The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-05

|
 might never have been elassed as 0
 scholar he had read extensively, and his information embraced a knowledge i of vast variety of subjects. He 1 taught school for while in his early
 manhood, and then studied law. He | himself spoke seldom of his past life,
 and there is little question that there
 were many shady places in 1t. His
 wanderings included several states. but | there Is no authentic record of them When I first knew Barrett he was a
 member of the Spartanburg bar. His
 practice was small, and he paid little
 attention to 1t, his profession being a | medium of acquiring certain respec-
 liability rather than means of gaining
 a living. His real calling was that of a gambler. At night, when other gentle
 men of the bar had put away their | musty old books and retired to their | homes, Barrett's office was a blaze of
 light He did not burn the midnight
 oil in the pursuit of obtuse questions of
 equity. The client who had dropped in | then would doubtless have been fleeoed,
 as were those who came in the day. time, but it would have been done in a | different way. The yellow-backed vol umes which tell of all the doings and | undoings of John Doe and Richard Roe | were still there, but no one needed | them. Impromptu gambling tables had | taken the place of desks and about | them struggled a score of gilded youth | of the town, while Barrett presided as composedly as the most solemn judge and as suavely as an attorney assured
 of fat fee.
 "Barretts personal appearance is dis | tinguished He is of medium height, and has well-knit figure. He usually
 wore a silk hat and a suit of broad cloth, of which the coat was cut in the l Prince Albert style The bottom but | ton of ahe vest only was fastened. leav- | ing vast expanse of immaculate shirt | front ornamented by diamonds of a di- mension suggestive of his night rather than his day occupation. His mus | tache and beard, of which there was d 1 long chinwhisker, were of rich brown color. But the most striking feature in | the face of the man was the eyes, | They were of that blue usually called steely, and looked you through at a | glance There was a quiet deliberation | in every act and movement of the man. but the steadfastness of his look was actually disconcerting You felt that he had measured you to a hairsbreadth l and that he might have you at a disad- vantage any instant, Gamblers eyes | are proverbial, but have never seen such another pair as are in Barretts | head.
 "He seldom or never failed to make | good impression upon strangers. His | manners in public were very reserved | but when he chose to make them so | they were gracious and charming. He
 kept thoroughly posted upon all topics l of the day, and whether it was the | latest book, the most recent social fad or the political topic of the hour Bar rett talked knowingly and well about | 1t. He was even something of a dil- | ettante In the arts and sciences, and
 could converse with you agreeably upon almost anything, He seldom sought companionship bit he did not avoid it.
 and he responded literally to what he conceived to be courtesy. Many years ago I did him slight service, and he | never failed to acknowledge it, and when occasion offered to show that he
 had keen appreciation of it. On one occasion I had not seen him for two or
 three years. l was passing through the town to accept professional promo ton which had come to me and of
 which public announcement had been made. As I stepped into the lobby of the hotel the first man I met was Bar rett, Without a seconds hesitancy and with the grace of dancing mas ter he stepped forward, and, grasping me by the hand, said: r
 Permit me to be the first of your friends to congratulate you, and to add
 that when I saw you so faithful over few things I knew it was only a aues- ton of a short time before you would
 be made ruler over many
 Another thing about him that al- ways impressed me was his absolute
 coolness in danger. Tn his rounds of gambling places and during his associ-
 ations with people that he met in them,
 he, was not infrequently involved in heated disputes No matter how exci-
 ted other people became, Barrett's com-
 posture remained perfect. remember a
 story in point, told me by a well-known sporting man of the up country. Bar
 rett had gone into gambling house
 and started to play seven up with the proprietor The latter was himself a
 dangerous character when reused. He
 had killed his man in his time and had
 been the hero of more than one bloody
 broil He was perfect athlete and al-
 together a person whose anger you would hesitate to excite. After the game had proceeded for some time the proprietor observed that he never won.
 Barrett had all the money in sight. Fi- nally his opponent came to the conclu- sion that he was being made the victim
 of some vain tricks for which Barrett was famous. When once aroused to
 this conviction it took but a few mo-
 ments to detect him in the very act of cheating. Rising from his chair in
 white heat of anger, and drawing
 murderous-looking knife he said:
 You scoundrel you dare come into my own house and swindle me.
 am going to cut your throat
 With that he started for Barrett.
 Prom some men such threat might have been a blow, but when made by the proprietor of that gambling house, un-
 der such conditions, it was enough to
 have chilled the blood of any one. Bar
 rett was no match for his opponent
 physically and had a fight followed
 would surely have been killed. never
 wnked an eye, but, gazing straight at
 his infuriated victim, remarked, in the