The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-21
PIUTE POKER.

simost clerical looking, soberly dressed In
black broadcloth, and wore white, full
dress tie, beneath which, In the center Of
the considerable expanse of snowy linen
exposed by q low cut vest, CLEANED dia-
mond, attractive from Its 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-
oeiving from the group Of men Of his age
--all stoutor, grayer and more fashionabiy
dressed than he-who were seated with
him in that Union square cafe much fire.
They started him talking about his life in
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 1t perhaps. I started there from
Carson, where I'd been dealing game,
but stopped at a town called Aurora, in
Esmeralda county, Nov, only ten miles
from Bodie. The two towns were away
up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, each
about five miles from the state line.
''In Aurora l met an old dealing part
ner who'd started a faro bank there and
was doing good business. He was short
dealer and let me into the game ON equal
shares, I 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 gono burst and was now
booming again because of some new dis
coyeries. Money was plenty and easy,
and the bank won about $500 or $500 q
day, running "a hours day, seven days
in the week.
when | was off watch in the afternoon,
/ used TO wander about a bit to get the
smoke and bad air out of me- and in one
of these walks came across party of In
dams playing Piute poker, as It was
called. Now, Of course, I'd heard of Piuto
poker, and seen it played by the bucks
over on the Comstock, where l dealt be-
fore going to Carson, and, like every other
man in our business, Id heard that no
white man had ever been able to learn the
game
well, l got interested, and used to
hang around the group of bucks, squatted
on the ground around blanket, in va
cant 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, 1T was pretty puZzling game,
without much rule according to our way
of thinking, but gradually got notion
of what made tho points and how to play
for them.
ain those days the bucks had pretty
good showing of money. They would
bring rabbits and quail and sometimes a
deer into camp and got good money for
them, and tho 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 mo want TO take hand it was lust
a natural bankering, as you might say, to
try my hand at a new game, and one they
said white could not learn. So orc day
l said to a buck knew, chap we called
Captain Sam, that I'd sit in if he didn't
mind. Sam never said word, but the
players hunohed around the blanket, made
an opening for me, and Sam gruntcd and
nodded for me to sit in. 1t turned out to
be easier than l thought. Perhaps it |
be easy for man who hadn't |
made cards the study Of his life; but, us | |
say, it wasn't long before had the run Of |
tricks so that | stood even at the first sit
ting. The next day l 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.
I'VE were playing with pack so old
md dislgurcd that | knew every one by |
It's back in half dozen deals, SO | told
sam to deal new deck. Sam grunted
md didn't want to; said the storekeeper
was heap big thief and charged 81 Il
pack. Thinking he was little close
gave him n couple of four bit pieces and
old him to send for pack, and he passed
5hc money over to Il squaw and told her to
30 and buy pack.
when it came, broke tho 81 4 and
,ook the wrapper off myself. lost with
hat Pack from the start | kept losing,
90, till they had the last case l had about
no, and l sent the squaw down to my
lartncr with an order for $50. told her
o buy couple of more packs too.
well, that $40 didn't last long, and
cit pretty foolish. 1t wouldn't do to let
he story got ont that the bucks had demo
lie, for I'd told the story to tho boys, just
is joke, you know, how I'd beat Captain
sam and the other bucks at chelr own
game.
II went down to the bank and got $500,
md stopped in ut the stor &and bought
en- new packs Of cards, wAxh happened
o be all they had left. went back and