The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-12
CATO WOULD PLAY POKER
RELAYS OF SHARPS AWAITED HIS
ROLL ON THE ZIG MUDDY.

First Came the Stockmen, Then the Farm
or, the Statesman, the Civil Eng ineer and
the Hog Raiser, and They All Got Their
Share of His S1O,OOO-Then the Hunch
Arrived.
Washington, Jan. ga man hunt
ing for poker trouble could get a-plen-
ty of it on the Big Muddy stern wheel
ers around the latter sixties and the
early seventies" said Joe Reilly of
Sioux City. "There weren't many reg
nlar poker sharks working the Mssou-
RI river boats in those days like there
were on the Mississippi steamers, but
Just the same the men that Travelled on
those weather. boarded lop-sided old
knew how to play poker some. I'm a
telling you. Cato pullman found this
put when he went up against a whole
lot of different mems games on the old
Gen. w. T. Sherman in 1872
pullman was pardners with Nate
Saltwater in running a big general
store in Yankton, and both of 'em were
making a mint of money at the time
I'm going to tell you about. They'd
ha' made more, / guess, if saltwater
hadn't drank too much whiskey and
Bullman hadn't played too much po-
ker. Now, all in all, saltwater han
died his whiskey pretty well, and at
such times as he found it was getting
half-Nelson on him he'd leave it off
for spell and attend to business, so
that his end Of the dissipation of the
firm of saltwater & pullman wasn't
half as bad as Catos. Cato loved to
A play poker so much that he'd knock Off
right in the middle of selling big bill
+ of goods to a gang of freighters to go
i off somewhere and sit into game.
Now, this wouldn't have been so bad,
even If it was darned poor business
policy, If Cato ever won. But he never
did He had no license ever to touch
D. pack of cards. In the first place, he
WAS a zap at cards, and any American
i Kid that knew how to play old maid
could have hoped out Of the back of a
prairie schooner and beaten Cato out
Of his boots at the game for money,
n marbles or chalk. In the second place
Cato was natural born hoodoo. If
he was drawing to three aces and the
pther fellow was taking five cards, the
pther fellow'd beat Cato out and have
plento to spare. So that it was just
about up to Cato to holler murder and
take to the brush whenever anybody
Mashed pack of the pasteboards on
him. But he didn't see it this way.
\ He went right on playing poker and
getting soaked for his share Of the
profits of the firm. Cato appeared to
be just stone-blind to the fact that the
foxy people that didn't do much of
anything else around Yankton except
TO play cards were in fair way to fix
themselves with meal tickets for life at
his expense, and as he was pretty near
seven foot high and built in proper
tion, none of us felt like trying to kick
n any sense into his fool head.
.Anyhow, in the summer of IT, Bull
tnan started down the river on the old
Gen. w. Z. Sherman for st. Louis to
buy goods. He had ten thousand dol
lars In greenbacks along with him.
Before he went aboard the boat Still
water, who wasn't much more'n five
foot high, ranged himself alongside
Catos big carcass, and says he:
I. Cato, this here v'yage you're about
to embark on is a business trip and
nothfn' else. 1t amt no jamboree and
1t amt no poker picnic. There's some
smooth people gifts aboard these here
mud ploughs down below at the land
angs, and in their hands you'd be moth
In but a great big moon-eyed jay
hawker, which you are So through
but this here journey you'd best git
way up on top O. the boat and sit on a
bile o. p1anks just abaft the pilot house
Rnd smoke your pipe. You're not to
play no poker at all, you hear me?
When you git stuck on sandbar you
ran fish over the side for bullhead cat
fish, but you don't play no poker. If
when you git back here hear that
you've been playing poker, I'll manage
you UP a heap, now you hear me a.
ka1kin''
Cato reached down, picked up his
partner by the scuff of the neck, and
held him out at arms length.
II amt a-goin' to play no poker,
bid man. says he to Saltwater.
Wont touch no cards at all till I git
back. Kind o. lost my knack at the
cards lately, anyhow as if he ever
had any knack at 'em. And you want
to let the redeye alone while Tn gone,
hoo,' Cato finished, and then set his lit
lie partner down. Then Cato went
aboard the boat AS / was going along
blown to st. Louis myself Saltwater
calls me aside and says to me:
Jest keep an eye on that big ga
loot on the way down, and if he gifts
restless and shows a inclination to get
tangled UP with poker deck, jest bat
him over the head with a capstan bar.
But I wasn't making any rash
promises like that. Well, Cato was all
right the first day out, and he fol-
lowed his pardners instructions and
sat around on deck smoking his corn
cob pipe and feeling his bigwallet oc-
casionally. He kept as far away as
possible from the little deckhouse
where a game was started going before
the boat pushed out into the stream,
but the rattle of the chips was bound
to reach his ears occasionally. On the
second day some stockmen got aboard
that Cato knew, and Cato took few
drinks with 'em. Then they invited
Cato into a little game. Cato looked
at me kind O. guilty like, and then