Eleanor was surprised by the ar- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 281 
 
 rival of a grocer's boy with a formidable bill 
 for groceries. 
 
 " Mr. Green says he wishes you'd pay this 
 ere account. He says it's been standin' long 
 enough, and he'd like to see the color of yer 
 money ! " 
 
 The words and the insolent tone of the 
 youth excited some indignation in the breast 
 of Eleanor, and she responded with asperity: 
 
 " You are a very disrespectful boy, and I 
 shall tell Mr. Green that you are. Besides 
 this, I do not owe Mr. Green one cent. 1 
 have always sent the money for anything I 
 wanted." 
 
 " I can't elp that ! There's the bill, and Mr. 
 Green tole me to come over ere and git it." 
 
 Eleanor at once recovered her equanimitv, 
 and said in her usual pleasant manner : 
 
 " There must be some mistake in this. Ask 
 Mr. Green if he wont step over here for a 
 moment. 
 
 " Yessim ! " 
 
 Mr. Green soon after dropped in, with an 
 expression of curiosity and amazement on his 
 ordinarily stolid countenance. 
 
 " I hope there's no mistake, mam," he said, 
 " in that are bill." 
 
282 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Green,. I did not know that I 
 owed you, or any other dealer, a single cent ! " 
 
 It was Mr. Green's turn to look astonished. 
 
 " Haint you been dcalin' in groceries with 
 me, mam ? Haint my waggin been here 
 nearly every day, and haint, my man put 
 basket after basket in your kitchen ? " 
 
 " Certainly,'' said Eleanor. " But I always 
 have given the — " 
 
 Here she interrupted her words, hesitated 
 a moment, a flaming red flashed over her face 
 and forehead, and, then in a broken voice she 
 continued : 
 
 "This is unexpected. Please give me a 
 little time to think. I will see you again to- 
 morrow.'' 
 
 Mr. Green, much pleased with her sweet 
 voice and manner, and considerably puzzled 
 over the matter, took his leave, saying as he 
 went out : 
 
 "Good-mornin', Mrs. Calkins. Don't worry 
 about this little bill. The fact is that boy o' 
 mine made a mistake, and took out the wrong 
 bill. I'll lam him when I git back ! Take 
 your own time about the bill." 
 
 The cause that sent the blood over the 
 countenance of Eleanor was the sudden 
 
THE GAMBLER. 283 
 
 thought that she had given her husband the 
 money to buy the groceries and other sup- 
 pUes, and he must have kept the amounts and 
 ordered the goods to be charged. 
 
 " Oh ! " she ejaculated with a pain at her 
 heart, "if he has done this with the grocery- 
 man, has he done it with others?" 
 
 Since Paul's downfall, for many months she 
 had given him from time to time out of her 
 slender total, small amounts to make pur- 
 chases for the house. 
 
 Her anticipations were realized. It was 
 the beginning of the year, and bills came in 
 from the butcher, the milkman, the druggist, 
 from the landlord for five months overdue 
 house-rent, from the coal dealer, the plumber, 
 and from other sources. Some of these, like 
 the bill of the milkman and one or tw o others, 
 were legitimate, but in the cases of the major- 
 ity of them she had no difficulty in recalling 
 that she had given her husband the money to 
 pay for them. 
 
 As she surveyed the accumulation of bills 
 at the end of a fortnight, and saw their num- 
 ber and the formidable total of their items, 
 and reflected that she did not have a dollar 
 in her possession, and that she was alone in 
 
284 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the world so far as her husband was con- 
 cerned, for the first time since her marriage 
 her heroic nature gave way, the woman in 
 her nature asserted itself, and she dropped 
 her face on her hands as they rested on a 
 table, and burst into a tempest of tears. 
 
 Some minutes passed, during which great 
 sobs shook her frame, and then a light, swift 
 footstep fell on the carpet, and the next instant 
 an arm was wound about her head, and two 
 soft, tiny hands were pushed gently under her 
 hot brow. 
 
 "What ails mamma? What makes poor 
 mamma cry?" and at the same time the vel- 
 vety cheek of Aline was pressed against that 
 of Eleanor, and her golden hair lay like a nim- 
 bus of glory over the sloe-hued locks of the 
 mother. 
 
 The child tenderly raised the crimson, tear- 
 stained face from the feverish hands, and drew 
 it up and over till it reached and rested on 
 her breast. 
 
 " What is it, pretty mamma, good mamma? 
 What makes my little mamma cry? Has 
 some one hurt my little mamma? There, 
 don't cry, little mamma ! Be a good little 
 girl !" and thus saying in a sweet, pleading, 
 
THE GAMBLER. 285 
 
 and soothing voice, she kissed the tears from 
 the wet face — as her mamma had often done 
 for her in her moments of sorrow — and ten- 
 derly patted the closed eyes, and passed her 
 hand with caressing touch over the mouth 
 and lips of the broken-hearted woman. Sud- 
 denly Eleanor roused herself, and clasped the 
 child in her arms with an embrace that seemed 
 as if it were fixed forever, drew Aline to her 
 bosom, and exxlaimed : 
 
 "Oh, my precious, precious, precious dar- 
 ling! Oh, my sweetness, my daughter, my 
 own, own, my child ! You do love me darling, 
 you do, you do, you do!" She said this in a 
 voice passionate, almost fierce, as if the utter- 
 ance of a roused tigress scenting danger to 
 her young. As she spoke, she rained kisses 
 on the upturned face, on the eyelids, on the 
 i-osebud mouth, and on the golden hair. And 
 then, recovering with a mighty effort, she 
 said, still holding the little girl to her breast: 
 
 " Oh, mamma is sick ; mamma has a naughty 
 headache! I'll be better soon." 
 
 She thought and thought in silence save 
 that now and then there was the sound of a 
 quick kiss as she bent down to the compas- 
 sionate face of the little 2:irl. 
 
286 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Oh, how frightful the humiliation," she 
 reflected. " What will, what can these people 
 think to whom we owe so much ! And how 
 can I pay them ? They must be paid, and 
 yet how !" 
 
 Just then a gleam of light brightened her 
 face. 
 
 " Wait here a moment, sweetheart, till 
 mamma runs up stairs. I will sell my jew- 
 elry," she said in alow voice, "and pay these 
 debts !" 
 
 In a little time she returned. Her com- 
 plexion had become a waxen pallor with livid 
 tints as if her face had been bruised with some 
 rough instrument. She had received a blow 
 which sent its pangs to her heart. 
 
 All her jewelry had disappeared ! She 
 knew in an instant who had taken them. It 
 was Paul, her husband. 
 
 All this was true. He had taken the money 
 which she had given him to buy food for the 
 family and had used it at the gaming table, 
 and had asked the dealers to keep an account. 
 It was he who had taken his wife's jewels that 
 he might gratify his scandalous passion. 
 
 When the full force of the situation dawned 
 on her she felt for the moment an awful con- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 287 
 
 striction of her heart, as it were in the clutch 
 of a giant's fingers. The blood surged into her 
 head and blinded her ; and she thought she 
 was dying, and with an almost joyful exulta- 
 tion she awaited the final blow. Just then 
 she caught sight of the wondering face of 
 Aline, and with a strong effort wrenched her- 
 self, as it were, from the very embrace of 
 death. 
 
 " No, 1 will not, 1 dare not die. I mustXwQ 
 for you, my darling. Where would your 
 little feet wander without your mother's 
 guiding hand ? I zvill live, and for you." 
 
288 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 IV. 
 
 DEEPER IN THE SLOUGH. 
 
 Paul shuffled into the house the next day. 
 His once fine complexion had become, as it 
 were, covered with a species of leprous spots. 
 His eyes had sunk far into his head, and were 
 faded out. His lips were bloodless and com- 
 pressed, the lines on his face had deepened, 
 and his hands trembled. When he attempted 
 to look at them his head shook as if he were 
 afflicted with palsy. 
 
 He was a wreck. Scarcely a trace re- 
 mained of the honest, healthy, vigorous youth 
 whom Eleanor married. His brow was cor- 
 rugated into a perpetual frown ; his voice 
 husky and tremulous. He spoke but a word 
 to Aline, and was sullen and reticent. 
 
 Eleanor looked on him with a profound 
 commiseration. He was the man who had 
 wrecked her life, but he was not the man she 
 had wedded. This sullen brute, semi-idiotic 
 in his appearance and demeanor, was in no 
 
THE GAMBLER. 289 
 
 Sense the man she had taken for a husband. 
 That man was dead ; for him she was sorry ; 
 for the creature before her she had only pity. 
 She could not hate him for all the wretched- 
 ness he had brought on her, for he was not 
 himself. It was the remnant of her husband ; 
 his worse qualities preserved and enlarged, 
 and his better ones paralyzed. 
 
 She did not reproach him, nor did she' 
 make any allusion to what had taken place. 
 After a little while, he muttered, " I must be 
 going," and went away. 
 
 It was in the first month of the year that 
 these later events occurred. Eleanor made 
 up her mind to call on the various creditors, 
 for the purpose of securing an extension of 
 time for the payment of the indebtedness. 
 She went to the closet for her fur-cloak, and 
 was unable to find it, and it was some time 
 before the truth dawned on her, to the effect 
 that it had been taken by her husband. 
 
 The first blow so stunned her that the loss 
 of her valuable cloak did not affect her as 
 much as it would had it been discovered 
 at the outset. Further search revealed that 
 a couple of costly silk dresses were missing, 
 a shawl which she had greatly valued, and 
 19 
 
290 
 
 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 several other things of greater or less value. 
 
 She returned to the parlor faint at heart, 
 and despairing. Great as was her trouble, it 
 was not yet complete. Within a few hours 
 after she had discovered the loss of her cloth- 
 ing, a large truck backed around in front of 
 the door. The bell rang, and when she 
 opened the door she found two men, one of 
 whom inquired if Paul Calkins lived there. 
 
 " Yes, this is where he lives. Do you wish 
 to see him? " 
 
 For answer, one of the men pushed rudely 
 by Eleanor, and entering the house, turned to 
 the other and said : 
 
 " Come on ! It's all right. This is the 
 place, and here is the stuff." 
 
 The fellow who thus spoke was a burly 
 brute, with bloated cheeks, watery eyes, a red, 
 stubby moustache and tobacco-stained lips. 
 He carried the stub of a cigar between his 
 lips, which, with his hat, he did not remove 
 when he entered the room. He had a swag- 
 ger in his gait, an insolent look in his eyes, 
 an enormous diamond in his cravat, and a 
 rum-scented breath. His companion had the 
 appearance of an ordinary working man, and 
 lacked the impudence and pomposity of the 
 other. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 29I 
 
 Eleanor was naturally much alarmed at the 
 appearance of the men and their rude en- 
 trance. She was silent from sheer astonish- 
 ment, and waited with apprehension the out- 
 come of the strange intrusion. 
 
 The man with the diamond stud looked all 
 over the room, and finally said : 
 
 " Is this yere stuff the property of Paul 
 Calkins? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "All right then ! Here Jmi, check 'em off, 
 and let's see if any of the stuff is missin'. One 
 sofa, I center table, i stuffed rocker, i green 
 easy-chair, 6 common chairs, i carpet, i rug, 
 I pianny, and what's this?" and so saying, he 
 drew a covering of cloth from something in 
 the corner ; " oh, it's one of them type-ma- 
 chines ! That doesn't count. Lemme see, I 
 guess that's all. Call in your men, and less 
 load up." 
 
 " What in the name of heaven does all this 
 mean?" asked Eleanor, as she saw the pro- 
 ceedings of the two men, 
 
 " Hurry up the men, Jim ! It nu\ans that 
 I'm a constable, and have seized them goods 
 on a warrant issued by Judge Ausiin Flint, 
 J. P. That's the kind of a hair-pin 1 am!" 
 
292 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Seize these goods ?"' said Eleanor. " For 
 what reason do you do this?" 
 
 " Becos here's a paper signed by Paul 
 Calkins in which in consideration of the sum 
 of two hundred dollars in hand paid, he 
 agrees that if said sum is not well and truly 
 paid on a certain date, to-wit, yesterday, then 
 may the plaintiff, without further delay, pro- 
 ceed to seize the said goods, and take posses- 
 sion of the same, and to hold and have the 
 same without rec(~)urse, State of Illinois, Cook 
 county double-ess." 
 
 Eleanor did not comprehend any more of 
 this jargon than that the piano and furniture 
 had been seized on a debt incurred by her hus- 
 band, and were about to be taken away. 
 
 Whiter than alabaster, with staring e3^es, 
 and breath that came in hysteric gasps, she 
 gazed at the constable unable to say a word. 
 Just then Aline burst into the room with a 
 cry of shrill delight oyer something she had 
 seen, but seeing the strange men, stopped and 
 with open mouth looked from them to her 
 mother. The fixed, statue-like attitude of the 
 latter frightened her, and with a scream she 
 flew to her side and clasping her hand, ejac- 
 ulated, " Mamma! Mamma !'' 
 
THE GAMBLER. 293 
 
 The voice of Aline seemed to wake Eleanor 
 from the stupefaction which had seized on 
 her. She laid her disengaged hand on the 
 head of the child, and as her fingers uncon- 
 sciously caressed the silken locks, she ap- 
 peared to collect her wandering thoughts, 
 and turning to the constable, said : 
 
 " Do I understand that you have seized 
 this furniture for debt owed by my husband, 
 Mr. Calkins, and that he pledged it for the 
 debt?" 
 
 "Yes mum, you are correct; in fact, you 
 have 'tumbled.' We've got the papers on all 
 the stuff in this room except that are type 
 machine." 
 
 " Is there no remedy in the matter?'" 
 
 " None at all onless you've got the two hun- 
 dred, and enough more to pay the costs, in 
 yer stockin' ; and can produce right now afore 
 the stuff is moved." 
 
 Eleanor's heart gave a few great throbs, as 
 she remained silent in the presence of her 
 calamity. 
 
 " Come on, boys !'' said the constable, " we 
 must git this stuff right out without any more 
 fuss. Women always makes a fuss when the 
 law takes their traps, but it doesn't kill 'em. 
 
294 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 They alwos gets over it, and tries it agin. 
 That's your racket, missus ; git a new set at 
 the thirty per cent, a month stores, and 
 you can go right on with your business at 
 the old stand." 
 
 The insolence of the language of the brute 
 was intensified by his looks and intonations. 
 
 Two men who had been waiting outside, 
 entered. " Here," said the constable, " begin 
 at the pianny first and — " 
 
 The men moved toward the piano. Elea- 
 nor, as if seized by a sudden impulse, stepped 
 in front of them, waved them back, and said : 
 
 "Give me a few moments. It is an old 
 friend, and I wish to bid it good-bye." 
 
 There was something commanding in her 
 appearance, a something solemn and appeal- 
 ing in her face, that impressed them. They 
 halted and waited, watching her with curious 
 eyes. 
 
 Eleanor seated herself on the stool, held 
 the face of Aline to her with both her hands, 
 kissed it, and then turned and dropped her 
 fingers on the keys. For a moment or two 
 they wandered here and there, striking low, 
 sad chords, like the moan in the air which 
 precedes a storm. And then, as if without 
 
THE GAMBLER. 295 
 
 design, and as if in response to the tenor of 
 her reflections, she began to play the " Last 
 Hope.'' 
 
 The solemn minor notes of the prelude 
 rolled out with the pathos of the tones of an 
 organ, like the miserere in the aisles of a cathe- 
 dral. It was as the voice of penitential 
 prayer. Prostrate as it were, with her face 
 in the dust, the player implored the aid of 
 Heaven. 
 
 When she reached the theme, there was a 
 trifle less sadness in the tones as if the prayer 
 might have been heard. Brilliant little runs, 
 like the quick chirpings of song-birds, indi- 
 cated the existence of happiness, although 
 possibly only in memory ; but, in the main, 
 the expression was solemn, as if relating a 
 tale of corroding sorrows. 
 
 As the theme progressed, the suggestions 
 of wretchedness and failure were offset by 
 notes that seemed echoes of joyous celestial 
 promises. Faint voices from above thrilled 
 in unison with the harmonies of tne player, 
 and added to the mortal strains a flavor of the 
 heavenly and eternal. 
 
 Her soul seemed to mingle and become a 
 part of the pathetic composition, and her life. 
 
296 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 with its many sufferings and its occasional 
 enjoyments, came out under her touch with 
 the distinctness of a voice. The theme wailed, 
 wept, smiled, hoped, despaired. With infi- 
 nite softness, the closing notes sank away like 
 the vanishing breath of the dying, and ended 
 with the pacific calm of the dead who have 
 gently passed away, hoping for a brighter 
 morning. 
 
 When the last soft tones glided away into 
 silence, she rose from her seat, touched the 
 keys lightly with her lips, and with a look of 
 saintly resignation beaming from her eyes, 
 said in pleasant tones : 
 
 " I have finished, sir, and have nothing else 
 to ask for." She took Aline and shut herself 
 in her bedroom. She heard the jar of the 
 moving furniture, and the sound of the steps 
 adown the stairway, as if it were the carrying 
 out of a coffin with its heavy burden. 
 
 In a very brief time, the living room of the 
 Calkins' contained only scattered papers and 
 the typewriter. Eleanor, wrapping Aline as 
 warmly as possible, herself thinly clad, went 
 shivering through the winter's cold to the 
 home of her old triend, Helen Jackson. 
 
 One of the creditors for the household-sup- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 297 
 
 plies was informed of the situation, and vol- 
 unteered to see the others. Investigation af- 
 forded information as to the real cause of the 
 difficulties, and all unanimously resolved to 
 cancel their bills. Eleanor was not told of 
 this decision further than that none of the 
 creditors was pressing, and that all of them 
 were willing to permit her to take her own 
 time in paying the indebtedness. 
 
 One week after she left her home, she was 
 seated at her typewriter before the same desk 
 at which she was first seen in this narration. 
 
 Six years had passed. She was the same, 
 and yet changed. Some gray hairs were 
 woven in the woof of her hair; her face was 
 a trifie thinner, and her eyes had lost their 
 dreamy shyness, and looked one frankly in 
 the face. 
 
 Six years ago she sat in the same seat. Had 
 she been absent at all? Was it not last eve- 
 ning that she left the office, and was not her 
 marriage and its consequences a mere dream ? 
 And thus she thought : 
 
 " Dear, old typewriter," she said, as she 
 looked over its keys, whose white surfaces 
 seemed welcoming faces, " you are true to me, 
 and I love you ! " 
 
298 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 V. 
 
 A VIGOROUS SET-TO. 
 
 A few evenings after the occurrence of the 
 events just related, Paul, as was his custom 
 two or three times a week, dropped into the 
 New Rest saloon-restaurant. He was partial 
 to the place, for there was something in its 
 alcohoHc atmosphere and the flavor of court- 
 esanship that suited his tastes. 
 
 One with an uneasy conscience finds some 
 relief in a sympatheticlocality, in which there 
 are others who have memories that afflict 
 them, and who are not free from moral taint. 
 
 Elise came in shortly after Paul entered, 
 and seeing him, came and sat down by him. 
 Her eyes were dry and fierce, and her ex- 
 pression indicative of mental perturbation. 
 
 ""How are you getting on with Babet?" 
 she asked. 
 
 " Oh, we're friendly," he responded, with 
 some hesitation. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 299 
 
 "Oh, indeed! I should think you would 
 be; or, at least, she should be a friend of 
 yours." 
 
 " Why?" 
 
 " Oh, I know all about it. I know who 
 gave her that fur cloak, and that neck-chain 
 and the rings. You needn't look as if you 
 didn't know about it. You gave them to 
 her." 
 
 " Oh, no, you are mistaken. I can't afford 
 to give away seal-skin cloaks, necklaces and 
 diamond rings." 
 
 " Bosh, I know better ! Now I want to tell 
 you that you are a chump of the first water. 
 You are a fool, a simpleton, a gudgeon, any- 
 thing that is stupid and idiotic." 
 
 " What is the matter with you? What do 
 you mean? Why am I a chump?" 
 
 " Because you allowed that pot-colored 
 little beast to rob you. She's taking every- 
 thing you give her, and at the same time is 
 stuck on Lafarge. She doesn't care the snap 
 of her finger for vou !" Elise grew very red 
 in the face as she proceeded ; but her emotion 
 probably was due more to her jealousy of her 
 old lover, Lafarge, than from indignation over 
 the robbery of Paul by The Panther. 
 
300 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " Why, Lafarge has told me a hundred times 
 that he hated Babet, that she is treacherous, 
 and that I had best keep out of her way." 
 
 "Of course! He wanted you to dislike 
 her and leave her, so that he would fuid less 
 opposition. But he is deceiving you the 
 same as she is." 
 
 " I can hardly believe it." 
 
 " Well, believe it or not as you like. I give 
 you notice that not onl}^ has she gone back 
 on you, but that she will keep you along, 
 bleeding you at every step, and will end by 
 landing you in Joliet. Neither her greed nor 
 her heartlessness has any limit.'' 
 
 When Paul left the New Rest, he was much 
 disturbed over what had been said to him by 
 Elise. His infatuation for Babet was over> 
 powering ; for her, and to incidentally gratify 
 his passion for play, he had robbed his own 
 wife, and for this he expected gratitude and 
 devotion. 
 
 That night he went to the gambling-house 
 of Lafarge, and soon after was engaged in a 
 game of cards in which Lafarge was a partic- 
 ipant. The latter was affable as usual, and 
 yet Paul fancied as he caught the glance now 
 and then of the other, that he detected an 
 expression of hostility. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 3OI 
 
 The game proceeded without anything re- 
 markable to characterize it for some hours. 
 Lafarge seemed to be more than ordinarily 
 anxious for Paul to drink, while, for a won- 
 der, and for some unexplainable reason, the 
 latter was more abstemious than was his 
 regular custom. 
 
 There came a point in the game when a 
 very large sum of money had been collected 
 in a "jack-pot." A " raise " before the cards 
 were " helped," finally drove everybody out 
 except Lafarge and Paul. The two then 
 "raised " each other for a considerable sum, 
 and at last called for the draw. 
 
 Lafarge was the dealer, and directly oppo- 
 site him was his single opponent. The latter 
 stood " pat," that is, did not take any cards. 
 Paul had thrown himself well back in his chair 
 when the preliminary betting had ceased. His 
 position was so low that he saw the bottom 
 card of the pack as Lafarge picked it up to 
 " help " the hands. Tt was the ace of spades. 
 Lafarge held the cards a moment as if study- 
 ing what to do on account of Paul's taking no 
 cards, and then he took one. 
 
 Glancing at his cards, Lafarge bet a small 
 sum, and was immediately " raised '' by the 
 
302 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 Other. Several hundred dollars were added 
 to the already enormous pile of chips and 
 bank-bills, when Paul, whose funds were about 
 exhausted, " called " the other, and spread 
 out on the table a king-full. 
 
 " No good ! " exclaimed Lafarge, with an 
 oath ; " I can beat that ! " and he spread out a 
 " full-hand '' with aces. 
 
 Paul glanced at the hand in stupefaction. 
 He was again ruined. Suddenly, among the 
 three aces he saw the ace of spades. With a 
 quick motion he threw his arm ar(^und the 
 pile in the center of the table, and drew it 
 over to his side. 
 
 " What are you doing?" 
 
 " I'm taking my own, that's all." 
 
 " What's the matter with you ? Haven't I 
 the best hand ? " 
 
 " No sir ! before you helped the hands I saw 
 that ace of spades on the bottom of the pack. 
 You slipped it into your hand, and that's 
 where you got that ace-full." 
 
 " You are a — liar ! " shouted Lafarge, as 
 he sprang to his feet, with blazing eyes and 
 fierce gestures. 
 
 " And you are a swmdler and a thief!" was 
 the response, as Paul hurriedly pushed back 
 his chair, and faced his opponent. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 303 
 
 They rushed toward each other with the 
 fury of two savage bulls. Paul's athletic 
 training — taken at the suggestion of Lalarge 
 — was of immense value to him at this critical 
 moment. As the latter came within arm's 
 length, Paul stepped lightly a little one side and 
 before his antagonist could change his course 
 he received a blow from the fist of the other 
 which staggered him, and nearly brought him 
 to the fioor. He recovered himself, and again 
 made a rush for his opponent. 
 
 Twice did the fist of Paul encounter his 
 face before they came together in a clinch. 
 The grapple held but a moment. Paul skill- 
 fully tripped his opponent, who fell, and 
 received the blow of the body of Paul as he 
 came down on him. At this moment the 
 other players had recovered somewhat from 
 their consternation over the shape matters 
 had taken, and interfered and pulled apart 
 the writhing, panting contestants. 
 
 Lafarge's face was considerabl}^ bruised, 
 and the blood flowed freely from his face and 
 stained the white of his shirt-front with irreg- 
 ular blotches. 
 
 " I'll kill you yet, you !" he vocifer- 
 ated as he was being held by the other players, 
 
304 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 and shook his arms and fists frantically in the 
 direction of Paul. 
 
 Paul g-athered the money on the table, went 
 to the home of Babet, and threw the most of 
 it in her lap. So grateful was she in her 
 reception of the gift, and so gracious in her 
 treatment of him that when he left he was in 
 a delirium of joy, firmly convinced that he 
 was her hero and idol, and that the statements 
 of Elise were the inventions of a jealous 
 woman. 
 
 The stake on which he made the winning 
 from Lafarge was the last realized from the 
 sale of a portion of his wife's dresses. What 
 remained after he had made a present of the 
 greater portion to Babet, he speedily lost at 
 the faro-bank. It left him substantially with- 
 out resources. His own watch and diamond 
 pin he had long since pawned, and spent the 
 proceeds. His clothing had become shiny 
 and greasy, his hat showed lines of indenta- 
 tion, his shoes were dilapidated and run over 
 at the heels. He was fast approaching the 
 appearance of a tramp. 
 
 Now and then he obtained a dollar or two 
 as a loan from some old acquaintance who 
 had known him in his better days; and this, 
 
THE GAMBLER. 305 
 
 after a small amount was spent in free lunch 
 saloons, he played into the bank. 
 
 Even the bankers who had won his money 
 began to be weary of his appearance, and in 
 some cases ordered the janitor to refuse him 
 entrance. It may be thought that at this 
 period of his extreme degradation reflection 
 would have blasted him as he thought over 
 his life. But he had provided against this; 
 he had taken to opium, and in this way dead- 
 ened the last of his sensibilities. 
 
 Occasionally some sympathetic dealer 
 would permit him to act as the "lookout" 
 during a game, and toss him a dollar for the 
 service. Now and then he picked up a 
 stranger, and led him into a game for which 
 he received a percentage on the amount won 
 from the visitor. Now and again he earned 
 a dollar or two by acting as a " capper ;" that 
 is, he sat in a game when a stranger entered, 
 and with chips provided him by the house 
 he played as if a regular customer. This 
 would often induce men to enter the game 
 who would hesitate to sit down at a table 
 where there were no others. 
 
 He worked out in his mind ingenious 
 " systems" for " bcatmg the bank," and tried 
 20 
 
306 " THE GAMBLER. 
 
 them all, and always lost. On the ground 
 that he had once known reputable business 
 men, he was allowed a share in poker games 
 run in the rear of some saloon, or on the 
 secluded upper floor of the business blocks. 
 Beside this he acted as touter, visiting certain 
 men whom he once knew, and whom he knew 
 to be fond of the game, and induced them to 
 play in the game by the statement that other 
 reputable men whom they knew were in the 
 habit of playing in it. In this way a decent 
 citizen would be inveigled into the game, and 
 his presence was at once used to influence 
 others. 
 
 Two or three genuine business men thus 
 roped into a game would be the prey of sharps 
 who appeared as railway conductors, commer- 
 cial men, and in other disguises. 
 
 Through one of these fortuitous combina- 
 tions of luck which now and then favor the . 
 unlucky, Paul one evening ventured a solitary 
 quarter of a dollar on a card and won. His 
 luck continued till he had won about a hun- 
 dred dollars, when it turned on him and he 
 drew out. With this money he bought a 
 suit of clothes and some clean underwear, 
 and for the moment was the semblance of his 
 former self. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 307 
 
 Thus refitted he hurried to the home of 
 Babet, whom he had not visited for some 
 weeks, owing to his dilapidated appearance. 
 Gaining her presence, she rushed into his 
 arms with a shriek of dehght. 
 
 " Oh, my baby, where have you been so 
 long? I've ahnost died because I could not 
 see you ! " 
 
 She seated herself on his lap, and caressed 
 his hair and cheeks with her slender fingers. 
 
 " And what nice thing has my baby brought 
 his Babet, to-night?" 
 
 "Nothing, I'm sorry to say." 
 
 "Nothing? Nothing at all ? Not one lit- 
 tle thing? " 
 
 " No, Babet. In fact, I'm out of luck. I 
 haven't a dollar to my name. I'm g(^ing to 
 ask a favor of you, Babet, which I know you'll 
 be glad to grant." 
 
 " A favor of me?" Her voice lost its ca- 
 ressing tone, and she removed her fingers 
 from his cheeks. " What do you want of 
 me? " 
 
 "Babet, 3'ou know that when I had money, 
 I gave it to you with an open hand. I have 
 gladly poured thousands of dollars into your 
 lap, and have given you presents which cost 
 
3o8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 other thousands. Now, I want you to let me 
 have two or three hundred dollars. I have a 
 chance to get an interest in a game in which 
 I am sure I can make a good deal of money. " 
 
 She sprung from his lap with the light 
 agility of a wild cat, turned toward him, and 
 with her face full of scorn and contempt, her 
 eyes blazing with fury, she screamed : 
 
 " What do you take me for? " 
 
 " I take you for my old friend, Babet, the 
 most charming — " 
 
 "Charming be ! You are a fool, an 
 
 imbecile ! " 
 
 " But, Babet,'' feebly interposed Paul, " I 
 need the money ; I almost need it for food. 
 You have had large sums from me, and I 
 want only a small loan, which I will soon pay 
 you with big interest." 
 
 *'You make me tired! I let you have 
 money ? Not a sou ! I am one who receives, 
 and not one who lends money. What, do 
 you suppose that I shall allow myself to be 
 ruined by men, and then loan them money? 
 Do you suppose that after being obliged to 
 pander to the beastly vices of drunken brutes 
 I am going to become a philanthropist and 
 use mv money to lelieve them of the punish- 
 ment which justly falls on them?" 
 
THE GAMBLER. 309 
 
 ** But, Babet, hear me — " 
 
 " 1 will hear nothing; I have heard you say 
 that you are a pauper, and that is all I wish 
 to hear. Leave me! I have no use for 
 moneyless men ! Go and get money ; win it 
 at gambling; steal it; kill to get it; get it, 1 
 care not how, then come to me! Bring me 
 money, jewels, rich presents, and I am yours, 
 body and soul ! But you have no money. 
 Go away, and never see me again till your 
 hands are filled with gold and diamonds! " 
 
 So saying, she turned to leave. 
 
 With a savage oath, Paul rose, made a 
 single stride toward her, grasped her slender 
 throat in his fingers, and compressed them 
 till her tongue protruded and her eyes were 
 pushed out iit their sockets. She wilted 
 when he dropped her, and she fell in a heap 
 on the floor. Giving the insensible mas^ a 
 heavy kick, he left the room. 
 
 Such brutality seems incredible, and yet, 
 among these women and their "lovers" such 
 assaults are not at all uncommon. 
 
 Enraged, humiliated, crushed, he strode 
 like a maniac along the streets, sowing hor- 
 rid blasphemies and furious imprecations 
 through the darkness. 
 
3IO THE GAMBLER. 
 
 " It is that cursed Jew ! " he thought, after 
 his incoherent rage had somewhat spent itself ; 
 
 '*and, by , I'll get even with him if it 
 
 costs me my life ! " 
 
THE GAMBLER. 3II 
 
 VI. 
 
 i 
 THE SACRIFICE IS FOUND. 
 
 When the contusions on his face had dis- 
 appeared in part, and he was in a condition to 
 appear in public, Lafarge determined to see 
 Natalie. His hatred of Paul had increased 
 a thousand fold since the latter had caught 
 him cheating at cards,, and had given him a 
 beating. 
 
 It was about midnight when he reached 
 the home of the Ogress. It was winter, and 
 a tremendous storm of wind and snow swept 
 over the city, driving every one under cover. 
 The storm roared among the chimneys and 
 steeples ; it beat the innumerable telegraph 
 wires, which resented the blows with melan- 
 choly clamors; it twisted the tree-tops and 
 howled with a dismal pathos at the street 
 corners, and across the public squares. 
 
 Facing this storm, which was somewhat 
 in harmony with his feelings, he was keyed 
 
312 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 up to a stormy pitch when he entered Natalie's 
 room, and was prepared for any extrav- 
 agance. It did not, therefore, particularly 
 surprise him to see that the room had been 
 fitted for sacrifice, as the Ogress called it, 
 when she intended to offer special worship to 
 her Fetich. 
 
 Every portion of the roum was shrouded 
 in black. The bureau which served as the 
 altar had been moved into its place, and 
 beneath the black cloth which covered its 
 top, Lafarge saw the outlines of the skull. 
 Around the neck of the alligator was en- 
 twined a wide strip of crape. 
 
 Natalie was clad in her usual dress of some 
 sable stuff, and in her long, coarse hair there 
 was woven, or braided innumerable small 
 cords of ebon hue, and which had the effect 
 to spread out her hair till it hung down her 
 shoulders like a long, wide mat. 
 
 " You were expected, and you are wel- 
 come!" she said, as Lafarge entered. "The 
 Fetiches are out to-night, and are riding on 
 the storm. Hear them shout ! They are 
 rejoicing-, for they scent blood in the air. 
 To-night blood will flow, and I have prepared 
 for the sacrifice." 
 
THE GAMBLER. 313 
 
 Lafarg-e felt a chill as she spoke. She 
 seemed to be actuated by insane impulses. 
 Her voice was swollen and harsh ; her eyes 
 were enlarged and emitted flashes like a black 
 diamond. Her long tusks, white as milk, 
 gleamed ominously against the jet back- 
 ground of her face. Her body and limbs 
 were in incessant motion ; and she seemed 
 to be in a species of ecstatic frenzy that 
 shook and twisted her as the storm outside 
 swayed the leafless branches of the trees. 
 
 " See !" she ejaculated ; " all is ready foi- the 
 sacrifice ; here is the cup and here the sponge, 
 both sacred to the worship of the priest, my 
 father!" She lifted the cloth over the skull 
 and revealed a small cup of scarlet hue, and 
 a sponge white as snow. 
 
 " Maumee," said Lafarge, " I am in trouble ; 
 my enemy follows me and has everlastingly 
 disgraced me. I have made him a pauper ; 
 I have beggared his mother, his wife and his 
 child ; I have taken away li om him the 
 woman whom he loves, and yet my hate is 
 unsatisfied. He struck me in the presence of 
 others, and the disgrace of the blow sears 
 my heart. Give me some revenge more dis- 
 tressing than beggary, more poignant than 
 
314 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 the loss of family and honor, friends and rep- 
 utation," 
 
 " You will be avenged. I see corpses, with 
 dull, glassy eyes ! Wait with patience. _Not 
 many hours hence the catastrophe will be 
 here. I hear the beating of its wings against 
 the bosom of the storm. I hear it coming, 
 it is almost here ! Go now, and wait !" 
 
 ^ ^ -^ ii: ^ 
 
 A prolonged debauch had been indulged in 
 by Paul Calkins after the occurrence in which 
 he was denounced by Babet and which ended 
 in his striking her to the floor. When most in- 
 toxicated he became maudlin in sentiment as 
 well as in liquor, and frequently shed tears 
 over himself, and over the recollection of the 
 brutal punishment he had inflicted on Babet. 
 He excused her, at these moments, for her 
 rejection of him. 
 
 " She did right," he would think, " So mar- 
 .velous a creature as she, deserves the tribute 
 of gold and precious stones." 
 
 So low had he descended that even his 
 contemptuous rejection by a wretched cour- 
 tesan did not offend him. " I deserved it," he 
 concluded. 
 
 He had been drinking heavily at this time. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 315 
 
 and it is not therefore astonishing — for any- 
 thing may be expected from the vagaries and 
 eccentricities of intoxication — that he deter- 
 mined to go and see Babet. He would beg 
 her pardon for his brutahty ; he would con- 
 vince her of iiis affection, and without doubt 
 she would receive him again. He remem- 
 bered the flash of her great black eyes, the ca- 
 ressing touch of her soft fingers, and his fancy, 
 heated by stimulants, rose to the temperature 
 of fever, as he reflected over the memories 
 of their past. 
 
 It was the same night on which Lafarge 
 visited Natalie that Paul started to again see 
 Babet. He encountered the storm which 
 beat against him savagely, as if attempting to 
 express its dislike for his nefarious errand. 
 
 It was about one o'clock in the morning 
 when he reached the house. He rang, the 
 door was opened. Knowing the way to 
 Babet's room, and hoping to find her there, 
 he made no inquiry of the servant who 
 admitted him. He went up a flight of stairs, 
 turned down a long hall at the extreme end 
 of which was the room he sought. As he 
 neared the room he heard voices in the room, 
 one of which was Babet's and the other that of 
 
3l6 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 a man. The heavy carpets drowned his 
 footsteps, so that his approach was unnoticed. 
 
 Just as he reached the door the conversa- 
 tion dropped to a low tone whose theme 
 could not be heard b\' the listener. His head 
 swam, a choking sensation came into his 
 throat, and his heart throbbed vehemently as 
 he discovered that a man was in the room. 
 He almost unconsciously turned the door- 
 knob, and to his surprise the door opened. 
 Its occupants had evidently neglected to fasten 
 it. Impelled by an irresistible impulse and 
 reckless from alcohol, he entered the room 
 and then shut the door and shot the bolt into 
 its socket. 
 
 The noise of fastening the door attracted 
 the attention of the two people already in the 
 room. Babet lay across the bed in her night- 
 dress, and as the noise of the bolt attracted 
 her attention, she glanced up, saw Paul, and 
 said : 
 
 " You wretched cur, how dare you ?" 
 
 At this utterance, the half-dressed man who 
 was standing close by the bed with his back 
 to the door, turned quickly, and faced the 
 intruder, and Paul saw before him the scowl- 
 ing face of John Lafarge. 
 
THE GAMBLER. 317 
 
 " You scoundrel !" came simultan- 
 eously from the lips of the two men. 
 
 Lafarge threw his hand behind him to his 
 hip pocket, pulled a pistol and was raising it 
 to a level of the breast of Paul with the ejac- 
 ulation, " Now you, I've got you, 
 
 and I'll kill you," when it was seized by Paul in 
 such a manner that when the trigger was 
 pulled the hammer was intercepted by his 
 thumb. He closed with Lafarge, and in the 
 struggle Lafarge fired at a moment when 
 Paul wrenched his body aside, and the bullet 
 passing under his arm, struck Babet in the 
 left breast. An instant later Paul wrested 
 the pistol from the hands of Lafarge, placed 
 it against his temple and fired. Lafarge 
 threw up his arms with a convulsive motion, 
 and reeling around, fell on his face across 
 the bed. 
 
 All this occurred in a few seconds. The 
 moment Lafarge fell, Paul dropped the pistol, 
 jumped to a window, raised it, and sprang 
 out into the storm and darkness. 
 
 As he disappeared a door concealed by 
 curtains on another side of the room opened 
 softly, and Natalie glided swiftly in. She 
 carried the sponge which she dipped in the 
 blood flowing from Babet's wound, and that 
 
3l8 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 on the forehead of Lafai-ge, and then glided 
 back as she came, and disappeared. 
 
 The door led into her own room, where 
 was the preparation for the sacrifice. She 
 lifted the black covering above the skull, put 
 the reddened sponge in the cup, placed it 
 before the teeth of the skull, and then 
 exclaimed with rapture and exultation : 
 
 "It has come at last, oh, my father, the 
 blood of sacrifice !'' 
 
 Meanwhile the noise of the pistol-shots had 
 aroused the inmates of the house. They tried 
 to enter the room, but the door was fastened 
 within. The police were notified and the door 
 broken open. 
 
 Babet lay across the bed with the blood 
 oozing from the wound in her breast, while 
 Lafarge lay across her lower limbs with his 
 feet on the floor, as if he had thrown himself 
 in this position to protect her. 
 
 Both were dead. A pistol with two empty 
 chambers lay on the floor. There were no 
 signs of a struggle, and the most patient 
 investigation at the time, and later, never 
 afforded any elucidation of the mystery. At 
 this date the public is undecided as to whether 
 there was a third person involved who com- 
 
THE GAMBLER. 3I9 
 
 mitted the deed, or whether it was a murder 
 and a suicide, or a double suicide. 
 
 When Paul jumped throuo^h the window, 
 he struck on a pile of boards and other ma- 
 terial, gathered for fuel by Italians living in 
 the rear. The distance was only a couple of 
 feet. He easily and safely crossed to the edge 
 of the alley, into which he sprang, and disap- 
 peared in the darkness. The storm still raged 
 so that few people were abroad, and the 
 chances of his being recognized were infini- 
 tesimal. 
 
 ■5f -X- -if * * 
 
 A month or so after this occurrence, Elea- 
 nor, while seated at her typewriter, was sur- 
 prised at the appearance of a policeman in 
 full uniform. 
 
 " I'm lookin' for a lady, Missus Calkins. 
 Do you know her?" 
 
 " That's my name," she responded, with 
 some trepidation. 
 
 " Well, mam, there's a young fellow at the 
 hospital who is dyin' and he asked to see you." 
 
 " Do you know what his name is?'' 
 
 " No, mam, I don't. He's a pauper patient, 
 and proud-appearin', and mebbe doesn t like 
 to give his real name. Will ye see him?" 
 
320 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 She thought a moment ; it might be Paul; 
 at any rate she would go. 
 
 She reached the hospital and gave her 
 name. Soon after she was led into one of the 
 wards, and taken to the side of a white couch. 
 
 " It's a bad case of pneumonia," said the 
 nurse, " and he's pretty near gone now." 
 
 A strange figure met her sight ; but in the 
 emaciated countenance, the ghastly pallor of 
 the face, the deep, sunken and faded eyes she 
 recognized her husband. His breath came 
 and went in short, painful gasps, accompanied 
 by a hoarse rattling. His eyes were staring 
 into vacancy, and he did not notice the pres- 
 ence of a new face. 
 
 Tears gushed into the eyes of Eleanor as 
 she saw the pitiful object, and she bent over 
 the face and said : 
 
 " Paul! Paul! Don't you know me? It is 
 Eleanor." 
 
 A nurse poured a spoonful of some stim- 
 ulant between the rigid jaws. Into the dull 
 and glassy eyes there slowly came a gleam of 
 intelligence. He endeavored to speak. She 
 bent down her ear to his lips and heard him 
 feebly articulate in a fast-choking voice, the 
 single wt)rd, " F-o-r-g-i-v-e — " 
 
THE GAMBLER. 32 1 
 
 When she raised her face and looked at him 
 again the gleam of intelligence had vanished. 
 The jaw had fallen and the eyes had turned 
 upward till but little save the whites were 
 visible. 
 
 " He's gone !" said the nurse, who happened 
 to pass at that moment. 
 
 The next day a hearse and a single carriage 
 occupied by two women and a little girl went 
 out to Rose Hill cemetery. As the attendant 
 rounded up the filling of the grave, the 
 mourners turned away. 
 
 " Good-by, husband !" said one in a voice 
 choking with tears. 
 
 " Good-by dear, dear papa !" said the little 
 girl, as she clung to her mother's dress and 
 buried her face in its folds. 
 21 
 
322 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 VII. 
 
 A HAND FROM THE FURTHER SHORE. 
 
 A short time after the death of Paul, Eleanor 
 received a letter from the bank with which he 
 had formerly done business, stating that there 
 was in the safe a package of papers which 
 was left there by her husband for safe-keeping, 
 and which they would be pleased to deliver 
 to her either in person or on order. 
 
 She soon secured the package, and found 
 it to consist of a large envelope, sealed and 
 labeled " Paul Calkins; to be left till called 
 for." She broke the seal and within found 
 a letter in an ordinary business envelope, and 
 a larger inclosure folded like a legal paper. 
 On the smaller paper was written : 
 
 "To be opened only after my death. 
 
 Paul Calkins." 
 
 Eleanor opened this at once. Within were 
 several pages closely written in the well-known 
 handwriting of Paul. Its contents were as 
 follows, omitting the date : 
 
THE GAMBLER. 323 
 
 " I have been married eighteen months and 
 am a father. I ought to be the happiest man 
 in existence. I have youth, perfect health, a 
 prosperous business, a reasonable fortune, 
 good social position, and a wife whom I should 
 adore for her amiability, her marvelous beauty, 
 and her devotion. No man living has a fairer 
 present, or a more promising future than I. 
 
 " In spite of all these I am not happy. I 
 distrust myself. I find that I have acquired 
 a love of stimulants and of gaming. I can- 
 not shake them off; in truth, while I know 
 all the deadly consequences of their indul- 
 gence, they are so fascinating that I do not 
 even care to rid myself of them. I am glid- 
 ing down a descent at whose bottom I see a 
 quagmire which I know will receive, engulf 
 and destroy me, and yet, even now when 1 
 might escape, the motion is so delicious that 
 I cannot resist its seductions. 
 
 " In proportion as these vices possess me, 
 the love I bear for my wife decreases. 
 Stronger passions than those underlying love 
 have usurped its place. My friendship for 
 her alone remains. Stimulation is diverting 
 my nature, and I begin to regard the depths 
 with more reverence than the heights ; hell, 
 
324 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 with its crimson flames, its surging billows, is 
 more attractive in its hurry, its activities, its 
 tremendous effects, than heaven with its pale 
 lights, its unvarying surface, its pious mo- 
 notony. 
 
 " 1 stand on the edge of a precipice beneath 
 which yawns eternal infamy. I have not yet 
 taken the leap, but my brain is dizzy, and I 
 know that I shall hurl myself over the brink. 
 I feel my nature developing all the instincts 
 of wickedness, and I know that the time is 
 coming when I will hesitate at no crime to 
 gratify the demands of the demons of gaming 
 and drink which have seized me. 
 
 " Thus feeling and believing, I have assid- 
 uously tried to devise some measure which, 
 while it would not in the least mitigate the 
 certainty and horror of my fate, might, to 
 some extent, soften the calamity in the hearts 
 of others, innocent and profoundly attached 
 to my life and fortunes. 
 
 " The inclosed paper will reveal the plan 
 I have adopted. It is in the interest of my 
 only friend, my wife, whose saintly soul little 
 deserves the fate about to overwhelm her. 
 She is the rarest, the purest of women and 
 should pass through life along a pathway 
 
THE GAMBLER, 325 
 
 strewn with roses, and breathe only an atmos- 
 phere vivified by celestial agencies. But 
 fate has ordered for her a season of torture. 
 The fiends which have taken me in charge 
 are not satisfied that their victim alone should 
 suffer ; they demand the tears, the groans of 
 wives and children. 
 
 "Let whoever may read this after my 
 death, pity, not me, but those unfortunates 
 whom my accursed destiny has dragged 
 down with me. For them I have sought to 
 secure a resurrection ; for me there is none." 
 
 Eleanor opened the other envelope with 
 shaking fingers. Within was a paid-up pol- 
 icy for a life assurance for twenty-five thou- 
 sand dollars, in favor of " My sweet wiie and 
 friend," so it read, " Eleanor Wright Calkins." 
 
 Tears rained in torrents from her eyes 
 when she finished the perusal of these papers. 
 
 " Love died," she thought, " but friendship 
 still lives and is immortal, for here it extends 
 its hand to me from beyond the grave !" 
 
 THE END. 
 
326 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 
 
 Among all Fetich worshipers it is be- 
 lieved that sacrifice is necessary to placate 
 the object of worship. It is also believed 
 among them that a remnant of a dead body 
 contains the qualities of the original, living 
 person. On this point, Herbert Spencer says : 
 " The facts show how sacrifices to the man 
 recently dead pass into sacrifices to his body. 
 * * Among some classes, the bones, legs, 
 arms, skulls of the principal chiefs are pre- 
 served by their descendants, under the belief 
 that the spirits exercise guardianship over 
 them." 
 
 It is not uncommon for this class of wor- 
 shipers to pay homage to a tuft of hair, the 
 skull and the like of a relative, and, accord- 
 ing to the same writer: "In cases of sick- 
 ness and other calamities, they present offer- 
 ings of food to the skulls of the departed." 
 In the private hut of the King of Adolee, the 
 skull of the monarch's father is preserved in 
 a clay vessel placed in the earth. He gently 
 rebukes it if his success does not happen to 
 answer his expectations. Of the Fetich dev- 
 otees it is said, " They worship their Fetiches, 
 and offer them blood ; they pierce their ears, 
 
THE GAMBLER. 327 
 
 their shoulders and their breasts, and collect 
 the blood with a sponge and spread it before 
 the skulls." 
 
 The gambler is a Fetich worshiper in the 
 full sense of the word. Under the words 
 "hoodoo" and "mascot" he worships the 
 good and bad genius of chance, in a hundred 
 different shapes. It may be a coin, a button, 
 a ring, or any other of a score or hundred 
 material things, to each of which he affords 
 the regard that the Fetichist pays to a stone 
 wrapped in a rag, or the shinbone of an 
 ancestor. 
 
 The superstition of gamblers is astounding. 
 It is stated as a fact that three well-known 
 brothers of Chicago, when they first came 
 here to open a gambling-house, used every 
 morning to burn an old shoe, and meanwhile 
 dance about it, and all to placate fortune. 
 
 In a noted gambling-house in Chicago it 
 has been the custom to sprinkle a mixture of 
 salt and pepper surreptitiously around the 
 seats of the players, so as to " hoodoo" them. 
 In the same house it was the custom to 
 sprinkle the same mixture on the clothing of 
 a player who was having a run of luck — the 
 application being made as he entered the 
 room. There are superstitions about cats. 
 One establishment, as is believed by the fra- 
 ternity, lost steadily for three years, when a 
 stray gray cat came along, and the bank com- 
 menced winning, and continued to win till the 
 cat was stolen, when it again lost. 
 
328 THE GAMBLER. 
 
 The Israelitish player, if losing, will take 
 off his finger ring and put it in his pocket. 
 Other gamblers find luck in giving something 
 to beggars, in touching the hump of a hump- 
 back, or a bald head, in playing certain days, 
 and in refraining from playing on certain 
 others. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
P5 
 tM4, 
 
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