Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-09-08
THE BLUFF FAILED.
BUT IT BROUGHT ABOUT THE DESIRED
 RESULT AT LAST

The college Society Chapter That "as AD Fad Ropute = A Medal That Contained
 an Inscription Poker and Bottled Ee. treatments.
 It frequently happens" said col lege graduate, that different chapters of the same Greek letter fraternity, sit uated at different colleges, develop diff. ferent characteristics. All of these so. cieties, think, are organized to encour. age literary pursuits. l mean that's what the constitutions say. As mat. ter Of fact, the literary element is rath CT lost sight of ill most cases in theI stress of having jolly good time When convention time comes round, however, tine chapters that have main. tained their literary quality come to the fore, and the others have to put up a bluff by sending as delegates men who have high standing as scholars or elsa take very back seat.
 ''The chapter to which I belonged was located at country college, and in some way or other it had acquired reputation in the fraternity of being es- sentially nonliterary, and, i'll fact, rath- CT sporty ill character This was so much the case that in my junior year there was q movement on foot to expel or suspend our chapter from the frater- nity. We weren't very strong i'll high stand men and couldn't even scare up two to go as delegates to the conven- tion. Another man and myself were finally selected for this function as the most unsopbisticated looking members of the chapter.
 As usual in such cases, special train was made up to start from the westernmost chapter and to pick up as many of the other delegations as could be arranged on its way to the convention city. We were among the more femote chapters, and when we boarded the train there was only one other delega- tion on board, composed of three mem bers We sighed when we saw big boxes of bottled beer i'll the freight car and reflected on the elaborate instructions we had received from our constituents. We were primed for the occasion. My companion, Forbes, had classical vol ume i'll each side pocket of his coat and there were ink stains on bis fingers. had borrowed from a classmate a meda given for scholarship, and this I hae rather ostentatiously hung on my watch chain.
 We soon made the acquaintance of the other three delegates and joined them in their stateroom. Before long they proposed a game of poker, and one of them produced a pack of cards Forbes said ho didn't play. retired to a corner, pulled out q copy of Gladstone's Landmarks of Homerie Study and after gazing thoughtfully out of the window for a moment or two apparently became absorbed in it. l admired his conception of the part, but couldn' { bring myself to break up the game, and that's what it meant, for everybody knows there's no fun in three handed poker. Besides, there were only three delegates on the train to witness my fall. said didn't play, but had seen the game and thought it looked inter esting. I was willing to learn.
 When we got started, there was a demand for buck, and I unhitched the scholarship medal and dropped it into the pot as good means of calling at, tention to 1t. Everything went on swimmingly for awhile. 1 had outra- geous luck and won pot after pot, so they were confirmed in the idea that was a beginner. After awhile one of the other delegates got away with jack pot, and while he was waiting for tho cards to be dealt he picked up the medal and glanced oarelessly at the obverse side. hadn't examined 1t particularly. but 1 found out afterward that it bore this neat inscription: Garrett J. Gardner, Weymouth University, Glass of 's7.
 The delegate started and looked as me with glance Chat was first n1ysti- fled and then suspicious.
 e' beg your pardon, Brother Gard her, he said, with touch of sarcasm I thought you said your name was Hawkins, and we've all been calling you that right along.
 There was a smothered guffaw from behind the Landmarks of Honeric Study, and I saw the jig was up. We made clean breast of it, and Forbes sat into the game, making it five hand. ed, which, of course, is the ideal game We didn't lose any timo sending for ward for a consignment of that bottled beer, and the floor was strewn with dead Indians when the train filed up with other delegates, and they crowded around to watch tie game.
 Our elaborate bluff hadn't worked and the convention opened with our chapter i'll just as bad odor as before. but we had made stanch supporters of the three delegates and some other kind ly spirits who had joined us on the train. They all went to work like bea- vers, and when our case was taken up in the convention we had good work ing majoritJ which sustained our char ter with whoop New York Sun.