The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-04-22


son, pulling roll of bills out of his
pocket. III call you
HE laid $4,000 ON the table. Wait
spread his cards out and he had pair
of tours. I've only got skies, says the
colonel, throwing down his cards, but
they're as good as gold. wouldn't ha'
called you, Williams, if you hadn't re-
fused to take a check. You knew that
my check was as good as cash, and
concluded you were bluffing, and wa. t.
cd to force me out of the game in tE.st
way. made up my mind L wouldn't
be forced that way
THAT pot cleared the colonel about
$4,000, and if you ever saw champagne
run in streams in your life you can
imagine how things looked in that room
an hour after the colonel laid down his
pair of skies.
THAT was one kind of nerve" said
the old settler, biting off the end of n
fresh cigar, but it wasn't the kind that
l saw shown once away back in the win
ter of 1855. In those days there was q
fellow who lived down in Atlantic coun-
ty, John Staples. He was all the time
trying to get into a poker game, and
he never had much trouble finding
somebody to accommodate him, because
he always played in hard luck and, as
the boys said, gave up his money easy
He was careful player and never in
sisted on playing big stakes, but some
how he couldn't get hold of the money.
If he had a full hand some other per-
son would hold four of kind, ard il
he held four of a kind some other fellow
would hold four higher. And so it went,
Staples always getting the worst of it,.
zone night after the Legislature had
adjourned Staples ran across Jake
Hibbs, who was about as unlucky about
cards as himself. Hibbs told Staples
that he had been in a game the night
before and dropped about $500, which
he would like to get back if he could.
Staples felt inclined TO play, and to-
gether they began to hunt for others.
They struck a couple of fellows and
went to a room over a cafe on Front
street There's a brick building there
now, but then there were only frame
buildings. 1t was a terribly cold night,
and everybody Struggled up to hot
stove wherever he could get one. 1t
got noised around about midnight that
there was u pretty good game going on
over the Front street cafe, and | went
down there to look on awhile before GO
ing to bed. AS usual, Staples was los
II.l,I,e I,;, J,,t h,,
money was gradually drifting over TO
the other two players, who had already
scooped in hundred or more each.
Il remember it was along about half
past two in the morning. The room was
crowded, and everybody hated to think
about going to his hotel, it was so cold.
Hot applejack was the order of the hour,
and everybody was filled up to the top
notch. Suddenly jack pot blossomed
out on the table, and the cards were
thrown around three or four times be-
fore anybody caught openers. Then
Staples opened the pot for $50. Nobody
came in excepting Hibbs.
I'm going 10 stay with you, old boy
he said, and throwing down his hand,
called for five cards.
"'Give me three said Staples, who
looked at his hand and showed up 500,
THAT don't scare me- said Hibbs,
III see that hundred and bet you an
other
STAPLES fingered his cards for min
ute or two, as if studying them to find
out whether they would win or not.
Then he said he guessed he'd better not
lay them down, and raised Hibbs 5000.
Ilibbs was in the act of pulling roll
of bills out of his pocket, when some
body in the street yelled fire. The
next minute fellow came running up
the stairs and said that the back
of the building we were in was
burning. There was a general
rush for the stairs, and by the
time we had got out in the street the
blaze was under full Roadway. Trenton
didn't have the fire department in those
days she's got now, and before the fire.
men got there we knew that the build
ing was a goner. The bucket brigade
got TO work and the chemical engine did
all it could, but the fire couldn't be
stopped.
1.-THE whole building seemed to be
afre, when somebody hollered out that
Staples and Hibbs were inside. There
was great excitement then, and every
body began to look around for lad
der. Smoke was beginning to come
out of the windows of the room over
the cafe pretty lively when Staples and
IIibbs stuck their heads out and yelled
for ladder. A ladder was put up to
the window and the two men came
down. They were all right, barring
little smoke in the lungs and eyes.
"Well. we had all gone to warm quar-
tiers at the hotel, Staples said:
THAT fire was the lucliest thing
that has happened to me in long time,
because it has broken up the game. I'd
been betting Hibbs now, if it hadn't
been for the fire. You know we were
up against jack pot that I had opened
on n pair of jacks, and drew two more.
IIibbs made five-card draw, and nat
urally thought that he was my meat,
and | was tickled about to death when
found him willing to bet all kinds of
money. We kept it going till the room
got so full of smoke that we could hard
ly see the cards, when Hibbs called me
rs he said, to wind up the game. Think
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