The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1870-10-21
NO. 568.

that painful fact. Those boys ha,
, certainly beon betting money on
game of chance. Even public sym
pathy was AROUSED in behalf Of Stur
, rgis.. Peoplcsaid 1t was aepity to So
him mar his successful career with 4
: big prominent 1Ase like this whicl
must 60 against him. -. -
But after several restless night
J. and inspired idea hedsspsn9 Stut
Igis, ADD be sprsneaut of bed delight
!, ed. He, thought he saw his wa,
Through. The next day he whisper.
cd around little among his clients
Fand few friends, and then when the
case came up inoourt he acknowlede.
ed the sevcn-up and the betting, and
as his sole defence, had the astound-
ing effrontery to put in the plea that
old sledge was not a game Of chance A.!
There was the. broadest sort of q
smile all ever the faces of that soph
isticatct audience. The~jndgc smil-
ed with the rest. But Sturgis main
tanned u countcnance whose earnest
ness was even severe. The opposite
counsel tried to ridicule him out of
his position, and did not ,succ eed.-
The judge jested in pondcrous way
about the thing, but did not move
him. The matter was becoming
grave. The judge lost little Of his
patience, and said the joke had gone
far enough. Jim Sturgis said he
knew Of no joke in the matter-his
clients could not be punished for in
dulging in what some people consider
game Of chance, until it was pro-
zen that 1T was a game of chance.
Jud &c and counsel said that would be
an easy matter, and forthwith called
Deacons Job, Peters, Burke, and
Johnson, and Dominies Writ and
Migg lee, to testify and they unani-
mously, and with strong feeling,
put down the legal bubble Of Sturgis,
by pronouncing that old sledge seas q
game Of chance. 'a~F - - y"'T
"What do you call it now ~ said
the judge. T. .. .,. ....:,s.
II call it game of science !"-rc-
torted Sturgis; land I'll prove it,
too !" - f.: vg~ t--. >rz'r...' :
+ Theysaw his little gams. He
brought in cloud Of witnesses, and
produced an overwhelming mass of
testimony, to show that old sledgc
was not game Of chance, but game
of science.
Instead Of being the simplest case
in the world, it had somehow turned
out to be an excessively knotty one.
The judge scratched his head over it
a while, and said there was no way
Of coming to determination, be-
cause just as many men could be
brought into court who would testify
on one side, as could. be found to tes
tify on the othor. But he said hc
was willing to do the fair thing by all
parties, and would act upon any sug-
gestiou Mr.. Sturgis would make for
the solution Of the difficulty. -" -,
Mr.. Sturgis was on his feet in
second ]: -, ... -..,
Impancl jury of six of each,
Luck versus Science-give them can
dies and a couple of decks of cards,
send them into the jury room and
abide by the result !" ..-
There was no disputing the fair.
ness of tho proposition. The four
deasons and the two dominies were
sworn in as the "chance /" jurymen,
and six inveteratc old seven-up pro-
fessors were chosen to represent the
seis nee - side of the issue. They
retired to tho jury room. -a ~
In about two hours, Deacon Peters
sent into court to borrow three dol
lars from q friend. (Sensation.) }
In about two hours more, Dominic
Migglcs cent into court to borrow
stake" from a friend. (Sensation. J
During the next three or four hours,
the other dominic aud, the other dea-
cons sent into court for small loans.
And still the packed audience wait
ed, for it was prodigious occasion
in Bulls Corners, and one in which
every father Of family was necessa-
rily interested. ..:.......... !. .... r..
The rest Of the story can be told
briefly. About daylight tks jury
came in, and Deacon Job, the fore.
man, read the following 9.s
+. VERDICT. "at /
e. We, the jury in the case of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky Us j ohm
Wheeler, ct sag.. have carefully con-
sidered the points Of the ease, and
tested the merits of the several theo.
ries advanced. and do hereby unani-
mously decide that the game COM
monty known as old sledge, or seven.
up. is eninently . game Of science
and not of chance. In demonstra-
tion whereof, it is hereby and herein
stated, iterated, reiterated, set forth,
and made ma anifsst, that. during the
entire night, the chance'' men
never won > game. or turned jack.
although both feats were common and
frequent to the opposition and fur.
thermore, in support of this our yer.
diet, we call attention to tho signi6-
cant fact that the '.chance" men are
all busted and the ''science'' men
4