The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-12
HYPNOTISM IN POKER GAME.
THE GARD SHARPER TURNED
 DOWN.

|
 the Professor Began to Take an In.
 terest.
 "Whenever I read anything in the
 newspaper about hypnotism," said 6
 railroad man from St Louis, it always
 recalls to mind the days when I was a
 boss of a gang of men who were lay
 ing the track of the St Louis and Iron
 Mountain road in the most God-forsa-
 ken apology of country on the whole map of No Mans Land and that is Arkansas. OF all dull and tiresome | jobs that have fallen to my lot it was | the worst, and consequently the af- | fair between the Professor and Slick l Williams when the latter laid down 1 four aces to a no-account pair of sey-
 ems is the more deeply impressed on my memory.
 1 Nobody knew anything about the | professors pedigree except what little | he let drop himself from time to time
 as he loafed about the camp. He didn't | smoke, he didn't drink, he didn't swear, | and, stranger still, he didn't manipulate l the paSteboards. He would watch the game for hours with quiet sort of in | terest on his face, but when asked to | take hand he would shake his head and say, No, that isn't my game. He owned up to having been in the show business off and on along the Mississ- ippi, and knew the name of every falIr that worked the towns along the banks of the river He had long, bushy hair,
 a rather thin and very pale face and pair of eyes that looked right through you. Any time that he turned those lamps on you it didn't need the town
 crier to tell you that you were under ob-
 servation, for they acted in just the
 same way as a piece of bright tin which
 when small boy uses 1t to throw the
 sunlight in your eyes. When he first
 drifted into our outfit l noticed an odor
 about his clothes as if he might have
 been under fire from an ambush of bad
 eggs. He acknowledged that it had
 his misfortune to displease his audience
 at a recent performance l laughed
 and put him to work.
 An the boys in the camp liked the
 professor and voted him to be good
 company, save Slick Williams. Slick
 never let an opportunity pass to black
 guard him and make life miserable for
 him generally. He made him run a gauntlet of Sunday-school sarcasm every
 day, calling him the deacon and the presiding elder, and twitting him about
 not drinking anything but milk and su- gar and only knowing how to play old maid. The professor kept on saving wood and saying nothing. Finally one day when Slick had everybody's money
 but the professors and promlssory notes were too plenty to go at face val ue Slick rubbed 1t in a little too active ly on the eX-showman and the profess sor got mad. He Just let out one fero- cious glance from those two lamps of his and walked up to the table.
 'All hands felt sorry to see him pick up the cards, for it was plain from the awkward way in which he handled the deck that he had about the same chan ces of winning from Slick as he had of laying the track while the rain kept coming. We all underestimated the professors ability to take care of him self. What roofing we all did for the professor in the next three minutes was done silently; for everybody felt that SciiittlliiiE Ndp SOiilS lu NiDp, anu IlO- ! body knew just what that something 1 was. Williams had about $200 in cash, | which he laid on the table in front of him. and the professor, much to our as- tonishment, produced a roll and counted | out enough to tap him. It took about , all he had, though and we began to see | his finish and mentally to make room | for him to join the rest of us in the gal ! lery when he went broke. They agreed | to start off with a s10 jack pot, and | when they cut the cards for the deal | Williams showed a king the highest I possible out, while the professor only | produced an ace, which was as far down the line as he could very well get, and didn't promise particularly well for his luck. 1t must have taken Slick about five minutes to shuttle those cards and get them fixed to his satis- faction. He riffled and rualed them, spun them In and out, exposed them and concealed them, chased them here and there with first one hand and then the other, twisting and twirling his fin- gers about them with lightning rapidi- ty until it fairly made one dizzy to try and keep track of them. All this time the professor seemed to take but little interest in the proceedings and when finally the cards were passed over to lim he cut calmly and told the dealer to run them. Then the hands were dealt.
 Tt was the professors first say, of course, and he passed. 1 was standing directly behind Williams, and as he ipread out his hand the least little bit craned my neck for a momentary lash of all the aces in the pack nest ing costly alongside of each other. Williams himself gave an involuntary tart of surprise, and I am inclined to believe to this day that luck had added me ace to the three that he expected to ind for on the first deal he would scarcely have given himself anything iufte so strong as four aces. Then he pened the pot for five dollars and the professor stayed and took one card Williams first bet was five dollars, and le seemed surprised, as well as pleased, Vhen the professor came back at him ! with a ten dollar raise Then the open- r raised it another ten dollars and rack with another raise came the pro- essor. They seesawed along with hese ten dollar raised until the pot in E he center looked mighty juicy in com ,, |. 4l,E s1.