Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-08
THAT FELLOW IS A YANK.n
Story of Three-Card Monte Game on a
Road out f.om London,


Road out from London.
From the London Edition of the Herald.l
Not long ago, tall, slimly built, fair
complexioned, brown-haired yonng man
entered first class carriage on the London
and Southwestern Railway at Waterloo
station. He stuck his umbrella in the
rack, opened his favorite paper and began
to fill himself with information. He
looked up as the door was opened by
understanding gentleman who murmured
beg pardon" as he passed to the end Of
the carriage and ensconeed himself in
seat near the window. The door opened
again. The new comer looked like a
country curate. He sat himself down op-
posite the modest looking gentleman and
looked out of the window as if he was
grealy interested in the advertisements
which met his eye. The door opened
again. The new conner looked like a we'll
to-do farmer. He sat down alongside the
modest looking gentleman. The train
started. The modest-looking gentleman
suggested that he had at various periods
OF his life, and under large variety ot
circumstances, observed worse weather.
As he made this observation he looked at
the country curate. The latter, in a hesi-
tating way, agreed that there must have
been at various periods of England's his
tory worse weather than he saw in his
vicinity at that particular time. The
well-to-do farmer Joined in the conyersa-
tion with a growl. 1t might be fine
weather for people who had nothing to do,
but 1t was death to the crops. The modest
looking gentleman seemed surprised to
hear this, and assured his audience that
he was perfectly willing to be soaked
through and through if the discomfort
attached TO such an experience would be
OF any value to the rural population.
The conversation then became general,
but at the end of ten minutes tagged.
Then the modest-looking gentleman drew
from pocket pack of cards and amused
himself by tossing three of them about in
an apparently aimless way, talking to him
self 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
understanding gentleman said it was a
little invention of his own. The point
was to guess the position of certain one
Of the cards-the queen for instance.
The weli-to-do farmer, after noticing that
it was possible to see the faces of the cards
while they were being manipulated. said
he could place the queen for "quid."
HIS offer was at once accepted. The we'll
to do farmer won, apparently much to the
chagrin of the modest-looking gentleman.
The latter lost three sovereigns in quick
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
acquired 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 whis-
pered that there was a chance to make a
few sovereigns. The young man paid no
attention to the advice. Then the curate
suggested that it seemed like flying in the
face of Providence not to accept such
chance. Still the young man proved OBJ
durate. The understanding gentleman
then came to the 'front.' He had lost e5,
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 in
dignant, 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 car
riage, said: "This is my station. | was
weaned on three-card monte several years
ago." The trio who remained in the car
riage looked at one another until the
modest-lookiEg gentlemen broke the ST.
lence with the remark: "That fellow is
Yank, and probably chucks the cards
hlmselfr