The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-15
LOVED TO PLAY FARO.
Gambler Devols Experience With
Cards and Sharpers.
From the Ney York Ne,us.

From the Net0 York Nsl1s.
No person could look at George Il. Dsvol,
the celebrated New Orleans sport" and
judge him TO be in his SD year. Short and
compact in build, with clear. gray eyes
that have the expression which indicates
that the man has been accustomed to look
death serenely in the face with quite un-
wrinkled brow, sandy h air and beard. De-
vol has scarcely aged in twenty years, and
il Is difficult to believe him to be what he ia
the last of his generation who, before the
war and for some years thereafter, made
life In louisiana very highly exciting.
Devols visit to this city Is the first be has
made since 1874, when he came up to "don
some Of the famous gamblers Of Europe, at
tracted TO this country by the centennial.
Since then Devol has settled down, and all
though he frankly admits that he still loves
| to play faro either to win or lose, he believes
that he has finally aud irrevocably quit the
| game.
His object in visiting the metropolis is to
! prepare tor the press a second edition of his
book, Forty Years a Gambler on the Mis-
sissippi,n which, when first published Ia
Cincinnati in 1887, sold an edition OF 10, 900
| copies in nine months. Owing to a Disagree
ment between Deyol and his partner, Ed
ward 7. Haines, the former lnterdlcted the
publication Of second edition. 1t appears
that Mr.. Devol has purchased Haines' half
interest in the plates Of the book, and he
now intends to give it chance to become
widely circulated
in the Forty Years" he tells how he has
been up against Arkansas guns, Memphis
cannon and bowie knives He narrates the
particulars OF the more famous of his rough
and tumble scraps, gun and knife fights,
and for them all be can show soma memento
on his body IN the shape of innumerable
scars and healed wounds.
Besides bearing the reputation of having
been one of the greatest sports ever known
IN the south, Deyol was also well known as
the hardest amateur fighter He was what
is known as a 'butter,n and IL permitted TO-
day to exercise his talent he declares that
no one in the ring could stand up against
him.
AT the time Butler captured New Orleans
Devol owned the race track of that city and
horses valued at $50, 600 were confscated by
Butler.
II didn't feel this 50 badly" Devol said
the other day, "because Butler, when he
took possession Of the city, issued an order
for all the public gambling houses TO open,
and had a chance to retrieve myself. Ii
Ia true was put in prison for a few days,
but as soon as got out l relieved one OF
Buffers paymasters of $4,000 In one sit
ting, and in a perfectly square and legiti-
mate way Gen. Buffers brother had the
gambling houses in his own charge, 80
everything was quiet aud peaceful, and half
the sting Of war was distracted, for me at
least
Before the war nearly everybody In
New Orleans gambled. Nowhere in the
world, think, was gambling so prevalent
or for such high stakes as among the
planters Of ante-bellum days I've seen
merchants sit in to win or loose from s., 900
to 5000, while as for the professional
gamblers, 1t was no unusual sight to see
six or eight tables going at one time in the
cabins of the Mississippi floating palaces,
when tue ante was no less than 800.
WAS / bern a gambleri / don't know,
but suppose l was But must have iu-
herited my taste from some more remote
ancestor than my grandfather, who was
one Of the first settlers OF Ohio; be il was
who brought the pioneers to Marietta. My
father was raised in Rhode Island, but at
very early age l drifted south and began
floating down the Mississippi. learned
monte on board Mexican corvette, and
there wasn't any one more skillful at the
three cards than In my hey-day.n
Some OF the greatest bouts OF gambling
in which Devol was king occurred on the
Red river. There he won prodigious sums,
but he had never the faculty OF keeping she
money which flo wed into his Golfers, and to-
day be is in moderate circumstances.
Nothing like depression can long affect a
man OF Devops buoyant disposition, and in
few minutes he was telling with relish
story OF the Frenchmau's goggles.
81 met Jacques, he said, Sat Mike Bless
ing's gambling table Ia Memphis. noticed
the speotacles he wore were peculiar aud
that be always stayed IN with the man who
sat directly opposite him. aud when he did
stop with him, Jacques won big money
Those goggles had fascination for me- aud
1 could not help thinking that they helped
htfg In "a