The sun., 1903-08-30
CROOKED CARDS
- AND NOBODY KILLED.
A Poker Game Which Was Perhaps
the Most Surprising Ever Played
IN the Old City of Natehez.

There's things happens on the river
sometimes that wouldn't seem noways
natural if they was to happen somewheres
else, said Caleb Mix, the veteran bartender
| on the Mississippi River packet City OF
Natchez. Some way they pear to be
! natural enough on one o the river boats,
but if they was to be ashore, somewheres,
a man would think he was bughouse, or
somethin' was wrong with the earth an
| sky, or somethin.
MOSTLY they happens at a poker table.
1t is reelly surprisin' when you come to think
Of it, how poker has 'peared to be mixed UP
1 in most o the deviltry on the boats. o.
course, there has been fights, now an
again outside o poker. an / have seen
right smart o shootin' first an last in this
| here very room, where, o course, there
amt no poker played bein' as there's no
room for table, but mostly. as was sayin'
, it has started in on poker. Likely that's
| the reason there's less excitement In the
, boats than there was, poker not bein' played
much nowadays.
Them times. though 'peared like there
| was two things men travelled the river
for--playin' poker and fightin, o. course,
there was them that rode that didn't do
| neither, but if man didn't play poker
it were most gently because he didn't have
the money. or didn't get no chance to set
in, an IL he did set in he knowed right
we'll he were liable to get in fight afore
he got out. Fightin' were more serious
/. like, too, them days. Now you'll see men
fight with their fists often as not. an there
amt gently no great damage done, but
| then fist fightin' want never looked for.
You fit with gun or knife, or else you
didn't fight.
"'Twa'n't no ways curious, l reckon,
that the professionals d fight frequent.
II were part o their business an they had
TO be ready for it all the time. but 1t sure
was funny to see some rank sucker take a
tumble to himself like they would some-
times, an stack up against some feller
that reckoned on shootn' him as part O
the days work, case he made trouble.
Sometimes. though. the sucker'd get tho
best of il, even at that.
Il recollect one night on the old Rosa
Lee that was runnin' north from Vicks-
burg sometime in the 50s. that come near
bein one o the worst mix ups ever. There
was two gamblers that useter work together
good bit off an on, though they wasn't
best o friends at that, an they come on
together when We started out. Cal Hooper
an Jack Denton they called themselves
an that maybe was their real names.
Maybe 'twa mt, but it don't make no diff
ference.
Hooper was a halfway decent feller,
as gamblers goes, but l hadn't never no
use for Jack Denton. He was one O. those
we're men that pears to be onsatisfied 10
set still an let trouble hunt for EN-, an
is goin round iookin' for e1try work with
trouble that amt no ways necessary. He
were a fighter. O. course. They was all
fighters, But he peared to fight more for
the love Of it than cause he had to.
"There was another feer come aboard
that same night that | knowed by sight
an had knowed ever since he useter travel
onct in while with his pa. The old man
were a cotton planter named De- Barry
that had place back o Vicksburg I they
said was one o the finest pieces O. land in
the State. He were richer'n anybody
cd count. an this young feller Henri was
the apple Of his eye. He took him along
every time he went 20 New Orleans, which
was always onct year, an sometimes
OIleneT hn lIle klu Always nau MS own
nigger an was KEEP like royal prince.
He were a decent eort O. a chap, too
on'y for bein' as wild as hawk, as was
natural enough, seein' the way he was
brought up, The old man give him every
thing he wanted, but he made the youngster
study an had sent him TO college some
where's up North, where ned been for
couple o. years.
This time 'peared he'd been home for
vacation an had brung two Of his pals
from the college down with him for visit.
They'd had their playtime. all right, an
was goin' back 10 college together when
the three on EN- got on the boat. | didn'
take no notice o the other two AZ first, but
towards night | seen EN- walkin' up an
down together on the deck, an seen that
one on EN- was a pale, delicate-lookin'
youngster t didn't pear to be more'n
20 years old an undersized at that. but
the other we're a big, strappin' chap as
good -lookin an as powerful-huilt az De
Barry hisself, an he were called one o
the finest-built men in the State. The
pale chaps name heer'd after was Harper.
an the other Teller was named Green.
Just naturally Denton an Hooper had
their eyes on these three. More'n likely
they'd come aboard on the chanst o gettin'
'cm 10 play, for De Barry was sure to have
money with him, an more'n that, he was
good for any amount. an they knowed
it we'll enough, O. course, There want no
tellin' about the other two, for nobody
round knowed anything about them.
ceptin' t they was friends o De Barry's;
but that was enough for any gambler on
the river to know, providin' they set into
the same game with De Barry.
An that's just what they did after
supper the first night l don't p'tend
to say how twas t they come to play with
two p'fessionals, on'y that was a thing a
good many men did them times that had
ought for TO knowed better. an these three
was hardly more'n boys, an more'n that,
they was on vacation an just naturally
ready for most any sort o. deviltry. Any
way, the five on 'em had the cards an
chips az soon as the niggers had cleared
away the supper, an they started in the
old-fashioned no-limit game
Draw power was a new game then.
That is, the draw was new. o. course,
poker had been played as long as 1 en-
remember. but It was the old-fashioned
game that was called bluff oftenr'n twas
poker. But when somebody introduced
the draw it spread like wildfire, an 'twa'n't
no time at all afore everybody was playin
il, They didn't play straights, though. an
o. course, the straight flush hadn't been
heer'd Of, 40 four aces was the highest
hand that then was
90 course, / knowed we'll enough what
was likely to happen, for Hooper an Denton