The record-union., 1891-05-17
ON THE CARS.
CONSERVATION in the Ranks of the
Local Gamblers.
A New Operator Who Made Havoc
Judge Hornb1ower and
the Turkeys.

no mistake"
"You bet"
81 tell you, old man, we can't be too
careful in these enlightened times. We
have practically been asleep here in Sac
ramento, while others of the profesh have
been getting on to the new tricks. We
are not in it any more"
''You bet"
Both of them belonged to the fraternity
known as the ''fancy"-in other words,
they were weL-dressed, gentlemanly
| gamblers, or short-card men. Their con-
versation was quite interesting, inasmuch
as they were discussing case that was
| partially known to the public.
One dark night, about week ago, q
| Constable brought an intoxicated indi-
vidual to the police station and lodged
him there for the night. 1t appeared that
some one who claimed to bea friend of
the intoxicated man, had asked the Con-
stable to do it. Upon arriving at the sta
ton the man proclaimed aloud that he
had been robbed of 81 800 before he had
| been in town two hours
| The police made great Scurry to find
the supposed robbers. They learned that
he had last been in the company of some
OF the fancy" but inquiry showed that
none of them had taken any money from
him.
The supposed victims name got into
the papers, and he was at once pronounced
a fool for losing so much money in so
short space of time.
But the pretty part OF the story came in
| later.
The day after the supposed robbery
Police Captain Lee was informed that
two well-known local gamblers had un-
dertaken to ''do up sucker" at a quiet
game of draw in the vicinity of the race
| track, but had been themselves tleeced of
nearly $1,000. The Captain thought this
was strange, and Investigated. The gam
| bIerS did not know who their despOiler
was but gave description of him. They
admitted that they had resorted to all the
tricks they knew of, had put up "cold
| decks' and packed hands" but their
would-be victim seemed to be possessed
of a charmed life, and always had hand
| to beat theirs when the betting was high
Before the Captain had recovered from
his perpleXed state of mind another sport
accosted him and asked him if he had
heard chow YOIo Pete had been done ont
OF a thousand at dice game" Yolo Pete,
when interviewed, described the same
man that had played the poker men near
the race-track. That evening the Captain
! learned that several other ''games'' had
been played with disastrous results to the
local gamblers. 1t was also learned that
led by short, stout little man of about
90 years who didn't know anything
about cards." and was trying to get his
friend away from the sharks all the
time"
After several days had elapsed most of
the big gamblers in town were penniless,
and the few who still had money had
heard of the nemesis, and couldn't be
drawn into game with a team of horses.
Who was he?
Well, Captain Lee met him at the de-
pot with his short, stout companion.
Both had well-flled yalises with them
and both wore broad smiles. The CAPTAIN
Immediately recognized the man who at
the police station had howled about being
robbed.
''Oh, that was just little game of
mine" he explained to the Captain, when
questioned about it. "You see / didn't
have long to stay here and / had to be
advertised as a sucker who had plenty
OF money to lose. Oh, you need not look
MAD. L didn't do up any of your good
citlZenS. My business is with the regu-
latlon gamblers who make practice of
t1eecing hayseeds and such. 1t is case
OF dog eat dog, you know. Tell the bows
that we are going to Denver next and
will not be back here again for a long
time, so they can resume business with
out fear of interruption. Ia, tap
And with light, nimble bounds he and
his companion hoped on the train which
was just moving out.
They were talking about gloves.
i bought my daughter a lovely pair of
undressed kid gloves the other day. -
went on Mrs. Butts, "and would YOU
believe it she wouldn't wear them. Said
they were too loose, and unless she could
have pair that fitted her like paper on
the wall she would go without any.
Humph! Now | wouldn't wear any
thing but loose-fitting gloves. Young
girls nowadays are too Particular
With such ideas in your head" said
prIm Miss Snlpes, with a toss of her head,
you should have lived in the day of Eve.
y costume consisting of loose kid gloves
is hardly. good taste in this nineteenth
century"
Mrs. Butts shifted, and said that that
joke was older than Eve.
In one of the uptown markets the
| other day little incident occurred which
| reminded Mr.. Oldboy of a story-and he
told it on the cars.
1T was a long time ago. he said
when De Bernardo kept the market on
| X street, ana Judge Hornbiower, now of
san FRANCISCO, was a tricky hotel-keeper
| Hornblower went to De Bernardi's pIace
one day and wanted to buy a lob lot of
turkeys. OF course he couldn't do any-
! thing IN an ordinary way, and on this
occasion he contided to the market men
that he had delegation of prohibitionists
at his hotel whom he wanted to dose
These people, he explained, wanted more
attention than a cigar-house drummer,
and they would not put cent over his
bar. Their psalm-singing scared other
guests from patrOniZing the bar, and.
altogether, he was losing on the crowd
That morning they had informed the
hotel-keeper that they wanted to have
q hn OF IN Ia IL IL -
wanted him to do the catering. Seeing
an opportunity for revenge, he accepted.
All this Hornblower confided to De
Bernardo. Then he asked the latter if
he had any tough turkeys. De Bernardo
said he had, and Hornblower told him
that he wanted them and would be back
in an hour with a wagon.
HE came back as he promised, and De
Bernardo had the turkeys piled up in a
heap for him-about a dozen of them.
Those are all tough, are they?' asked
the hotel man.
You can't cut 'em with an AK re-
piled the market man.
mo tender ones mixed in with them ?,
"'Not one.'
"'Those are the tender ones over there,
amt they?'
Yep
"'Well, then, never mind about the
tough ones; I'll take ten of those tender
ones said Hornblower, with a cunning
grin.
"It seems that Hornblower had con-
tracted to cater for an aristocratic social
club, and had been warned that if tough
turkey was put forward he would be
murdered in cold blood"
LAWS DEFINED.
The acknowledgements Opinion on
| Certain Questions.