Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-21
PROBABLY A YANk.
Story Of Three Card Monte Game on
Road Out From London

Story OF . Three Card Monte Game on q
Road Out From London
Not long ago a tall, slim1y-built, fair
comp1exioned, brown-haired young man
entered frst-class carriage on the
London & Southwestern railway At
Waterloo station He stuck his UNI
brella in the rack, opened his favorite
paper and began to fill himself with i'm
formation He looked up as tie door
wss opened BY a understanding gentle
man who murmured beg pardon" -
he passed to the end of the carriage
and ensoonced himself in a seat near
the window. The door opened again.
The new conner looked like a country
curate- He sat himself down opposite
the understanding gentleman and
looked out of the window as if he were
greatly interested in tbs advertise
ments which met his eye The door
opened again The new conner looked
like a well-to-do farmer. He sat down
alongside the modest-looking gentle
man The train started The modest
looking gentleman suggested that he
had at various periods of his life and
under large variety q circumstances
observed worse weather. As he made
this observation he looked at the coun-
try curate. The latter, in hesitating
way, agreed that there must have been
at various periods of Engiand's history
worse weather than he saw in his vicin-
ity at that particular time The we'll
to-do farmer joined in thu conversation
with growl 1t might be fine weather
for people who had nothing to do, but it
was death to the crops The modest
looking gentleman seemed surprised to
hear this, and assured his audience that
he was Rrfectly willing to be soaked
through and through if the discomfort
attached to such an experience would
b of any value to the rural population
The conversation then became gen.
or4l but at the end Of ten minutes
tagged Then the modest-looking gem
tleman drew from a pocket a pack Of
cards. and amused himself by tossing
three of them about in an apparently
aimless way, talking to himself as he
did So The Well-to-do farmer stood this
sort of thinG for few minutes, and
then asked what the game was The
modest-looking gentleman said it was
little invention Of his own The point
was to guess the position of Q certain
one of the three cards-the queen for
Instance. The we1l-to-do farmer, after
noticing that it was possible to see the
faces Of the cards while they were be-
ing manipulated, said he could place
the queen for -quid-" His offer was
at once accepted The well-to-do farmer
won, apparently much to the chagrin of
the modest-looking gentleman The
latter lost three sovereigns in quick
succession, and the ease with which the
well-to-do farmer pocketed the same ex-
cited the curate. who finally ventured
to wager sovereign that he could place
the queen also. He did SO twice, and
became quite hilarious as he fingered
his easily-aequired gains
All this time the tall, slim young man
had been reading his paper He hadn't
once looked at the game Finally the
well-to-do farmer nudged him and
whispered that there was a chance to
make few SovereignS The young
man paid NO attention to the advice
Then the curate suggested that it
seemed like flying in the face of Provi-
dence not to accept such a chance Still
the young man proved obdurate- The
understanding gentleman then came TO
the front He had lost five pounds. he
said, but still had confidence in his in
| vention. He was willing to wager any
| reasonable amount that the tall. slim
young man could not place the queen
When the young man paid no attention
| the understanding gentleman became
| indignant, and was supported by the
| well-to-do farmer and the curate. The
train stopped at Putney. The tall, slim
young man rose, and opening the door
of the carriage, said: This is my sta
ton. / was weaned on three card monte
several years ago. The trio who re-
| manned in the carriage looked at one
| another until the modest-looking gen.
| tleman broke the silence with the re-
mark: THAT fellow is Yank. and
probably ehucks the cards himself -
Hor,ad