The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-03-13
(New York SUM

the people in the great cities realize
the extent TO which the habit really
prevails throughout the country. OF
course everybody knows that in the
cities the game is played very gener-
ally. People have poker chips i'm their
houses and play a social game at home
with no more pretense OF conceaI ment
than they used to make, twenty years
ago. about keeping a backgammon
board and playing checkers.
"UnquestiOnably poker is gambling,
even if you buy ten or twenty chips COR
a cent. but this home playing is a mild
form of the vice Tor the most part. and
gambling does not seem TO be COnsid-
cred as wicked of itself as our grand
fathers believed it to be.
Then there is real poker played at
the clubs and in the gambling houses.
ante. 10-cent limit that mothers and
fathers play with their children. but
real. live. North American poker. fable
stakes or sky limit, and there is plenty
o. it. and hot enough TO suit anybody.
But If YOU want to see desperate
playa struggle for blood among men
who gamble as the Indians do. for all
they have. and who meet their losses
bravely and take their winnings coO'ly.
you want to know how men play poker
in the small towns through the c0un-
try l don't mean The mining camps
Of the Bret HarteMark Twain kind,
nor the river towns IN and down the
Mississippi. / mean the villages in the
farming districts right here i'm the
east. where the people are commonly
supposed to lead cody. sober and right
eOus lives: where a man is notorious
if he doesn't go to church on Sunday,
and where the women have sewing so
cieties: where virtue is supposed to
b. the prevailing characteristic of the
community.
1T is right there. among such peo-
pie and in such localities that the
iercest poker playing and the most
desperate gambling in proportion TO the
means of the players may be found by
anyone who is well enough known TO
get into the circle of players You may
live among them for years and never
find it out, but if you know them
right you'll find it.
In almost every one of those viii
lagos there is a jealousy sane
tUm somewhere that is used for gam
bling 1t may be a room over the
livery stable or some private corner tn
the tavern. or a shanty down by the
river. but wherever it is the gamblers
know it and nobody else does. The
lights never show from the outside. and
no one who does not play is admitted,
but the game goes on as regularly as
it does in a faro bank in a big city.
There were about a dozen Esen in
the town where I was brought up who
would rather play poker than eat or
sleep. and as I had the fever myself
pretty badly when I was a yOUugster,
was one of the dozen. The game
We played wouldn't seem Ike very
big one to me now, but it was the
hardest kind of gambling, for the
money that was up represented a great
amount to each one who contributed.
We scorned limit, and table stakes
vas the inVariable rule And the men
who played were all men who would
have conSidera bic sums now and again
in ready money.
If Waterman, the keeper of the Iiv-
cry stable. sold a horse, we knew that
the price of the animal would De up
in the next game, whether he won on
lost. If George BasSett, who was a
farmer had made a diCker with some
commission merchant for his next crop
o. apples or had marketed his hay and
got the cash, we knew he could be ex-
pected If young Keep. the clever
lawyer who was making his reputa ton
az the county court house, had won a
case, there was always a chance OF
our getting a share Of his fees if he
sat in poor luck, and it was so through
the list.
Some Of the party would meet their
debts before playing, and some would
not, but there wasn't man of us all
who was not liable TO come around
D, -E,r.szr E-01
in his pocket And whatever he
brought with him was liable to be Gu,
up for the be eft Of all the others i
he didn't swell his wad. There wasn't
any beefng, either. II was a matter OF
pride with all Of US to affect stOicism
when we lost, no matter how hard we
might be hit
las a matter Of course that sort OF
a game couldn't go on indefinitely
among men who were playing for blood
all the time without some pretty seTi-
Gus happenings, and however gayly
man may affect TO bear mis- losses. suCF
blows Of fortune as we used to receive
at times viii hurt. ] never felt any
serious injury myself. for money wa.
of no great Importance TO me then. ans
7 never played with penny that right
fully belonged to my creditors. but
some of the players were less cautious
and there We're two other real disas
ters.
Il think Bassett was hit the hardes
Of any of us and the game i'm which h.
gOt mis- worst punishment was at TIT
same time one of the most interestin.
that I ever saw. can remember tn,
details of it as If it were last night.
There were six Of us playing-Wa
tsrman BaSsett Keep. RhameS TN.
storekeaper. Doc Hutchinson and my
self and four or five of the regular
who didn't happen to be heeled wei
enough TO sit in that night were in thu
I gallery. The game was table stake
as usual. and we'd each put in 800.
I hadn't enough with me to have bough
a second time if I'd lost but. as E
proved. some of the others had cOnsid
I cradle money with them
The cards ran wen almost from IN
start There hadn't been 2 dozen deaI
/ when Bassett opened q jackpot on tW
pairs and got two customers. Rhame
Z STAYED on the four court cards il
/ hearts. and Hutchinson on a fou
straight. nine high. That last fact wa
3 Characteristic of the game we played
: don't think the careful player vii
often pay TO draw TO @ four straiEh
! if the opener puts up the size Of tn
! pot. as the opener usually does i'm
/ table stakes game, but with us IL wa
/ the common play We used to reaso
that man sfculd lose oftener thai
/ he'd win on the play. but If he wo-
/ h. q make up for several losses, and
/ anyhow. we were all sporty enough @
/ take long chances.
As IL happened in this DEAL each on
/ Of the three filed. Bassett caught
I seven to his seve1S u1. Bhames got
/ small heart. and Hutchinson got tn
I ten Of hearts that would have mad
/ Rhames' hand invincible Basset
/ threw in a white chip before lookin
/ and Rhames boosted it SO there be
/ ing about twenty in the pot already
/ Hutchinson trailed. being unwilling
( lay down a straight. but realizing tha