Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-03-23
An Interesting Incident
Of Life on the Missis-
sippi During the
War. ~.


police, and having tired of short.
cards they fell to telling stories.
"You may have heard this one" "
said a square-jawed, firm.faced,
gray.whiskered. man, "tor it was
printed briefly at the time but l
was there
SIN the latter part Of '64 1
made a trip down the river. -
There came on board at Cairo a
young paymaster who was on
his way to pay brigade of troops
somewhere in the neighborhood
of Vicksburg. 1t was very quiet
on the boat, and on the first night
below Cairo the paymaster spent a
good deal of his time after supper
walking up and down the saloon.
There was also walking up and
down the saloon a trim square.
shouldered man who seemed to
be suffering from the same tedi-
business and when they had met
a few times the stranger smiled
little at the paymaster and said
"'Dull.'
ODD dull said the pay
master. 5E.r. egrsfg
Suppose we have q little game
of draw" said the stranger.
"Good idea," said the paymas-
ter, and they sat down and went
at it.
"Both of them were playing to
pass off time, at least the paymas-
! ter was, and the other man seemed
to be. They had it one way and
the other for Gu hour or two, play
ing. about $5 for top bet, and
neither of them winning or losing
much, but still getting more inter
ested. Finally each seemed to
get big hand, and they began
betting in the most natural sort
of way. The fire had been smoul-
dering, you see, and it broke out
apparently without their knowing
! it. 't. q
"Neither Of them seemed dis
posed to lay down, and they kept
on raising until they were making
bets of Two, three, five hundred dol.
lars, and they got the pot up to a.
bout seven thousand. Then the
stranger rested bis bis eye on the
paymaster for a moment, and
made an estimate of the amount
of pluck and the probable size of
his pile, and the result of his OBJ
servations seemed to be a belief
that he could bluff him or freeze
him out, for he threw his hand
down on the table, and leaned O.
yer and pulled bowie-knife out
of his boot, and drove the point
of it through the cards into the
table. Then he took big wallet
out Of his breast pocket, and coun.
ted out twenty-one FIVE hundred
dollar notes. He saw the pay
masters last bet Of FIVE hundred,
and then hauled a revolver of his
hip, pushed the twenty other bills
inio the pot, and said: IF
81 raise you ten thousand dol
lars"
"The paymaster looked at the
gambler about two seconds. He
then beckoned to his colored boy,
a bright young fellow who had ia.
ken the thing in from the start,
and who would have given his
master the wink if he had ever
happened to look in his direction,
which he hadn't. But he bright
ened up when he hesrd the word,
and walked right straight of for
the paymaster's stateroom. He
disappeared moment, and then
showed up again, backing through
the door, dragging a trunk after
him; and he came down the sa-
loon rolling that trunk on it's end,
just as handy as though he had
smashed baggage on through
line all his life. The paymaster
took key out Of his breast pock.
ct, threw up the lid of the trunk,
and took of q sheet Of sole leather
that seemed to serve as a sort of
binder for the bundles Of bills uu-
derneath. He took two big pack.
ages out of the end and laid them
upon the table in front of him. -
He kept taking out and stacking
up till he built big triangular
shaped pile, like two pairs of stairs
meeting at the top and filled in SOL
i'd underneath. iiy 5nJ s5IIa
4 "Then he threw his hand down
on the table and pulled q bowie
knife out of his boot and spiked
lit down through the cards, and
while the handle was still shiver-
ling he handed the two bundles iHto
tho middle Of The table, and said :
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