Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-07-25
WHY HE SUCCEEDED.
A 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 Countrywide mbers of the Bar Who
Tried to Beat the Pet Law of the Town.


the Corntry-Iembers of the Bar Who
Tried to Beat the Pet Law of the Town
"My seat in the senate and all / have
besides had root in game of poker"
Her the senator gazed benignantly
about lis 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 poker
game which lost me to the east and
gave me to the west, to become in time
Z senator. This is the story:
II was born and brought Up in a
town in Kentucky. 1t was small
town. You could throw a lariat about
the whole outfit and drag it with a
pony. But it was highly moral town.
As q community it had n pet law. 1t
made a speciality 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 q
judge or prosecuting attorney violating
the law merely to demonstrate the Pur-
itan fairness of local sentiment
1T WAS the June term of the circuit
court. There was a crowd of lawyers in
town. The judge himself was from
down the Ohio river. During the noon
hour quiet game Of poker was talked
over as one of the happy methods of
passing the pending evening. The town
had habit of going to bed at O'Clock.
and it all promised to be graveyard dull
to the visiting lawyers and the judge.
Whispered word went about, therefore,
that game Of cards, with meek and
lowly limit, would be good way to
ward off care. But there was no place
to play.
''Thc hotel would never do. A light
i'll any room after 10 O'Clock would have
provoked the most baleful surmises and
investigation as well. The prosecuting
attorney was one of the foremost in ar
ranging tie coming speculation. 1t was
he who, i'll the fertility of his nature,
suggested the flatbOat. 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 re fatboat. 1t would be out
of sight ant. hearing Of the testy little
burg which made a specially of punish
ing gambling.
1T was 10 o'clock. The night was as
dark as the interior Of q COW. Two
games were going on in the cabin of the
fiatboat. 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 artlor of q
Kentucky gentleman. 1t was about this
time when, in company with n friend,
strolled Oh the levee in the vicinity of
the flatboat. l was 20 years of age and
had no money. My friend was equally
well fixed. Our youth and cur 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
ly she drifted away over the dark bos-
ON of the river. The jovial gamesters
drew and filled and straddled and raised
and called, all unconscious. At O'Clock
III the morning Colonel Stebbins had
won so. 1t was in Mexican money,
and he had sinkered it about his honest
old frame in half 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 go. The rest jeercd mildly and
made lnvidious remarks after the fash
ion of losers at poker just as the game
breaks up. But Colonel Stebbins was
infiexible. 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 90 feet deep. The sill
yer all but drowned the colonel, how
ever. AT last he was fished out and laid
across barrel to evict the Ohio river
from his system. The whoops and yells
of the voyagers at last brought 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 O'Clock in the aft
ernoon 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 related how we had cast these
poker games adrift on the Ohio. We
made a grave mistake wien we told
this story. Publicly we We're threatened
with indictment; privately we were
menaced with death by the gentlemen
we had betrayed to the river We took