, 1885-01-14
The Tissue PAPER RACKET


Idea In ssConndeneess Gard Playing.
New York Timezl
q Red Shirt was a product OF life among
the Pennsylvania coil mines. and when not
engaged in working railway trains he made
things expensive for the rural visitors at
county fairs He was the originator OF the
brilliant idea in cards known as the tissue
paper racket His f~avorite role was
hat of a man bored to death with
the monotony OF riding ON n rail
road, who was anxious to find congenial
partners for a social game at euchre. In
those days the nswsboy with his cards and
lapboard to hire to passengers had not made
his appearance on our railroads, and card
playing to pass the time was comparatively
. new thing. Red Shirt, who would readily
have been taken for the easy-going son of a
wealthy father, o~verburdened with both
time and money, always had a dainty. brand
new pack Of cards In his valise, and he sell
dom had TO walt long to get up a game, and
be rarely failed 10 manage to select players
who had blood in them The game Of
suchre seldom progressed far before Red
Shirt would say, in a careless, off-hand way.
and apparently speaking more to himself
than to anyone else:
".By Joyei this'd be a beauty Of n hand
in a little game Of drawi'
~ A@1A Jul nlu0u A4nI nAAAk0
Of the game you could make pretty big bets
that his hand wasn't the only one around the
board that would be a beauty in a game Of
draw and that other hand never failed in be-
ing four aces, cold. The man who held hat
hand never failed to be Just game enough to
remark that his hand doomed up pretty fair
for a poker hand, too. Then Red Shirt
wouldn't say anything more about It, but
make out as II he WAS about to proceed with
the euchre game. Now, a man with four
aces in his hand. who has had the value of
hands as regards poker suggested TO him,
Is not "A true-born American citizen IL he
sacrifices 1t at euchre, and nobody knew this
fact better than Red Shirt The man with
the four aces would invariably pro-
pose hat they test the value of
the two hands in tho usual way. Red
Shirt would at first prefer not to bet,
but finally would back his hand. The other
man would raise him, OF course. And so 1t
would 60, back and forth, until it suited Red
Shirt to bring the matter TO a close, when he
would call his opponent.
-Four acesI that lucky person would say.
"'Whatr Red Shirt would exclaim, ex-
citediy. Let's see emf
The man would throw his cards down.
Red Shirt, picking them up, would run them
over quickly, and then rubbing his thumb
on one.of the ace cards would shave OIL a
covering that revealed two more spots, MAX
ing 1t a tray spot
"Iook here, my friend he would say, in
dignantly, L thought / was playing with
gentlemen You can't run in any CT your
Chicago tricks on mel
"Then he would throw down a hand that
always beat three of a kind, and before the
others recovered from their astonishment
the money would be in his possession, and he
would make a break for the car door. He
never failed to time his play with the move
ments Of the train, and when the climax
came the cars would be slowing up for a sta
ton II was no trick at all for him to get
of n train moving fifteen or twenty miles an
hour, and he never got caught but once that
l know OF. Then he was followed close by
bis victim, and they both got of the train
together. Red Shirt was given a most beau
ttful ~tfouncing, but the man did not get his
monsy-about $500. 1t happened that as
Red Shirt was hurrying out of the car he
mst John Baily ON the platform coming In,
and quick as a flash he passed the money, all
up in a wad in his hand, TO John.
Red Shirt made thousands Of dollars during
his career, but he died in a Pennsylvania
poor-house Of consumption a few years ago.
/ think his name was Brown