Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1898-08-16
IA GAMBLERS NERVE.
paAsleo. Ms CARDS 70 THE TAeLeE
T. WITH HIS KNIFE.

,''The coolest nerve I ever raw displayed
by sny one, = sid the eray haired, young
hooking man, yves JACK Atwood's when,
hfeee being shot At from behind, he paused
10 nail his poker hand to the table with .
bowie knife before turning and drawing
his own revolver to return the fire.
Atwood was Q queer fellow In . good
many ways. Physically he wasn't much
70 look al, but he had dandided habits
that seemed curiously out Of place In q
man whose business kept him constantly
Ii association with the toughest men In
tho country at the time-I am speaking Of
tho lumbee1nen on the upper Mississippi
30 years ag0-and who was, In fact a. W110
a. the widest Of them. - ~,
HE was . good deal Of politician and
wa suspected of writing some Of the most
violent arttcles that appeared In the local
papers. There had been q great deal OF
scandal about member Of the state legis-
lakure from Minneapolis call him Davis
for some time before the fight that !
speak of, and Atwood had been among
Davis most violent critics.
"This particular night there was quite
4 crowd III Bill Galloway g gambling house
on the east side of Minneapolis, near tho
old Fort Smelling road. Atwood was play
Ing poker with four other men. Two were
lumbermen, friends of Atwood's, and the
fifth was q St. Paul man, stranger to
me. It was the first game had ever seen
played with $40 goldpieces for chips. OF
course for the heavy betting they used
paper money, for as tho ante was one chip
and It took two to come in there was not
IN k,tS ayfth Union the h10
hands came. Limit gaines werc not tnuch
in vogue in Galloway's place at any ti,ne'
but the table stakes usually meant few
hundred dollars at the outside, and this
was the largest I had ever seen up to that
time, for each player had good sized
wad, and there must have been $12, 900 or
&15, 600 In sight at least.
Nothing special occurred for over an
hour, when there came 9 jock pot which
was opened for 800, and somewhat to my
surprise all the players came In. 1t was
Jack for five chips in the first place ana
had been sweetened once, 80 there was
$500 in the center before the draw. The
eecond surprise came when each man drew
two cards, excepting Atwood, who stood
pat., They were holding their cards close.
20 none of us around the party knew what
any player held, but 1t appeared later that
Atwood had four jacks.
"@ 'sThe opener put up another hundred on
the strength of his three of kind: The
next one raised It 600. The third did the
same thing and so did the fourth. He was
the st. Paul man, and he had caught
fourth seven spot, while the others had not
bettered. Atwood made it q thousand e
play. One, two and three dropped out.
Three of a kind was no kind OF hand fol
that struggle, and that Is what each o.
them had. The ST. Paul man was de-
lighted, though he tried hard to conceal 1t,
and he came back at Atwood with another
thousand. He was ahead OF the game
having about &c, 900 in front OF him at thu
beginning Of. tho deal, while Atwood bad
only about half that. That LETT hin
enough TO raise st. Paul once more, AND
he did It promptly. / =,
~ suppose I'll have to call you, said
the latter, seeing It's table stakes, but In
sorry you haven t more money with you.
"I have 98, 600 in the bank, said At
wood. II you care to take my check, IN
stand another raise
'sChecks were not in great favor at Gal
loway's, and the st. Paul man hesitateo
naturally enough, but ono of Atwood't
clients spoke up. I'll cash your check fol
you, Jack, he said, and just then the shot
came
"The entrance to the room was midway
between the faro and the poker tables, ant
Atwood sat with his back toward It
Davis had entered the room noiselesslJ
and had fired as soon as he saw Atwood
Shooting from behind will ruin man II
any community, and don't suppose DAVE
would have done it II he hadn't been hall
drunk and half mad with rage as we'll
He probably wouldn't have missed hi
shot, though, II he hadn 4 been drinking
was watching Atwood closely and hadn
seen Davis enter. As 1t was, saw the
left end of Atwood's mustache disappear
st the instant the shot rang out and rec
streak show on his check, but he didn' 4
turn his head. He reached down a. quick
a. q ferret and drew q knife from some
where below the line Of the table top. lay
Ing his cards face down on the table witt
his left hand at the same instant
The game stands as it is, he sale
without . quaver in his voice AZ he drove
the knife through the cards and the baizt
cover, deep into the wood, with . vicious
stab. Then Just as quickly he reached To-
his hip pocket and stood facing arount
with q revolver In his hand leveled a
Davis. IT,. "a. ..
1.-TWO other shots rang out ~ he rose
They were fred BY Atwood's friends, bu
= "a IL <HnJ