The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-09-05
AFORTUNE ON A PAT HAND.
ONE PoKER GAM AT NEW ORLEANS
WHEN THE Play WAS HIGH.

-
Four Aces We're in the Hand of n Planter
who Came OF n Family of Losers at
Poker, and the Other Man Drew Ono
Card-Play in the Days of Poker Giants
THE shrinkage in the value OF poker win
nings that get talked about nowadays" said
the New Orleans turfman at the beach dinner.
lis mouruful. that's what Il is. A. few days
ago q man told me that So-and-so, a gilded
youth from up the State somewhere, had re-
Gently swooped down upon a Rentlemen's poker
club In New York. and had removed himself
from the scene Of play. after a 1ve-hour seance.
with $500 in winnings. The man who told
me this leaned back. after he had sprung the
$500 climax. and waited for my eyes TO pro-
trude. He looked a bit miffed and suIky when
they didn't protrude.
"'why. durn It ALL said he. L believe you
affect your cold-blooded way OF taking things.
To see you twiddle your thumbs a man 'ud
suppose that you had no more sense than to
imagine that an $500 winning at q short
poker sitting was the most ordinary thing in
tho
Easy. easy 1 had TO put In. for he was
heating himself unduly. Then. to bring him
around to good nature again and to convince
hin that I wasn't attitudinlzing. 1 was COM
PEELED to spend a half hour or so in unwinding
a bit OF a reel OF the days when there were
poker giants in this country. He wasn't quite
Wllluks ~ luo uLlSIl ~ dShhOWIOukb Iuhb Ll0
winner at draw Of $500 was a poker pigmy.
but when l happened to mention the occasion
when Phil Cuthbert OF st. James's parish
dropped. in o two-handed game at the St
Charles Hotel in Now Orleans. q little bundle
Of S400. 600
He told you. OF course. that you were smok-
Ing" interrupted the New York man.
mo. he didn't. He asked me II It got int
the New Orleans papers. 1 told him that in
1899 tha Naxu OrIaopo naNaro knA h,,o-
roasting the carpet baggers to devote any
space to such q minor matter as q 100000
poker game at the 81. Charles Hotel, where
draw games approximating that in size were
generally going on at any old hour Of the day
or night. There was some rhetoric, I
admit, in that 'approximating' statement,
but l wanted to set this New York man
right. As q matter OF fact, a $4,000
game OF draw was not at all uncommon in
the st. Charles's private poker parlors. After
Phil Cuthbert had dropped that mound of
100000 on one hand, the New Orleans papers
did announce that Mr.. Philip Cuthbert, the
well-known planter of st. James's parish. was
about to start on n gold-prospeotinE tour In
the mountains of Honduras; but they were
generous enough not to mention. IL they knew
II. that. with four aces in his hand. he had lost
100000 to Mr.. Joseph Lescolette. shipper.
OF Havre. ~Pernambuco, and New Orleans"
" 1NSbSSN SA - bAthN NoiAoAoNihb III AOuk
aces. am l to understand you said p' asked the
New York man.
THE statement was to that general effect"
replied the New Orleans turfman.
Suppose you just lead up to that gradually
by telling the story"
We'll. in order to do that. I've got to plead
guilty to having been q table arranger and
Bweep-out boy at the St. Charles at the time |
the thing happened" said the horseman from
Nnw Orleans " Hnuavar havipn anhinuad |
greatness since, l see no reason why 1 shouldn't
be willing to acknowledge that. Besides being
table arranRer and sweep-out boy. 1t was one
OF the functions OF my job at the 81. Charles to
sort O. stand by. as sailormen say. when games
were on In the private parlors, and run errands
for the gentlemen playing. There was plenty |
Of high poker play 10 be had at any OF the first |
rate New Orleans clubs at that time-too
much OF it, In fact, for the club games be-
came so open. owing to the too generous
distribution OF visitors cards by the club mem- |
bers that many OF the high-playing men OF the
town abandoned club poker playing altogether. |
When they felt the bunch TO get into a game Of
draw they adjourned to the st. Charles. where,
In the seclusion OF u private parlor. they en-
joyed freedom from the neck-craninR gaze Of
onlookers. and freedom also from that bane Of
the genuine lover Of a game Of draw. the chap
who stands behind ones chair and keeps up a
ehAe " ebhAS'oi uioap-
pr?ooy ysi, c,.,,o
CO up u 81; James PARISH and he had besides
who died before the war was well under way.
" %aS So sNu GIS e6d to e a be wort worth 70 from 63s Isl S22o00; oq pSf 70
TO some $S00.O0O. and Phil started in to datten
that he had taken a $4,000 crlmp in the es.
tate within two years after he had entered upon
wasn't a dissipated man at all, but he Just nat
rrally, couldn't help but play poker, and he be-
you about wound him up I'd .neQuent-
a single nights. play at the st. Charles. IN
stead. though, Of making a run for It for his
like this, he'd DO back again with a party Of
more or loss solvent friends the very next
thereto that was not velvet. but, hard. sSoI1-
EruRE cash, would feat out Of his keeping into
a tiny bit OF morallzinG on the side. want to
say that your greatest gambler Is not the man
m ma9 P%isfHsss c fhe sFdHIS Ss ct 3 SRS9n but Ct tS 5si md in
who knows 70 a T when the psychological mo-
m sG6s srT fSss6 fer him s2 Ggit tt0 Sip9S %INfiF User
NATIVITY wS$o Ioysfd AMERICANS asdd her SIeiE4i
f $af P 3S%SsoES5 ss a, e fiat I;seS sjqss q H. H. { Ss$ o 5slePs
New Orleans for The American market, and
old gentlemqn's death, II, go a little ahead Of
f Break story y 'G the we sIs nc f : at t War 0u II
1870, entered the French Army, and was
GSi nsS o at bGfTay d5TtSS He He wasn't 2 heStie
he kept, his, name, pretty, constantly In
the mouths OF New Orleans folks on account OF
his extravagances. but he WAS a scientific
master OF the game OF American draw, all the
same, and. by the same token. as neryY a little
man In a game OF cards. or in any other affair
of life. for the matter OF that, as ever came out
Of Gaul. He was the original subsldiEer OF the
French opera in New Orleans. by the way. and
II was at a performance of Aida that Joe met
Phil CuthbertO on the night Phil struck the poker
BnaR that wrecked his estate. The two men
were friends OF some years standing. members
Of the same, clubs. and they had had various
business dealings with each other besidos. On
the night OF the Aida performance Outhbert
had lust struck town from his ct. James plan
Cuthbert, met Joe Lescolette In. the smoking
room OF the opera house during the final inter-