Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-04-05
A BIG GAME.
An Interesting Incident of Life on the
Mississippi During the War.

A BIG GAME.
An Interesting Incident of Life on the
Mississippi During the War.
In the latter part Of 1864 I made a
trip down the river. There came on
board at Cairo 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 good deal
of his time after supper walking up and
down the saloon. There was also walk
ing up and down the saloon a trim,
square-shouldered man who seemed to
be suffering from the same tedious
ness; and when they had met a few
times the stranger smiled a little at the
paymaster and said:
Dull"
every dull" said the paymaster.
"Suppose we have little game of
draw" said the stranger.
"Good idea," said the paymaster,
and they sat down.
Both of them were playing merely
for pastime, at least the paymaster
was, and the other seemed to be- They
had it one way and the other for an
hour or two, playing about S. for a top
bet, and neither Of them winning or
losing much, but still getting more and
more interested. Finally each seemed
to get big hand, and they began bet
ting heavy In the most natural sort of
way. The fire had been smoldering
you see, and it broke out apparently
without their knowing it.
Neither Of them seemed disposed to
lay down, and they kept on raising and
raising till they were making bets of
two, three, five hundred dollars, and
they got the pot up to about seven
thousand. Then the stranger rested
his eye on the paymaster for mo-
ment, and made an estimate of the
amount Of his pluck and the probable
size of his pile, and the result Of his
observations seemed to be belief that
he could bluff him Or freeze him out,
for ne threw his hand down on the ia
BILE, and leaned over and pulled bowie
knife out of his boot, and drove the
point of it down through the cards into
the table. Then he took a big wallet
out Of his breast pocket and counted
out twenty-one five hundred-dollar bills.
| He saw the paymaster's last bet of five
hundred, and then hauled revolver
off his hip, pushed the twenty-one 9th
er bills into the pot and said:
L raise you ten thousand dollars p
The paymaster looked at the gam
bier about two seconds. Then he beck
oned to his colored boy, q bright young
fellow who would have given his mas
ter the wink if he had ever happened
to look in his direction, which he had
not. But he frightened up when he
heard the word, and walked straight off
to his masters stateroom. He disap-
peared moment, and then showed up
again, backing through the door, drag
ging a trunk after him; and he came
down the saloon rolling that trunk
along on its end, just as handy as if he
had smashed baggage on a through
line all his life.
The paymaster took a key out of his
vest pocket, threw up the lid Of the
trunk, and took off a sheet of sole
leather that seemed to serve as a sort
of binder for the bundles of bills under
meath. He took two big packages out
of the end and laid them upon one side
of the table. Then be began taking
out the other bundles and stacking
them up on the table in front of him.
He kept taking out stacking up till he
had built big triangle-shaped pile,
| like two pairs of stairs meeting at the
top and all filled in solid underneath.
Then he threw his hand down on the
table ano pulled a bowie knife out of
his boot and spiked it down through the
| cards, and while the handle was still
shivering he handed the two bundles
into the middle of the table and said:
81 see your ten thousand dollars"
here he braced himself back against
the pile and began moving it up to the
table, continuing to talk all the while
"and [ raise you hundred and seven
ty-fiye thousand p and then Che did it
so quick that [ couldn't see when it was
done) he had a pistol off of each hip
and was resting an elbow about half
way up On each of the greenback stairs,
both shooters covering the gambler,
and holding them very straight and
steady, too.
Now, the gambler was an older man
and of much more experience than the
paymaster, and under any sort of ordi-
nary circumstances he could have
handled him ten to one, and he knew
it, and had no thought of laying down
even then, and he seemed to revolve
the thing in his mind for about quar-
ter of minute, and when he had set
tied what to do he looked up ready to
act, but one glance at the paymaster
made him change his mind; for he
could see shining through the young
mans face all the accumulated unused
grit of years, and man with half an
eye could see that he meant bust
| ness.
The gamblerrealized that fact. He
pulled his knife out of the table, stuck
his pistol into his pocket, and walked off
down. the saloon, whistling Rosa Lee +"
just as soft and pleasant as though he
was going for a cigar after dinner.
Then the paymaster booted his knife
and'slung his shooters and packed his
trunk, putting in along with the rest the
thirteen thousand odd of the gamblers
money: and he didn't nlay any more