The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-05-26
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I'll III ers hotel in ST. Louis.

80 - 8E5, q . AolSl III 81. LOUIS,
| i said Sam Harvey. the
old-time Mississippi river trave,er , ,,,,l
was IN New York a few days ago looking
| aIte es business interests which became
large enough to enable him to retire
some years ago. But none Of the little
party was In that night he continued
really cared about telling our experience
after we learned how tragical the fire
really was. and I. don't suppose this par
| ticular story has ever been told
Harvey was one of four veteran sports
who sat in back room uptown slipping
their whisky and water. and smoking
cigars as they talked over the adventures
81 their earlier days. The talk had drifted
round to "reminiscences of the poker
table, as it often does, and after two or
three stirring tales. Harvey mentioned
the famous fire ,ssras
There were five of us playing poker
| that night, he said, 'in a room on the
| fourth floor Of the hotel. where we had
r ct by appointment for the game had
been arranged three weeks ahead. and
was to be fight to the finish. with more
! or less bad blood. between two of the
players. This feeling which we all knew
was liable to break out in fight, was a
| bitterness of long standing, which had
been intensified by the circumstances OF
! a game in which we had all played three
weeks before on one of the river packets
between Memphis and Natchez. Card
| playing on the river, even then, was not
what it had been. for the scandal OF the
! great games and of the occasional
tragedies that followed them had made
MANY of the steamboat captains caretul
Still there was considerable playing ano
occasionally a stiff game, and one u
these was the one I spoke OF.
ST had gone down the river with Charlle
linton. who was a Spectator In almost
anything. from a cotton crop to a rnohhes
| flush. but who was never professional.
There was on the boat however, one OF
the regular oldtine river gamblers Har--
ris by name, who followed no other IN
| dustry but card playing, and spent most
| of his time on the boats. played then, as
often az I had time and opportunity, ana
we had one or two sittings before we got
| to Memphis, with two fellow travellers
| whose names don't remember. but there
| had been no heavy play At Memphis
| says the narrator, as reported in the New
York Sun, these two got off and maurice
| Jennings and Pegleg Hopkins got on the
boat Jennings was a Mississippi planter
whom I knew very well. He had Just
sold some property in Memphis, as
IJearned 4afterWard, and had sconsideraple
money with him. Hopkins was a gambler
whom I had never s2en before. had
loften heard about him as a nervy player,
| who was not above suspicion, though he
! had never, so far as l know, been caught
| in any crooked play. For that matter,
there wasn't professional on the river
who was above suspicion, so he stood at
par in the fraternity He had followed
Jennings, probably on account of Jen-
nings having the roll with him, for the
gamblers keep track Of such things, and
Jennings was known as heavy player
from Memphis to New Orleans. Hopkins
nickname comes from his being a leg shy.
They said he lost 1t in the Mexican war,
and 1 suppose likely it. was so. III,
Harris and Hopkins, as learned after
ward had had trouble some time before
about girl who played fast end loose
with both Of them until they had threat
ened to shoot each other at sight. Be-
fore there had been any shooting done,
however. she had gone down the river
with third man. and I suppose neither
of them cared to fight over woman
that neither one could get. There was
sufficient hatred between them, however,
to keep them from playing into each 9TH
er's hands at poker, which was probably
| a good thing for the rest of us, though
| doubt If any one Of us would have stayed
out Of the game that followed, even If we
had suspected them. We've all brash
i oh, fa %oL o1,o,
| players on the river, and, If do say it..
| were all good players. How do know
they didn't stand In? Well, perhaps I
don't know it, but don't think they did,
and the subsequent proceedings seemed to
indicate that they didn't. Jennings natur-
| ally Joined me when he came on board,
and as Hopkins really had an acquaint-
| ance with him, 1t was not strange that
we five sat down together that night
Neither was it surprising that there were
cards and chips on the table
That game lasted all night, and the
climax came just as the negroes came
| into the main saloon, where we sat, to
prepare the tables for breakfast. We
made the play for money In sight-table
| stakes, they call it nowadays-an.1 each
| man had flashed a thousand at the start.
I =
night and showed another, which lasted
ms through, and quit only five hundred
loser. Upton won about two thousand.
He was lucky at most things, but he
wasn't in the big fights Of that game,
and his profits We're small compared with
those which Harris made. Hopkins
dropped all he had, which was about five
thousand and Harris won over twenty
thousand, leaving Jennings the big loser
with sixteen-thousand-d dollar hole in his
exchequer. 1t was this and the manner
of the play which had intensified the
!! hatred between the two gamblers Hop
k1ns had followed Jennings in the hope
Of getting away with his money, and to
see another gambler win and to drop his
own capital also in the struggle, was
enough to sour any man. It was evident,
too, that Harris had done all he could
TO weaken Hopkins play by aggravating
remarks. Hopkins was peppery fellow
and once or twice + thought he would
break. out and perhaps shoot, but he
held himself in hand, though the CLEAN
Of his eyes told that he was angry, which
was what Harris wanted. He said moth
Ing. however, even when Harris, who sat
on his left, ostentatfously counted the
cards twice after Hopkins had dealt OF
course It is any players right to count
the cards as often as he likes, but the
way It was done showed that Harris was
irving TO fnsinuate a doubt as to whether
Hopkins was holding out. 1t was a
square game, though, and no phenomenal
hands were shown Jennings was per-
fectly satisfied that his loss was the result
OF bad luck, and So were Upton and J.
What the two gamblers thought, OF
course e don't know, but there was Moth
Ing said TO the contrary, and when Jen-
nings and Hopkins got on at Natchez 1T
was With the understanding that we
should meet ct ST. Louis later - No Ala