The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-01-06

can tell whether he is brave or cOwardly,
whether ne is mean or generous. whether
he is quick or slow, whether he is open or
shut, whether he is honest or dishonest,
whether he is true or false. You can tell
what kind of a lover he makes. You can
place him among husbands You can tell
to a hair just how much nerve he has, and
in short you can know him better than in
any other way.
The best telescope in the world TO ex-
anime a mans soul with is his pocket, and
nobody ever plays poker except for money.
1t is gambling game, pure and simple,
and the moment the cash element il
thrown out of it it loses all interest. II
like to play poker just for the fun of it,"
says one. II don't want the limit to be
any higher than ten cents" What he
really means is that. he don't care 10 risk
any more money, and that he is going to
do his level best to win all he can out of
that ten cent limit. IF, as he says, he
wanted to play the game purely for fun
ne would play it for fun, and nothing else.
So that you can set il down as a safe rule
that poker is purely gambling game, and
if people begin by playing it for fun they
invariably end by playing it for money.
The tendency the game has is to cheaper
the value of money, and the best illustra-
ton of this is that when the same people
play together for some time there is con-
slant craving to increase the limit.
A man who Is learning TO play poker will
start on a ten cent limit because he cannot
lose much, and then again dollars worth
of blue chips at ten cents each looks larger
than it does later on. BY and by he wants
to make these blue chips worth a quarter,
then a dollar apiece, and as his confidence
in himself increases ne makes the limit
larger. One of the strangest facts in poker
is that the more a man loses money the
more his confidence in himself increases.
And this is the most potent force that aids
the professional sharper TO fleece his vic
tim.
There are stories without number of the
peculiar fascination of the game-how one
game has been carried on for days together,
how meals were forgotten, etc But one
of the most pathetic things | ever wit
messed | saw last winter in an Arkansas
hotel. One rainy afternoon six men got
together in a game of poker. They
had been playing for some little time,
and had been in tie habit of changing
around from room TO room, so that each
member of the party was in turn a host.
In the last room OF the corridor of the sec
ond floor of the hotel there was sick man.
The room next 20 this was occupied by one
of the players, who on this particular day
acted as the host.
The game began early in the afternoon
and the chips ratified merrily. There was
transom over each door, which made
sounds more audible. Very soon it be
came evident TO the players that the man
next door was pretty sick. They could
hear him groan. The doctor came, said
the man was dying, but the game next
door never tagged. | stood in front of the
rooms, and heard the groans of the dying
man in one room and the laughter and rat
tie of chips in the next room Finally one
of the players, who had a wife in another
part of the hotel, got up and cashed in his
chips. Gentlemen" said he, I've had
enough. Pm pretty tough, but this is
more than l can stand" Not long after
this the sick man next door, in poker par
lance, "cashed in ms chips but the game
went On.
To change the train Of thought.
The other day gentleman told me Of 8
little game OF draw he was in not long ago.
There were four of Us in il, said ne,
land the dealer was q Stranger 70 me. One
man held four twos, the dealer held four
fves and / held fo1r threes. II was
mighty interesting situation, I can tell
you, and the man who held four twos
dropped everything be had
What did you dot' ! asked
"Oh, ne answered careie-sly. II dropped
out" TOH MASON.