The sun., 1903-06-28
TNIFE PLAY AND
II POKER PLAY.
Two Lively Features OF Lite on
the Old Mississippi River
Packets.

lol Borie that the bowie-knife was hat'en
tter,- said Caleb Mix, the veteran bar
ender on the Mississippi River packet
.ny of Natohez, -an it stands to reason
here must be some truth In some on em'
rs altogether likely. For all that know
hey may be all true, but when folks says
Ike they do sometimes. that there want
lover no other other man t could handle
,nife like he did, I reckon there's things
hat might be said
i've saw some torable skilful play my
rlf, more'n once, an know there was
.ood many that had the name o bein' better
han them that l saw.
sThe men that carried knives, or some
= em, anyway, knowed how TO use en-
There amt no manner o doubt o that
In the frst place they bought good ones.
IN paid big price for 'em. I've knowed
/ good many that paid as high as twenty
VI twenty-five dollars for one, without no
ancy work on the hilt. neither Just for
be plain STEEL
AN they kept EN- as bright as glass
a. keen as razors You cd shave yourself
nth good bowie S well as you could with
my razor
Then they useter practise with EN-.
,ou ever see a man try to strike a knife
vice in the same spot on tree. or door.
..tandiu' square in front Of 1t? Well If
rou think it's easy, just try It once.
"Tll gamble you cant hit within an inch
u the spot you aim at 'thouten you've done
nme practsin An I've seen man
mark a dozen spots on door no biggern
tpin head. each one on EN-. an then stand
back and drive his knife into the hull dozen.
me after another. 80 fast you couldn't
,ardly see his hand move back an forth,
N not miss one by hairsbreadth.
you c'n see for yourself tlIntd he quite
vsl'able trick If you was standin' up in
ront Of a man that was tryin' to get his
gun workin'.
Then there's great knack about gettln
he full force of blow, These fellers
hat fight In the prizering with their fists
.nows that. They tell me that they prac-
tM for days an days at a punchn' bag
Is get the trick o' lnndin' IA blow SOS to
make all their stren'th tell
We'll, that amt nothin' new. I've
mAn men that has practised that same thing
sith knives. so's't they cd drive il half
Nay to the hit in solid oak with one blow.
iou may think that's easy. too, If your
Inife Is sharp enough. but faint.
An when It comes to THROWN knife,
there was them that throwed EN- some
.imee, but mostly, n man that N with
tnlie ksp h's grip . pn ". .hrow'n owl, M Rh''' i,
sano.he .ns ,,aa ,i,a. ,,',"f - e"ns, ,, w. ~
Ia - =. pn ,a,,, o. 81 str.ioh, as ',''. '
nan I ever knowed could shoot.
An when you come TO think OF II. It's
heaP sRn. "G.es J." ''.,s h',,it ..,1 wv" M
u,.o sYu%. % non ,ha ,an ha, ,hn,',,d ,1' !,
IecA ~neh Le man ,nh' a"Lo~sn u
'a.i4nodm a41,.!. IL .od ,.hi,o ,,o,.h .;,,
hN oeen Soou "'.if' ;n'u Eh. en,eS s,
We seen ahyooqy use a knhe IKE 'ney
'seu en- Mnen ! whs oos' fears IKE
my "as ou' laslI'on. a.,
,., fra sns eoot or, on % 1Se boa,s @ on 6ars .s
goou many on EN- 'rave.,h an lno tinie.
'rte was knne pay lre4nentiy. 1or nearly
al' on EN- carried no"ies' afore the re-
"rts. o',,, ,l ", ,, -, .o,,, ,,, ,.,,.
t. mere was Two % on EN- EN- come ,oge,ner
~. Hame Pokec, 'nens or iour years year,
seIo the wan, that was called .he %ickcdest
oghters on the river. Harry cotton was
one o. en- an Dave Dent on was the other.
ihey oeeh pas good while aiore
AZ, oIt they'd had some ialiln' out over
"omah' some sa!d' an they q separated
On pad terms, mere hann been no
tght between, EN-, maybe because the;
i'dn't think the woman was worth dyin'
,nr. an they noth .,t knew ihat neither, on
ON ever quit IN somebody was dead l
cont know as that was the reason. but
likely it was,
anyway they hadn come together Tor
long time when Denton come aboard the
old Rosa Lee one night at Memphis. an
eoin into the saloon come plumb onto
party that was playin poker there.
There we're six men playing. One Of
them was Cotton. and another was pal
Gf his, named Mathews. They had caught
four suckers from up the river, an had
been playin' with EN- the better part Of
two days. the suckers not bein as green as
they looked. an the two gamblers bein'
leary q gettin'' ketche.d.
d been lookin' at EN- quite some. an
ia made up my mind that the four was
crossroads gamblers their own selves. an
might likely do as well as the two knowed.
Rut they didn't have nothin' 10 do with
what happened afterwards. an l dom,
know As ! ever knowed their names. They
was a tol'able slick lot, though, an Cotton
an Mathews had their work Cut out for 'ern.
We'll, Denton, he seen there was others
looxin' on, like there gently was when
there was anything of a game goin'. an
lie stood along with the Others. for quite a
spel' afors anybody pesred to take notice
81 him. Then | seen Cotton look up. an
give Mathews a quick look that | didn't
quite understand, but l reckoned il meant
eomethin.
There wasn't nOthin' said, though, an