The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-15
A 500 SHIRT.
II Had PrOmiSsory Notes written on
II for That Amount.
From I'd ChIeago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.
Talking about expensive clothes" said
business man to a party of friends the
other night, IL wore a shirt once that was
worth 800. | don't mean to say that 1t
cost any such amount of money, but il
was worth 500 TO me- and l cashed II in
for Just that sum in gold and greenbacks"
An incredulous smile went around, and
some singing inquiries were passed as TO
what new brand of HOP" was on the mar
ket, but the speaker never flinched.
Crack away, hoys,' he continued, but
when | como to explain the matter you
will see that il was really simple affair,
and something which might happen 20 any
man who was similarly situated. one
night in the fall of the worlds fair year,
a party of six gentlemen, of whom ! was
one, was playing poker IN a hotel on
Dearborn street. AS the night was warm
and the room small and close all of us
threw off our coats and played In our
shirt sleeves At first the game was light,
the ante being a dime and the limit 50
cents 1t was an all-night session, and
late in the evening the limit was raised
to 81, and money changed hands freely.
MY, how the cards did run that night.
have never had such luck since and
cant reasonably expect repetition of Il,
| would stand a raise and draw four cards
TO an ace in big jack pots ana get two
more with 1t. Once / picked up my hand
and found three small cards and the ace
and king of clubs There was fat pot to
small cards, asked for a draw Of three, at
the same time turning my ace and king
face up on the table so all the players
could see them. The draw gave me the
queen, Jack and ten of clubs, making a
royal flush There were a number of
strong hands out against 1t, including one
set of tours and a, full Everybody, of
course, played me for holding an ordinary
flush or straight and thought | was
burning up my money when ! Kept meet
ing all raises. | was too foxy to do any OF
the fitting myself. BY simply meeting the
raises IL was easy to conceal the real
strength Of my own hand and make the
other players think ! had got tangled up
to an extent where il was Imperative to
protect my interest in the pot against pos
sible bluiiing. When the play was over
and the hands shown down, what howl
there was. one man, good fellow and a
clever card player, by the way, was so
angry at what he called fool tuck that
he tore up the cards and kicked his chair
over
I'm settling up the man nearest to me
reached over and wrote on my shirt front
his /. o. ". for his Indebtedness. The ex-
ample was contagious and the other play
ers followed him. The game lasted sew
eral hours longer and as my run OF luck
held good and the losers continued to
write their ! O us on my shirt that gar
ment was soon covered with valuable
shirt bore evidence OF an Indebtedness OF
800 due me by the five gentlemen with
whom had passed the evening.
1T was some days before any of them
gave a sign Of settling and how | did
guard that garment in the meantime. In
those days ! was fairly well fixed finan-
cially. and had a safety deposit box in
the vaults under the First National Bank
The first thing did when the game broke
up was TO put on clean shirt and lock
the 500 garment carefully away In the
vault. II was a week before all the debts
were Cancelled. Every time one of my
debtors came 10 the Office to settle / would
take him over to the safety deposit vault,
unlock the box and erase the amount OF
his payment from the shirt. By the time
the payments were all made the shirt
was In pretty bad condition, but | kept it
at home as a souvenir until house-clean-
ing time last spring, when a fresh do
nestle, ignorant of its interesting history,
used Al 20 scrub windows and one of the
most valuable shirts ever worn by mortal
man thus came to an ignoble end"