The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-24

/ lawyer in camp, you know, and stood at
/ the end Of a wagon box trying them,
| knowing, you understand, that every man
! in the crowd had a gun for or against him.
| But here l am ahead OF my story; only I
/ was trying TO show the society Of that
| time.
well, as I say, seen Pine, but didn't
/ pay much attention to him, only as we
| met casually, generally in gambling
| houses, where we would drink wine and
pass the time of day. Sometimes he would
! drop in the Office and read the papers, all
! same to exchange fend now. / recOllect
! he used to read the Old New Orleans
| Times regular, but never said much, only
! used to read the papers and maybe pass
! around cigar or two, and walk out. But
| l Judge he knew more than we thought,
| for recollect one night two printers get
| ting in a dispute-printers. you know, are
always disputing-and 1 think the ques-
tion was whether Henry Clay was demo
! crat or wing; anyhow il was about
Henry Clay. Just when the dispute got
hottest, Pine spoke up, and then he gave
the names of the cabinet officers down to
Buchanan, quickly, YOU understand.
How do you know so - much
about it. says printer.
my father made me learn ZEN when
he was in congress, says Pine.
But that was as FAR as he got, and he
quit right there and went out. Another
time we had a dispute about Spanish
word, and Pine listened for a while, and
just then Spanish woman, dealing bank
at the Sol, passed by, and the boys asked
her to settle the bet, which she did. Then
Pine commenced talking Spanish, and
afterward said the woman couldn't un-
derstand much because she talked only
Mexican Spanish, you see, while he
learned it at a college.
Yes, to get back to the fight He was
playing bank three days, never leaving
the table hardly. When we run off the
Post in the morning I'd drop in the Sol,
and there he was, keeping his own cases
and playing ten-ounce sack for bet.
Sometimes he'd call for a glass of water
or a sandwich, but that was all. And the
next morning back I'd come from work,
and there he was, wearing out one shift
of a dealer, and lookout after another
and always with pleasant word for his
friends, and never changed except maybe
little paler than before. He might have
been playing yet, if a job hadn't been put
up on him.
''You seas I heard later-some of the
boys, Ives and two brothers from Ban
mock named West, and some more.
thought it fine chance to do up Pine. or
at least make him beg. They thought he
was too played out to shoot quick. But
they didn't know him-that is, they
didn't know first thathe would die before
he'd beg, and then again they didn't
know that he could always shoot quick,
even, ! guess, if he was asleep. Then
there was another thing on which they
took chances, that is, that no one ever
| seen Pine carry gun, though l reckon
! every man in the camp would bet
he had one somewhere close around
Anyhow they found out that
night. He told me once afterward
that he didn't wear bolt, because it
spoiled the set of his clothes and he
didn't carry gun in his hip pocket for
| the same reason. Every body then wore
a flannel shirt held by belt, and in the
belt was always gun, and sometimes
two. The fighters generally carried a
knife besides in casa short two-edged
knife, good for fighting or skinning deer
or bear, and sold in st. Louis for about
s.. Maybe these fellows who were pretty
sharp thought that Pine was a tender
foot, but guess not. You see every gam
bier was a fighter, and Pine was a gam
| bier from way up the gulch. Well on
| the morning that he was making his last
play, dropped in the FL Sol, after
the paper was run off and stood
around with the printers at the bar,
and. I think, played off few dollars at
the bank, for everybody played some
then. There was Pine across the room
| plugging away with big wad of sacks in
his pocket and row of red chips on the
table, as | say, each of them worth a ten
ounce sack of clean-blown dust. Then 1
recollected afterward-but l didn't notice
| at the time-Ives and the two West boys
and freighter from Laurens stand
! ing around and drinking considerable, till
| Ives got pretty drunk and then got noisy.
| Then he out with six-shooter and shot
| three times up to the ceiling and yelling
! all the time like Gen. jackson
| and saying that no man in Alder
! Gulch could get the drop on him. We
| didn't mind that much, for you see it hap
| pened each night-or morning-and then,
besides, nobody wanted a fight with Ives
He was an ugly fighter and bad man
when in liquor, but when sober pretty
fair seeming fellow, and had plenty of
friends. But that morning he was bad,
| and Johnson, the owner of Sol, tried to
cool him off, but Ives kept getting hotter
and daring anybody for fight Finally
he got out in the middle of the room and
looks hard over to the table where was
playing, and yells:
"'Maybe there's tenderfoot faro bank
buster here that will take me up
"Well, that remark made Ives take to
shallow water, but nobody in the house
said word. Ives gets few more drinks
and motions to the two West boys from
Bannock who had been standing around
waiting for a row and the party went
outside. / went over to Pine and said
Old man, maybe you had better move on.
think them fellows are laying for you, :
and he sad, Never mind me Hugh,
there's no country on earth where can't
play my hand out Then pulled my six
shooter, handed it over and says, You
take that Well, he wasn't going to take
it at first, saying ne was heeled to the
ears, but ] says You take il and put it on
the chair between your legs, and he done
so, and a mighty lucky thing it happened
to be. Pretty soon, as / reckoned, Ives and
the two West boys come back. Ives
You see, the faro tables was all set
close TO the wall, with the dealer and
lookout facing the crowd, and the case
keeper on the other side of the table
facing the dealer. Well, here was Ives In
the middle room with 6-shooter in each
hand facing the table, so that he could
shoot Pine in the back if he made a stir.
But Pine never said word-only kept on
showing his bets and the case buttons at
the same time Then Ives walks around
the room, yelling all the time, and comes
back to the same place and yells again:
SIS there any ID tenderfoot here
that can shoot as long as he can play faro
bankl'
"Then seen Pine look up, not at Ives
you understand, who was behind him, but
up at the lookout, and / seen his eyes give
fash as he says, loud enough for every
body TO hear: