Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-06-09

when the boiler burst ana as they went
up in the air one OF the party exelaim-
ed: Remember, boys, that | played the
trey for low
II don't pretend to say whether this
GOODNESS is really courage or not. | can
imagine a man being very cowardly and
still retaining his presence of mind I'M
der any and all circumstances, even if
he should be struck by lightning. In
such a case I suppose he would show his
intelligent effort to escape from danger,
but that isn't exactly what | mean,
either. The thing that makes me take
off my hat is for a man to show his cool
ness and his courage at the same time.
Such an example | saw in a little
barroom in Brownsville some years ago.
Brownsville is a little river town that
seems TO have no real reason for being
a town excepting that it has a pretty
good landing place for steamboats, on
| the river front and a productive coun-
try Of rich farming land back of it.
Naturally, a small settlement grew up
and things were lively around there
whenever a boat stopped. After the
boat had gone the principal industries
of the town seemed to be tending bar
and playing poker. At least that's the
way it impressed me when | was there.
| Ndorbo ~ hos rrou,, -;,oo
TT happened on this occasion that
the man | wanted to sell a bill of goods
to was out of town when [ got there,
so, instead of finishing my business in
half an hour and going on down the
river on the same boat, | determined
to stay over till the next boat came,
which would be in a day or two. There
wasn't an earthly thing to do in the
place excepting to hug the fire in the
barroom, for 1t was early spring and
still cold weather, and l was doing this
as philosophically as I knew how when
it happened.
There was a party of six men play
ing poker in the room and two or three
men were lounging at the bar, while
several others sat as l did, by the big
stove. 1t wasn't a large room, at that,
but it seemed to be the principal re-
sort of the village. I suppose there
were more persons there than were
gathered together in any other one
| place within ten miles. The game was
a quiet one, and though I had watched
it with some curiosity for awhile. l had
lost interest in 1t, and was idly looking
at the others as they were looking at
me, with next to nothing on our minds.
presently the door opened and a big
s%ix-footer entered the room and walked
toward the bar. He looked to me as if
he might be a Minnesota lumbermau,
ed to see him so far down the river so
early in the year, thinking to myself
tnat he could hardly have finished his
seasons work in the woods if he really
were a lumberman. When he came in
the most of those in the room except
ing the poker players looked up with
mild curiosity, but nobody seemed to
| recognize him and l concluded that he
had probably got off the same boat
he did, though l had not noticed him
on the boat.
He had evidently came in for a
drink, but before he reached the bar
his eyes fell on one of the players
whose face was partly turned from him
and who had not looked up from his
cards to notice the newcomer. He was
a short thick-set man with a square
Jaw and sandy complexion, somewhat
better dressed than anyone else in the
room-evidently a professional gamb-
Ter of the kind that travels the river
constantly, looking for a game wherev-
er they can find one.
The big man gave him one glance,
and turning from the bar stepped up to
his side as quickly and quietly as a cat,
drawing a revolver from his pocket as
he went. The next instant the revolt
yer was thrust squarely into the gamb-
ler's face and the big man exclaimed:
I've got you at last. Tom Small.
Your times come, and the devil can't
save you
| Nov, l submit that this was a situa-
ton in which any man on earth might
se expected to lose his self-possession.
There was no doubt about the big lum-
herman being in earnest His voice
was quivering with rage, and his face
at the moment was the most hideous
thing ever beheld. 1t seemed to be
blazing with the lust OF revenge and
murder. Yet the other man did not
seem IN the least excited Or nervous.
He spoke IN : quiet ana ordinary tone