The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-27
GAMBLERS


| relatives got hold of him last tall and
put him III a rum cure institution,
| hadn't, on his own admission. been
quite sober for eight years lost s42, 600
| to the shark in the course of the voy-
Iage
AT he beginning of that costly trip
he met in the smoking room clever,
| engaging sort of chap of thirty five
or SO for whom he conceived a great
liking. This fellow pretended to De a
| gentleman writer and said that he
was going out to Manchuria for the
purpose of doing some writing for a
magazine. Not only that, but he ex-
hibited some fine-reading credentials,
which We're no doubt forged.
| This shark had not made any pre-
| vious trip on any of the boats of that
line. 1t afterward came out, however,
that he had been the head clerk of Il
ST. Louis hotel during the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition and that he had
| been incontinently fired from that job
owing to his penchant for seducing
foreign tourists into seances a the
game of draw.
Zone of the men he f1eeced at the
| St. Louis hotel by the way,
| wealthy German with a title of no.
bility. The German nobleman wrote u
| book about the United States wnen y
returned to his home and some pages
Of the book were devo.ed TO IA
gaging account of how he had learned
| the American game of poker in st.
| Louis. The German, at the time he
wrote the book did not seem to be
aware that he had been done
The dissolute young chap from Los
Angeles and the shark were at cards
10
hama bound steamer, and, for half the
trip down to Honolulu the shark was
content to pose as heavy loser,
which, in fact, he was. He mad con-
descendingly allowed the rapid and be-
fuddled young man at the other side of
the tablet was a two-hand game
throughout-to win thousands from
him during the first three days.
AS the young Los Angeles cnap had
always been steady and prodigious
loser at every game of chance, includ-
ing horse racing. he was naturally
flushed with delight over his winnings,
and those who listened to it told me
that his hraggadocio was something
painful in view of what came later.
On the fourth day out. and a day and
a half from Honolulu. he began rapid
~ to lose his winnings. Before night
fall that day he was $4,000 in the hole,
and he was scribbling checks on his
Honolulu banker as if they were twen-
ty-five cent message scraps of paper.
The crafty shark, feeling that he had
enough for one trip, and perha
some doubt as to whether the checks
were right or not, advised the Los
Angeles man to abandon the game at
that stage of it.
8 I can't, of course quit myself, now
that I'm into you so deep said the
shark, but I'd advise you to chuck it
now. I didn't mean to get into this
thing so heavily-contrary to my Gus
tom, L assure YOU
Wen play on till we fetch Dia-
mond Head doggedly replied the Los
Angeles youth, referring to the PROM
ontory which announces a steamers
nearness to Honolulu.
''Then some of the other passengers
got around the imbecile young chap.
Are you acquainted with the man
you're playing with one of them ask
ed the Los Angeles victim.
No, I'm not-neither do l know
YOU he replied. 1 don't care a damn
whether he's all right or not; he can't
play any better cards than / can. I'd
take it kindly if you'd mind your own
blazing business.
There was nothing. of course, to be
done with fellow who talked n this
ia shion. and he was permitted 10 =
his way without any further expostula-
ton on the part of his fellow Voyag-
ers, some of whom solid business men
of San Francisco, had known the young
; mans father
THE young man quit the game only
iotn
lulu harbor. He was then $4,000 to the
bad.
Tn sorry to've dug so deep into
you said the shark before the debark-
alton to look over Honolulu. If you
say so, I'll split the pile with you
he was probably still wondering
whether the checks on the Honolulu
| bank would be cashable.
"'You wait till L do the baby act
| before you let out any cracks like that
replied the bone headed young man
from Los Angeles.
| ''The shark found, upon going to the
| Honolulu bank, that the checks were
| as good as United States Treasury
notes. And the man who Identified
! him at the bank and thus enabled him
| to cash the checks was the lunkhead-
| ed Los Angeles youth from whom he'd
| stolen that huge pile of money. 1t
was the bravado of a boy who refused
| to believe it possible that anybody
| could do him at a game of cards.
"a member Of the United States
| House of Representatives who accom-
| panied the Taft party on the tour Of
the Philippines unconsciously did one
of these Pacific sharks out of $500 on
| the return trip and he laughs over it
yet whenever the incident is mention
| ed. The Representative didn't come
| home with the main party but return
ed to San Francisco from Yokohama
about month later. He fell in with
| a plausible chap who professed to be
Cincinnati business man, and they
were soon playing poker of the all