Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-13
FOR BIG STAKES.
The North Carolina Colonel and the
Drummer Play Game of Poker.

/
speaking Of card stories," said an impe.
cunious-looking individual to San Francisco
| Eraminer reporter: 'While you may doubt
the statement, / have played in some pretty
big games myself. The greatest game
have ever seen was played in Raleigh, N. c.,
not many years since, in gambling saloon
kept by fellow named Miller. They roll EN-
pretty high there, as the participants fire.
| quently include the wealthiest men in the
state, from certain ex-governor down. The
governor is pretty breezy sort Of player him.
self, and I've seen him make pair Of deuces
go as far as most men send three queens; and
they do say in Washington he won his spurs
pretty cleverly at the round table before he
was there three months.
''The lola though, was a certain colonel
connected with the revenue service in Raleigh.
He was a cold-blooded looking fellow, with
gray hair and black moustache, and the most
immobile set of features ever beheld. 1t was
said that the colonel couldn't be bluffed, but
saw young drummer drop into the big game
at Jim Millers one night who just paralyzed
the colonel. The drummer was pretty cool
looking sort Of a duck, and guess he had just
had remittance from his house for expenses,
for as he took his seat, with a very plausible
effort not to appear too fly, he remarked, as he
pulled out his roll:
"Quick as flash the colonel sized him up for
q sucker and replied:
I" No limit in this game, SIR
1.-THE travelling man, who had probably
risked his employers money in every gambling
saloon in the south, simply smiled as he re-
piled:
" IN take couple hundred dollars worth of
checks, anyhow.
1.-Two or three hands went around, and the
colonel locked horns with the drummer, and.
strange to say. there seemed to be a sort of
tacit agreement that the battle was to be be-
tween tt ose two. The drummer had won sew
eral good pots, and was pretty well heeled; the
colonel kinder sized up his pot and raised him
$50; sad sort of look came into the dark eyes
OF the drummer as he raised the colonel back
500 more; there were three or four more
raises, and the colonel finally called. The
travelling man remarked, with an apparently
dubious air, that he supposed he was beat, as
be laid down three aces while the colonel
could only produce three kings. Strange to
say, that state of things proved sequence for
a dozen hands, the colonel holding just under
his sucker every time there was a showdown,
and only .pshawing' little each time he lost.
Bimeby they locked horns once more, the
drummer still wearing his mild air Of mild
depreciation. The colonel had caught pretty
good hand, apparently, for he raised his man a
hundred, which he replied to by saying:
"'Colonel, see that and raise you-well-say
fifty
81 see that fifty and raise you one hundred,
came promptly from the colonel.
'(For the first time during the night the
drummer looked as if he had the winning
hand.)
well, colonel said he, as much as hate
to do it very slowly will have to raise that
two hundred dollars
The colonel, white with anger said: BY
=, know you have me beat, SO I'll not call
you; but III tell you what I'm going to lay down
m thraa nd II unnl6 iGa 20 Ena xu
what you have?'
The colonel laid three aces on the table,
while his opponent quietly turned over his
hand. showing two deuces, as modestly as if
they had been king full. The roar of laughte
which followed the colonel as he literally fed
from the room partially drowned the longest
string of frilled-down-the-back cuss words 1
ever heard"