The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-06

1919 Copyright.
New Orleans. Oct. 5.--Charles James
Fox, one of the most famous statesmen
England ever had, once said that the
greatest pleasure in life is winning money
at cards, and the next greatest pleasure
| is losing it in the same way. The prin-
| ciple of this sentiment would certainly
seem to be indorsed by a very large ma
| jority of mankind, if we may judge by
the number of those who risk money in
stock, grain and pork speculation, on horse
races and other sporting events, on cleo
tons, on cards, and in the many other
| forms of gambling which are becoming
more and more prevalent every day.
| While the great majority of men who
gamble in any thing eventually come to
| poverty and want, yet the few exceptional
instances were Vacuna, the goddess of
chance, vouchsafes fortune to her vota-
ries. are will-o -the-wisps, constantly
leading the unfortunate ones stil deeper
into the slough of moral and financial
ruin.
The deluded stock gambler, when told
what the inevitable result of his course
must be, points to Russell Sage Jay
Gould and the late Commodore Wander
bilt. and wants to know what there is to
/
cess. He forgets Daniel Drew, who.
though once worth $1S,OUO, 900, acquired in
stock speculation, died bankrupt. and
the countless other spectators who have
fallen by the waysde.
The foolish young man who is throwing
his own earnings and his employers saw
ings into the all engulfing maelstrom pock-
1 ct of the book maker and pool seller at
| the race track will laugh at your warning
and point you to "Plunger" Walton and
| "Pittsburg Phil" as examples of how much
money man can make by betting on
/ horses. The silly victim of the faro deal
er and the poker sharp will extol the
wealth that the devils pasteboards brought
| to John MorriSsey and Phil DAILY.
The gambling instinct is more or less
/ inherent in every son and daughter of
! Adam and Eve. In some ii may always lie
! dormant; in others II may be restrained
and totally repressed by consideration of
morality and worldly policy, but with
most Of us. men and women alike, 1t is
only question of temptation and oppor-
tunity whether we gamble or not in some
| form.
1t is this peculiar weakness of poor nu-
| romantic interest everything that pertains
to gambling and the gaming table. The
/ green cloth that covers the latter is the
only real Tom Tiddler's ground where
we may literally pick up gold and silver.
What wonder, then, that every scrap of
gossip that is waited to us over that same
GREATNESS eagerness. I must frankly
confess that liFe others of my kind
though probably few would be frank
enough to acknowledge it-that a sue
cessful gambler is always possessed of
a strange fascination for me as a phren-
illogical and psychological study, and 1
have never lost an opportunity to obtain
from one of those gentlemen a few leaves
out of his book of life. To Phil DAILY
the late John Morrissey and Gen. Robert
c. Schenck of Emnamine memory, at one
time minister from the United States to
a professional or habitual gambler, was
one of the most accomplished adopts at
poker and almost every other game of
chance that l have ever met, l am indebt-
ed for the "reminiscences and gossip of
the green cloth given below.
biggest poker game he ever sat in was
played at the Delavan house. Albany's
famous old hosiery, which was recently
destroyed by fire. 1t was in the days of
the Tweed ring, whose pockets were
stuffed with S5o,OO0,OOO stolen from the city
Morrissey, Tweed. Genet and Sweeney
were the players in this great game. At
ter the deal Sweeney threw. away two
away one and held four, Sweeney draw
ing three to his two, and Genet one to his
four. There was no limit and Genet bet
one thousand dollars. The others an
saw him, as the technical term of the
game is, but he and Sweeney raised so
high that Tweed and Morrissey soon
ued to raise till the pot contained fifty
thousand dollars.
Sweeney called" Genet threw down
four kings and reached for the money
but Sweeney confronted him with four
aces,
the handwriting on the wall than Genet
at those four little cards. Dead silence
reigned for moment. Then Genet whis-
pered hoarsely, pointing to one of the four
cards in Sweeney's outstretched hand:
Sweeney, did you draw that ace of dia-
mond?"
Il certainly did, Harry"
We'll, Peter, l discarded that very
acer'
sat in poker game with the late Presi-
dent James A. Garfield said Gen.
Schenck. Some people tolwhom have
made this statement have been inclined
to doubt that he who was a sort of timer
ant preacher, as well as member of the
Deciples church, and whose violent and
untimely death has cast halo of sanctity
about his memory, would play poker like
an ordinary mortal, but the fact is Gar
field had an intensely human side, and
when history shall have completely ana
lized his character, it will be fully real
lied. Garfield was a good hand at poker
and thoroughly understood the art of
bluffing a bobtail flush. On the occasion
/ speak of he sat with myself and three
others in the game from early one even
ing till noon the next day."
One of the cleverest gamblers I ever
knew was the late James Alexander who
followed his profession on the Mississippi
river steamboats, in those golden days for
river gamblers, befo' de wah. Tall and of
commanding presence, always exquisitely
dressed, he was prom By every
woman who saw him to be the handsomest
man she had ever seen. He was Louis
ianian by birth, finely educated and re-
msrkable for courtly grace and elegance
of manner. as well for that delicate
kindly courtesy so Characteristic of the
old-tirne southerner. He was the cutest
cleverest and trickiest gambler that ever
travelled the Mississippi. An adept in
Discrimination, he frequently assumed a
disguise and incognito impenetrable even
to those who knew him best.
Years ago I Travelled on a magnificent
Mississippi steamer to the mardi gras car
nival at New Orleans. She was crowded
with a CAV assembly. all bent ON the sama