The sun., 1902-09-07
One GAMBLERS ODD MASCOT.
1T SAVED HIS LIFE ONCE, GAVE
HIN LUCK. BTT LED TO HIS END.
A Tale OF q Counterfeit Coin and Bullet
which Turned Ne'er.DO.Ncll Into a
Professional Gard Player and at Last
Inv DIV Ell Him In q Fatal quarrel

as rule, said thN gray-halred, young
looking man in the club smoking room,
but 1t is probably true that if you will
watch a man closely while ha is playing
cards. or following up any other form OF
gambling, you will learn what his super
stitions are more quickly than you are
likely TO do under any other circumstances.
1T may not be that ha has any more
irrational beliefs than his neighbor who
does not gamble. and he may not be any
more firmly welded to those beliefs, but
he is engaged in doing something that is
likely to expose his supersti;ions, what
ever they may be, TO observation. A good
many gamblers are supersti,lous, and
| although they may not be more so than
other people, they show il more plainly
| and acknowledge it more frankly.
Many superstitions are so common as
TO be well known. Thousands of people
dread the gaze OF a cross-eyed person and
never sea a humpback without at least
wanting TO rub his hump, and not all those
thousands are gamblers. But there are
some beliefs Of this sort that seem TO be
born Of gambling. one common one is
the conviction, very positive in many cases,
that man will have no luck playing cards
II any other person rests his foot or his
hand on he chair that the player is sitting
in. !, may have originated in the thought
that one who stands or sits near enough
to touch the players chair is near enough
to seq his hand, but it has out utgrown that
thought entirely and is now a fully devcl-
oped superstition.
Then there is no end 10 the rumber Of
81, l.. 1.
The opal for bad luck and the rabbits foot
for good luck are common instances. but
reckon that a majority Of gamblers carry
something with them all the time with
feeling that il helps them " win II might
I've a coin, or trinket or he color Of a neck
tic or handkerchief but, whatever il j..
they play with more confidence when they
have it,
About the queerest thing | ever noticed
in this line was The mascot that Hal Far
rington used TO carry in little silver purse
in the inside pocket Of his waistcoat Il
was coin, broken in half, with deep dent
| almost in what was the exact centre of the
piece before it was broken When first
| saw II thought It was originally a twenty
dollar gold piece, but on examining it saw
that il was counterfeit very good in ap-
pearance on the outside, but plainly dis
| tinguishable when you looked al the bro ken
edges, for the interior was undoubtedly
base metal With the Two pieces Of the
! broken coin he carried also heavy bullet
that fitted the dent. and was itself slightly
| nisshapen, having been flattened by the
violence of the blow that broke the coin.
-Farringto on and ! became acquainted
in a curious way, but, as Kipling says,
that's another story. We became very in
innate. and he told mo a good deal about
himself tha; he wouldn't have told to most
people. ! wouldn't tell il now only he's
dead, and nobody knew him by his right
| name after he became a gambler
Il had noticed a queer trick he had when
| he was playing poker. and when | asked
| him about it he told me the story When
he was about TO draw cards he would fire.
! quenty stop and lay his hard on the table.
face down, Of course. and appear 10 ha
! thinking And while he was looking around
! al the other players he would thrust his
! right hand inside his vest.
What do you do that for?' asked one
night after the game broke up. And he
| pulled out the silver purse and showed
| me its contents
That counterfeit COIN he said. was
| the one thing that stood between me and
death And it was not simply death that
threatened me but the worst possible
disgrace that could befall a man who had
already been irretrevably ruined. When
! that coin snapped, Hal Harrington dropped
ruined as | say, disgraced beyond recovery
and so for as anybody ever knew, really
dead. His body was never found, and
nobody but YOU knows that when he came
4 60 h... IA "a I'm.
he took the name you and everybody else
knows me by, and became n professional
gambler because he hadn't the moral
stamina TO go TO work al more rcspec-
able calling
II put my hand in my vest simply 10
touch that coin, because il brings me luck
lneyer had any till the instant il was broken,
and the only luck have nov is when | do
touch il
l inherited fortune, business and
love for pleasure that played the devil
with the business, So far a. money matters
went | was on the down track when met
a woman who might have been my saliva
ton: for | loved her devotedly, We were
10 be married, and were just aligh,ing
from the carriage at the church door when
the horses started violently at the instant
al which ! stretched out my hand TO assist
her TO the sidewalk. The sudden motion
threw her headong, just out Of my reach,
and she fell. When ! picked her up she
was dead
After tha, | never cared much about
anyl hing. II didn't take long for the
business o pass into the hands OF the Sheriff,
and what remnants OF the fortune remained
melted fast. | drifted toward the West
simply from dlencss, with no purpose
and no ambition. and Just about the time
| had reached my last dollar found myself
in st. Paul | didn't feel desperate, for |
didn't care. but ! realized that suicide
was the only thing that was likely TO save
me from becoming tramp, and | was
thinking lazly and irresolmely OF the
alternative, when l fell in with gang Of
count terfeiters
They had n plant near St. Anthony.
II is now a part Of Minneapolis, but IL was
open country then. They had manu-
factured a lot Of the queer" but hadn't
put much of IL out. Only a little TO help
pay expenses while they got ready TO push
| II out in bunch. | was good-looking
wel-dressed and a spender, and they found
out somehow that | was broke, so they
! picked me out as good pusher.
Well, | didn't care much, and one night
, | rode away from their house on the prairie
! with as many of the counterfeit yellow boys
| as | could carry, sewed into a chamois
| undershirt | was To go down the river,
| spending them as | went and reporting
! to agents of the gang Al various points till
! ! reached Memphis whore they had planned
| to have a roundup.
~'I was on horse back and rode esurelv
| through MINNEAPOLIS down the old Fort