The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-07-20
HE SUCCEEDED.
SENATOR'S GOOD FORTUNE BEGAN
WITH A GAME OF POKER.
A Boyish Prank That Made It Necessary
For Him to Go West and Grow Up With
the Country-Members Of the Bar Who
Tried to Beat the Pet Law of the Town..

"My seat in the senate and all l have
besides had root in a game Of poker"
Here the senator gazed benignantly
about his small audience. He was in q
reminiscent mood. He was a wise, deep
sea little senator, as sapient as ever
went into executive session. Now and
then he liked to talk about the past.
1T sounds queerly to say it," the
senator continued, ''but it was a poker
game which lost me to the east and
gave mt to the west, to become in time
q senator. This is the story:
81 was born and brought up in a
town in Kentucky. 1t was o small
town. You could throw q lariat about
the whole outfit and drag it with a
pony. But it was a highly moral town.
AS a community it had a pet law. 1t
made a specially of enforcing the stat
utes against gambling. no games of
chance could thrive in that community.
And no matter what the position in life
of an offender, were he guilty of gam
bling he would be dealt with. Such was
the impartial boast of the town. Indeed,
as one citizen Observed:
"'They would admire to catch a
judge or prosecuting attorney violating
the law merely to demonstrate the Pur-
itan fairness of local sentiment
ut was the June term of the circuit
court. There gas a crowd Of lawyers in
town. The judge himself was from
loxy-r thn nI;n riy,. Tl,,~ A. 900
hour a quiet game of poker was talked
over as one Of the happy methods of
passing the pending evening. The town
had Il habit of going to bed at 9 o'clock,
and it all promised to be graveyard dull
to the visiting lawyers and the Judge.
Whispered word went about, therefore,
that a game of cards, with a meek and
lowly limit, would be a good way to
ward off care. But there was no place
to play.
THE hotel would never do. A light
in any room after 10 O'Clock would have
provoked the most baleful surmises and
investigation as we'll. The prosecuting
attorney was One of the foremost in ar
ranging the coming speculation. 1t was
he who, i'll the fertility of his nature,
suggested the fiatboat. His father was
proprietor of a flatboat of ample cabin
accommodation. Just then it was moor
ed, bow and stern, at the foot of the
levee. A couple of games were pro-
grammed to come off that evening in
the cabin of the tlatboat. 1t would be out
Of sight and hearing Of the testy little
hr1rp y-hioh ynoIa n cYNocfa1tv re x,rse1,
ing gambling.
"It was 10 O'Clock. The night was as
dark as the interior of a COW. Two
games We're going on in the cabin of the
fatboat. The judge, the prosecuting at
torney and some nine members of the
bar were engaged. 1t made two nice
tables. Everybody was bending to the
game with all of the native ardor of a
Kentucky gentleman. 1t was about this
time when, in company with a friend,
I strolled IN the levee in the vicinity Of
the fiatboat. I was 20 years Of age and
had no money. My friend was equally
we'll fixed. Our youth and our poverty
forbade anything like poker SO far as we
were concerned. On discovering the old
folks thus charmingly engaged a taste
to be humorous swept over us. We were
law students they were lawyers. That
was reason enough for the joke. As the
boat rose and fell on the swell and slack
ened the ropes we cast her loose. Silent
~ she drifted away over the dark bos-
om Of the river. The jovial gamesters
drew and filled and straddled and raised
apd called, all unconscious. At 2 o'clock
in the morning Colonel Stebbins had
won so. 1t was in Mexican money,
and he had sinkered it about his honest
old frame in half a dozen pockets. 1t
was about all of the money at that table,
and Colonel Stebbins concluded he
might better go. He murmured some
thing about cold feet and promising his
wife to come up to the hotel early and
arose to 60. The rest jeered mildly and
made invidious remarks after the fash
ion Of losers at poker just as the game
breaks up. But Colonel Stebbins was
~inhexible. He put On his hat, bid ev-
erybody good night, stepped out into
the inky darkness and carefully picked
his way overheard.
+ 1.-THE water was 20 feet deep. The sill
yer all but drowned the colonel, how
ever. At last he was fished out and laid
across a barrel to evict the Ohio river
from his system. The whoops and yells
Of the voyagers at last brought a sleepy
little tug to their aid. They found them
selves II miles below the town. For
$50 Of Colonel Stebbins' gains the tug
towed the party back.
"They arrived at 2 o'clock in the aft
rnoon and found the town sullenly lin
ing the levee waiting for them. They
were one and all promptly indicted. In
the frank enthusiasm of youth my friend
and I related how we had cast these
poker games adrift on the Ohio. We
made a grave mistake when we told
this story. Publicly we were threatened
with indictment; privately we were
menaced with death by the gentlemen
we had betrayed to the river. We took
counsel Of our woes and without await
ing the worst went west. This was all
long ago-4S years ago. My partner in
] sin is now a United States judge,