News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-08
A WOMAN'S CURSE.
uow 1T HAS FOLLOWED A GAMBLER
OVER LAND AND SEA FOR TEN
YEARS
And Forced Him to Break Up his Nefnrious
business and try to Make Reparation Tor
the Wrong Done.


"If you want to hear strange story,
said gentleman to a reporter OF the
San Francisco AhG, "engage that gray
haired man in conversation and get him
10 tell you his history. twill repay you
for your time" and he indicated pre-
maturely-aged man with sad face sit
ting in the sun on one of the benches OF
the park. The reporter needed no sec
ond invitation, and was soon seated by
the man with the strange history.
81 am told," said the seeker after
facts, "that you have life story, strange
in the extreme, and that you are not
averse to relating it..
The eyes of the man were turned on
the speaker a moment, and then folding
his white hands in his lap he said:
eyes, it is a story. 1 am murderer
and reformed gambler; but you need
not shrink so from me, for the murder
was not intentional. Ten years ago l
owned the largest and most popular
gambling parlors in the city of Chicago,
and on Saturday nights dealt my own
faro game, in which business, of course,
I made a great deal of money. Many
unpleasant incidents grew out of my
business, but always excused it on the
ground that men did not have to play
my games any more than they were
obliged to drink poison. finally got to
noticing and expecting one young man
in particular, who always came in when
it was my night to deal.
cat first he played boldly, and as a
consequence, lost heavily; but as he
grew more familiar with the games he
played carefully, and acted as though
life depended on his winning, which, in
fact, was the case, as it afterward
proved. I got acquainted with him, adj
dressed him as Brown, but knowing that
that was not his true name. [ think he
followed the game for months, winning
little sometimes, but generally losing
heavily. At last he came one night and
I saw by his flushed face that he had
been drinking, although he looked ap-
parentIy cool. He sat down at the
table, drew out small roll of money,
and laying it down before him, said ::
There is in that little pile my fortur e,
my honor and my life. [ either win or
lose all this night. Begin your game;
/ am ready Others Joined and played
for awhile, but finally Withdrew from
y
man at my right.
"He played to win, but fate was
against him, for he lost, won and lost
again, ard finally, after two hours OF
playing, evidently in the most fearful
suspense, he lost his last dollar. Lean
ing back in his chair, with compressed
lips and face b!anched to a deathly
whiteness, he looked me in the eyes a
NOM ent, and rising, said:
L" MY money, honor and happiness
have gone over the table, never more to
return. / said my life shall go with it,
and it shall. Tell my wife l had gone
too far to return.
"Before we could prevent it, he put a
Derringer to his breast and shot himself
through the heart, falling upon the
table that had been his ruin and death.
His wife came, awful in the majesty
of her grief, and after satisfying herself
that her husband was dead she asked:
Where is the keeper of this dreadful
place p 1 was pointed oat, and, striding
up to me so that her finger almost
touched my pa;lid face, she exclaimed
in tones that are ringing i'll my ears
yet: ooh, you soulless wretch, with
heart Of stone You have lured my
husband from me, sent him to perdition,
widowed me and orphaned my children.
You are his murderer, and may Gods
curses rest upon you eternailyr And
with wild scream, ooh, my husband !
my children 7 she fell fainting on the
body of the corpse.
81 fingered for weeks in brain fever,
that curse seeming always to be the
burden of my mind. On my recovery
L burned the fixtures of my den and
closed the place and devoted the most
of my time to travel, with hope Of escap.
ing that woman's just curse, but I can't
1 believe that it is on me forever and L
feel that was that mans murderer. l
am rich and my first attempt was to get
the dead mans wife to accept an annuity
from me, but she refused ali aid and
tried to support herself by her own
labor. ] relieved my mind to some
extent, however, by settling a certain
sum on her and on her children, which
passes through my fathers hands, and
ostensibly comes directly from him.
Her children are receivinga fine educa-
ton by this means, and my will, safely
locked in my fathers Office, bequeaths
to her and her children my entire wealth,
some 100000 Ny life," he con-
tinued, sis devoted largely to visiting
gambling dens. where 1 meet young
men and warn them of their danger"