Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-05

eral Of the railroads west Of the Mis-
souri,. ut happened in Abilene in the
summer OF 10. We had then pushed the
road about eight miles to the west OF
Abilene. You know Abilene was In
20. Dodge City was then a camp-meet-
ing grove compared with Abilene. The
men belonging to u construction gangs
were q bad enough lot to make 1t worth
any mans while to go light on them, but
they were cooling doves alongside OF the
evil batch of devils who had thrown the
town of Abilene together in anticipa-
ton Of the building of the railroad. Be-
fore we got anywhere near Abilene there
was a pretty fair sized n comfortably
filled cemetery plotted out near the
But when we got close enough to Abb
lene to make it practicable for our con-
struction men to put in their spare time
there, drinking 'sumac' whisky and play
ing cards, between knock-Off on Satur-
day afternoon and jump-in on Monday
morning, Joe ,Geddes, the pine-box UNI
dertaker of Abilene, a more business
hat he could handle, working night and
day. ~
"Some old-timers tried to tall me out
of my determination to have a look
around in the town where so many of
the men of the construction n We're
being killed off-for ! wanted to see what
thorough o~ut-and- O bad men looked
like. They told me that If I ever wanted
to see my folks back east any more I'd
better not do any monkeying around in
Abilene. But I knew it all In those days,
and SO, without letting any Of the men
IN my gang know anything about 1t, I
slipped over to the chainmen's tents one
night and roped in a couple of them to
hand-car me down to Abilene. When we
reached the town I sent the chainmen
back with the hand-car, telling them to
return for me in tho r0Oyninp .t-. 49,
abilene rather surprised me at first.
/ at least expected to have my hat shot
off a few times in the course of an hours
rambling around, and, in fact, / was
prepared to do a little impromptu danc-
ing for the edification of Abilenites who
enjoyed toying Will strangers. Nothing
of the sort happened. Instead, the fell
lows hanging around the whisky mills
and the brace faro layouts good natured-
ly took me in hand n started in to give
me a good time. / was a breezy young
chap, you see, and able to hold my own
in any public exhibition of the swelled
hea I unauestionably possessed at that
time. Anyhow, things had not thor
oughly warmed up for the night when I
fell in with the gang early in the even
ing. 1t all loked SO smooth n easy,
and the heavy artilleriede chaps hat l
that / drank a good deal more sage
brush whisky than I had any right to
drink, or than 1 had ever drunk before.
LUCK IN A POKER GAME.
Around about midnight 1--WE Of US, in
Guiding Jim C~athcart, a bad ma who
was hanged a. few years later for the
murder of a sheriff In Texas, pulled up
at Toole Kingsley's Kansas or Bust sa-
loon and faro bank. The three other fell
10 VS. I was with were outlawed cowboys.
and although I didn't know it then, and
oVyonn - r n,o n - ,x,or,11,s% rya ~>Aal .-r
difference in the shape I was in. Cath
a l suggested a anne of draw. He had
probably. noticed my good-sized wad of
money, n / guess he reckOned on get
ting IT. / didn't have any more sense
than to agree, and, the other three chaps
being also willing, OF course, we went
up to the second floor of Kingsley's rum
n faro honlkatofk and waded In. When
Cathcart suggested the game I noticed
that a tall, broad-shouldered, very mus
cular looking man, with long hair and a
heavy mustache. who was standing with
his back to the bar. eye us pretty care
fully, and at the time I rather wondered
what he meant by it, though I forgot all
about him five minutes later in the in
tensity of the game.
!" Intense is not the word to describe
that game of poker. I had been plug
ging along at the game of draw more or
less ever since I was a growing lad and
0LtCA L ~ OC6AA ~ SAIOukOCI I'LL dLlllluWl
I had been an onlooker at some mighty
queer games. But I never saw cards run
the way they did that night. 1t was
embarrassing for a while, but later on it
became dangerous; for I was q. total
stranger to these four men, and a good
deal Oilier in manners n speech than
they-a thing that was likely to excite
suspicion in towns like Abilene in those
days, especially in the minds of men
steadily losing in a game of draw.
EVERY man of the four persisted in
giving me u massive hands to play
against the utterly no-account hands
they dished out to themselves that l
didn't know what to make of it. All four
of them We're reasonably good poker
players, but they were none Of them
short-carders- able to stack a deck
and 1 had certainly never sat into a
squarer game of draw. But my own luck
was absolutely magical. Pat hands
were given to me about as often as pairs
We're served out to the other fellows
Every time this happened. and one OF
more of my opponents determined to fine
out if I was bluffing ON my pats. I LAID
down the hands with a little fear growing
within me, for after we had been playing
for an hour or SO I noticed all four OF
'em snatching glances at me out of the
tails of their eyes.
after I had continued whacking all
four of them pretty hard on their owr
deals (rarely dealing myself a hand
the luck took a peculiar switch, al.
though it stayed with me. I began to gel
nothing whatever on the deals of thu
other fellows, but or my own deals I fec
myself with hands that actually smelleG
of birthstone, they were SO weird and in.