The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-11-18
! (Kansas Citv JournaID


1t was no unusual thing for game
of poker TO be started in Sans bar
room, in Brownsville Neither was it
unprecedented for some untoward cir
cumstance to prevent a peaceful ter
animation of the game It was not that
homicide was habitual. The citizens
of Brownsville were mostly of hardy
sort, and even the most strenuous at
tempts to kill some of them had often
proved unsuccessful. Gallagher, for in
stance, had evaded several of Long
Mixes best efforts in that direction.
Long Mike was not really murder
Gus by instinct 1t was only when he
lad in him what Stumpy called the
glory o. the dhrink" that he would
sometimes find his foreman's presence
on the same planet altogether insup-
portable. And Gallagher was at times
certainly aggravating.
1t was, therefore, entirely without
surprise that the players who sat
around the battered old table one even
ing in the late summer time beheld
Long Mike rise from his chair, having
first reached across and seized Gal
lagher by the throat.
Having seized him thus, and having
dragged him up from his seat, the big
man fastened the grip of his left hand
also on the slack of Gallagher's trOus-
ers and threw him bodily through the
open window. Then, resUming his seat,
he picked up his cards and raised Hen
messy 81.
The game had been somewhat excit-
ing even before that, more on accoun.
of the way it was played than because
of the money at stake. There was bad
blood between Hennessy and Stumpy,
III "a 10
habit Of laying the blame for his own
misdeeds on other people. When one
of Long Mikes mules, and the best one
he had at that. was found to be Suf-
fering from 4 bruised back, Hennessy
had declared that he saw Stumpy kick
the mule. But Long Mihe was dis
corning and wary.
"Av IL was amy wan but you" he
said to Hennessy, "belike I moight be-
lave yez. But yer always a liar, an
Stumpy kicks no mules. Av we said
Stumpy's red-headed. and that mule
hates red. Dim thinkin' more likely
twas you. Stumpy growis, an ne may
bite, but he niver kicks On'y when he
loses at poker"
Then the one-eyed man, who was Of
ten maleVOlent had told Stumpy that
Peter had snarled at Hennessy and
that Hennessy had kicked him. Peter
was Stumpy's dog, and Stumpy loved
him much.
Mccarthy contributed. No man had
ever seen Mccarthy win out at draw
poker but it was well understood that
nothing short of conclusion of the brain
would keep him out of a game, and Il
was also known that even if he could
not play decently well he had the eye
of a hawk and could deceit the tricks
of other people with rare ability. And
Mccarthy hal expressed his doubts as
to the One-eyed man, and the one-eyed
man knew il.
Then, as was said. trouble was al
ways likely 20 break out between Cal
'lagher and Long Mike. Wherefore it
was not a wholly harmonious group
that had gathered to DO battle with Bull
Hopkins, a recent arriV al in Browns
vile. Hopkins was a crossroads gam
bier. whose nickname came from his
sturdy figure and his reported pTowess
as a fighter.
They had played table stakes, each
man producing 500 at the start but for
the first half nOur they had all played
carefully. even Mccarthy having re-
Trained from stalking his whole pile
when he caught pat flush. His usual
procedure was TO go broke on his first
good hand, or by precipitate betting.
to brighten everybody else out of the
pot but this time he restrained himself
and gathered in So.
His success did not dim his eyes. and
when the one-eyed man picked up the
deck TO deal. after offering it to StumDy
for the cut, Mccarthy suddenly de-
manded the privilege of cutting. 1t was
unusual, as ne sat opposite the One-eyed
man. but he was clearly within his
rights. and nothing would have been
said if he had not thought il worth
while 10 explain himself.
Sometimes it's good for to cut three