Evening star., 1897-03-18
A GIRLS LUCK At POKER.
What Happened When She DiscR Rrded
Four Aces With S2.OOO in the Pot.

What Happened When She Discarded
Four Aces With S2.oOO I'm the Pot.
From the New York Sun.
There have been many interesting
stories told about the game of poker" said
the man who travelled for his health hs
cleared his throat and Joined the drummers
i'm the smoking compartment, hut 1 hava
never vet heard an anecSote of the na-
tional game that equals the one am about
to tell you. Most poker stories have from
one to three professional card sharpers in
them, six or seven marked decks of paste
boards, a rich cotton planter or country
man for sucker, and always revolvers
and bowie knives concealed In belts or
pockets and ready to take their part at any
moment in opening jack pot. If the occa-
sion demands their assistance In this
story of mine all these elements are lack
ing. There were only two players In the
game and they We're both gentlemen. The
amount of money at stake was somethin
like $1,000, and of the players had
only his share of that sum between him
and starvation. ii goes without saying that
he was nightly interested in the deciding
hand.
1T was a rather long voyage from New
YORK to Rio Janeiro on the old Brazilian
line. and there We're only nine passengers
in the first cabin on the boat when the
game came off. 1 was one of them Among
the others were pale. delicate and very
nervous young man, who was accompanied
by his sister. and stolid. phlegmatic indi-
vidual of about fifty years of age. About
five days before reached Rio they got
to playing freeZe-out i'm the smoking cabin
or course, the game started with dollar
stacks. just to pass away the time. but as
the nervous young man lost steadily he
wanted chance to get even, and they de
cided on q SO limit. Now. as you all know
a lot OF coin can go across the table in a
s1o-limit game IL the cards keep running
the wrong way: and If ever a man played
in hard luck at cards il was the younger
OF those two travellers. No matter what he
held the stolid man beat him by a spot or
two. and the worst of it was that his hands
were too good to lay down He had a
queen full beaten by four fours, and king
high flush of spades by an ace high flush of
diamonds. 1t didn't seem to be natural that
cards could run that way in straight
game but they did. The last night out
from Rio the nervous young man
$1,000 in the hole, and still the game was
as honest as If played by two Sunday
school children.
A crisis is sure to come sooner or later in
a session of this kind at poker. and il came
that night about Il O'Clock. Jack pots are
usually responsible for trouble in this sort
of thing, and nobody was surprised to see
one started at 81, and creep up and up
deal after deal, until all the checks
in the middle of the table. and still neither
the nervous young man nor his stolid COM
panion could get pair of Johns or any,
thing better. The smoking cabin was up
on the hurricane deck and about the pleas
antest place in the whole ship on those de-
ightful tropical nights. Every one of the
cabin passengers was inside watching tho
game, but not one knew just what a state
of anxiety that nervous young man was in
except his sister, and she was just about
wrought up as he was. She would have
been more so probably, if she had known
that the roll of bills which he now pulled
from his pocket contained all the money
he had in the world. The stolid individual
also produced a wallet filled with bank
pnfA md lat in nf in M N
table 1 can't open it, Nor l. L can't
pass L pass. kept coming from the lips
of the players at regular intervals. until
the checks and money almost hid the little
table from view, and still nobody could
open that pot.
Il suppose they must have been it for
fifteen minutes or perhaps a little longer.
but it seemed like an age, and everybody
was breathing hard and staring. at the
cards as though life and death for the en-
tire passenger list hung in the balance,
everybody except the stolid man. aud he
was as cool the conventional cucumber
and seemed to be perfectly indifferent as to
whether not all the money In sight
should be swallowed up in that jack. Final
ly the young man rose from the table at
his opponents deal
There's luck in new player. I've
heard he said. If you've no objection,
deal this hand to my sister
Certainly replied the stolid individual.
and the young girl, her face flushed with
excitement, took her brothers seat.
Il shall never to my dying day forget
that moment. One by one, in the manner
of school girl in the parlor at home. the
young lady picked up her cards and held
them so that her brother, who stood direct
ly behind her chair. and everybody near by
could distinctly see them. The first card
was an ace, the second was ace, the
third was queen, the fourth an ace. and
the fifth an ace. Four aces and queen,
and thousand dollars i'm the pot, open
it, whispered the nervous man, and play
1t for all the money. She opened the pot
fnr .lnl1o h.. -t11, ia.
promptly raised her ten. He was raised in
return, and the nervous man suggested that
the limit be taken off. The proposition was
accepted, and in less time than IL takes
10 tell it all of the nervous mans money
amounting to something like a thousand
dollars. was in the center of the table. to-
Gether with an equal amount of his oppo-
rents cash.
Cards. if any,? politely asked the DEAL
er; and at the same instant the young LADY,
throwing her aces exposed on the table,
answered -Four. Quicker than a flash Of
lightning four cards off the top of the oack
lay in front of her.
Il shall never forget the way that ner-
vous young man said oh. as pale and
trembling, he staggered toward the door
for air. The word. or groan or gasp, which,
ever 1t may be called, seemed to express an
agony that few men would wish to live
through more than once. i know IL to be q
TACT that he has never touched card from
that day to this. No, and what is more L
am confident that he never will. But wait
q. nIn m nu'e, Sou maven heafu the ehd OF lie
story. OF course. the young lady had to
take the four cards sine mad called for. She
said that I'm the excitement she had got the
game mixed up with old maid, and as the
aces matched of course she had to discard
them. This left her with the queen, and
she seemed to feel dreadfully for moment
for fear she would be an old maid. When
she had finished explaining and quit play
ing girl games. and realized what she had
DONE she picked up the four cards that
had been dealt to her and turned them over
There were three more queens among themj
THE stolid individual held a small fun
and politely passed the money to her Then
she went out on deck to find her brother
could hardly believe it until she handed
MIN the money. and l suppose you are hav-
ing the same difficulty"
And then the porter was called and thS
oldest drummer told him to take the orders
Origin OF the Word "Snob.,
"While turning over the leaves of thu