The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-06-21
GOT HIS wATc BACK.
Gambler Redeems Precious heirloom Aft
or Half a Century.

sr Half a Century.
"The smallness Of the world was
once more illustrated to me" said a
prominent treasury official, "by an in
eident which occurred on the train
which bore my father from Detroit to
Washington on a visit the Otherday.
'Back in the SOS my father was en-
gineer of one of the old stern-wheel
Mississippi river steamboats, plying
between Illinois towns and ST. Louis.
Some pretty exciting games of poker
were played on the old Mississippi
river boats, and the one on which the
old gentleman was engineer was no
exception. The professional gam
blers who made the trips to st. Loo
for the purpose of fleeing sometimes
unwary travellers usually got the coin,
but not always, and the point of the
incident l am telling you about was
one of the exceptions.
my father was eittingin the smok-
ing room Of the train the other even
ing chatting with an acquaintance,
also en- route to Washington fromthe
City of Straits. Casually pulling out
his watch to see how time wagged, the
acquaintance commented on the
rather odd appearance of the watch,
which led to a closer examination.
The watch was an old one, unlike the
ones in use these days, hada goldface,
wound with a key, and bore the name
and date Of a German maker.
An elderly gentleman with long
whiskers occupying the seat opposite
the Detroiters had been, up to the
time Of the talk about the watch, at
tentively reading a newspaper. He
cast his eye at the watch, however, and
butted into the conversation with the
observation: odd watch thatl Never
saw but one lkeit before
"The owner of the watch thereupon
permitted the bewhiskered old gentle
man to examine the timepiece more
closely. The latter gavei it a thorough
looking over, inside and out, and sur
prised the other two by his comments
upon its points. After this scrutiny
and sundry and divers remarks which
had the owner of the watch and the
other man guessing, the old man held
the watch affectionately in his grasp.
"'Seeing this particular ticker
said the old man, carries me back to
the year 1857, to the cabin of an old
Mississippi river steamboat. | was
a victim Of the poker habit in those
days, and regularly played my way
down from my home town in Illinois
to st. Louis and back. Luck had been
against me for a couple Of trips, and
my check-buying roll was sadly de.
pleted. l hated to do it, but it came
to pass when the watch l carried,
which had been handed down from
sire to son for three generations, had
to be pledged for the price of sitting
into a poker game just beginning.
went to the engineer of the boat, with
whom | was slightly acquainted, and
} bespoke the loan of $50, offering the
precious watch as security and prom.
Using to redeem it the next morning
but
81 am that engineer said my ia.
, ther.
"'And l am that gambler said the
old nal with the whiskers.
i. "And it was thus that my father
, parted with the watch he had carried
for nearly half a century, for the erst.
while Mississippi river steamboat
gambler, since grown wealthy, there.
upon redeemed the pledge, as my ia
/, ther had not the heart to take bach
/, the timepiece and the old man urged
|. its restoration" Washington
Timas