The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-09
finish OF THE .'- ....-
L WOMAN GAMBLER.
Kate Cars Last Game in the Days
of the Decline of Poker ON
the Mississippi.

AOne thing that sometimes seems bit
surprisin' about don's on the river" said
Caleb Mix, the veteran bartender on the
Mississippi River packet City Of Natchez,
pears to be that their hain't no women
gamblers on the boats.
"Mebbe 'talnt surprisin' that there amt
none on em now, cause there's mighty
few professionals travels the river reg lar,
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 IL they tried to start EN-, so they
don't try. What poker is played Ia mostly
pikin' games, that's played for fun, just t o
pass away the time, an there's no big money
in EN-.
But what mean is, it seems ur'ous
like, that when there was big money to be
made the women didn't 60 after it-least-
ways on the boats. You needn't tell me it
was cause there war'nt no good women
poker players. I've saw women that cd
play as good game as any man ever seen
shuttle deck.
An 1t want cause they want mean
enough to be professionals. tell you
when woman does so wrong, she's heap
sight meaner'n any man you'll find in a
month O Sundays, even among professional
gamblers, an reckon that's about as good
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 good many of EN-, same as
they say there is now, never used 10 travel
the river to play l don't call to mind but
one Of EN- that ever set into a game,
thoughten twas once in way, perhaps.
You mought see Some woman play once,
maybe once In couple O years, but you d
never see her again. It'd only be for lark
maybe. cause she happened to be on the
boat when somebody 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 o the Mississippi River
poker was played. Things want settled
like an there was a big game on some
times.
WANT like the old time, even then,
f'r you wouldn't see no rich planters 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 travellin' with wads, that YOU
wouldn't count on, an sometimes they'd
play, SO the gamblers was still round.
Feared like this woman, Kate Carr
she called herself, had been quite some
of character in the war, bein' reckless
devil that hadn't no people Of her own
ia lxy Ena IL 4
hot rebel. like the Southern women mostly
was. Seems she were spy, now an again,
an had listed twice an been discharged
when they found she were a woman.
Anyway she'd been in camp consid able
an they said she learned to play poker on
blanket. An say, some o the best poker
playin' that was ever did. was done over
over an old army blanket spread on the
ground
-She were tall, fine lookin' woman tina,
looked like she'd ha' made a tolable fair
soldier if she'd been logged out in uniform
but never seen her on'y in women's clo'es
an there want nothin' special about her &c
make you suspicion her o. playin' no such
pranks, 'thouten it were wicked lookin
eye, an quick, free way o. movin', that
somehow didn't pear TO be quite like a
woman, bein too spry. But she were a
woman all right. an talked an acted like
one, on'y for one thing
That were, that there want no sign o.
her havin' any Use for men folks, on'y for
to talk with same as man d talk never
heer'd o her havin' 10 filtration with any
body nor putin UP with nobody's non
SENSE.
They was some o. the men, mostly gam
blers their own selves, that would ha
liked well enough TO tie up with her, but
none on EN- ever made out. She were good
friends with EN-, an she had pals now
an again, in the game, but that was all the
far IL ever went.
Feared she didn't have no regular
home, but she Used to go to an from Mem
phis, a good bit. Mostly she'd get on the
boat there an 60 South, or she'd get on
somewhere down the river an 20 up as
far as Memphis.
An she didn't travel regular, but she'd
make, mebbe, half dozen trips a year.
| were on the old River Belle then, an
she 'peared to like that particular boat best
of any on EN-, so | seen quite lot of her
first an last
odd man Hopper, that was cap'n o. the
River Belle then, he peared to be all struck
Of heap, the first time he seen her playin
cards In the saloon, an he sent niger 70
her to ask her to step up in his Office for a
minute. The Niger he give his message
very quiet an respectful an she left the
table prompt. but after about half an hour
she come back an took her seat
Nobody ever knowed rightly what they
said to one another, but FIN what the can n
let drop, to me onct or twicst l reckon
she must ha' talked about her experience
in the army, The old man had been a
rebel soldier bis ownsef an likely he'd had
"a soft bpra for fhatn hat 10
on his side, Anyway, nobody never in
teriered with Ter playin on the River Belle
after that.
AN how sho could play She reared
to arays have a good-si2cd wad with her
an they said if she was broke there was
al0ys some professional ready to stake
her to set in at the same game he were
payin' in,
She were too shrewd to play steady
with any one on EN-, so she never got ia
be known a. nohodys side partner, but
she were on To all the wrinkles in the game
I'm shuttle TO showdown, an the Teller
that set in with her want likely TO lose
EOth!n il there was any suckers in the
game.
"But after all, il were one O. them tenn
porary partnerships o hern that led to her
for a matter o four or five years
"Peared like she'd played, onct or
twice with Teller named jackson, that
come I'm Vicksburg, an was reckoned n
square man, AZ gamblers goes That it,
he want never expected to 20 back on n
pal in game, nor to hold out when it come
to the divvy. | reckon the way he got the
name vast ne hPdr't never been caught.
We'll, as said, he played with her mebL q
two or three times in the course of two or
three years, an there hadn't been no trou-
BILE atWeen EN- that ANYBODY kuowed on