The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-14
|cu OF MANY WlLES.
ar OLD-TIME SHARPERs
THU THE MISSISSIPPI BOATS.

4 mad plenty Oh I'll -
Hau Of Gambling Fame Tells OF
p ,1 Frauds - The Present Day
BOZ" Are a poor Lot In This
,.n.s Estimation.
olu w. The Chicago Inter-ocean.
nsniel Kimban is known through
COL Mississippi valley as the most
ON ,l-f, gambler in that region FOR over
W0uO'. s,. vears.-from about 1856 to 1880
t"en'' , M. was a professional for thir-
-a''' ears Every one IN all the Mis-
t-'u''N -i,..r towns and cities knows about
''sfI han Kimban, and among the men
Co. abont the green cloth he is known
VIII Atlantic 10 the Pacific. He went
Hun ',..rn california in 1894, and, buying
,,rr, little orange grove in the San
galley has settled down with his
",ts in cottage among me orange trees
"''' e,,,er beds. He says he saved few
a'0 3 dollars from the tens of thou
he has won and lost at faro and
i poker. a., haon of money in
81, day." said the old man. reminlscentiy,
p otbar day. and I've come out like all
l.rs have done-that is, with only
s.r small fraction of what 1 used to
in a week sometimes. 1 amt kicking
@.. ms been just like that with all the
....ioras gamblers since there were any
such persons.
.lo there amt any more gamblers nv
,- now like there were when L useu 10
IL hot naA
i U % oarblers now Why, what are they
eau ~ kids; nothing but 2-cent kids.
Sos' rigbt. They've got no manners and
Iu a' Since I've been living here with
~ IA wife waiting for my end OF life,
T Wy been thinking every day of all the
Yo9inhiers such as 1 used to know and
, with and there's precious few of
.tST, left now. about nine of the hrst-cfass
ooss as far as / remember them. All put
"A tuo of them are broke aud hustHhs AoI
sis Poor feHows! My What big days
,bsr nsed 10 have in the paamy days of
somboating on the Mississippi river.
VI guess there were 500 men who worked
me boats between st. Louis and New Or
cans and there's no telling how much
,oonsv they did pull off the travellers. 1t
rss dead easy money too, all the time.
Everybody who Travelled had lots of stuft,
and every one was willing to bet, ana pet
bigb so that when a fellow did win ne
wan right out Of the hole at once. Those
Sontbern planters used to just lose money
Ike fun. and were skinned right and left.
occasionally they caught on and there was
shooting match, but the boys didn't take
much chance of being plugged.
owe seen forty gambler on one boat,
the John Dickey. That was in 81, when
the officers at Natchez cleaned all the
gamblers out of town. The whole gang
met the boat at the wharf and started to
come aboard, but the captain wouldn't let
them on unless they promised not to play
card They promised and he took them
on and the boat came on up the river.
You never saw a more detected looking
lot Of gamblers in your life than those.
They hadn't anything to do, and some of
them looked like they'd just as soon jump
overheard as not. They kept their prom
ise not to play a card but, Lord, they
did skin passengers on other games.
George Diyoll got a little piece of tin
M foil wrapped it around some salt. and,
sitting down near the stove, warmed it
and put it up against his cheek. He'd
hold it there a while, warm it again. and
put 1t back, Presently a passenger, who
had got acquainted with one of George
W pals observed his actions and inquired
III what he was doing. George said he was
curing his neuralgia, and explained the
cure, After he had done so he kept up
The thing for a while, and then he left the
cure on the stove hearth and went out
Then Georges pal marked the package
and suggested that it would be a good
Joke to change the salt for ashes, just to
observe what strength DivolPs belief had
n IN curing his neuralgia. The passenger,
planter, fell in and changed the salt for
ashes and left it on the hearth. DiVoll
comes back and begins his monkey bust
ness over again, and the planter comes
around and guys George about the cure
being no good, and finally George is SO
oead sure he is curing himself that the
painter gets hot and says he'll bet there
81 amt any salt in the tin foil George puts
MN of and his pal shows the planter what
dead sure thing he's got, and works
MN up ior George in great shape. They
AndiIy Det-S3OO was the money-and, of
course, George shifts a duplicate of his
nIs' package on the planter and shows up
.le sat The planter was clean 'cornered'
Dl' ne was working George on dead sure
unng and he couldn't squeal
wen sir, those gamblers got all on
'nat boat; and, though they didn't touch
S a cara, they cleaned out pretty near every
u"F mat had stuff. We landed at a
noOu pile to take on wood and the pas
euseIs all got out on the bank, and the
SoH0eIs an got to betting about running
jumps and, of course, the passengers
Tiopped IN So they'd run off the gang
lam ana up to a tree and jump, when
tal nis' gambler would say, Hello what )
and stop. Behind the tree one of
gang had begun throwing three-card
no "hle the others got up the jump
ms s scneIne The gamblers won, just 10
sito me game good, and the way those
Mo- "S skinned the passengers was horri-
ana me captain got on to the scheme,
bo mnen the boat started off up stream
msr, "noIe gang-forty of 'em-were just
nisb, 'neu there in the woods on a cold
don.r but they took the next boat up or
or land ana worked their way up this way
aTg I"u TO New Orleans.
mt tS WASH gambling; it was robbing;
tira .'%r ~ what went as gambling in those
4 I'M tou ne fellows had to be pretty slick,
Il New a. you. When boat started out OF
yona eans, say a couple of gamblers
81 weI.", Ne on board. They were often
dreesorgi caled fellows and always fine
ogat,a3 All they did was just get ac-
sizs eu with the men with money and
eqsa,, no" much they had. This was
o7ly WoHe' because card playing was the
e9nn. 4l''s TO pass away the time. These
4 were wouldn't win any money. They
Ebs, 10 do the gentleman act; bur
csmo ,ley got off the boat their pals