The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-05

| they were both gentlemen. The amount
| of money at stake was something like
S2,00O, and as one Of the players had
| only his share Of that sum between him
| end starvation, it goes without saying
| that he was nightly interested in the de-
| Gliding hand.
1T was a rather long voyage from New
! York to Rio Janeiro on the old Brazilian
| line, and there were only nine passengers
| in the first cabin on the boat when the
| game came off. l was one of them.
Among the others were a pale, delicate
and very nervous young man, who vas
accompanied by his sister, and a solid,
! phlegmatic individual of about so years
of age. About five days before we reach
ed Rio they got to playing freeZe-out in
| the smoking cabin. OF course, the game
started with dollar stacks, just to pass
away the time, but as the nervous young
| man lost steadily he wanted a chance to
| get even, and they decided on a $10-limit.
| Now, as you all know, lot of coin can
go across the table in a $10-limit game
| if the cards keep running the wrong way;
| and If ever man played in hard luck at
cards it was the younger of those two
| travellers. No matter what he held the
| solid 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
| queen full beaten by four tours. 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
a straight game, but they did. The last
| night out from Rio the nervous young
man was $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 of poker,
| and it came that night about u o'clock.
Jack-pots are usually responsible for trou-
Bile in this sort of thing, and nobody was
| surprised to see one started at IS, and
| creep up and up, deal after deal, until all
| the checks were in the middle of the ia
| bic, and still neither the nervous young
man nor his stolid companion could get
pair of Johns or anything better. The
| smoking cabin was up on the hurricane
! deck, and about the pleasantest place in
| the whole ship on those delightful tropi-
cal nights. Every one of the cabin pas
sengers was inside watching the 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
as 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 notes, and laid it in front of
| him on the table. L can't open it, Nor L.
| I can't L pass I pass, kept coming
| from the lips of the players at regular in
tervals. until the checks and money al
most hid the little table from view and
| still nobody could open that pot.
II suppose they must have been at it
| for fifteen minutes or perhaps a little
| longer, but it seemed like an age, and
everybody was breathing hard and star
ing at the cards as though life and death
for the entire passenger list hung in the
balance, everybody except the stolid man,
and he was as cool as the conventional
cucumber and seemed to be perfectly in
different as to whether or not all the
money in sight should be swallowed up in
that Jack. Finally the young man rose
from the table at his opponents deal.
d" There's luck in new player, I've
heard, he said. If you've no objection,
deal this hand to my sister
" Certainly said the stolid individual,
and the young girl her face flushed with
excitement, took her brothers seat.
II shall never to my dying day forget |
that moment. One by one, in the manner
of a school girl in the parlor at home, the
young lady picked up her cards and held |
them so that her brother, who stood di- |
rectly behind her chair, and everybody |
near by could distinctly see them. The |
first card was an ace, the second was an |
ace, the third was a queen, the fourth |
an ace, and the fifth an ace. Four aces |
and a queen, and thousand dollars in |
the pot! open it, whispered the nervous |
man, and play it for all the money She |
opened the pot for $40, and the stolid in |
dlvdual promptly raised her So 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 it takes to tell 1t all of the nervous |
mans money, amounting to something |
like $1,000, was in the center of the ia
Bile. together with an equal amount of his |
opponents cash.
" Cards, if any? politely asked the |
dealer, and at the same instant the young |
lady, throwing her aces exposed on the |
table, answered Four Quicker than |
flash of lightning four cards off the top |
of the pack lay in front of her.
81 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 |
whichever it may be called seemed to ex- |
press an agony that few men would wish |
to live through more than once. l know
it to be a fact that he has never touched
a card from that day to this. No! and
what is more, l am confident that he new
er will. But wait minute; you have not |
heard the end of the story. OF course |
the young lady had to take the four cards
she had called for. She said that in her
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 |
fele dreadfully for a moment for fear she
would be an Old maid. When she had fin |
ished explaining and quit playing 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 them,
THE stolid individual held small full
and politely passed the money to her Then
she went out on deck to find her brother |
l could hardly believe it until she handed
him the money, and 1 suppose you are hav-
ing the same difficulty"
And then the porter was called and the |
oldest drummer told him to take the orders |
CURIOUS THINGS IN CALIFORNIA.