Weekly Trinity journal., 1872-04-20
MY FIRST FIGHT WITH THE
TIGER.

was only twenty-one when l first
went to st. Louis. ST. Louis is, and was,
even then, large town. 1t had u good
many people in it of all sorts, especially
Of bad ones. Mind you, that was long
ago. Well, | went there. | thought l
knew few" wasn't green. | new
or was as knew of. But. Howev-
er, the reader may judge for himself.
put up at the first hotel" l don't
chose to say which it was, for fear of con-
sequences. had money; that is, l had
six hundred dollars, contided to me by an
indulgent parent for mercantile pur-
poses. The first day spent in looking
around" and taking drinks" The sec
ond day l "took drinks" and didn't
"look around " so much. The third day
-. Ah there hangs tale Ahem
The third day l made the acquaintance
of Elverly! Elverly was II splendid fell
low, and boarded at my hotel Elverly
was introduced to me by mutual friend
whom did not know much, but believed
in great deal.
The day wore on Il believe that is the
proper expression lor saying, 1t got
later.w Supper was ready. 1t is, per-
haps, needless to say that we had taken
drinks before supper.
Elverly, in the course of cold duck,
said Champagne" We did it, and
when we arose from supper we were in
the state of mind to welcome secession"
and bloody time" generally. Then
we took another drink or two.
Then Elverly proposed "going some-
where"
And we uproarously consented to "go
somewhere" When we say WE, we
speak in the editorial sense, because the
crowd was soon reduced to Elverly and
the subscriber (who don't subscribe.)
Well, we went somewhere"
Somewhere where there was a long Ia
BILE and lot OF cards pasted on green
cloth.
Elverly told me he was going to bet.
said, "All right" Elverly bet. l
watched Elverly, but didn't see anything
further resulting from it than the fact
that man, who had box full of cards,
scraped up lot of ivory things with fig
urcs on them, and chucked down other
similar ivory things. Well, after while
Elverly said, Lend me ten dollars"
had faith in Elverly-I loaned him ten.
Then, after another while he said, "Why
don't you 60 in?" had faith in Elver-
ly; so "went in" got twenty dollars
(by Elvcrly's advice) changed into ivory
things that Elverly called chips. Then
put them down on cards, ms Elverly
told me. And sometimes | took them
up again with some more ivory things on
them. But generally, l didn't.
Then Elvcrly said: "Let's go and
take supper" Such supperl A-a-a
everything good to eat, and to drink
That's the best description l can give.
Then Elverly said:
"Are you going home already?"
And |, influenced by the supper, etc,
said, "Of course not" So we went up
to the table with the cards pasted on it
again. And | bet-that is, Elverly bet
for me. And got fifty dollars changed
into ivory things and lost 'em. And
got hundred dollars changed into ditto
and lost 'em ; and then another, and lost
M, 4 Inuf n all n,paJnaIlx RAT |
lost it. Yes, sir, lost it, as it were, in
sensibly, sometimes getting streak
ahead sometimes behind. But | lost
Then | counted up my money. / pre-
tended that | wanted to go out, because
was too proud to count it before the
crowd.
And | counted it--ard had three hund-
red dollars left, besides little small
change.
And | says to myself, I've got enough
Of this.
And made n motion to go. But FL
verify overhauled me, and said
You ain,t going SO earlyY"
Earlyw says "well, your right !;
it is early; but | have got enough, be-
lieve."
Well" says he, "Tm sorry you've
been unlucky; but such is life. Let's
take a-parting drink"
And took a-parting drink and that
drink knocked me. / pledge you my
word | don't remember thing after that
drink. don't say that it was drugged.
| wouldn't say it.
But | awol<e the next morning in my
own hotel-in my own cham ber-with all
my usual clothes on the Aoor-but with
out cent of the six hundred dollars con-
fded to me by an indulgent parent.
Some persons might draw moral from
this true sketch. Let them +! l don't
prevent them. But Tor we-as you
please-preier to leave it as it is.