The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-15
Great Game That Cost Frisco
 Charlie His Life
STRANGER HELD TRUMPS
Frisco Charlie Killed His Man, But Was Strung Up Shortly After. Last of Whist in
 the Town.

l From
 "oh. yes. I can play whist, all rlsht'
 said the rough looking old fellow who
 had been invited to make the fouth man
 at the table on the smoker. Learned
 ,o nlav ten years ago at Frozen Dog
 Most folks seems to think that nothln
 but poker goes in mining camps, but wiist
 sholv did have Frozen Dog goin' Tor d
 spell.
 ..Jt came on by reason of the fact that
 there was about three fellows in the camp
 that could just reach over an take u
 mans stack of chips-pretty near-playin
 poker an as they were all kinder short
 tempered fellows nobody hankered after
 declnin' to permit them to sit into
 game.
 "Wen. amoosements has kinder sagged down to checkers an such like safe prop
 ositious. when a person by the name oi
 Williams blows into camp Hes real
 fresh cut kind of blossom that's come
 west 10 make his fortune He hnds me
 long evenings sorter hanging heavy on ms hands, so he comes into the Red Light
 one evening an inquires, perlite hKe'
 of whist.
 |
 hoard of this here whist layout but they
 was all plumb willing to learn an 'iils
 Williams party gets real enthusias''e'
 says hell give lessons to the ero"u' an
 that we can organize whist club ah
 starts right in with the lessons. ,..
 "Weu. the boys caught on rlght away,
 of course, and pretty soon 'iiei @ ,,,,,ra | some real good players in the camp heI | pam | pod Light one evening, and eVerythiiis
 ..ent fine till one of those boys that useu 1 +o he so lucky at poker suggests tii", , | t,,s+ to make the game sorter interestiil ike that he's got $lo sayin that ne "' | his pardner will win the next game | "Now it happens that his pardner Was l another one of the poker lucky poys,
 an, saw right off that they had hgureo | IT down that they just as soon win on
 ,,bIst as poker They were both goou nlayers all right and l shook my hesu | at linn Wendsell that was one or tne | fellows playin' against them, 90 'in, a I lowed that he didn't know as he wanted | to bet. i, | con says the fellow. of course II
 vou're scared of losing'-and shrugged ! his shoulders an started to deal the carqs | e9rhat got Jims blood up and he slap
 ped a ten dollar gold piece down on the I table. The fellow put another with It,
 but pretty soon he was putting them poth | in his pocket. ,,
 "That was the beginnin' of second ! eleanin' out of the camps pockets, an | some of the boys thought that the pes. 1 things to do would be to give those real ] good players notice to hit the trali put | as I said, they were powerful snort tein-
 pered fellows an there would be sure ,o | be several funerals, so we hhaily ueciueu l to try some other plan.
 o1a | drifted quietly into camp. He was eVl- | dently not seekin' recognition, so dlun let on that I knew him while any or the bovs were around. but soon as l coulu herded him off an explained the situa- tion. c,a.,io was | about the best all around card sharp | | ever saw in my life. ohiE uo"e | he was quick tempered. A.. ho .srhat was why he wasn't carin 10 po | raeopnized Pal of his didn't take III l,,o , | signals in a big game, an II cost Sna,n ns | his pile. Pulled his gun and soon alte, | left town. leaving that pal to De purie'
 at the public's expenee. . u,.,,a | "Wel, l put Charlie Wlse oh 'Ho | tion an he says:
 Got any one who is good player | as good as any of the gang au. "sNobody but the chap that mrs, | bronqht the game in here I says. Hes
 a good player, best in camp, but ne greenhorn. |. ,,,,, "Oh, that's all rlght, we cai HN u ~
 "so the camp scraped together all they had left in the way of dust-l havin guar anteed Charlie as a card player rom Cardtown. We got together apout ten
 thousand dollars an arranged Tor SC
 ries of seven games-Charlie ana Willlaihs against the two best players Of the gang. oh nlay for money so if was agreed that Charlie should have the gangs money IT they won 1t. an the camps money would come back to the boys who had subscrib- | ed if. That meant ten thousand to | Charlie you see.
 q was satisfied about everything but | Charlie's temper. an I cautioned this l williams chap not to get him mad if he l could help It. an 1 likewise told Charlie | he would have to hold in.
 1 'Well. that series of games started, an | I never saw such playin'! There was to | be seven games, seven points to the game. s'The first game went to Charlie and
 Williams, the next to the others, and SD | on back an forth, till they stood three l an three. You could have heard the l tickin' of a watch in the Red Light when
 they started the seventh game
 There didn't seem to me anything to | choose in the playin' of either team and | the luck astonishly even In this l game first one and then the other would | make a point. till it stood six an six. l Everybody in the place was ready to yell with excitement except this fellow Williams. He didn't have any money up. an wasn't concerned except just to win 1 for the sake of winning. The sweat was standin' out on Frisco Charlie's forehead, an I knew he was keyed up pretty high. Well they dealt the cards. l was
 standin' behind Charlie an got a glimpse | of his hand. There wasn't trump in it. l an nothin else much but two aces.
 saw Williams give start when he l looked at his hand
 l Tt was Charities lead an he played an
 ace The next man played seven, an ! then Williams without even looking at
 the card played a trump.
 | "'rhe fourth card fell on the table with 1 a noise like a board in the silence and ] Williams reached out to gather in the l trick. but he never touched it. Charities gun had spit across the table an Char lie himself had crashed through the near
 est window all in the same instant, it | seemed to me.
 | He must have been 100 yards away be- | fore a man moved q muscle. Then they | stampeded to catch Charlie which they l did, an promptly strung him up. l ''I couldn't join in the chase on account | of an ankle bein sprained just then so 1 goes and picks up Williams hand. to see TWuE <,UInr runTrr