The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-27

- COUPLE of cruises ago / saw
u pair of poker hands dealt in
Japan the action upon which
eliminated ia the United states three
months later" said "a chief petty officer
in the United States navy. THE hands
constituted try-OUt between the back
bone of black man and the nerve Of n
Chinaman.
"The game began i'm the harbOr Of
Yokohama. For four months previous
all hands had been quarantined on
board ship on account of the prevalence
of cholera in the Japanese ports. The
quarantine against shore liberty was
raised when the ship drifted into Yo-
lohama harbor and it was found that
the cholera had been wiped out.
Then all hands forward drew biz
money from the paymaster in antici-
patton OF one stupendOus saki toot i'm
Yokohama as "A wind-up to the cruise.
Before the liberty party went ashore,
however. the skipper gor his sailing
orders for the run to the Mare island
navy yard and, as the ship was TO up
anchor on the following morning for
the States the liberty was, OF course
cancelled
"Bluejackets hate to have money
loose on them that they have no i'm
mediate chance 90 spend i'm port, and
the big sums that they had drawn win
the Yokohama liberty in view were
thrown on their hands, with no chahce
of a big beach blow-in until the states
were reached. SO they got down to
sure-enough poker as soon as knock-on
was piped on the evening before the
sailing.
Cards For Poker Chips.
For chips they used, after the GUS
.-r.e oil nfIr re-
OF cards cut I'm two. thus nursing the
IDEA that they were deceiving the Of
dcers as to the nature of the game they
were playing. The officers. as a rule,
permit the poker-playing bluejackets
10 entertain this comfortable delusion.
for even the middies in our sea outfit
understand the non-uecessity. not to
say the foohshness. of seeing too much
of what is happening among the men
forward.
"The four-hand game around the
fo'c'sIe capstan quickly developed into
the hottest affair Of all the poker ses-
sions that were in progress all over the
ship, from the coal bunkers to the
space within the forward anchor chains.
tt was so hot that two Of the players,
n bOsuns mate and q gunner's mate,
We're bulged out at the end of couple
of hours playing. leaving a coal-black
seaman named Terry and the Chinese
ward room cook. Isl Moon. pitted
against each other.
"Tsi Moon was the crack pokerist of
the ship. If not Of the whole Asiatic
fleet and the black was only shade
behind him. Both of them always had
I'm their neck bags $1,000 or so in loose
poker winnings. easily snagged from
reckless 1at-feet who had the temerity
to play with them. But throughout
two cruises. or six years. during which
both were on the same two ships, they
had refrained from playing against
each other by a sort of mutual consent.
feeling, no doubt that the picking
among their shipmates was better and
easier than pitung themselves against
each other.
ChinamEn and Negro.
But here they were. the placid in
scrutable Chink and the lowering and
singularly lucky black. right up against
each other i'm a twO-hand game on the
night before the ship was to up anchor
for the States and ali hands although
they kept a proper distance away from
The capstan. so as not TO attract any
undue attention from the officers to
the game. were a whole lot interested
in the way things were going to come
out between Tsi Moon. the cook, and
Terry, the seaman
THE two felt os each others game
for a couple Of hours before either Of
them got down to business. and then
Tsi Moon cOllared the black i'm the act
o. trying TO get away with a scientific
stand-pat bluff A while later Terry
had the goods when the Chink got aft
or him again i'm the same way. and
from then on it was blood poker and
NO quarter
About half an hour before pipe
down was due to break UP all Of the
games until the morrow. the Chink.
who was "a little. weakened chap. with
d the signs of the surreptitious use of the