The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-03-23
a BIG CANE OF BEIW.
An Interesting Iaeldent or Life CT the
Mississippi During the Var.

An Interesting IAeIdent or Life CT tGc
Mississippi DurlDg the War
They were sitting around the taol'
I In Fifteenth ward faro-bsnk that ]:
temporarily closed through some mis-
1 understanding with the police, and
( having got tired OF shOrt-esris they
/ fell to telling stories. "YOu may hsv,
heard this one," said a square-jawed
/ firm-faced. gray-whiskered mau, 'fol
it was printed briefly at the time
but l was there:
sin the latter part of '64 l msde
/ trip down the river. There came on
/ board at Cairo q young paymastel
sgbo was On his way TO pay brigsd.
of troops somewhere in the neighbJr'
/ hood Of VieksbnrE. IL was very quiel
on the bat, aud on the first night be-
lOV Cairo the paymaster spent good
deal of his time after supper watkins
/ up and down the saloon. There WA
also walking up and down the saloo1
! a trim. sq1are-shouldered man whS
seemed to be suffering from the same
/ tediousness aud when they had me-
q few times the stranger smiled a lit
tie at the psymsster, and said +:
"'DuII.'
"'D-I dul',' said the paymas
ter.
{" Suppose we have a little game o.
draw said the stranger.
"fGood idea," said the psym asteri
and they sat down and went at it.
"BOth of them were playing mere
Iy to pass time, at least the paymas.
ter was, and the other mau seemed tc
be. They had it one way aud the
other for an hour or two, playing
about five dollars for top bet, and
neither of them winning or losing
much, but still getting more and more
interested. Finally each seemed tc
get big hand, and they began bet
ting heavy ia the most natural sort oI
way. The FIRE had been smoulderingl
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 until they were making
bets of two, three, five hundred dol
lars, and they got the pot up to about
seven thousand dollars. Then the
stranger rested his eyes on the pay
master for a moment, and made an
estimate of the amount of his pluck
and the probable amount of his pile,
and the result of his observations
seemed to be q belief that he could
bluff him or freeze him out, for be
threw bis hand down on the table,
and leaned over and pulled a. bowie
knife out Of his boot, and drove the
point of It down through the cards in-
to the table. Then he took big wal
let out of his breast pocket, and count
ed out twenty-one observation-disclosures
notes. He saw the psymaster's last
bet of five hundred, and then hauled
a revolver of his hip, pushed the
twenty other bills into the pot, and
said:
81 raise you ten thousand dOllars. +"
"The paymaster looked a. the gam
bier about two seconds. Then he
beckoned to his eolOred boy, bright
Young fellow who had taken 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 frightened up when
he heard the word, and walked right
straight off for the psymaster's state
room. He disappeared 8 moment
and then showed up again, backing
through the door, dragging trunk af-
ter him; and he came down, the sa-
loon rolling that trunk along on its
end, Just as handy as though he
smashed baggage on through line ali
his life. The paymaster took a key
out of his vest pocket, threw up the
lid of the trunk, and took off sheet
of sole-leather that seemed to serve as
a sort of binder for the bundles of
bills beneath. He took two big pack
ages out Of the end and laid them
upon one side of the table. Then he
began taking out the othar bundles
and stacking them upon the table in
front of him. He kept taking out
and stacking up till he had built q
big triangular-shsped pile, like two
pairs of stairs meeting at the top and
filled in solid underneath.
"Then he threw his hand down on
the table and 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: "I see your ten
thousand dOIlars.u Here he braced
himself back against the pile and
began showing it up the table, con-
tinuing to talk all the time-'and /
raise you q hundred and seventy-fiVe
thousand 90 an l then (he did it so
quick that couldn't see when 1t was
doue) be had a pistol off Of each hip,
and was resting an elbow about half
way up on each side OF the green back
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 ordinary 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 a quarter of minute,
and when he had settled 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 wears, and q man with an eye could
have seen that he meant business.
"Fhe gambler realized that fact.
He pulled his knife out of the table,
stuck his pistol into his pocket, and
walked off down to the saloon, whis-
tling Rosa Lee just as soft aud pleas
ant as though ne was going for q cigar
after dinner. Then the paymsster
booted his knife and slung his shooter
and packed his trunk, putting in
along with the rest the thirteen thous-
and odd of the gamblers money; and
he didn't take any more draw that
trip.
dAnd 1 am told that he was so
much impressed by the revelation to
himself of his own backbone and
nerve that he made up his mind there
was something better for him to do
than wasting his time in gambling,
and he hasn't handled card since" ("
N Y. Sun.