The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-15

of fractions proves that player would save
a great deal of time by throwing his green
backs into the flre
But you wish to dig beneath the surface Of
this smiling scene. You pick out the most
courteous of the devotees around the gaming
tables, and ask Uncle 81 to play for you.
He translates your So bill into ten blue chips;
he places half of them ON the corner of the
ace, to take in the trey; they double, and dis
appear Somehow you can't help noticing
what becomes of them The other five double
once, twice. Call turn cries the dealer;
'four for one, gentlemen" Alas, your little
fortune is again swept away.
Uncle 81 shrugs his shoulders as you offer
him a cigar, and begins to retail the current
gossip of the place. As he goes ON the air
seems to grow denSer, the gentlemen standing
around the tables grow spectral You begin
to realize that the inferno is moral place,
and that you are there There is the wheel
of IXion, there is the river of Tantalus, the
stone Of But not so fast. What is Uncle
81 sayingl He smiles as he sees how inter
ested you are. His smile is marred by the
absence of four front teeth. These teeth he
lost in a singular manner. He was drinking
glass of hot rum punch when a large bet,
the last of many such, went against him.
Click! In his frenzy he bit piece from the
glass at the cost of four incisors.
As Uncle 81 sees that you are to be trusted,
and have still a wad of greenbacks in your
vest pocket, he grows more and more conf
Dental This bank, it seems, is owned by
janitor, who grew rich in the employment of
two old brothers, who used, year after year,
to stare at each other across a large ma
hogany table in their office in Wall street.
The janitor is well known for the severity of
his morals and his contributions to charities
but he keeps one little corner of his life sacred
to Mammon. square gamep "Oh, per-
fectly square for small sums" Which is
true enough; that is for sums smaller than
the smallest stake which they allow yor to
play
"See," says Uncle 81, pointing to a man be-
side whom an Egyptian mummy would look
like osy-cheeked country lad, and who wan
ders about with one chip in his hand like a
hen with one chicken. "There is Brown; he's
strange fellow. They call him Brown be-
cause he always plays on the queen He has
a system, on which he has spent some 100000
and the best part of his life in trying tt
carry out. See, he is playing his chip opel
on the lady. If anyone speaks to him befoi e
there is a decision Brown will snatch up br,
bet and abuse him roundly. He thinks IT
spoils his luck"
"How does he live" you ask.
"He pays So week for a room and gets his
food at faro banks He is what they call a
| 'boarder'
With that Uncle 81, who was once space
reporter, gives us specimens of the wonderful
special vocabulary of the gambler, next to
that of the sailor, the richest of any profess
sion. He tells you what chunker is, cold
and frozen deck, case card, a snaked rou-
lette table, a copper, nipper, pricked
pack, a lay out, a call turn and heaven knows
what other quaint terms
You lecture him upon his own folly in vast
irg his time and worse in such place, when
you let slip that you are a writer of stories.
At that Uncle 81 attacks you in his turn.
"You had better" he says, "spend your years
IN fighting against the multiplication table
than in striving for fame in America. You
are playing against brace game, and one
that will not pay you when you win"
WILLIAM WAsHBURN.