The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-08-23


on the river" said Caleb Mix,
the veteran bartender on the Missis-
Eipp' river packet City OF Natchez,
s. pears to be that their hain't no wo-
men gamblers on the boats.
"Mebbe faint surprisin' that there
amt none on 'em now, cause there's
mighty few professionals travels the
river regular. any more. Their day has
gone by, an they knows it,
There amt no more games on the
boat like there was, an there wouldn't
be none allowed if they tried to start
'em. so they don't try. What poker is
played is mostly pikin' games, that's
played for fun, just to pass away the
time. an there's no big money in 'em.
But what I mean is, it seems curious
like, that when there was big money to
be made the women didn't go after it
-leastways on the boats. You needn't
tell me it was cause there warnt no
good women poker players. I've saw
women that cd play as good a game as
any man 1 ever seen shuttle a deck
An it want cause they want
mean enough to be professionals. tell
you when a woman does go wrong,
she's heap sight meaner'n any man
you'll find in a month O. Sundays, even
among professional gamblers. an I
reckon that's about as good a place to
look for Ornery people as they is
For some reason or another, though,
the women that played poker in them
days, an there was a good many Of
'em, same as they say there is now,
never used 10 travel the river TO play.
i don't call to mind but one of 'em that
ever set into a game thoughten twas
once in a way, perhaps.
YOU muuUlf Some uOuoav, r,1avr
once, maybe once IN a couple o. years,
but you'd never see her again. It'd On'v
be for a lark maybe, cause she hap
pened to be on the boat when some
body she knOwed was playin'. She
wouldn't be a regular.
There was one woman, though that
come along just after the war. when
what you might call the last % the Mis-
sissippi river poker was played. Things
ant settled like an there was a big
game on sometimes.
Twa'n't like the old time. even
then. fr you wouldn't see no rich plant
ers' sons scatterin' cotton crop money.
nor the planters themselves didn't go
down the river for fun so frequent as
they had. but there was people travelin'
with wads. that you wouldn't count on.
an sometimes they'd play. so the gam
blers was still round.
Feared like this woman. Kate Carr
she called herself, had been quite some
OF a character in the war, bein' a reck-
less devil that hadn't no people Of her
own, so far as anybody knowed. an be-
In red hot rebel, Ike the southern
women mostly was. Seems she were n
SOY, now an again, an had listed twice
an been discharged when they found
she were a woman.
Anyway. she'd been in camp con-
sid able, an they said she learned IA
play poker on n blanket An. saw,
some o the best poker playin' that was
ever DID was done over an old army
blanket spread on the ground.
She were a tail. fine lOokin' woman
that looked like she'd ha' made a toll
able fair soldier If shed been logged
out In uniform. but never seen her
on'y in women's clo'es an there want
notnln special about her to make Won
suspicion her o playin' no such FRANKS
'tnouten 1t were a wicked lOokin' eve
an quick. free way o. movin'. that
somehow didn't pear 20 be quite like
a woman, bein' too spry But she were
2 woman all right. an talked an acted
like one, on'y for one thing.
That We're that there want no sign
o her haVln' any use for men folks
on.y FOR TO talk with same as a man ID
talk. never herd o. her havfn' nc
irritation with anybody nor putin az
with nobody's nonsense.
Ihey was some o. the men. mostly
gamblers their own selves that yvoulE
IA liked well enough 10 tie up with her
out none on EN- ever made out She
were good friends with 'ern. an she ba5
pas, now an again. Nin the game. but
that was all the far il ever went.
Peared she didn't have no rep11lar
home. but she used to go To an from
Memphis good bit. Mostly she'd pei
on the boat somewhere down the river
an go south, or she'd get on some
Where down the river an go up as far
as Memphis.
An she didn't travel reg'lar but
she'd make, mebbe, half a dozen trims
year. ] were on the old River Belle
then an she 'peared to like that mar
tic'lar boat best Of any on 'em 50
seen quite a lot of her. first an last
"Old Man Hopper. that was cap'n o.
the River Belle then. he 'peared to he
all struck of a heap. the first time he
seen her playin' cards in the saloon
an he sent a niger to ask her to SER
up in his Office a minute. The Niger
ne give his message very quiet an re-
Epectful. an she left the table prompt
but after about half an hour she came
back and took her seat.
Nobody ever knowed rightly what
they said to one another but I'm what
the cap'n let drop. to me Onct or twict
reckon she must ha' talked about her
experience in the army. The old man
had been a rebel soldier his ownseli
an likely he'd had "a soft spot some
where for them that 1T on his side
Anyway, nobody never interfered with