Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1892-04-15
Plug Hankins's Luck,

All in all, Mr. Plug Hankins was
the most phenomenally unlucky man
who ever made living out of cards.
How he managed TO make the living
not even his most intimate colleagues
in the black leg profession could tell
! To be sure he sometimes won, but he
could not keep his winnings in his
pocket for twenty-four hours at
! time. He always returned 10 the
! table to lose them. Just a surely as
| fortune kissed his hOmely face one
day she would turn round and slap 1t
| for the next four or five. Then Plug
would have TO resort to the disagree
! able shift of borrowing from his
! luckier brothers, and he did this so
often that there were very few indeed
of the palefaced, white-handed gen
tlemen of fortune, from the Atlantic
the Pacific, who did not have Plug
Hankins on their books for sums vary
ing from one to one hundred dollars
Another singular feature OF the case
was the fact that scientifically he was
one of the best cardplayers who ever
sat before a green ia bic. More than
that, he was cool and brave. lie
never spoke of his losses, and never
exulted over his winnings if he hap
pened to make any. He was sober
ii viz
the passionate desire to gamble that
had ruled his life from boyhood.
Other men made fortunes and lost
them every month, but Plug Hankins
was always, to us the phraseology OF
the sporting man, broke In time
his wretched luck became jest
among his ellow-gamblers. They
often laughed at him openly, but
Plug himself had never been known
to laugh. 1t was all dead earnest 10
him-the only profession he knew, and
he must make his living out Of it Or
Besides his ill-fortune and his pluck
poor Plug was noted among his
brethren for one other characteristic.
He was as phenomenally homeIy as
he was unlucky. The gamblers pal
lor of his face, the dropping eyelids,
the short hair the sunken cheeks and
great ill-turned ears made him look
almost corpse-like. And then there
was a long scar under his left eye
where he had been slashed by knife
on one of the few occasions where he
had won. This, too, was a standing
lest. But Plug bore it very meekly.
There were meny who predicted
that some day Plug would make
winning that would startle them all.
1t was supposed that Plug hims-lf
looked forward to some such event to
compensate him for his fifteen or
twenty years of patience. But the
good luck never came, and as lll-ior-
tune was piled upon tlIfortune
Plugs patience began finally to break
down. and his natural moroseness be-
came almost mania. The fact was
noticed by the rest of them, but they
are not tenderhearted men, as a rule,
and they only made their Jests at his
expense the louder and more frequent.
More than that, though, his fellow
gamblers began to be very chary
about lending him money. In fact,
az a rule. they had begun to decline
in no very polite manner, and some
even went so far as TO advise him to
Quit the business and get job some
where digging dirt.
If was in a frame OF mind born o.
such treatment at the hands OF men
who had previously been more than
kind to him that Plug stood one mid
night on the euro at the corner Of
Twentv-street and Broadway. 1t
was the first midnight in many year
that Plug had not been seated before
a dirty green table waiting for the
luck that was 10 make all things right,
and meantime losing what little
money he could manage by hook or
crook to get hold of. With his hands
thrust into his great pockets and his
hat pulled down over his eyes, he
looked the very picture of detection
as he gazed at the gutter under his
feet. Even the policeman on the beat
had TO smile when he saw him, and
walked by with the mental ejacula-
ton. Busted - Indeed he was
busted He had gone without his
meals all that day and the day be
fore in order that he might stake the
money at faro He had asked every
one he knew to lend him money and
had been refused, and he hadn't
cent. He had looked forward to this
climax of ill-fortune for a good many
wears. 1t was a long time coming,
though, and Plug had almost begun
to believe that it never would come,
when. behold, here it was
When he had first thought OF the
possibility of his present position
Plug had grimly resolved that when
that time came he would quietly and
with the nerve becoming a gambler
put himself out of this miserable
world: but now that the time had
really come at last, he hesitated.
His hesitation was not born Of fear,
however. Plug did not know what
fear was. 1t was merely the strength
of ruling passion that is said to be so
strong in death. He was merely re-
voIving in his mind problem. The
problem was simple one. In bis
hip pocket he carried the only bit OF
! personal property he had not as yet