The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-09
DIDN'T KNOW HE
WAS PLUNGING
HOW A THRILLING MISTAKE MADE
MONEY FOR DINNY.
Paretic No. 5 Tells of an Instance OF
the Caprice of the Providence
Which Looks After Children, Fools
and Americans-Beatin the Crap
Game.

'.They say there's Providence for
children, fools and Americans, salo
Paretic No. 5, at the weekly session OF
the Paresis club, "but the experience
of a friend of mine takes the pun. a dnis
fellow was retired baseball player
who had opened up a billiard room IN
a little town about hundred miles
from Chicago. He was doing pretty
good business, but insteadIof. planting
his coin where he would have IL Wnen
it was needed, he blew it In as fast as
he got it, and never made anything
more than his bare living.
ut went all right for about a year,
and then the billiard house he had
bought his tables from, came down on
him for the final payment, and he
didn't have the long green. So they
put the sheriff in charge Of his place,
and Dinny started for Chicago to get
drunk and forget about it.
.'Dinny had about sixty cases he had
saved out Of the wreck, and he was
going to make things hum while 1t
| lasted. Ere long he had acquired
bun that was fearful and wonderful
to look at, and by the second day his
roll was getting pretty slim, but his
| thirst for booze and diversion was un-
abated. Along in the second evening
he fetched UP in the tigers den.
Craps were one of Dinny's weaknesses
and he buckled up against the long
1 table right away and called for set
Of bones. He fished coin out of his
jeans and threw 1t over, saying Shoot
the bill
Nov Dinny supposed it was a silver
dollar he was playing, but after two
days and a night dallying with John
Barleycorn, his lamps weren't working
as clear as they might have been. AS
matter of fact it was a $40 gold
piece, and represented the last of the
billiard room, except for a little loose
change. Dinny started off with a nat
ural seven, and let the whole thing
ride. Then he got four, about the
hardest number on the dice, but the
, luck was with him and he brought up
a pair of deuces ALMOST the next roll.
.'Dinny was a man that would al
ways stay by good luck, and he let the
eighty bucks ride again and got eleven
leaving an even hundred and sixty UP
: on the board. Then the benighted
: idiot let it ride again and got another
l natural and there was 800 up.
"Dinny was for letting it ride yet
Y but the house couldn't see it that way
4 and politely requested him to pinch
). 'Wot tells the matter? growled Din
: ny. Can't man play SIG in this
e cheap house if he wants to-
Q Sure thing says the house man
y but you can't play 500. You've 60
}
S 'Dinny was SO drunk he hadn't no
ticed till then how strong he was play
=. ing, tho he had gallery of forty O
t, fifty people around watching hin
/ plunge. This sort of sobered him UP
e and when he got it thru his nut h
!. began to figure. He only needed some
n thing over 500 to get the billiard roor
y out Of hook, and he had pretty nea
IT half that in front of him. What's tn
l. limit then? he said finally.
n "'Can't let you go over 200, start
l. ing with twenty said the house. I toll
lie you Dinny was no piker. He left u
70 zoo, and threw craps. Then he pu
ID up the hundred and twenty, git 81
l. for his point, and turned up a five an
in an ace the next roll, leaving him "a
m cases. He left two centuries up an
then hope I may never take anothe
u drink if he didn't get five naturals on
le after the other, 200 up every time.
fe II happened to come in about TIL
he time. I knew just how Dinny wa
is fixed, and I could see he wanted
III guardian. I counted his chips an
ty found he had s1,44O after the fit
IN natural. He got nine for his point O
h. the next pass, and made it, then h
DIS shot craps.
rs About this time figured his luc
Of was due to change, and I passed owe
a his checks and told the house to cas-
IN in. Dinny kicked bit, and the hous
a cappers roared at me for butting il
is but l stood pat, and when they trie
IN to jump on me, Dinny got the hume
I'D thru the haze in his attic that I VIZ
es right, SO he let me take his roll an
escort him to a Turkish bath. p,
en- him on the train for home with h
e 1,40O the next day, and the billiar
ms room is still running, thanks to tt
ny caprice Of fortune and Dinny's n,
ng knowing a twenty from silver do
nd lar