San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-10-03

lifted weight off my shoulders, / can
tell you. / was real gay when | came
back and found you looking at that pic
ture."
II think" said the millionaire, feeling
bound to lecture the young man little,
that there are few vices which give SO
poor return for the pain they cost as.
gambling"
THAT may be So" returned the artist;
but there are points about it, too. But
If those chaps take me for that millionaire
l shall take the dust out of their eyes.
amt hungry for the credit, and Pm
hanged if Pm hungry for the danger. l
can't afford to have fellows taking me for
fifty million dollar man; wish could"
You are great deal better off as you
are" said the millionaire, rather seriously
and sadly. You have youth and enthui
sasm. and an art in which you hope to
excel"
IL shouldn't sink to Methusaleh's time
of life on sudden if anybody made me a
present of fortune, should L? And as for
| enthusiasm and art, I'll trouble all the
capitalists in creation to buy me up from
painting. wouldn't stop painting to be
President of the United States, and have
the freehold of every acre, from Green
land down to Terra del Fuego. suppose
other fellows feel the same about other
things; but if l couldn't paint I'd want to
die"
Whilst these two were in the peaceful
country, the enthusiastic Daisy was sweat
ing over his system at Monte Carlo,
watched and guarded by his more phleg-
matte companion. There was no denying
that up to date the Majors invention had
acted wonderfully, and he was the lion of
the place. Those dreary croupiers and
YEARLY wary chefs dc pdrtt have seen so
many lions in their time that the biggest
and loudest of the species can hardly wake
them to interest any more. But the gal
lery is always new. at least, in it's SYM
pathies, and the most war-hardened vet
eran of them all felt some remembrance
of the thrill of his first battle at the sight
of the Majors heroic plunges. Do all he
could, Medhurst could not hold the effior-
escent Daisy back. The system, of course,
depended upon a series of prOgressions,
but the Major. intoxicated by success,
doubled and then quadrupled his initial
stakes, so that he left himself no reasona-
BILE chance of recouping for loss before
| the maximum of the bank was reached.
AS fortune had it, the rashness paid, and
| the Major raked in money hand over hand
He feed man to go beforehand, and sup
piled him with little money to punt eau
tously for small stakes until such time as
he appeared. He had his sheaf of thou
sand-franc notes in his hand before he had
entered the gaming-roOm, and when his
subordinate resigned his place to him he
set his money down in pile with noble
ostentation, and won or lost with as splen-
did carelessness to look at as if he had
been a Crpsus. When Medhurst could
secure seat beside him he did so, and if
| that were impossible he stood behind his
chair, marking the game, and occasionally
STOPPING for a whispered consultation
| The table was always lined three or four
deep whenever the pair were settled to
their work.
Those writer's who have described the
little world of public play-and their name
is legion-have all insisted upon the ex-
tent and variety of emotion visible in the
faces of the players, though, as matter of
fact, it would be difficult to find any col
lection of people who look more fiat and
ordinary. Here and there, no doubt, a
face is memorable for its concentration,
its fatigue, its avarice, its blazon of sue
cess or failure. But on the whole you
can find nowhere set of men and women
more commonplace in expression than a
set of gamblers; and it is only because
men see so readily what they expect to see
that the legend of facial emotion ever
sprang into life, Or at all events, it is only
because of that curious faculty that the
legend lives to-day. The people who show
the real breathless interest, the genuine
devouring sympathy, are the lookers-on,
whose fate is not influenced by the turn
ing of the wheel to the extent of one cen
time IXion bound to the wheel grows &C
custOmed in minute or two, and begins
to look as impressive as a whirling dervish
but the spectator of his gyrations holds
his breath absorbed.
The Major drew in the murmurs of the
gallery as if they had been incense. He
played his five or six thousand francs at a
coup, and, confident in the revenge his
martingale would afford him by-and-by,
saw it go under the Crouper's rake with
smile of pure Indifference. When he
hit the bank, and the glittering rouleauX
were pushed towards him and the crisp
leaves of bank-paper doubled on the
crOupier's rake were dangled below his
rubicund nose his calm had something
majestic in it. He used handful of gold
for paper-weight to press his growing
pile OF bank-nOtes down, and felt a tran
gull glory of financial strength as he did
it. Money had really never meant very
much to the Major. To be without it, as
he knew by experience, was deucedly I'M
comfortable; but when he had it the coins
were only q sort of counter or token not
in the least valuable in themselves, but