El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-07-07
WHY HE FORESWORE CARDS.
Three Escares That Induced Man tC
Give Tn Poker

Give Up Poker
II don't care to play" said the quie
little man in the smoking compartmen
on the first evening Of the trip t a
ward from San Francisco. There were
only four men on the ca" who had thu:
far shown signs of being companion
| able, d he was one of the four. The.
! had diued ald were enjoying thei'
cigars together. The talk was desul
tory and amounted to little. One pro
posed game OF cards. and two OF the
others were ready, but the little mar
declined.
The pause that followed was little
awk ward. They did not even know
one another by name, and the wording
of the refusal seemed curt. The little
man sc med to realize this, for after Il
moment of silence he continued:
Nothing would have given me
greater pleasure Il year ago than to
join you in a game of poker. In fact,
nothing would give me greater pleas
ure now, but am done with cards, and
| believe any ore of you would refuse,
as | do, if cards had cost you what the Y
have me-"
The others spoke few polite moth
iDgs, to the general effect that it was a
free country and nobody was obliged to
play anything ne did t want to play,
anu One-tue youngest III tne party
said:
"Unlucky, I suppose"
HIN Well, | don't exactly know
as you'd call it that" said the little
man retlectly. II most always win
when | play, or | used to, that is: but
I've had some of the cussedest. narrow
est squeaks in the game that could
easily be imagined, and made up my
mind some time since that I'd bad
- i
cards without getting back into poker.
| just naturally quit cards
STORY about it:' asked the young
man.
yves. Sort of. But I'm no story
teller"
Man won't play cards. Ought to
do something" This was the young
mans appeal to the others. They
nodded.
well, don't know as 1 mind spiu-
ming the yarn said the little man
you don't any of you know me, and you
won't any of you be likely ID see me
again after we separate at the end of
the trip. If you knew me, | wOuidu
care to tie it just as it was, and it
wouldn t be worth telling any other
way. Tee first narrow escape [ h I'D
was from state prison, aud good deal
worse. At least, | count it worse, for
| would have taken with me to prison
the consciousness that | deserved to go,
and, according to my notion, the
knowledge that you deserve punish
me Mt is IL deal worse than the punish
ment itself.
The game fascinated me, as it fas-
climates every bOGy, L think, who plays.
it much. L played more and more.
and as generally held my own, and
won more often than | lost, | got to
PLAYING harder and harder till | was
not coutenJed with anything but 4 big
ga me-the bigger the better. l have
three times all the way be-
tween Chicago AID Washington TO get
into a game with genuine high rollers.
OF course, | couldn't do that sort OF
thing without good supply of ready
money and considerable amount of
spare time. | had both, for | had a
fair cash capital and business OF my
own that paid me well. And my tusi-
ness was in such a condition that [
could leave it to my employees for a
week at time.
zone mig hit there was particularly
stiff game at the club | frequentad
most in New York, where [ then lived
The limit was off, and a raise of a
thou>a and was made several times dur
ing the evening. l had expected hot
work, and had put 5000 in my pocket
that afternoon. There was one man
in the game that | had particularly
wanted TO beat, partly because ne was
a noted player and | had never met
lin before. | watched him careful ly, |
and twice in the course of three or four |
hours play | was sat SIZED that he took |
in Il fairly large pot on a bluff. [ had |
nothing in my own hand either time, |
and didn't care to pay TO see his cards. |
but l felt sure that If he had blutfed |
twice successfully, as | was positive he !
had, he would do it again.
presently he tried it. OF course, |
could only suspect him, unless | cal ed. |
but | decided to risk 1T, though | had |
only pair of SevenS when | came in |
after the Jackpot was opened, and |
hadn't bettered in the draw. 1t had |
been opened for five hundred, and my
antag onist bad raised it thousand |
before the draw. That's what made |
me come in on so small hand, for | |
he was trying to steal the
pot, which was big enough to Justify
the attempt, for there was over tnous- |
ana IL IL before he spoke.
Il stood the raise and so did the
opener, who stood pat. My man drew
two cards and | drew three. AS | said,
caught nothing. The opener bet Il
thousand and my man went back at lin
Win announcer Thousand. L sim ply made
good, but the opener lost his nerve, and
laid down small straight without call
ing. My man had evidently rcckoned
on my dropping out also, but my bet
became call when the opener quit,
and he showed down two skies.
I'VE had some little chatf over it,
and the game went on, | didn't know
till next day how near ruin L had been
just then. When | went TO my Office
In the morning | found that my cashier
had gone to CANADA, and that instead of
having several thousand dollars in
bank, as l supposed, my account was
Overdrawn. That does not sound like
ruin, l confess, but | was the trustee of
certain funds, amounting to about
50 1000. and l was called on for settle
ment that very day. If 1t hadn't been
for winning that pot on pair OF sew
ems l wouId have had to quit the game,
Tor l was d loser before that hand.
The consequences would have been
frightfuL.
hon had