The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 24, 1900, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CALL. memories ng, and pa es he used to m, e games t 1 when poker was d e down 1 not be_usk Whew! spendthrifts were when I ns. A hun- them any more of us now. And They high ked shirts with bi ith frilled bosoms. breastpin and a_big one of those big long he neck three or ig down over the dn drink anything but would ride across _the ather than get mud on were fine fellows—edu- could talk to any one ng. and very polite ve been r I've been e old gamblers such as palmy dz Mississippi five years ago, when tt 1. off. 1 never >w much elers. It met the boat to come abc s on were i t inven sed not ssity g invent new ssengers from ver. Dead-sure For instance, and while g the boat up would get the ff on the bank ames. Th mps »pped t started gang, fort oned there in’ the woods 1 But they took the next or down and worked their way s way or down to New Orlean: boat starte a couple of rd. They wre yws and alw men w they card playing was the away®he time. The: money. Th ntlemen, but wh off the boat their pals came nt up th how what were best 1 with t W mt money there was on d it and how these oroached. It wasn’t get ainted, and it wasn't get up a game of euchre after a s. Once the game was on the s smooth; the dealer fixed the 1 dealt out a good poker hand to rk, but a better one to who prompt : good hand I'd like to b - ave 1’ replied Mr. Rc » y got into betting, and . .. stran- nnew right and left. The cards kea marked on the back chante at all s done with oid ows pick every d call it without miss- them shuffle one for 1 from top to bottom, so me position after huflies that they were in at first. t futter them up like a flight aces, Kings, quee )gether a sy as p more chance against these fellow a snowball has in red-hot oven. ery deck was marked. 1t does not seem possible » that such sim games were not expe he most adroit schemer in those days as an Alabama man named James W. recter. He v inator of many fidence schemes t have been worked are. He was the most ingenious ler 1 ever came across. An anecdote ¢ how he worked his game will {llustrate how abundant m used to be in those days and how es the.men on the Mis- sissippi River steamers used to part with it. He got hold of a rich Superior Court Judge from Cairo, 111, one day. The Judge didn’t bappen to have a wad along that day, and he quickly caught on to Street- s game. The Judge went secretly to the bariender of the boat and got a bundle of 3 I've seen 1 a pack e, 1've scen all throu they were in the w ¥ : - P qp qp | aqp qp wiidcat money, wrapped 1t around with a M i a nger _fellows | couple of twenties and put some five usec w aped all his the middle. They started on euchre, and : . k at_he wasy the Judge got the usual good poker hand tI mbler that ever] and Jim Streeter played in. The Judge 3 ars oldi krew Streeter’'s game was to let him win, 1 Opera~ to make the final skin all the su K 1 a fin He lost a couple of times just to flash $1x roll and skin off fives to Jim. T » played till supper, and then the Jud t winner. After supper Jim war 1 the game, but the Judge w and Jim kicked. He w i and just as b came to the ri to his friend a handsome, { wced, blue~d ““Why, you sucker, said the g I x who was’ going{ ‘that's = d-so from ro. He . > Te; Wa every gambler on the river.’ all took a “Jim offered the Judge a $300 > 3 es u clothes not to tell the st a fellow named Dan, who w rious cheat and coul game in the world day,’ sald Jack, * to a tal s of solitaire. And, do sat there flve minutes bef: nudging the leg of the table with him.’ p X “Eph Horn, the ploneer minstrel, was toward Pow &0 infatuated with ping that he nev th g0 to bed so t burning ov n . and the Yy W3 n ab to him. One day in th ¥ man sat with a solitary whi w P the last of his $§0 a w 1 .tating_whether to bet it or not, b came Henry and said: st ‘‘Hurry up, Eph, and make a winning, _ I I'll ha | that young 80 we can go to dinne “‘Me? Me make a winning w bits? You might as well talk of lowe a fireproof safe out of a window with a horsehar. “Star Davis was a gre old boy. Jim McLane's mother allowed him $10.000 a year not to come near her, roke nearly all the time fc he had to gamble to m i Johnson was a daisy, a_hard player, never wore a pair of bcets worth than $20. Gib Cohe! and Tom Ma were the dressers of the river. winnings used to go into clothes send to Paris for eir underc all that sort of thing. rivals in those ¢ something. Doc ner. Then_ the who worked out of Natch: ald, a dead shot with a who could do more fun deck of cards than I e since. I coul ame the E were good fellows—free with th after scheming to it McLane's g Alexar Jim MeDe stol; New Orlean roulette game, three poke monte running in the cabin, hands playi luck planter, of Je play roulette with_five-dollar on the steamer Molly Brown. I h known men to drop $i000 at faro be one could smoke half a cigar. I once two Louisville tobacco merchants bet at a clatter upon quoit-throwing on deck I saw a man from Memphis lose his whole cotton crop in one night and get up and never mind it particularly. Poker was mostly the game. They played bluff and brag a good deal, and there was generally a big game on every boat. Many a time I've seen a game player just take off watch and rings and studs and pl in. Men lost their goods pl way-bills. I've seem them be of cotton at a crack, and it uncommon to hear an old planter be off his negreos on a good hand. E man who ever ran on the river knows that these old planters used to their body servants, valuing them way from $300 to $1500. [ saw a Ii ored boy stand up at $300 to back his master's faith in a little flush that wasn't any good on earth. The niggers didn’t seem to care particularly about it, and it was so common that nobody no- ticed it particular! ‘Some gamblers would come guised In hayseed clothes sengers. Maybe there'q be fo rson Dav old_piece the pot for n. I was dis- to skin the pas- r or five n ped out. An 1 3500 as quick as e work began. at that stage. ack of golden Ophir a_flash There was T oD eagles and saw th two men between me dropped out. I was "Il D piration. I resolved to risk it, so ! down into_m pockets and ) left in Il w § 5 & - \| g g qp qp mmiflmu o a boat, all supposedly strangers to eacn the pot. other,” and playing into each other's wijorn o hands. Sometimes there would be a kick, cards hil and the captain would get hot. When & f ot m S et e passeniger would squeal the captain would ipor ™ e sk him to pick out the man who robbed 4oy 5} Resil Niinests o oo him, and the gambler, if nabbed, would *hor. Alt himself another. havesto give up the stuff and get off the The a : Y-’ 1 Suis boat anywhere the captain chose to run B 2 dizzy I roment was her in. " The tricky gamblers used fto L0 be 3 1 Reves have false whiskers and wigs for these SCAnn: as 1 dia hen the kick was that made they couldn’t be picked out unc b g their disguises. Many a time I've know r of them to jump off the boat into the water before the boat landed to get away before the kick was made and the victim could %8¢ the op. look at the engers to pick out his erated and call occasions, so that man. There wasn't much prosec the 3300 an r then If a fellow was caught. The u\;’v:';.';fi that. Th e saw was boss, and he made the man give up, it $1000 better. I tho put him off the boat, and that settied ft. artfully dealer They diant jus a man right away saw it to “Were there an adows to tha gay S$1500. The times on the Mi slesippl River steamersy were playing Yes, occasiorally. The saddest event was that they ten all one that happened in the fall of 158, At about me u know. that time John Powell w: up thefs s the most fam- They were ous sport. He was a square man, hand- han A some, brave and not showy. He despised ing here, tc Then 1 the tricks of the tin-horn gentry I have myself. You ought to ha been telling you about. e had known Ing kings look at me. Well Andrew Jackson personally and had de- had three tens, the dealer had clined a nomination to Congress from a and I had but a pair of Kings, I'm play- the opener hree jJacks h