Morris tribune., 1881-07-07
Nasby's Betting Young Man,

rest and contentment in her husbands love.
Nasby's Betting Young Man.
From the London Letter to the Toledo Blade
Among tile passengers was a young man
from near Oshkosh, Wis, named Tibbitts.
and he very soon acquired the reputation
which he deserved, of being the very best
poker player on the ship. He was uneasy
till game was organized in the morning,
and growled ferociously when the lights
We're turned down at twelve at night He
was impatient with slow players because, as
he said. all the time they wasted was SO
much loss to him. He could drink more
Scotch whiskey than any one on the ship,
and he was the pet of the entire crew, for
his hand is always in his pocket. He ruin
ed the rest of the passengers by his reck-
less iberality. His father was rich Wis
consin farmer, and this is his first expert
ence in travelling.
What time he could spare from poker
and his meals was devoted to writing q
letter to his mother, for whom the yonng
scapegrace did seem to have great deal of
respect and very considerable amount of
love. His letter was finished the day before
we made Queenstown. SO that he could
mail it from there. Heread it to me. The
sentences in parenthesis were his COM
ments;
On BOARD THE CITY OF RICHMOND,
NEAR QUEENSTOWN, May %, 1881.
DEAR MOTHER: While there is every
thing to interest one from the interior in q
sea voyage, 1 confess that have not eaj joy
ed the passage at all. I have no heart for
it, for my mind is perpetually on yon and
my home in the far west. (You see it will
please tho old lady to know that I am
thinking of her all the time. Didn't scoop
that jack pot nicely last evening? Hadn't a
thing in my hand, and Filkins actually
opened it with three deuces.) The ship is one
of the strongest and best on the ocean, and
is commanded and manned by the best
sailors on the SEA. The passengers are all
good, serious people, with perhaps one ex-
ception. There is one young man from
New York of dissolute habits, who has a
bottle of whiskey in his ROOM and who ac-
tualy tried to tempt me to play cards with
him. But he is known and avoided by the
entire company.
We have regular services in the grand
saloon every morning, and occasional meet
ings for vocal exercises and conversation
at other hours. have Just come from one
at which
"You are not going to send this internal
aggregation of lies to your mother,are you?'
I asked
why not? She don't know any better,
audit will make her feel good. I have my
opinion of man who won't give his old
mother pleasure when he can just as well
as not. will, you bet.
But such atrocious lies!'
CPL chance that. can stand lies of that
1 love my mother, do. Let's see, where
was I? Oh, yes"
have Just come from one at which the
discussion was mostly on the progress of
missions in the far west. (The cid lady is
treasurer of society for the conversion of
the Apaches, or some other trlbe.) Just
now the sailors are heaving log, which
they do to ascertain the speed the ship is
making. Mr.. Inman, the owner of this ship,
is very wealthy man, and he has every
thing of the best. He furnishes his vessels
with nothing but black walnut logs to heave
while the others use pine or poplar. Capt.
Leitch is a very humane man, and never
uses profane language to his crew. On
other ships the men who 60 aloft are com
PEELED to climb tarred rope ladders, but
Capt. Leitch has passenger elevators rig
ged to the masts, such as you saw in the
Palmer house in Chicago, in which they
sit comfortably and are hoisted up by q
steam engine.
"Great heavens You are not surely 60
ing to send that?"
"Why not? What is an old lady in silver
spectacles on farm thirty miles from any
water more than well going to know about
a steamer? 1 must write her something
for she persuaded the old gentleman to lei
me take the trip. Iaint ungrateful, I amt
I'll give her one good letter. anyhow. Why
by the way you talk, should suppose you
never had a mother, and if you had that
you didn't know how to treat her. I hate 6
man who don't love his mother and ISM
willing to sacrifice himself for her. All
can do fer her now is to write to her anC
write such letters as will interest her, anC
the dear old girl is going to get them if the
paper and ink holds out, and they are go.
ing to be good ones, too"
I have got to be good deal of a sailor
and if it were not for leaving you, which
couldn't do, believe should take one Of
these ships myself. I know all about star.
board, and can tell the stern from the
bow. On ship you don't say I will gt
down stairs" but you say II will go below.
One would think that 1 had been born OF
the sea, and was true child of the ocean.
Owing to my strictly temperate habits a
home, and my absolute abstemiousness OF
the ship, have escaped the terrors of sea
sickness. AS you taught me, true happi
ness can only be found in virtue. Thu
wicked young man from New York has beer
sick half the time ,as young man who keep
a bottle in his room should be.
The nice wooden stockings you knit fo
me have been great comfort, and all I re
greet is, am afraid I have not enough O.
them to last me till get home. - -
1.-THE young villain had purchasedin New
York an assortment of the most picturesque
hosiery procurable, which he was wearing
with low cut shoes. The wooden stockings
he gave to his room steward.
The tracts you put in my valise have
read over and over again, and have len
them since to the passengers who prefe
serious reading to trashy novels and litera
ture of that kind. What time I have hat
to spare for other reading have devoted tt
books of travel SO that may see Europe in
diligently.
BY the way" he stopped to soy. ''ar,
the Argyle rooms in London actual,
closed, and is the Mabille in Paris as livel,
as it used to be? Great Cesar! Won't
make it lively for them"
In another day we shall land in Liver
pool, and then shall be only five hour
from London. I long to reach London
for I do SO delight to hear Spurgeon, ant
attend the Exeter hall meetings, as You de
sired me. But as we shall reach Londol
on Tuesday, ! shall be compelled to wal
till the following Sunday, five long days.
Please, ma, have pa send me draft a
my address at London at once Find tn
expense of travel much greater than sup
posed, and fear / shall not have enough
Your affectlonate son, LEMUEL.
There, said Lemuel as he sealed In
letter, that is what call q good letter
.u= lady will read it over and over t
herself, and then she will read il to all tn
neighbors. It will do her heap of good
Goodbye. The boys are waiting for m
in the smoking room"
And stopping at the bar to take a drink
the liberality of English measure was no
too great for 'him--he was, a minute after
absorbed in the mysteries of poker, an
was 'raking in" the money of others at
lieyly rate.
And the letter went to the good oil
Il mother and probably did her mol An