The Nevada journal., 1857-01-02

DIAMOND CUT DIAMoND.-ltwas only
"a few evenings ago that l happened to
be sitting at side table in RS eating
saloon, in this place, indulging in ga few
fried" before going to bed The oysters
were particularly fine. and should have
.engrossed all my attention, but visions
of doctors and dyspepsia 'eould intrude
themselves upon me the opening of the
door disturbed my not very pleasant rev.
cries, and when raised my head, my
eyes fell upon rather strange looking
speciman of humanity-he evidently
belonged to that class of persons called
Yankees-not a genuine Yankee, such
as came from Vermont State, and are
notorious FOR their wooden nutmeg pro-
lpensiti9s; not that kind !; here we apply
Ethe term "Y Yankee" to those individuals
who come from down the river scmi-an-
nually with lumber. Well, as soon as
he entered, he walked, or rather lounged
up to the counter, behind which r. was
standing, and after watching his motions
for moment or two broke out with
81 say, Capting, they look plump,
y
A plate was put before him, and R..
commenced serving them out pretty
rapidly, as l thought, but not quite fast
enough for the impatient river-man the
oyster hardly touched the plate before
the Yankee would hook it up with his
fork, and gulp it down at one swallow,
and then he would flourish his fork be-
fore RS face and cry, "Hurry up the
cakes! Wake up, old mani" &C., until
R., who had always prided himself on
his dexterity in uncasing the sea toads'
became quite excited. AT last, in reply
to some cutting joke of the Yankee, r..
said, in no very gentle tone !:
;Iook here, friend, you seem to pride
yourself on being fast eater. Now,
III bet you $50 | can open oysters fas-
ter than you can pick them up and swal-
low them and not half try"
81 don't like to be blutfed off in that
way, stranger" says the Yankee, ''but
you are ieeae ahead ofmy pile. 'Spose
you make it $40, and | swan if I don't
take you, and give You five for star
| ter"
This was agreed to, and both parties
pulled out their money and deposited it
in my hands
After all was fixed, r. deliberately
opened the five oysters he was to start
with, and then rolling his sleeves up to
his elbows, called out to the Yankee,
who was standing, fork in hand, anxious
ly awaiting the commencement. "Now
for it." The words had hardly left his
mouth before he had added another to
the plate, and third, followed each
other in quick succession. The Yankee
was not idle all this time, but had been
slowing them away at arate that threat
ened soon to empty the plate before him.
r. was beginning to look blank, and |
was just thinking that he was going to
give up and acknowledge the corn, ;"
when, suddenly, by a dexteious twitch,
he threw one out on the bar counter
Yankee stopped moment to cry 'foul'
but seeing that one had been gained on
him by his hesitation, swallowed it, dust
and all. The next one went clear over
the counter on the floor, aad the next
The Yankee evidently began to see the
game, for instead of losing time, expos
tulating, went scrambling over the floor
after the oysters, which now flew to all
corners of the room, only waiting to give
them wipe on the sleeve of his coat
before engulping theme Thus we were
kept in doubt which would beat. until r.
capped the climax by making one alight
accidentally, of course=Jight ia the
spit boz. The astonished man gazed
for moment at the oyster, as it lay,
half embedded in the dirty saw dust,
and then dropping his fork, made
straight coat tail out of a side door.
AS the door closed upon him, all hands
joined in hearty laugh at the expense
of the vanquished hero, in which RS
voice was most conspicuous, but woful
change came over his countenance as
he examined the stakes which | had
just handed him. You may judge how
the laugh turned when he exclaimed in
voice not unlike the rumbling of dis
tant thunder, Counterfeit, by the eter-
nal !"