The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-12-19
A WESTERN POKER STORY
-Four One Spots Held by a GawlSy Stranger
In a Game In Nevada.

lCpeclt4 CORES CI1cle1leel
SALT LAKE CITY. Dec. 13.-It was
yet an hour before the train was due
here today when, having read the last
page of the latest magazine and extract
ed all the news from the morning paper,
I strolled into the smoking car in search
of amusement There I found a typical
westerner Of the earlier days RECALLING
another with a story and sat down be-
hind the pair and listened
WAL, az was saying, /" the speaker
continued, 1.-THE wust sold lot of gains
T ever knowed was ont in Eureka White
Pine county. New, some four or five
years ago. Eureka was a lively mining
camp them days, and of course there
was poker game running wide open in
the one big saloon there. had some
business out there that year that kept
me in Eureka for four or five days. and
when 1 hadn't anything else to do
useter watch the game. Sometimes it
was real amusing.
zone day in particular they was
stiff game on, and a tall sort Of Teller,
wearing a billed shirt and a long coat
and a stovepipe hat, come in. He was SO
tall and thin he was just natchully
gawky, and he had a chin beard that
made him look worse than he would Of
looked without it. He stood around
awhile, with his hands in his cOattails,
and finally the boss. who was playing
In the game, sung out:
Say, you. dontoher wanter play a
littles'
Waal, prehaps I do. says the fell
Ter. What's the Emit2'
= There amt no limit. says the
gambler.
How much are your chipsg says
gawkv.
Z. twenty-five cents. the gambler Eel
plies
- WAL. says the stranger, femme
have hundred dollars worth
WAL they give the Teller the chips,
and he stacked 'em up IN front Of him
very slow and deliberatelike. Then
noticed that his hands was thin and his
fingers was long-just right for poker.
He pulled a big roll out of his pants
pocket, and the fun began. Pretty soon
that roll was gone, and then he took one
from his hip pocket and then one from
his inside coat pocket, and every one Of
them was as big as your arm muscle.
He seemed to have no end Of money.
Bimeby he began to win his rolls back,
and then the other fellers' money began
TO give out, and then they all dropped
out but one. Then the fellers that had
dropped out looked at their friends
hand and put up their rolls till they was
all gone. which wasn't long, for the
raises was sometimes $3.50 a clip Then
the money drawer Of the bank was
cleaned out, and then gawky leaned
back and pulled his chin whisker with
one hand and said to his opponent. real
slow and easylike.
q What have you gots'
e I've got a full house, replied the
gambler sarcas tically. then, Initiating
the stranger, asked, What have you got, |
you orkard, ministerial looking son of a
greenhorn, may 1 aslzs'
g I have four one spots, said gawky,
grinning, while his long fingers reached
out toward the pile little mite Might
they be goods'
Say, never saw q Teller broke up
like that gambl or was as he showed over
the money. We all felt sorry for him.
especially when we found out that
gawky was a Mississippi river steam
boat gambler and stood away up in the
business. He cleaned out a lot Of camps
later that same year. and he done it al
ways in the same way-by having rolls
enough and big enough to 0utlast every
body else in the game. Say, ne was a
corker. that Teller. He told me In Salt
Lake afterward that he made good deal
more money out OF the miners the year
he went out to Eureka than he ever did
anywhere before IN tae same time. But
he never hit the Eureka feIIers again
Yon can put that in your pipe and
smoke It. n G. c. DURRow.