Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-09-14
PIUTE POKER.

He was tall, slender, mild hammered
almost clerical looking, soberly dressed il
black broadcloth, and wore a white, full
dress tie, beneath whish, in the center o.
the considerable expanse of snowy liner
exposed by a low cut vest, cleaned da
mond, attractive from it's size and purity
That he was man of Importance be
yond the locale of his western home was
shown by the serious attention he was re
ceiving from the group of men of his age
all stouter, grayer and more fashionably
dressed than he-who were seated with
him in that Union square cafe much fire
quented by prosperous veteran firemen
They started him talking about his life il
the mines, and he told, among others, this
story:
II always stuck to one game, faro, ex
cept once. It's 20 years ago now that
there was big excitement over new
camp in California, called Bodie. You
heard of it perhaps started there from
Carson, where I'd been dealing a game,
Ouu oUOppCo aU UOWA CuA1Clk ~ uIUItL, Ill
Esmeralda county, New, only ten miles
from Bodie. The two towns were away
up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, each
about five miles from the state line
SIN Aurora I met an old dealing part.
ner who'd started faro bank there and
was doing good business. He was short a
dealer and let me into the game on equal
shares, putting my pile into the bank
with him. 1t was an old town-Mark
Twain had lived there when he was out
on the slope-had gone burst and was now
booming again because of some new dis.
coveries. Money was plenty and easy,
and the bank won about $500 or $500 a
day, running "a hours day, seven days
in the week.
when l was off watch in the afternoon,
I used to wander about bit to get the
smoke and had air out of me, and in one
of these walks I came across party of In
dams playing Piute poker, as it was
called. Now, Of course, I'd heard of Piute
poker, and seen it played by the bucks
over on the Comstock, where I dealt be-
fore going to Carson, and, like every other
man in our business, I'd heard that no
white man had ever been able to learn the
game.
"Well I got interested, and used to
hang around the group of bucks, squatted
on the ground around blanket, in a va.
can't lot between the printing office and
express office, and stand there as quiet as
the squaws, with their papooses on their
backs, studying the game. To tell the
truth, it was pretty puzzling game,
without mucl rule according to our way
of thinking, but gradually got notion
of what made the points and how to play
for them.
"In those days the bucks had pretty
good showing of money. They would
bring rabbits and quail and sometimes
deer into camp and get good money for
them, and the squaws made good wages
saving wood, washing and that sort of
work for the whites, so sometimes the pots
got up to real money. But it wasn't that
made me want to take hand; it was Just
a natural hankering, as you might say, to
try my hand at new game, and ono they
said white could not learn. So one day
l said to buck knew, a chap we called
Captain Sam, that I'd sit in if he didn't
mind. Sam never said word, but the
players hunched around the blanket, made
an opening for me, and Sam grunted and
nodded for me to sit in. 1t turned out to
be easier than l thought. Perhaps it
wouldn't be easy for man who hadn't
made cards the study of his life; but, as l
say, it WASN'T long before had the run of
tricks SO that stood even at the first sit
ting. The next day I won little-not
caring to, you know, but just for the fun
of it, intending to make good to the bucks
in some other way what won.
we were playing with pack SO old
and disfgured that I knew every one by
it's back in half dozen deals, SO | told
Sam to deal new deck. Sam grunted
and didn't want to; said the storekeeper
was a heap big thief and charged 81
pack. Thinking he was a little close,
gave him couple of four bit pieces and
told him to send for pack, and he passed
the money over to a squaw and told her to
go and buy pack.
"When it came, l broke the seal and
took the wrapper off myself lost with
that pack from the start kept losing,
too, till they had the last case had about
me, and sent the squaw down to my
partner with an order for $50. I told her
to buy a couple of more packs too.
swell, that $50 didn It last long, and l
felt pretty foolish. 1t wouldn't do to let
the story get out that the bucks had done
me, for I'd told the story to the boys, Just
as a joke, you know, how I'd beat Captain
Sam and the other bucks at their own
game.
II went down to the bank and got $500,
a nd ctOpDoH n ot tho cfn
ten new packs of cards, which happened
to be all they had left. went back and
sat in again. In just one hour we'd used
up all the cards and was broke.
II did heap Of bedrock thinking, but
couldn't strike any kind of explanation
nohow.
THAT night the storekeeper says to me-
Bill, says he, since you bought those
cards this morning, l can't help thinking
about what happened in the store last
evening. A squaw came in and asked how
many packs had, and / showed up IA.
She planked down $14 and took the lot.
Thought it was kind of funny but In
lians are queer folks anyhow. This morn
ng she came back crying, and asked me
20 take back 13 packs She said she'd been
! big fool. Sam had told her to buy one
pack and she had not understood He
lad beat her and would kill her sure if l
lidnt take the cards back and return the
money. Well, I'd rather have the cards
han be clean out of them, and as they
hadn't been opened took them back
Il did a heap more thinking when the
'torekeeper told me that, and went back
% where we'd been playing and tried to
Ind some of the cards we'd thrown away
round the blanket, but the Indians had
gathered up every one Of them.
THE story got out, and 1t cost me
good many drinks to square myself with
he boys tried every way could to
Ind out what had happened, but never
,new until the day left those parts.
That day Mary, the squaw who had
fought the cards, came to my room with