The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-01-13
Poker with Stevenson.
THE NOVELlST'S INTRODUCTION TO
THE GAME IN HAWAI-.
TURNER C. NORTHRUP, a Califo:

'URN Eli u. NORlHRCP, q CalltOr-
MIA grape grower, who taught Rob-
ert Louis Stevenson how to play draw
poker, spent few days in Washington
recently. He is typical California
ranch owner in appearance, the sort of
man that Stevenson indicated liking
for in many of his works.
Il met Stevenson when I went down
to the islands to look into the coffee
raising business in Hawaii about eight
years ago. said Mr.. Northrup. "Steven-
son was then living with his family in
a comfortable frame house at Waikiki,
q pretty suburb of Honolulu. Every
day he would come into Honolulu in
a MISUNDERSTANDING old top buggy,
driven by Kanaka boy. On these oc-
:asions he would dismiss his coachman
for an hour Or two and prowl content
edly through the streets of Honolulu.
He would usually wind up these hours
by repairing to the docks, where he
would engage the Kanaka longshores-
men in talk Che could speak their Ian
guage welD, and pick folklore sto-
ries out of them, treating them gener-
ously to their beloved saki the while.
Comparatively short as stevenson's
residence was in Honolulu, I suppose
he got to know more of the Kanakas
there and was better liked by them
than many of the whites who have
spent years in the islands.
II was down ut the wharf one after
ho, lo a.
in. A Honolulu newspaper man was
with me. He pointed out to me man
leaning abstractedly against pile of
fruit crates, watching the debarkation
81 the passengers. He was a. dark, thin
man, with Chinese sort of mustache,
dressed in spotless white duck, and
pulled somewhat over his large, pierre
ing eyes he wore broad brimmed
straw hat, with wreath of red and
white flowers around it.
""That's Stevenson my newspaper
friend told me.
The man that wrote the "Silverado
squatters'' asked, for had read that
book, and it had struck me as being a
mighty fine book, although I didn't
know much about the writer of it, ex-
cept that his name was Stevenson, and
that he was consumptive Scotchman.
told the newspaper man that I'd Like
to meet Stevenson, so he took me over
to him.
Friend of mine from the coast
who raises grapes was the way the
newspaper man presented me to the
Scotchman. Stevenson seemed to catch
at the words, and he sized me up and
gave me a grip with his long bony right
hand, which had a lot of strength in it
for a man who looked so delicate.
"a raiser of grapes?' said he. you've
an enviable lot, Mr.. Northrup. never
perceived the truth of the dictum:
Paris is France" Rather it should be:
Frances vineyards are France" It
distracts me to see 20 acres of grape
vines in bearing. I have longed for the
life of grapeman ever since first l saw
this picture
well, this Scotchman had me on
my hobby, and we began to talk
grapes. It did not take me more than
4 minute to see that he was well up on
the subject, and he talked of the phyl-
loxera and the black rot like a man
who had been born in a vineyard. I
asked him where he had picked up his
knowledge of the vines.
"I went into the matter with some
care when in France he said, look
ing hopefully to the day, perhaps, when
l might be able to put the information
to some use.'
II suppose Stevenson must have
taken some sort of fancy for me, for
when the hustle on the pier was all
over he invited me to drive out to the
Waikiki place in his dilapidated old
buggy. went along, of course, for
the man who could write book like
the 'Silverado rSquatters' was pretty
near right with me, and he was an in
teresting man to hear talk, besides.
spent. two or three hours of that after
noon at his house, and the brand of
Scotch whisky that he gave me to
drink was the kind of stuff you wouldn't
expect to run across on an island in the
Pacific ocean couple Of thousand miles
from nowhere. Stevenson got away
with just az much of it as did, but
it appeared to have absolutely no effect
whatever on him. I often noticed this
thing when I visited him afterward.
He could drink Scotch whisky and