The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-01-12
DUTCH HANK
His Coolncss in Adversity and His
Remarkable INSIGHT.
Albany Journal !

IAlbany Journal]
Dutch Hank, y said gambler of promi-
nence in Albany to-day to ia Journal reporter,
was not only the best hand at poker who
ever antied up in big game, but he was
high-toned and straight You could shut
your eyes, If you were sitting in with him,
without running the risk of being turned
over by crooked work They tell me he piled
up snug little fortune of 500, ,OO0 I've
seen him with half that coin in his fist, for he
always Travelled with big Doodle to back
his hand. He'd discount an iceberg for cool
ness, he would The little Dutchman would
drop SIC, 900 and $50, 900 at a sitting without
wlnking his eye, and when dead broke would
get up with a story that would make
horse laugh. It's pretty frigid
rooster who viii see $4,000 go Into the
hole and never peep. That was the stuff
Dutch Hank was made of. Squarel A fairer
hand never cut for deal. But you couldn't
do him up on any racket that was ever in
vented. Nobody ever downed him on cold
deck or fancy shuttle. Once he ran afoul
of sharper from Chicago, who had been
making himself millionaire at the expense
of the best of us. Dutch Hank tackled him in
the Brewer house, New York That was his
hang out ON his periodical voyages to the
metropolis. Well, the Chicagoan was slicker
than wizard. Hank held cracking good
fists and didn't want for luck when he drew
to I'LL, but somehow or othee the chap from
Chicago raked in the pile in the finest style
OF the art Dutchy only made face or two
and took his Cruel. He had dropped couple
of thousand. The Chicagoan whenever
pot came his way ceolly pulled it over, and
piling one bill on Others heid it down with
a little gold weight 1t was pretty little
ornament, with diamond in the top. The
game kept on, Hank being the loser at every
turn.
Finally, before opening his hand, he said:
My frind. shust sposen you put dot sinner
there into your pocket. Dot diamond he
hurts my eyes, vos blind in Won already
and can't see out of the odder.' Hank meant
that he wanted the diamond removed. The
Chlcago gam demonstrated, but Hank in
sisted in his own good-natured way, saying
that he couldn't play until the sinner was put
out OF sight. He carried his point, of course.
From that point luck changed. Dutch Hank
quit the game the winner of nearly ten
thousand. The weight used by the Chicago
gambler was an ingenious reflector, so placed
that 1t revealed his opponents hand. He read
the reflection with a magnifying glass,
which he used on the pretense of being near
sighted Dutch Hank was the first man to
tumble to the trick on which the Chicagoan
had won three or four hundred thousand
Was Dutch Hank known in Albany!n
Yes, to some extent among the richer
gamblers. He never bothered with small fry
In the old Tweed days he used to come down
to give the legislators lessons in poker. He
took many big rolls out of their pockets. The
fraternity will be sorry to hear that he has
passed in his chips He was as jolly as
Charley Backus, with whom he was good
friends, and on the stage would have made
his fortune. He had a face as funny as a
mask