Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1877-09-20
Throwing Up his Hand
and his Life. fe
An Incident of Circus Life.

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liberal allowance of tobacco, :"
reckon that if some of those fsl-
lows what write poetry had go
hold of the story of 0. JOSEPH
Beggs, they'd have made nice
thing Of it."
"What was that?" asked.
"Take a seat, and III tell it tc
you"
So / sat down upon the dancing
barrel while the old canvasmar
related to me the story Of o. 10
seph Beggs.
"That's what we always called
him." be began-"O. Joseph
The O stood for Oliver / believe
/ don't know how he got to par
his name in the middle that way
but everybody in the company
spoke Of him as 0. Joseph, and i
seemed to please himssmightily
Occasionally some new member
would call him Joe or Joseph, but
Beggs would look SO panied like
at such times that his friends
stuck to the 0. He was nothing
but groom, you understand, but
everybody like him, and treated
him kindly. He must have been
sixty years old, and from the
time he was toddling kid he has
scented the sawdust. He was
trained for a rider; but he met
with bad fall when he was about
twenty or thereabouts, and that
knocked him out Of the ring.
But | believe hewould have stuck
to the canvas somehow if he'd
had to stand up for a center pole.
cit was the season that Horton
took his company down the Miss
issippi, may be you remember ii?
We travelled on a little wheezy
steamer which Horton had char
tered, and pitched the canvas a.
long the banks of the river where
ever there was a settlement.
The company was no great shakes;
but the field was a fresh one in
them days, and we did good
business. o. Joseph had charge
of some Of the horses, and ! was
experimenting the vas.
Some of the company had got In
to the habit Of playing poker, N
in order to kill time while on the
boat. One night they had per
suaded 0. Joseph to sit down to
little game. There were three
others playing, and among them
was Tom Long. He was hur-
die rider-not a very good one,
although be would blow more a.
bout his performances than any
other man you ever saw. | new
er liked the fellow, for he was a
regular bully. / saw him teat
his ten-year-old boy one day un-
til the youngster could scarcely
stand, and that was enough for
me. A man what'll abuse a wo-
man or kid amt fit to live.
Them's my sentiments. Well
as | was saying, O. Joseph sat
down to play along with Tom
Long and a couple of other per-
formers. The boys had just got
their salaries, and were tolerable
flush. They played along for an
hour or so, and thenO. Joseph got
three kings dealt 10 him. He
drew two cards and got a pair Of
sevens. Twas watching the game;
so / know the hand came to him
fair and squar. The other two
players went out on the deal, but
Tom Long took one card. Then
he and 0. Joseph began to bet.
They run the spot up to twenty
dollars, which was the extent of
Begg's pile,
"What have yeu gct?' asked o.
Joseph.
"a full hand, with queen up?'
says Tom Long. And he was
just about raking in the stakes
when o. Joseph said in a quiet
way:
Il beat you, Tom, mine is a
full, with kings upi'
CAT this Tom got mad, and be-
gan to swear like a pirate. He said
Beggs had cheated him, and that
nobody could play a skin game on
him. Then suddenly he jumped
up, and struck o. Joseph a stun
ming blow under the eye. He
was going to hit him again, but
the rest Of us interfered. Beggs
picked himself up, and never said
a word. lie even didn't claim
the stakes which he had fairly
won, but took simply bis own
money. It was a blasted outrage,
and if | could have had my way
nhnnf II I'd thrashed Tom Long