The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-30
"SLICK JIM" MADE
 4 DEAL IN FARO House Played Him for an Easy
 Mark : TORY OF THE GREENCl0IR How oonsumptive Stranger Made the Gamblers of Virginia City, Nev. Open Their Eyes and Then
 Left Town.
TORY OF THE GREENCLOTH

scYou may say what you please about luck" remarked the Old Sport as he mechanically brushed the ashes from his cigar, says the Kansas City Star but in these days man has to be dead game to win out at anything.
 glhare's a heap of philosophy in gam hlina, after all" he continued, 'and II so,no of these sky pilots would analyze the situation with greater degree u eccrrsoy they would be able to pan out more gtnuine human interest from the ule of one knight of the green cioth than from the careers of puhch ol ,hose fellows that are so eternally good and holy that they have to look cross eyed n heaven for fear of eontamlna'- Ing their bis.
 ssWbilc I was still in the salad age went up to Virginia City, Nev', on pusi- ness for a California law firm during oo- manga times, when money was so m formally plentiful that person was in actual need to devise ways and means of getting rid of the surplus. You must pardon me for digressing. but whenever I get to mining for the golden thoughts supposed to be stored up in my mlnd l am always obliged to do considerable drifting before 1 strike the ledge
 .ione day a sickly looking individual fioated into camp and put up at the In ternational, the swell hashery there at that time-or since, either for that mat ter. as the town has now gone to the bow-wows.
 .I was stopping there too and was Just about the proper age to imagine that the municipality had made a serious mistake by running that long without me
 ''Tbe stranger and I were placed at the same table, and he soon impressed me as being most agreeable acqualntahee' and, besides. l entertained considerable sympathy for him on account oi ms all men, as he was evidently suffering from the last stages of consumption. He was cultured to a high degree, and our tastes were similar in many respects
 Liked the Theatre.
 T knew all the newspaper fellows, ln- cludng Sam Davis of the Territorial En- terprise. upon which Mark Twain made his initial reputation as d writer, ana conseouently has the run of Piper's opera house. where all the big actors and ac- torines held forth whenever they came out way My ailing friend was fond oi inc show too, and almost every night that any thing was doing at the theater YOU could find us both up in the pald- headed row.
 Barrett were playing something or other and after the performance he invited me to oysters While returning to the hotel we passed by a gilded palace of gambling on c street and he suggested that we en- ter and look around. Oh. they had some dandy institutions of the kind there then nothing like them since in the way o' splendor. barring Monte Carlo. We tooH seats at faro table where the play was rolling high and I staked a few dollars and won. but presently become absorb ed In the operations of my companion tt sueb an extent tlfat l lost all further in terest In betting.
 ..IIe was shootng at the moon all right and as roll after roll disappeared iron his pile l thought he had gone. bughous' over the Vaccinations of the game. H' was cleaned out completely soon aftei midnight. and as he rose with sigh could see a come-again expression on al their faces
 T turned missionary right off and lee tured him good and hard all the wa, home on the evils of gamblin-particular ly when you did the sucker act like that He didn't have much to say. except tha his losses were a mere trifie. a bagatell' Of couple of thousand, or such mat ter. as he put It. We'll the newspaper got hold of the story and told about { sick consumptive from Cheyenne who hat run up against stiff game and dropped his wad. and made all sorts of fun ovel the affair even to magnifying thu amount beyond measure.
 Tried to Disuade Him.
 "I was as sore as sixty for several req sons. and n night or so later after we hat repeated our programme of going to thu theatcr and then having oysters, l triet to dissuade him from again entering thu place where he had run up against sucl q hard string of luck He was obdurate however. and seated himself at the sam table, while I did the wallnower act Glad to see hime We'll I guess yes.
 1T think we must have remained ther until about 3 o'clock in the morning when the proprietor of the house an nounced that the game would have t come to a close by reason of the fact tha the assets of the place were In front O the sick stranger, who was coughing SoO worth of chips with each bronchial clat ter.
 "They brought out an old fashone' carpet sack and we dumped everything gold, silver and paper money. besides few checks-into this receptacle. l help ed him down to the hotel with 1t an' when he got mp to his room he sprea' everything out on the bed, and we thel knew he was nearly s6000o winner on tn night
 s'rhe next day the papers were all talk tnx ahont something else. and as I wen cn T 70 she train that night to bid hin ro... .nr h.. leaned over and whispered l. ine in sort of graveyard tone: If vol vii give up reading law and go with m to Bodie or some other place where cal get rid of this d~-d cough l will teach vol how to make a fortune In cards
 aTt was Slim Jim. the greatest far p,.ys- that ever lived or dled'