The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-23
QUEER GAMES ARE INVENTED
BY MEN WHO WANT TO BET

M BUNCH of those wayfaring gen
A\ tlemen who carry the banners" :"
or more properly speaking, the
sample cases of the wholesale busi-
ness throughout the land. were It'd
ing over a very dull Sunday in an
alleged hotel at an Iowa junction
A bunch Of those wayfaring gentlemen
who carry the banners or more prop
erly speaking, the sample cases of the
wholesale business throughout the land,
were tiding over very dull Sunday in
an alleged hotel at an Iowa junction
point. Ranged around the big sheet iron
stove they had told stories with scenes
laid in every corner of the country, and
had completed a verbal catalogue of ho-
tells to be avoided covering practically the
same territory. Late in the afternoon
the stock of stories running low, hard
ware salesman shifted his chair and sigh
ed reminiscently:
1.-The funniest gambling game 1 ever
sat in,' he said, was in San Antonio
Texas. There We're cockroaches in the
hotel, and three of us sat up all night
herding reaches. We drew three squares
on the writing table one for each man,
Hut a quarter in each square, and then
flnted up cockroach. Wasn't hard
3unting either. After we'd gotten the
brute on the table the man who got him
won S47 that night, but it was harder
than herding jack rabbits You could
point your finger at roach, but you
Souldnt touch him."
nave been in some queer betting
games, said the harness salesman.
''Jopiin, Mo-, is the hottest town on the
wager proposition. If we were in Joplin
now we wouldn't be trying to prop up a
rlckety stove by sitting around it, No
Wa ho tha
ing 'passer-by parchesi' You play It with
a parchesi board or else count to 100.
Every white man who passes counts one.
Every black man sets you back one.
Ieams count 4, dogs 5, cats 10. One
man counts all going to the right, the
other counts those going to the left. If
you don't think 1t is exciting try 1T. 1
lost game, once after got to ninety
because colored funeral came my way"
AS to Files and Roulette
Last summer 1 found a use for flies,
drat EN-" broke in a st. Louis man,
Dess Moines betting on fly paper we'd
divide a sheet of fly paper into four
squares, and the man who got ten flies
on ms sheet first took the pot On a
good fly day this is furious sport We
almost bought out Des Moines on fly
paper that day. If you want to know
persuade one of the pesky things to light
on your sheet of fly paper in a game like
thls. He'll waltz all around the edges of
it. and daub his feet into it, Then he'll
cock up his head as if he was leering at
you, and go plump himself into your
nIeighbors sheet clear up to his gambrels
turned afes down man bv FEEL pretty cheap to be
The funniest game of roulette I ever
proke into was in Council Bluffs, Ia"
SAID the man who sold implements. In
q ha!f score of mice and a revolving
disc in it. Every little while a mouse
climbs up on that disc and whirls it
until the centrifugal force throws him off.
Bless me If the loafers in that store
hadnt painted six divisions on the disc,
put marker at the top, and were putting
in the town week and the game ran
pretty steadily all that time"
Inc conversation by this time was
pretty firmly fastened on the subject of
queer bets, and 1t became more or less
OF an experience meeting. A number of
the crowd confessed to laying pools on
Texas man admitted that making a pool
on the next days temperature was a fa-
Vorlte occupation down there, and that
the weather man could be approached
Betting on street car numbers was com
mon. Kansas City man declared that
me members of the board of trade I'm that
breezy city made wheels of fortune out
or the electric fans, and played them as
earnestly as they played the market A
burlington, Ia, railroad man who was
In the circle, claimed that when he was
a conductor on a freight run It was
favorite pastime to bet on how many
fingers and thumbs the next man who en-
tered the pool would have, and that ten
didn't win very often either "Times
nave changed" he said sadly And
that bet is no good any more The
safety coupler is a great finger saver"
The Quiet Man From OskaIoosa
It remained for a quiet man from Oska-
loosa to tell the prize story. Twenty
years ago.. he said, "I was COW
ering Utah. with a partner and
q Photographic outfit. We used to go
from house to house in the country and
take pictures of the families. Those were
the days of big broods, too. Even now
adays, If you get far enough into the coun-
try out there you can find five or ten low
ing wives to the family, but Lord, that
wasn't nothing in those days.
Many time I've seen forty in a group
and I've photographed as high as fifteen
wives. with the head of the herd in the
middle, and looking proud. too But
speaking of wives reminds me of what l
was going to say. Regularly between
houses my partner and 1 used to bet
on how many wives we would have to
squeeze onto the plate at the next house
We had cinch on counting en- you see.
Tor they all turned out, and we made a
point of grouping the wives about the