The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-16
POKER ON THE RIVER
IAN oLD-TIME GAME THAT END ] ED WITH THREE MEN DEAD.
Gamblers Who Dragged That They Didn't Cheat One Another-A Game That Cast Doubt on
 the Proposition.
New York Sun.


 There was a good many sports that useter travel the river in the old days, befo' the wah," said Caleb Mix, the vet eran bartender on the Mississippi packet Natchez. "an' some of 'em was monstrous nifty.
 '"There was one thing they always use ter brag about that might ha' been true an might not. 'Twa'n't very often they'd set in by themselves an try to chaw each other up. Just naturally they'd always get a sucker in the game if they could. but once in while. when there want nobody around that would play they'd get up a game amongst themselves, an when they did they'd always agree be- fore beginning to play perfectly straight, square game. An the brag was that when a gambler give his word to play square he always done 1t.
 'I never took no stock In that. O. course. they was always mighty careful. for 1t was a case O shoot quick if one of lem got catched cheatin', but I don't reckon there was one on 'em that wouldn't ha' taken any advantage he could in the game, no matter what he might ha' said before he sat in.
 Anyway. one O the worst mix-ups I ever see at a poker table, an I've seen a good many was when four of 'em was playin' together on the old Creole Belle, just before we got to New Orleans on the home trip one night in the fall O '5s or '59 '
 "It hadn't been a good trip for any of lem. Somehow, there hadn't been much doin' on the way up. an comin' back 1t was worse.
 Tt just happened that there want no passengers either way that cared to play, on'y a few that was either too careful to lose much or didn't have much with 'em to lose I don't reckon any one of lem had taken in a hundred dollars in the whole time, an the way they spent money that want travelin' expenses.
 Just naturally they was sore. an when they see there was no chance O doin' nothing with the outside public they made 1t up to have game their own selves the last night, an see which of 'em d have to suffer to help the others out.
 There was Al Davis, an Gus Hallo- way, an George Billings an Pierre Beau regard. They was all thoroughbreds an was known up an down the river for nervy men, as a man had to be to hold his own among the sports them days. but Beauregard was little the niftiest one Q the whole bunch.
 '"They said he come from good people an had ought to be gentleman. but he were black sheep an they wouldn't have nothin to do with him. but SO far as manners an education goes he were equal to any O the aristocrats in New Orleans. He were a dandy. too, even among the gamblers, an they was all dandies them days.
 what was bought in Paris. an his clothes cost him more n his horses did An he wore jewelry like a woman.
 ''He were a womanish lookin' chap too. m as soft an elegant in his talk as a preacher, but when there was any call for 1t he'd fight like a tiger. He'd fought balf-a-dozen duels, for they fought duels them days, an he had a record O kiilin' -Four men with a knife in rough an -tum- ble fights different times.
 Billings an Davis had pretty good regulations, too, for fighting, but Hallo- way was man fun up river some. where's, thta hadn't been known long ir New Orleans, an nobody knowed wheth. er he were fighter or not
 '.He were monstrous slick with the cards, though. like all the others was an' they all knowed he were a first-clas ss poker player. Davis an Billings was pals an always worked the river together but Holloway an Beauregard useter travel alone mostly, an they bein' on the same boat this time was likely an acci- dent
 Well, as I was sayin, they made it up to have one sittin' at poker before eettin' into New Orleans on the home trip, an the play begun about o'clock We was due at the levee before day break. an they had some six or eight hours to play, that is If they lasted that time. which were doubtful for it were a moral certainty that the play would be high if the cards run good.
 High play don't always make a short game. though. They played along till midnight without any startling good hands, nor no big tussels between two