Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-07-19
MMiqan, W|kin ( Co,
ICE-COLD NERVE
OF A GAMBLER.
BIG Poker Game With Ten-Dollar Gold
Pieces for Chips. ..Shot at From Behind.
Atwood Nailed His Cards Down.

TtSNSS III ~ . sO'sa 0Ss"''N9
Atwood Nailed His Cards Down.
New York Sun.
THE coolest nerve l ever saw dis
played by any one said the gray
haired, young looking man, was Jack
Atwood's, when, after being shot at
from behind, he paused to nail his
poker hand to the table with a bowie
knife before turning and drawing his
own revolver to return the fire.
DANDY BUT DANGEROUS.
atwood was a queer fellow in a
good many ways. Physically he
wasn't much to look at, but he had
dandified habits that seemed curiously
out of place in a man whose business
kept him constantly in association
with the toughest men in the country
at the time-r am speaking of lumber
men on the upper Mississippi thirty
years ago-and who was, in fact, as
wiz do IuO NIiNSoI VI lhSAh'
"He was small and little stoop-
shouledered, and his face was narrow
and sallow, with a queerly crooked
nose, and little sharp eyes that were
set much too close together to be pleas
ing. He was as vain as a peacock,
though, and dressed always in fashion
plate style, shaved every day and wax
ed his mustache, which was a habit
AobOdy else INDUCED in west of Chi
cago in those days, so far as my OBJ
servatiOn went.
"He was a good deal of a politician,
and was suspected of writing some Of
the most violent articles that appeared
in the local papers at time when
Minnesota journalism was not con-
spicuous for its close regard for the
amenities of life. There had been a
deal of scandal about member OF the
State Legislature from Minneapolis
call him Davis-for some time before
the fight that l speak of, and Atwood
had been among Davis's most violent
critics.
"This particular night there was
quite a crowd in Bill Galloway
gambling house on the east side of
Minneapolis, near the old Fort Shell
ing road. Atwood was playing poker
with four other men. Two were lum-
bermen, friends of Atwoods, and the
fifth was a ST. Paul man, a stranger
to me. 1t was the first game l had
ever seen played
WITH $40 GOLD PIECES FOR
CHIPS.
"Of course, for the heavy bettir g
they used paper money, for as the
ante was one chip and it took two to
come in, there were not chips enough
to bet with when the big hands came.
Limit games were not much in vogue
in Galloway's place at any time, but
stake bets usually meant a few hun
dred dollars at the outside, and this
was the largest l had ever seen up to
that time, for each player had a good
sized wad, and there must have been
$4,000 or $4,000 in sight at least.
Nothing special occurred for over
an hour. when there came a jack pot
which was opened for So and some
what to my surprise all the players
came in. 1t was jack for five chips,
in the first place, and had been
sweetened once, so there was $500 in
the center before the draw.
The second surprise came when
each man drew two cards, excepting
Atwood, who stood pat. They were
holding their cards close, so none of
us around the party knew what any
player held, but it appeared later that
Atwood had four jacks. They weren't
playing straight Pushes, so his hand
was almost a sure one.
The opener put another hundred
on the strength of his three of a kind
The next one raised it a hundred. The
third did the same thing and so did
the fourth. He was the st. Paul man.
and he had caught a fourth seven spot.
while the others had not bettered.
Atwood made it a thousand to play.
One, two and three dropped out.
Three of kind was no kind of a
hand for that struggle, and that is
what each of them had.
The st. Paul man was delighted.
though he tried hard to conceal it, and
he came back at Atwood with an
other thousand. He was ahead of the
game, having about $4,000 in front of
him at the beginning of the deal.
while Atwood had only half that.
That left him enough to raise St Paul
once more, and he did it promptly.