The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-02-26

that trifling sum was not forthcom-
ing Shortly before mid night he re-
turned to his hotel fling and de-
spondent, and when he went to bed
it was not to sleep. He could do
nothing but toss restlessly from side
o5side, and brood over his losses,
and the chances Of. rouge-et-1loir.
What a pity that he had not q large
sum OF money with him! II only he
had enough toweather a few reverses
at the outset, he was certain SO he
told HIMSELF to vim q hinge
fortune. : N : And he had q
considerable sum to hand! True,
it was his fathers money but
then heWould only borrow it, and
repay it from his winnings. For
that he must win, if he went on long
enough, he had not the smallest
DOUBT. Besides he was bound to
raise some cash from somewhere, if
only to pay his hotel bill. And what
better way than to borrow from his
father? .-7...s.-. Z.
" Having thus quite made up his
mind what course he could adopt, he
went down the next day to the
agents and drew out 3, 900 forms
OF the purchaser money. It would be
foolish (ho told himself) if he were
going to borrow this money at all,
not to borrow enough to insure sue
cess. 't'..'.' ..
When the evening came, he betook
himself again to the same gambling
saloon, flushed and eager with the
prospect of winning a fortune. But,
alas! his luck was even more diabolic-
al than it had been on the
previous evening. and the
more he lost, the more wildly he
staked, until, in less than an hour,
every penny of the 5000 forms have
been swept away by the croupier!
Having now borrowed and lost so
large part of his fathers money,
only one course remained to him,
namely, to borrow some more, and
gamble with it, in order to make
the deficit good by his winnings. So
the next day he drew out E, 900 orins
more from the agents, being deter
mined that he would not fail from
lack of means to go on. But even a
long purse can't stand against de-
termined spell of ill-luck, backed by
wild and reckless speculation. In a
short time the 5000 forms had gone
the way of all the other money. TO
say that the young gambler was
frantic scarcely describes his frame of
mind. Could he not raise a little
cash somewhere to continue with?
For surely fortune must turn soon!
There were still l 900 forms left at
the agents, but they could not be
obtained at this hour of the night.
And he had no friends from whom he
could borrow. Suddenly a desperate
and unlikely notion occurred to him.
He would seek out the proprietor of
the saloon, state his case to him, and
ask him to. advance the whole or
part of the !, 900 forms on AZ draft
upon Potsdorff & Guelph. How i'm
probable it was that the proprietor
would do this for perfect stranger
scarcely struck him in it's full force. He
was frantic to obtain the money, and
measured his chance Of doing SO
rather by his wishes than by the
probabilities of the case.
No sooner had he formed the plan
than he acted upon it by requesting
one of the walters to conduct him
to the proprietor, OF the establish
ment. The waiter at once pointed
out to him a short, well-dressed man,
with dark hair and a Jewish cast of
face, who sat near the door, smoking
a cigar, and looking about him WITH
an air discerning Indifference, though
in reality he kept watchful eye up
on that went on in the saloon.
Evasio approached him, and said
in English-(his German was too
broken to be easily intelligible)-
''You are the proprietor OF this sa-
loon, l understands"
The other rose and bowed, answer
ing in the same language:
81 am, sir. Can I serve you in any
way?"
Can you grant me a few minutes
private conversations"
with pleasure, sir. Follow me
this way, please!' .
The proprietor ushered Evasio into
a small apartment, which led out of
the saloon, and, closing the door, re-
quested him to be seated. He him
self sat down opposite and waited for
the young man to begin.
In confused and nervous sentences
Evasio rushed strait to the point.
"The fact is" he said, Il have lost
at your tables all the money that I
brought with me tonight. But I
have a considerable sum lying to my
credit at Potsdorff & Guelph's, and
l thought that, perhaps-that is 1
mean-could you possibly see your
way to cashing a draft on them for
me?"
The proprietor raised his eyebrows,
and replied with cold civility: ...
ut is an anusual request, sir, even
for my friends to make; and you are
a perfect stranger!''
4 know Pm asking more than I
can expect" Evasio replied, but my
father is a well-known London bank