The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-22
state Of Montana.

boys. Those young chaps would watch
their employers shooting dice and
playing poker after the exchange had
| closed, and by Saturday night they
were ready to plunge their last bone.
And let me tell you now that of all the
| men / have seen around a roulette or
| faro layout none of 'em could touch
| those brokers' clerks and college boys
| for pure, raw nerve.
Your $1,000 plunger is all right. but
the s25 and $50, which was all these
fellows had, meant just as much to
them, and they would watch their car
fare home wiped away without a vince
| or change of expression. When you
get a man reduced to playing his car
fare on the turn of the card or the spin
of the wheel and he loses it with ease
and grace, you have got a man who
some day will make Wall street squirm
or else will wind up in Sing Sing.
THE little faro box and the old rou
lette wheel are faithful servants, and
they never betray their masters in the
long run, but sometimes they will get
thoughtless for SPELL and / have seen
some marvellous winnings made off of
almost nothing. The cases are few and
far between, though, and when you
hear of a man discoursing on how he
broke the town on a plugged 10-cent
a heavyweight liar.
you can't beat the little box IL you
stay with IL, and the wild winnings
that you hear about are made mostly
of the novices, and the amount of the
winnings increases in the same ratio as
the story grows.
"'Dink' Davis is one of the few old
gamblers who ever really made a big
winning and did not go and lose 1t the
next day or the next week
There was method in his madness.
He is the only man that 1 know that
knew enough to leave the game after
he had beaten it.
For two straight nights he played it,
and he played it hard and fast. but
they were coming his way and while
they came he stuck to Ii. These two
nights have gone down to history now.
No one before or since has bucked the
tiger with such indominitable courage
backed up with such marvellous luck
He couldn't miss a bet and he called
the turn with an ease that paralyzed
them all.
'Dink' began his wild plunge. lie was
such a quiet, unassuming chap. That
same little skull cap that he wears now
was pulled down over his eyes, ami he
placed his bets with such modesty that
the harsh words that were On every
ones lips failed them, and they could
only cash his winnings without a
grumble. All night long he played in
the same way. He seemed to have the
little silver box hypnotiZed, and all the
dealers in town could not break the
SPELL
"They tried them all, too, called them
in from different houses, and in his
quiet, unpretentious way he laughed at
them all. II he played the ten spot to
win it was double open and shut that
the ten-spot was going to win. Every
play was punctuated by a quiet en-
phasis that made the usual jibes and
comments ridiculous and commonplace.
He was playing the old system. 'dou-
BILE out'-that is, two cards were play
ed to win, and the other two to lose.
In the ten-spot only he failed on the
first two plays. Each time the number
lost when he was playing ii to win,
and on the third one he trebled the bet
and the dealer almost had nervous
prostration.
His winnings that night have been
estimated at all the way from $25, 900 to
1000, but 1 know that all he pulled
out of the game was somewhere be-
tween 500 and $4,000. Drinks was
the best winning that / have ever
known Of and ii has become unit of
measure, but / have seen equally as
good money pulled out on the capital
invested.
lone night a young Harvard chap
came into Davis place IN 2Sth street.
He had just 10 cents to pay his car
fare to the Grand Central station, and
he left his hotel with the firm resolve
of keeping 1t. He had two hours. how
ever, before his train tert and he de-
cided to play his surplus with Dink and
get a good dinner along with his
plunge. He came into the room with
out any attempt at concealing his free
lunch scheme. and announced frankly
that he was going to play 10 cents
worth and then go down and eat up
the dinner. He put his dime on No. IL
of the roulette table and we gave him
a stack of quarter checks.
He had sand and on the next spin
he scattered his quarter checks all over
the board fiat foot That gave him
a good start and he followed it up. Be
fore either he or we knew ii he had
won $50, and then he decided to cash in
and go down to dinner. After dinner
he found that he could catch a later
train to Boston, and he gave $50 to a
friend and spent the remaining SO in a
stack of blues. / never saw luck run
the way it did for him mat night He
couldn't miss a fiat foot If he tried.
"Once he left SO uncovered, and just
before l twirled the ball he dropped
the last four chips he had on il, and ii
jumped up just as If it knew what a
sucker IL was buching against. He
won about $40 on that bet alone. and
had the sense to cash i'm and go home
On that one 10-cent piece he got din
ner that was worth 81 and 800 in cash
besides.
"He has been here a dozen times
since. and l suppose we have got that
500 back many times. but he doesn't
know ii. He is living still on the
strength of that win. and fondly be-
lieves that he is ahead of the game.
And there are hundreds just like
him