The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-09-02
A GAME OF SEVEN UP.
The Luck of q New Orleans Player
That Caused Him TO "Swear on"
From Cards.

a century since i tOucne0 a caro-,
though in my youth the fascination of
play was so great that nearly my
whole time was passed that way" aid
Mr.. r. Z. Lestrange, OF New Orleans,
at the Riggs House. AT times I had
been very lucky and occasionally made
heavy winnings. Then there came a
period, which has happened in the life
OF all who court tickle fortune, when it
seemed impossible for me to get into
a game without losing. 1 lost all my
ready cash. a productive and we'll
stocked farm, .jewelry, and every ar
ticle of personal belonging that
could be converted into money, in
all. about $40. 900, and when this had
been wiped out I felt the suicidal i'm
pulse pretty strongly. I might indee
have succumbed to 1t, but / was young
and healthy and naturally OF buoyant
spirits.
I'm thsoe days n of the great
games of h southern country was
seven-up. and the people played 1t for
higher stakes, / imagine, han they do
now. One day when my fortunes
seemed at their lowest ebb / met a rich
young sugar planter with whom I had
often played, and who really loved the
excitement of the sport more than he
did the money he might win. In ali
our previous play. as I remember, he
and 1 a about broken even. What
he won from me at n sitting I gem
orally recovered the next, and vice
versa.
Though I am sure we had beer at
1t for five or six years, and never
missed d session whenever he came to
n city, 1 don't suppose there was
$500 difference in all that time. We
generally began playing for $40 per
game and often wound up by stalking
800 on. the result. This day he chal-
lQn ora6 n n @ xrcyroI
go with him to his room in the old st.
Charles Hotel to play. He hadn't the
remotest idea of my Strengthened fl
nancial condition, for I still wore as
expensive clothes as i'm my fushest
days. Instinctively I felt in my pocket
and my hand came in contact with a
solitary note; it was a SO bill, and all
the money / had on earth. Some
tnlng whispered to me 10 go ahead and
play my planter friend. but prudence
said: Better make an excuse, for is he
wins the first game, you will be broke.
ana IL Will be humiliating 10 confess
your impoverished condition. Be-
sldes, ne was a good player as I, and
remembered bad fortune attend
ed me.
We'll, to cut short, I deied prudence
and went with him. If I had been the
possessor of the Bank of England T
would not have wanted any greater
capital than the lone $40 in my pocket.
me hrst game l won and many sue
ceedlng ones. and at the end of two
hours play my opponent owed me 50. 600.
Then he smilingly proposed to play Just
one more game. which would decide
whether he would pay me 1000 or
nothing. In other words, he wanted a.
chance to get even On this one game or
else to double his Indebtedness. / knew
MS check was good for a great deal
4 mora than II mn on 80
was. the $4,000 1 had won seemed like a
million, and it looked criminal to risk
IL on q single game. Again something
told me to play him and 1 consented.
! I'm the first two deals he. made 6
points while l had but l, and in my
heart L was already cursing my folly,
for such odds are not beaten once i'm
a thousand times. While he thus lack
ed but 1 point of winning, it was my
turn to deal. which mad it even worse
for me. / turned a club, and my oppo-
nent led out the king of that suit
promptly, upon which 1 played the ace.
! He also held the trey, but to his great
changrin l had the deuce AS a result
1 scored 8 points, making my total 4,
while he got nothing. 1t was now his
time to deal, and again clubs were
trumps. Scanning my hand, 1 saw it
contained the jack n four, and I
! promptly played. The planters hand
contained not a single trump and so
the gane went to me, nor did he ask
for any further continuance. saying
he would be revenged at some future
time.
with the $4,000 L thus acquired. I
shook off the dust of the Crescent City,
took a solemn VOW never to play a
card again for money-a vow still un-
broken-and going West went into
mining in Colorado, where 1 met with
success. But 1 often wonder what
would nave become of me if I hadn't
Won that final me."-Washington
| Post.
Greatest Newspaper Paragraphist.
The foremost and possibly the first
newspaper paragraphs was George
D. Prentice. editor of the Louisville
Journal, now The Courier-Journal. His
political ability, wit and satire were
unequaled. Whenever Henry Waiter
son has something extraordinarily
brigh, in his paper you may safely
wager your salvation that the relict
of the Star-eyed Goddess of Reform
has been glancing through Prentice
ana" or the files of The Journal. Prem
tice coud write a score of fifty bright
s~cintillating, cutting, biting. singing
paragraphs one after the other on the
same subject and never repeat an idea.
Prentice dictated his editorials while
shuffling over the floor in his slipshod
way, calling out the punctuation
marks as he e along. There were
no heads on his articles. All began
with the familiar typographical fist,
he index finger pointing to the first
line. Here is an editorial on George
Francis Train, as dictated.
(FfsD-A locomotive that has run of
the track (comma) turned upside down
(cCmma) with the buried
in a stump and the wheels making a
thousand revolutions a minus (fui
stop. A kite in the air that has lost
its tail(dash)a human novel without
a hero (dash) a man who climbs a tree
after a birds nest Out on a limb (com.
MAJ and in order TO get 1t saws the
limb OFF between himself and the tree
GulD stop. a ship without a rudda:
(dash) a clock without hands (dash)
a sermon without a text (dash) a pan
tomine of words (dash) an arrow sh5i
into the air (dashl the a~potheoSis OF