St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-07-15
REVELATIONS BY
An EX-sPEAKER
INSIDE HISTORY OF A STATE
LEGISLATURE BY ONE
WHO KNOWS.

How Bride Money Is Transferred to
Purchased Legislators in Poker
Games-The Betting Ingredient
A "stake-Holder" Who Decamped
A Lobbyists Clever Betting
Manoeuver-An Envelope Deliv-
cred to Wrong Party - Few
"Squealers."
By AN Ex-sPEAKER OF THE STATE
LEGISLATURE.
Copyright. 1905. by Joseph 3. BowIes)
The great American game of poker
has been used more than once to
safely" pay for votes in legislature
There are "grafters" in a general as
sembly who are over-sensitive as to
the manner in which the Doodle is
to be slipped" to them. This nicely
Is due to their cowardice. 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 11n of "boodlers,'
when they have sold their votes, get
their money, and they don't care how
they get it so it is handed them
with no outsiders" to witness the
transfer, and with no bills marked.
Some of them stipulate that the money
must be in the shape of small bills,
as the possession of new, crinkly
hundreddollar notes might awaken
awkward suspicious. But there are
some boodlers who think that dead
walls have eyes and bare floors have
ears. So to meet their needs the
method of paying brides over q poker
table was invented.
Time hangs neavy on the hands Of
most members of legislature. To
speed the slow hours the members
play cards, and so it happens that in
every state capital, when the legis-
lature is in 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. It was while watch
ing one of the high games that saw
h,1v1roS 1N1 vi J,f n6
without even suspicion of the
transaction until toward the last of
the game, and then l could not have
sworn that I hae seen anything but
an ordinary game of draw poker in
which large stakes were played.
The game was one of a dozen rum
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 concealment; the
bell boy was called in at frequent in
tervals to fetch cigars or drinks, men
dropped in, watched the game for
lew 14OACAIS SlAA lV1ls i SAT Al tAO
room behind the attorney for an hour,
looking on Nothing occurred to ex-
cite my suspicion at first. While l
knew the yellow chips were worth a
hundred dollars each and blue ones
were worth $50, l saw nothing out
of the way, for such stakes were not
rare and for al knew to the con-
trary the players were abrndantly
able to make large bets on their
hands,
noticed first that 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 he was losing. Then / noticed
that the other players did not seem
70 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 kind or bet
ter were shown, and such hand hav-
ing been called and 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 knuckles 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, 'I'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 l 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" 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: We'll,
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-"
said the lawyer and pushed his kings