The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-07-08


"squea1ers."
BIZ AN SPEAKER OF THE STATE
LEGISLATURE.
Copyright. 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
The great American game OF poker
has been used more than oaee to
safely pay for votes in a legislature.
There are 'sgrafters" in general as
sembly who are over-sensitiva as to
the manner in which the doodle" is
to be slipped" to them This nicely
is due to their eowardice. They are
not afraid or ashamed to commit a
great crime, but are afraid of being
found out. They stand willing to sell
their votes. but their tender con-
sciences will not permit them to take
the cold cash in an ordinary way.
To meet such qualms the agent of the
vote buyer sometimes is forced to
adopt methods which. to the unthink-
ing, may seem entirely unnecessary.
The general Ian of 'tboodlers,
when they have sold their votes, get
their money, and tIev don't care how
they get it 50 it is handed them
with no outsiders" to witness the
transfer, and with no bills marked.
Some of them stipEIate that the money
must be in the shape Of small bills,
as the possession of new, erinkly
hDndred-doIlar notes might awaken
some boodlers who think that dead
walls have eyes and bare floors have
ears. So to meet their needs the
method of paying bribes over q poker
table was invented.
Time hangs neavy on the hands of
speed the slow hours the members.
play cards. and SO it happens that in
every state capital, when the legis-
lature is II session, there are numer-
GUS poker games running. Some Of
them are little penny ante. nickel
limit games and in some the ceiling
alone limits the height to which the
pot may reach 1t was while watch
ing one Of the high games that. / saw
several hundred dollars distributed
without even a suspicion Of the
transaction until toward the last Of
the game, and then I could not have
sworn that I had seen anything but
an ordinary game Of draw poker in
which large stakes were played.
The game was one of a dozen run
ming in the hotel that evening; the
players were four members of the
house and an attorney who represent
ed large corporate interests. No at
tempt was made at eeneealment, the
bell boy was called il at frequent in
tervals to fetch cigars or drinks, men
dropped in, watched the game for a
few moments and left. I sat in the
room behind the attorney for an hour,
looking on. Nothing occurred to ex-
cite my suspicion at first. While I
knew the yellow chips were worth a
hundred dollars each and blue ones
were worth $50, / saw nothing out
of the way, for such stakes were not
rare and for al knew to the con-
trary the players were abpndantly
able to make large bets On their
hands.
7 noticed first shat the attorney was
a steady loser. He would gather in a
small pot occasionally, but lost every
jack pot and the jack pos were good
fat ones, but as the attorney. was
banker it was difficult to say how
much be was losing. Then / noticed
that the other players did not seem
20 win from each other The attor-
ney came into every hand; he stayed
with every jack pot.
The rule of the game called for a
jack pot when three of a kind or bet
ter were shown, and such a hand hay-
ing been called ard shown the next
deal meant a jack pot. l saw the
cards in the attorneys hand. He
was dealt three kings, an ace and a
queen. He gently raped the table
with his knuekles and said: 81 can't
open it," when, as any poker player
knows, he had a hand which has
opened countless jack pots, The man
to his left opened the pot by tossing
a yellow chip on the table. The other
members laid down, but the attorney,
saying, sI'll come in, but what's the
use; | can't win anything" threw
a yellow chip into the pot and called
for one card. Maybe can fill a
belly straight he said, with a laugh.
He caught another ace He held
kings full on aces and | said to my
self: He'll rake in that pot sure this
time I grinned to myself when the
| lawmaker stacked up five yellow boys
and pushed them to the center. /
could just see those chips coming
toward the lawyer. He looked at his
| hand a minute; then, saying: sWeIl.
I'll see what you have, showed $500
worth Of chips into the pot. The
legislator threw bis hand down and
showed he had made his bluff on two
little pair. THAT'S too big for me. y
said the lawyer and pushed his kings
full-on-aees into the discards. while
the house member gleefully pulled all
the chips to himself.
For moment I thought the lawyer
had taken too many high balls. Then
all in flash I saw through the
scheme. He was deliberately losing
to the members CT the lower house,
and but one inference could be drawn
he was Cutting a melon left
the room and later in the evening
meeting the attorney, he said: THE
boys eombed me good and proper, but
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