Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-01-25
THEsVETERAN TALKS,
TELLS THE BOYS A POKER STORY
THAT IS DECIDEDLY INTERESTING.

And Is Rendered All the More So by
the Way He Tells TIA Good, Stiff
Game and Some Very Remarkable
Hands.
There was a party of four sitting at
q small table in the rear of a prominent
salon in Walnut street. Spell that salon
with n O, please, for it sounds en-
inently Frenchy and %aristocratic. In
the crowd was the veteran, and he is a
veteran in more. ways than one. He
grew reminiscent, a characteristic Of
veterans. The younger men led him Oh.
In fact, they always did when oppor
tunity offered, for they were sure Of q
good story. The subject was draw poker,
and the veteran said:
Eyes, I've been in some putty stiff
games, and it was when we played
with the stuff, the long green; ante
what you please and raise what you
please and 60 for all in sight after the
draw with the money right there on the
table; no worries, nc nothing, 'cept
money.
IF I remember rightly, there was a
lumberman from Sandy here, and a
sawmill man from Ironton, and a grocer
from Portsmouth, and a liquor man
from Maysville and me in the game. It
was down at the Spencer House.
II can't tell you how we got mixed
in the game, for that would spoil the
story. But we were in it, and l remem-
Der the money was IN the table in heaps
until the hands came out that broke up
the sitting. Boys, I never saw such hands
before nor since. ] never did, and if I
live to be a million I'll never see the
like again.
st just went around in the usual
way with nothing peculiar about the
ante or the raises till after the draw.
Then every son Of a gun about the table
kinder hunched up a little closer and
looked pearter than ever. l knowed
there was trouble coming. Every Teller
raised, and when it got around to the
starter he saw all Of 'em and raised
with about half his pile. Never mind
the amounts. Hundred dollar bills were
laying around on that table like white
chips now, only more plenty, and every
nan in the crowd had his roll in his
inside pocket besides. And before it
went very far they came out and SOM
bigger bills than centuries got common,
too, but every one of the crowd seemed
to think it was all his when the show
down come. I knowed I had 'em, for
four kings was hard to beat when you
had an ace in the discard. Straight
lushes? Not on your life. They weren't
played then.
tits getting interesting, said the
Maysville man. Let's take an account
Of stock
"There was $27. 600 on the table, not
counting the odd bills Of a hundred and
under, and every one of the five wal
about equally interested in the pot. OF
course, we could have gone along for
awhile by making checks or markers,
but checks on out Of town banks are a
dead give away when they get home,
and the men from up the river didn't
want anything Of that kind. So we just
made an agreement to show down and
let the thing 60.
"What do you think was the end?
You couldn't guess. Now, remember,
every man was a straightforward bust
ness man, and during the game there
wasn't an outsider in the room and the
cards had never been changed during
the whole game.
Every TELLER laid down four kings
and every one swore he had discarded
an ace.
Just then my wife pushed me in my
back with her knee and walked me up
and said ! was all in a cold sweat and
wanted to know whether / had a chill,
as I was shaking like a scared dog. And
after that I never eat one of them Welsh
rabbits with mince pie and went to bed
right afterward. - Cincinnati Com
mercial Tribune.