The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-20
NEW YORK.

JAMES WAKELY, one of New
York's most frequently quoted authori-
ties on games of chance-You'd think
Morgan had been playing with thieves,
but 1 suppose the truth is that he
doesn't know much about the game.
Among honest people it is the finest
game in the world. You know that if
you put a lot of disreputable persons
to playing crOquet they would bring
Odium upon that game.
Poker is essentially a gentleman's
game. 1t is esteemed in the highest
circles of society by both men and
women, and as years pass it grows in
favor.
In the first place, poker is to the
brain and mind what physical exer-
else is to the body. 1t awakens the
dullest mind and gives it activity.
Instead of inducing ignoble traits, it
teaches a man self-restraint caution,
fairness, GOODNESS, how to lose grace
fully and how to win magnanimously.
OF course if a man is naturally petty
and mean or dishonest poker will draw
his ugly traits to the surface, but is
poker to blamed for that?
L do not know of anything better
than poker by which to gauge a mans
character quickly, and you may be sure
that one who plays poker with wisdom,
daring, with fairness and cheerfulness,
is to be trusted in greater things.
If you want to find out whether a
man is grasping, unfair, cowardly and
unmanly, get him into q stiff poker
game and he viii soon tell the story in
his playing. On the other hand, all
OF the best of human qualities are
brought out as the cards go round.
1 do not know of any better school
ing for women than poker. 1t broadens
their minds and takes from them many
nf oh or
some of them are justly charged.
have known women who were mer-
cenary to a pitiful degree when they
first began playing poker, who grew
hot or cold as their luck ran good or
bad, and whose hopes and fears could
be read in their faces every moment,
to become generous, dispassionate and
pleasing, meeting disaster cheerfuIly
and winning as though they hated to
take the money
tell you that Mr.. Morgan is wrong,
and that he has libeled the most noble
and interesting game of cards in the
world.
"BAT" MAsTERsoN, famous New
York and Western card pIayer-I must
take issue with Mr.. Morgan. If draw
poker is not an American game, what
is 1t? If an American doesn't employ
deceit to sell a gold brick, who does ?
}. Pierpont Morgan is not an excep-
ton. Most gamblers start out by learn
ing the game of draw poker. To play
poker successfully requires a man of
steady nerve, who is full of resources
and has an active brain.
If you haven't got them, keep out of
poker. 1t is essentially an American
game. never met a foreigner who
could play poker unless he learned it
here.
HONEST" JOHN KELLY-There is
no more deceit in draw poker than
there is in rigging the stock marked.
Give me as much money as Morgan
has made in Wall street and I'll caH
golf a devils game and ping-pong a
crime.
GEORGE coNsIDINE, bookmaker
and Owner Of Hotel MetropoIe-It is
not always deceitful to win at poker
To be good poker player a, man must
be judge of human nature. Some of
our best people play poker. They do
nothing dishonest; they simply enjoy
the game. Mike Kelly was one of orr
greatest ball players, but because he
was cunning player is no reason whv
he should be called deceitfuI. He was
simply smarter than his opponent.