The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-01-13

water with men twice his bulk and
strength. without even becoming
flushed. Come to think of it. though,
I never yet saw an American who could
hold his own with a Scotchman in
drinking. Stevenson rolled cigarettes
necessarily as he talked, and his whole
left hand was yellow with them. men
toned this cigarette business to him
one day.
"I should think those things would
damage you some, said.
Doubtless they do he. replied.
Moreover. I fear the vice is unamiable
in the nostrils of men not addicted to
it. Yet hardly feel equal to the pun
ishmcnt of abandoning them
"After that first visit Stevenson in
vited me to drop around, states fash
ion,' any evening, and was glad of
the invitation, for he was good fell
low-he spoke the Language of my
tribe as we say out on the slope. I
got into the habit of driving out to
Stevenson's Waikiki house couple of
times a week, ~a@Esays in the evening.
and generally in company with the
newspaper man who presented. me to
him. This newspaper man was Chi
cago boy who now owns 600 acres of
the finest coffee land in bearing on the
main island of Hawaii. The three OF
us would sit on the second-story
veranda of Stevenson's house, smoking,
slipping whisky and talking. I think
Stevenson did most of the talking. al
though never in an obtrusive sort of
way. He talked in so low tone that
sometimes we'd have to bend toward
him in the darknessto catch his words.
The dullest man in the world couldn't
help see that Stevenson was a first
rater, man among many millions,
after five minutes conversation with
him. He was an admirable story teller,
too, and an excellent mimic-which lat
ter fact I've never seen pointed out by
the people who have written of him.
happened to mention one evening that
when was pretty young fellow
had fitted up schooner at San Fran
cisco and done "a couple of years OF
profitable trading in the South Pacific.
The information had picked up on
this voyage about the islands below the
line seemed to interest Stevenson a
good deal, and he asked me many ques-
tons that stumped me bit-for he
wanted to know chiefly about the per-
| sonal characteristics of the natives, to
whom never paid more attention than
was needed to get the greatest quantity
of their cochineal and conks for the
smallest quantity of cotton and beads
when was trading.
Zone evening when the wind was
pretty high and sitting on the veranda
was therefore not pleasant, Stevenson
invited us in to his den for a game of
cribbage. The newspaper man didn't
feel like playing, for his eye had caught
sight of lot of queer books as soon
as we reached Stevenson's library den,
and he wriggled out of the game in or
| der to have a chance to look them over.
So Stevenson and I played. He was a
pretty good player, without being par
ticularly lucky. I didn't take much in
terest in the game, for I never cottoned
very hard to any kind of card. game
except poker, anyhow. After we had
played a couple of games of crib, each
of us winning one. said to Stevenson:
"'What's the matter with two-hand-
ed game of penny-ante poler?'
Nothing whatever the NATTER said
he, except that can't play the game,
anxious as I've been to learn it since
first read Bret Harte. Are you a good
player?'
'Well, this was kind O. mixing it up
bit with me, and the best I could do
was to tell him that I knew the diff
ference between an ace full and pair
of fours.
"'American way of saying that you
know all about it, said Stevenson.
Teach me poker, now
''Now, I've taught a good many men
how to play poker, and it's a pretty
dangerous thing to do-for the teacher,
I mean. About every man ever put in
an evening with teaching him the poker
hands has wound up the night by get
| ting everything had on me except car
or cab fare, maybe. The luck of the
poker beginner is simply something
that can't be explained. A man that's
got only a general glimmering idea of
the value of poker hands gets hands
when he's learning the game that
would take the breath away from sea-
sOned players. I mentioned this queer
fact jestingly to Stevenson.
"'You stand in no danger with me-
said he, smiling. L am as unluclzy as
an OPAL
'Well, l ran over the deck and told
him what the hands stood for. That's
about all you can teach a man of the
game of poker. He's got to acquire the
rest of it in practice. But Stevenson
was remarkably quick to grasp the
values of the hands. The flush pleased
him particularly.
""That's an apt and fitting word
said he, 'fush-fush of diamonds
and he repeated the phrase several
times. why didn't they term it a
freshet, thought another fine old
English word perpetuated by you
Americans. However, you shall earn
my gratitude by dealing me flush of
diamonds at the outset. 1t would be a
good omen. ="
1--WE started to play nickel ante
there are no pennies in the islands,
using wax matches for chips. Steven
son became tremendously interested
in the game after awhile. I gave him
the best of it at first, of course, but
after awhile, when he began to win my