Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1898-07-07

| ii appeared to have absolutely no effect
| whatever on him. often noticed this
thing when l visited him afterward.
He could drink Scotch whisky and
water with men twice his bulk and
strength. without even becoming
flushed. Come TO think of it, though,
i never yet saw an American who could
hold his own with a Scotchman in
drinking. Stevenson rolled cigarettes
necessarily as he talked, and his whole
left hand was yellow with them. linen
toned this cigarette business to him
one day.
"T should think those things would
damage you some | said.
doubtless they do he replied.
Moreover, 1 fear the vice is unamiable
in the nostrils of men not addicted to
it. Yet hardly feel equal TO the pun
ishment of abandoning them
after that first visit Stevenson in
vited me to drop around. states fash
ion,' any evening, and ! was glad a
The invitation, for he was good fei-
low-he spoke the language of my
tribe as we say out on the slope.
got into the habit of driving out 10
Stevenson's Waikiki house a couple OF
times a week, always in the evening,
and generally in company with the
newspaper man who presented me TO
him. This newspaper man was a Chi
cago boy who now owns 600 acres of
the finest coffee land in bearing on the
main island of Hawaii The three OF
us would sit on the second-story
veranda of Stevenson's house, smoking.
slipping whisky and talking. l think
Stevenson did most of the talking, al
though never in an obtrusive sort of
way. He talked in so low a tone that
sometimes we'd have to bend toward
him In the darkness TO catch his words
The dullest man in the world couldn't
help see that Stevenson was q first
rater, man among many millions
after five minutes conversation with
him. He was an admirable story teller,
too. and an excellent mimic-which lat
ter fact I've never seen pointed out by
the people who have written of him.
l happened TO mention one evening that
when / was a pretty young fellow
had fitted up schooner at San Fran
cisco and done a couple of years of
profitable trading in the South Pacific.
The information / had picked up on
this voyage about the islands below the
line seemed to interest Stevenson a
good deal, and he asked me many ques-
tons that stumped me bit--for he
teI a. -lf an. oh 10
sonal characteristics of the natives, TO
whom ! never paid more attention than
was needed 10 get the greatest quantity
OF their cochineal and conks for the
smallest quantity of cotton and beads
when ] was trading.
zone evening when the wind was
pretty high and sitting on the veranda
was therefore not pleasant, Stevenson
invited US in to his den for game of
cribbage. The newspaper man didn't
feel like playing, for his eye had caught
sight OF a lot os queer books as soon
as we reached Stevenson's library den,
and he wriggled out Of the game in or
So Stevenson and l played. He was n
pretty good player, without being par
ticularly lucky didn't take much in
terest in the game, for never cottoned |
very hard to any kind of n card game
except poker, anyhow. After we had
played a couple of games of crib, each !
of us winning one. said TO Stevenson:
whats the matter with two-hand-
ed game Of penny-ante pokerY
." Nothing whatever the matter said |
he. except that can't play the game,
anxious as I've been to learn it since |
first read Bret Harte. Are you good |
player?'
"Well, this was kind o. mixing it up a |
bit with me, and the best l could do |
was to tell him that knew the diff |
ference between an ace full and pair |
of tours.
American way of saying that you
know all about it, said Stevenson.
Teach me poker, now
Now, I've taught good many men |
how TO play poker, and it's a pretty |
dangerous thing to do-for the teacher, |
mean. About every man l ever put in |
an eveningwit teaching him the poker
hands has wound up the night by get
ting everything had on me except car |
or cab fare, maybe. The luck of the |
poker beginner is simply something |
that can't be explained. 4 man that's |
got only general glimmering idea of |
the value of poker hands gets hands |
when he's learning the game that |
would take the breath away from sea-
soned players. mentioned this queer
fact jestingly TO Stevenson.
"'You stand in no danger with me- |
said he, smiling. i am as unlucky as
an opal
''Well. / ran over the deck and told |
him what the hands stood for. That's |
about all you can teach a man of the |
game of poker. He's got to acquire the
rest of it in practice. But Stevenson
was remarkably quick to grasp the |
values of the hands. The flush pleased |
him particularly.
"sThat's an apt and fitting word /