The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-05-29
+" SaddIing the Horse" in Chicago
Chicago Tribune


Among the objects to which the great
and benevolent principle of co operation
can be applied, by no means the least
important is that OF skinning an unsus-
pectlng stranger for the drinks and
cigars by the familiar and apparently
honest process of +" saddling the horse, /"
This athletic exercise-let it be said for
the benefit OF the sisters, and the cousins
and the auDts OF the gentleman reader
consists in writing on slips of paper as
many numbers as there are players-1,
2, 3, 4, etc. One of the numbers is then
repeated on another slip of paper, and
anchored in q safe place of concealment
under decanter or a match~safe; then
each player draws a slip, and the victim
on whose slip is the fatal number is
elected for the drinks, or cigars, as the
case may be. A simple young man
from st. Louis came TO town one day
last week aud fell among-among the
board of trade men, who toOk him to a
saloon, and proposed that they should
saddle the horse for drinks. There were
six OF them present, including the gen.
tleman from the butt end of the big
bridge. The barkeeper prepared the
slips, and placed the fatal number under
| decanter, and each player drew his lot.
The st. Louis man was courteously all
lowed to name his first, and he cried
aloud, " Four" "That ends the game, n
said the arkeeper-fyou're stuck" and,
on examining the voucher under the de-
canter, the st. Louis man found that it
bore ga >" Well, that was quick
work ! What're you going to have,
boys2'' he said, and they all took
| brandy. Now, gimme my revenge, -
he said; and they gave him his revenge /;
and, the slips having been distributed,
st. Louis was stuck again, and paid
tribute, to the amount of 81 so, into the
Golfers of the metropolis OF the west.
The st. Louis man said luck was against
him, and demanded another trial, and
this time also he was stuck. And so he
was next time, when he remarked that
he had never seen such a run of luck in
mis- hTe-it was clean against the doc
! trine of chances; but he would saddle
the horse just once more for the cigars
| They did SO, and, to let him see that
every thing was tair and above board, let
| him put the voucher containing the fatal
number into his Watchcase. Vain pre-
caution-he was stuck againI By this
time time that unhappy st. Louisan had
got mad, and he swore a dreadful oath
that he would win one round of drinks
from Chicago il he had to stand up to
that counter all summer. When
the saloon closed, at II p. m.1
the gentleman from st. Louis had
been stuck eighty-nine times in sue
cession, and no one else had lost a
single round-an occurrence so singular
that an eminent mathematician has
estimated that the chances are 1885,
324, 674, 81, 586, 274, 498, 1926 to L against
its ever happening again in the next
10000 years, although all the population
of the earth, in gangs of six, should go
on saddling the horse once every minute
for twenty-foUr hours daily, Sundays
and legal holidays included. The St.
LOuisan took the next mornings train
for home, intending to sell his house, and
come back and renew the aTduous strife.
It is not at all likely that he viii ever
win one round. The boys and a bar
keeper belong to q cooperative Saddle
the-HoTse Mutual Aid and Benefit
society. Whenever the barkeeper writes
on the tickets, he puts the same number
on each of them, including the one under
the decanteT, and gives a signal to the
boys what the figure is. Then, no mat
thr what slip the stranger draws, the
fatal number is on it f; and, if he doesn't
speak first, all the others have to do is
to call out any other number, and chuck
their slips into the spittOOn. In simpli-
city and sureness this invention beats &
corner, or even a returning board.