St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-11-18
Col. Sellers Imparts to Newspaper Man
Some Information Regarding His
Hobbies,
The Chief of Which is His Constant Yearn.
ing to Daily With the God
dess Luck.
His Readiness at All Times to Match
for Any Amount From Cent
to 500.
The Collection of Coins Another of Els
4iobbies--How a Female Money
Dealer Beat Him.

| News. as he sauntered into Sam Brown
| place Yesterday afternoon. 1t was shirts
Having given his order he not ced dappe
young man arranging an assortment of new
neckties that tckled his fancy.
"H'much, Sam?' he asked.
''Three dollars apiece, john"
Match you to see whether pay six O.
! nothing for one" said the comedian, witt
! the gambling excitement in his eye, anC
his hand spread over penny OH the show
case"
Go you-heads"
You lose"
''Here'S your tie; see you again.
Raymond was seated with his heel.
perched upon hotel windowsilI later
medtating on chance as the writer ap
! preached. His eyes shone incandescently
when the question was asked: What has
been your experience with chance?"
do you really want to know?" was his
| quick rejoinder. Yes? Then I'll match
you to see whether or not Ill tellr' turning
his favorte Old cent piece over on his thigh.
''Headsr'
"WelI. young man." he pursued slowly,
the excitement going out of his eye and a
thoughtful radiance replacing it. ''you
have won. That is half my experience
with chance. Sometimes l win. That is
the other half What are the percentages
OF chance? In matching can't see that
there are any. 1t is plain gamble-heads
l win. tails you lose, or vice versa. No one
has the advantage. There is popular i'm
preston that the man who challenges in a
wager has the short end of the chance. |
don't believe it. What difference can it
make whether you challenge or accept? If
you are the luckiest man you win. | have
little doubt that the idea comes from the
fact that when man challenges wager,
he is most confident OF winning. Then,
upon losing, contrary to his expectation,
the superstition, of which all of us possess
a grain, tells him that he was foolish to in
vite misfortune. This he is very apt to
ruminate over until he decides that luck is
against man when he challenges it. You
can see that there is little philosophy in
such conclusion. In matching, as | said
before, the chance is always even, though
the luck may be unequal.
THE great trouble with the ordinary
mortal is that in taking the chance and
winning he fails to realize that luck is the
goddess with whom he is dallying She
smiles on him, and he fain would linger
h IN to such an extent as to blind him to
her leave-taklng Though she only coquetS
with him and then disappears to flirt with
another. he still courts her. To be prac-
tical, my boy, few men know when to quit
ahead. They never set limit for WIN
ming until they have reached it. In other
words, they always want more. Look at
that fellow saw down at Long Branch
last summer. Win! L never saw anything
like it. OF course, you know something
about the chance of roulette. He couldn't
lose-I tell you, my boy. he couldn't lose.
1t didn't seem to make any difference where
he placed his money, single number. black
or red, double D, anywhere, it was sure
thing. He was only betting half dollar.
Ii he had been playing the limit he would
have busted Monaco. But he did as they all
do. He played his luck out while striving
to make his winnings just $500 more.
and left the table without dollar. That
is the great inestmable chance that the i'll
side man at a gaming table has all the time
the avarice and ObStinacy of the players.
A man winning is usually afraid Of his
luck; man losing becomes desperate and
reckless. A winning man rarely knows
when he has got enough; losing man
rarely has the courage to stay until luck
stakes him. and if he does his single hope
Is to get even.
Luck is spasmodic; it runs in waves
tidal waves sometimes. You want to deal
with it intelIigently. By tempting it con-
stantly l think you can demonstrate to your
entire satisfaction that at the end Of life
time-taking even chances, bear in mind
the two sides will balance. Now, to show
you the difference between the gambler S
theory and gentleman's practice: An old
gambler came to me once, and, says he:
Its a dead sure thing that you will lose in
the end
"Why? 1 asked, impressed by his ear
nestntss.
Because you are always betting. You
go down the street and meet friend. You
match him for So, and win. On the next
corner you match another friend for $40,
and lose. See? You are out So
Il said that l didn't quite see.
1.-The point is this he explained. You
will match with anybody and you will
match all the time. It's as plain as day.
The percentage is against you because you
are playing against everybodys luck, and
as the world goes. most fellows play highest
when they know they're in good luck
Now. there may be something in that
but my experience doesn't happen to SUP
port the theory. | have been matching all
my life | will match anybody for anything
up to 500 any tIme-thats as high as I'll
go-and am, tell you. my boy, as near
as | can figure it-about even. Take
the time matched 'Plunger Walton. They
goaCled me into that wouldn't 90 it again
if knew was going to win. Thousand
dollars a match, ten matches, was the
agreement. Why, at the last throw we
were even. Then we matched ten times
for $500 match, and beat him five times
AS say, that was pushing it a little strong,
and wouldn't repeat the experience under
any consideration. Here's another instance:
One day Fred Lane was beating me every
time | turned a coin. Passing by a store
window | saw handsome umbrella; $40
l found out was the cost upon inquiring.
Lane had lost his umbrella the night before.
| had a good one at home. Match you.
Frank, to see whether buy that umbrella
for you or whether you buy it for me- He
was sure of winning. but he lost So
think there is equity in luck. ii you take
what call the even chance, and | can't see
that thele is anything else III matching.
Yes there are some tricks in matching.
One night in San Francisco we were often
paIu Oh tHeIt Ill pdchdS0o VI uolldi picCeo,
twenty in package-twO of the company
challenged Willie Edouin 10 match stacks.
They had carefully arranged the pieces i'll
their packages SO that when they placed
them on the table one fellow had all his
heads ND and the other had all tails up.
Edouin lost of course. l told him he was
being cheated. but he couldn't see it. He
kept OH betting until they skinned him out
OF his weeks salary-S40. Then it took
weeks of explaining to satisfy him that he
had been robbed. You see how it was:
His two opponents were partners. Each
placed $40; one heads up. one tails up.
Now either way Edouin bet one of the