The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-15
FORTUNES LIGHTLY LOST
GAMBLERS WHO DID NOT COMPLAIN
WHEN DISASTER CAME.


acy of $4,000 just FOrty-fiye Min
utes-Wiping Out q Noted San
Francisco GambIer--A Coal Miners
$3,OO0-One Hard Loser.
Washington Letter In New York Sun.
There's no way OF telling in advance
how a man is going to take his complete
wping out in game Of chance" said
the ex-Mayor of a Colorado city when the
talk al the club drfted around to the
subject of hard losers and the other kind.
There's no rule about il. I've seen men
of long-tested gameness go all to pieces
after big losings; seen them suddenly
struck speechless, as weak as children,
with their lips trembling like those of
women who are about TO cry. On the
other hand, I've seen chaps with low
toreheads and weak chins, and reputa~
tons for rawfshng and backing water
in tight places, stand four square to the
finishing wrenches of long runs of devil
ish luck and take their bitter medicine
with hearts apparently as brave as their
faces were weak. Probably the best ed
ucated and the most highly organized
men are the hardest losers. American
men do not often kill themselves over
gambling losses, as they appear TO do on
the other side in considerable numbers,
if there is any truth in the yarns that
we get from Monte Carlo and such places
The hard loser out in the Western coun-
try is liable to stun himself with drink
for awhile after being TANNED 10 the
wan on the turn of the cards or the whirl
of the wheel but he doesn't often walk
out into the night air and blow his head
off over his obiteration
The gamest loser L ever saw was q
sheep herder who didn't look 10 have
enough character to him 10 stuff a gamut
pelt. He was punching sheep on the Idaho
sage ranges for $25 a month and his grub
when an aunt in Connecticut whom he
had scarcely ever heard OF, much less seen,
died and left him $4,000. He didn't have
to come East TO get the money; a lawyer
handed ii 10 him in a bundle in Pocatello.
He went TO Jim Hosfords faro bank and
told Jim that he wanted to make a few
thousand-dollar bets. Hosford told him
that he'd better hang on 10 his money. The
herder told Jim that he wanted action on
his money, and that If he couldn't get it
Hosford's lay OUT, why, there We're
others. So Hosford dealt them from the
box himself with a SLIGO limit. l saw the
whole play. Ii only lasted forty-five min
utes. The herder wasn't in it at any stage
of the game. Copreled or open, he couldn't
land right. 1t was the Hercest run of evil
luck ever saw a man have at faro. When
the herder had lost $4,000 Hosford said to
him:
You'd better pinch out that remain
ing 5000, Ombrey; give yourself a chance.
{" You hand ME out another boxful,' re-
piled the herder. When 1 get enough I'll
quit
THE man was perfectly cool and collect
ed, and he laid down his last five one-thou-
sand dollar bills without a tremor. He
picked four straight losers. BY that time
the box was out and IIosford rifiied em,
and started another one. The herder
watched them slip out for a minute, and
then he put his last $1,000 on the high card
That kind OF long-shot playing don't do
for cinch work, and the bet trimmed him
out. There wasn't particle of contraction
10 his features when he struck match
and coolly lit a cigar. l think those who
saw the play felt a good deal sorrler for
him that he did for himself.
" Bud said Hosford to the herder, I'm
no hog. III just split the difference with
you and he began 10 count out half of
the money he had won from the sheep
man.
- No, you won't, replied the herder, but
you can give me a drink and a bottle to
put in my pocket
-" Better take a couple thousand and run
20 Frisco or Denver and have a whirl out
of ii, anyhow persisted Hosford.
1--WE had my whirl,' was the mans re-
ply. He wasn't sulky at all, and he didn't
try to look abused. He was simply all
man and all game.
" Where are you bounS for now? asked
Hosford after settling for The drinks
Back to the old G--S, said the herder
and he started for the ranch an hour lat
er. He had bought three bue ianneTshrts
a pair OF top boots and a poncno, and he
took these things along with him in a hun
die They were all he got out of his $4,000
He was found frozen stiff on the south
bank OF the Snake river the next winter.
Tom Nanbrugh who, in the late sew
entities ran the two biggest lay-ouis on the
Pacific coast, one in San Francisco aud
the other in Portland, and who d.ed only
three or four years ago in Melbourne, Aus
tralia, was another splendid loser. His
rival in San Francisco was Byron Nc
Gregor. McGregor had big faro layout
on Kearny street. The two men didn't par
ticularly fancy each other. McGregor went
up 10 Portland in the summer of rs and
bucked Nanbrugh's bank there 10 a stand
stiu. Nanbrugh closed the Portland place.
Then McGregor brought his winnings down
TO Nanbrueh's San Francisco bank, and
with an almost unprecedented run of luck
lasting for more than week, he closed