The sun., 1900-09-30
WINNING EYES AT POKER,
SCIENCE That MADE TBO SEIENs
NEAT FOUR ICES.
An Episode OF Railroad building In ArLausa,
Swnmps-slick Williams. the Dishonest
Gambler. and the Professor Who Could
Not PlnN Cards hut tOnld HNpnnIlLr

Not Play Cards but Could Ihpnoulp
Whenever read anything IN the new. ar,r,
about hypnoti-m," said railroad man from
81 Louis, 1T always recalls 10 mind 'n" dHr,
when I was boss Of gang Of men who ~,rp
having the track Of thcSI Louis and Iron N..r.
tain road In the most God-tursakcn apu0 .
Il country Oh the whole map Of No Man Land,
aud that IL Arkansa. Ui all duh and tirr..re
Jobs that have fallen TO my lot 1t was the Nur.r,
and consequently the aiIair between th" rro-
frs-ur and Slick Williams, when the latter .l
down four aces 10 q uo-ucuount pair OF -y}urs
l. the more deeply impressed on my mru,r.
Laying rails with good gang Of men .-r't
in itself such a bad job H. to drive u.U %
drink, II only there Is something 70 lay 'irin
on. but II certainly was pretty tough gult
down in Arkunsa- for the spring thaV and
the spring cloudburst- both came together and
didn't leave much to lay rails ou, except NO
feet of water on top of ten feet of mud lI-
swampS were 80 deep that all the natives ..
gcther couldn't have found the bottom of them,
even II they had been filed with wh-hoy instead
of water. and when an Arkansas Iuau .nt
find the bottom Of any thing that contains r.l.
eye it, safe bet that the depth of the I,.uI
Is more than over his head Consequently
there wasn't much for Us to do during the RAINY
season but To wade around collecting l'uI'us
ties and 10 empty the catfish ont of our hrn.
water boots when We got back To camp Iu 10
evening
There was a big pine table in the middle Of
the tent, the top of which generally managed
To- stay above water, and when II wasn't covered
with catfish and GELS and wild ducks az med
time il wa decorated with nifty two piece Z
wet and greasy. black and red pa-trhoIrd,
unless SliOh Williams wa~ holding ont three ur
four aces in the brim Of hJ- -onhrcro Or NJ Is
red flannel shirt sleeve. A. for the gang they
wcr" standing around II, reaching NJ tn i' and
plu, INK poker II wasn't quite rs profitable
job to most Of the men a. working for the rH..
roud company. but 1t served 10 Kill time, aud
nobody could he In Arkau,a- in those dus
wltho1it catching the poker fever 80 bad thut
nothing on earth would ever cure him except
q complete change of climate Slick NIIu.us
seemed tp do pretty We'll out OF a. and ai '.r
end ui the first week oi enforced idlruo-s la
had most Of the ready money ui The ontI" Quilt
~ we'll n promis ry notes for most OF n"Nt
"'lHore was only one thing you could say about
him ana 90 him full JustiC" ami mat Na- To- call
him the most dishonest rascal in The or,uo
Southwest lie Just couldn't play cat.s Oh ih.
level lie would rather bet CA two deuc's t'Ut
he had held ont than on straight fu.h given
to him ia a square deal. that's the reason
never blamed the Professor for getting tie lest
Nobody knew ANYTHING about the Tro-
fe~-or- rr.igrer except what little he let or.p
himself from time 10 time as he luGied about the
camp. He oilnt smoke, he didn,' cilE,
he didn't swear, aud, stranger ~til. BE- Ci.ut
manipulate the pa-trhuarce He would Wt',h
the game for hour, with quiet sort oi Interest
Ou his face, but when asked - take hand io
would shake III head aud say 80, that i-r.t
my game He owned ny to having been iu 'Ir
show business of and on along the Mi~~i-~'lI, /,
ana knew the name of every iakr that worked
the towns along the banks OF the river. la
had long, hu-hy halr' rather thln an3 N"ry l.."
YOU. Any time that he turned those lumIS
on you 1t diGn't need the town crier t. tell you
that you were under observation. for tM,v
acted In just the same way as piece of hrirUt
tin when a small boy uses II To- throw the -un.
light I'm your eyes. When he first urifirl into
our outfit 1 noticed an Otor about hleDuiN,S
us IL he might have been unc"r fire ron nm
nmhu-h Of nad egg; u. acNn9wle1f"d .lt
enCc at recent performance. / laughed aud
'"sAIi the hovl in the camp liked the profo--,r
Williams slick never LET au opportunity UH,s
:? hIgrkgueTi mm ana nafG me in's'ra,,% .'r
HIN generally, Il" mace nm run FauMl.l
him tho deacon and tie, pre,ioine 'lGcr 9!
twittius him about not drinking ANYTHING It
milk and sugar and only knowing how 90 u.uv
uld maid. The Professor kept on sawiu Wlus
Finally one DAY when Slick had cvervIouys
money but the Professors, uui proInis ory notes
were too plenty to 20 At face value. Slic rul lrd
il i'm "A littn too actively on the cN--lovmnr.
ant "a" Professor got mad. Poker wn~ The i.i
rts that the gambler Haunted in thc bull', i,,r
AMI the animal turned uu him. OF course, %
bun iu tui- case was the Professor. lie CT. i.'t
below nor he aicu,t paw the ground ">a,'IF
but he Just !ct out one fcroCio,- glance if.l
those two lamps Of his aud walked up to -
table
An hands felt sorry to see him PICK NJ ia
card-. for II was plain 70 SOC from tie awkward
way in which he handed the dock that he tai
about the same chance, OF winning from = lis
a. We had Of laying the track Whl'o the rain
kept coming. We ail mde~".lima'"d the r.
roofing We st did for the Professor IN tho r.1'
hrrr minute, was done silently, for cyrcyh.ir
fc.t that something was going 10 drop =
I.N.l al Il-f g. 90
Williams had about 500 in cash which Do" Hi
ou tho table In front OF him and the Frul,~.",
counted out enough to tar him II took Jh.
all hc had though and We began 10 -,r
finish and mentally 10 make room for N!r %
join The rest ot MS in the gallery when ho u,f
broke. They agreed tp start OF witt =.
collar JackPy@i,ii ana When 'nGy io Gu, ,he e,
possible cut, while the Professor only prod ...I
an &C.," which wa a. far down the line ~ -
ticularly we'll for hie luck II must have tis.n
Slick abou, i've minpt,~ 70 shunie, those cn,t'
rinIed aud rufled them spun them in and o.t.
exposed them aud concealed thom, c. a-cd them
here and there with tlr5t one hand and t',n
about them with lightning rapidity, unit :
fairly made one dizzy 10 try aud keep tra,f
to take but little interest In the proCocdiur-,
aud when finally tho cards we're passed over
to him to cut he calmly told the dealer 10 run
them. Then the hands were dealt
II was the Professors first say, of course,
and he passed. i was standing directly behind
Williams. and ~ he spread ont his hand t'e
least little bit | craned my neck for a glimpse
OF Ia, cards, and caught momeutarF
nlh of all the aces in the Iu.k
netting costly along~id" of each otter.
Williams himself gave an iuvoluu'a7
start Of surprise. and ! am inclined .
believe 10 this dqv thai luck had added ono a.
to the three that he oypeCted to And TO- o1
tho first deal he would scarceiv have Eiy"n
himself anything quite so strong IA four aoS.
Then he opened Tho pot for s. and the Prof"--
stayed and took one card Niiams's nrs' 20.
was s. aud he seemed surprised a. well a let."t
when the Professor came back ~ him wifi N
dollar raise Then the opener iHl~"d II AZ. A.
ten and back with another raise came tn" l'o-
f,--or. They sre-aWcd along with these 'ol.
dollar rai-o> until the pot In the ccntre j. Erf
mighty iuicy IN comparison with the ria IN
front of each PLAYER. aud il wa perfeCtN "y'-
dent 10 the gallery that the first hand wa ns
TO be the wlud-up
Finally the Professor had only $40 lsft ~
his pile Slick had raised him $40 In turr nd
there remained only So in front Of the gambler.
| don't suppose men can i've without hrcut'-
ing. but It seemed 10 NJ" that not breath We
drawn for quite a few minutes by anybody
that tent. once when had been In the hoCA-
les a wildcat CrOurhcd and then spraA- az ne.
| remember distinctly thinking OF that IH these
few seconds of silence.
The Professor drew himself up to his iYl
height slowly and those eyes OF hls fastened
then -plvr~ not on, but seemingly in, thO~, I
the other PLAYER. With his lett hand be- PLACED