Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-06
SURE.THIyCER CALLED DOWN
stOlid Indian Sport Clsvsrly Skins q
Palefaos Gambler.
HUWlIArloN OF A ssAs-AlL SOLDIER
The Game as it was Played 60
= spectacuIar Finish-POor Lo's
Handy work with Deck
and Gun.

Whenever 1 hear or read about a sure
thing man imagine for a minute that I'm
soldering again at Boise Barracks" said
a man who put in several enlistments
with the chevronH Of a doughboy duty ser
geant on his sleeves. There was a hawk
faced corporal in my outfit at Boise who
was the Eurest-thinE gambler that / ever
met In or out Of the service. He was the
kind of sure-thinger who wouldn't lay
better than 1 10 against your gambling
proposition that black was white or that
tho moon was made OF cornstarch custard.
and he had to have a percentage edge az
big az the OF fore mule Of an army am
bulance before he'd take the bank end
OF any kind of a deal.
ION pay days this gimme-it-all corporal
would set up half dozen different games
for the marks to gnaw on. Every one Of
his games was a thing that you couldn't
beat with q coal maui, but all hands at
Boise went against the sure thinRer's I'M
beatable setups from month to month all
the same.
The hawked-faced corporal carried on
this thing for quite a stretch of years.
and we all had It properly figured out
that his 3 to l against games had made
him pretty coy in the pocket for a SOL
der. In fact, toward the finish he him
SELF Ieil INTO the nAplI OF swelling around
a lot and announcing that at the windup
OF his enlistment he intended to go into
the real estate and insurance business
over in Spokane.
But If Spokane ever was waiting for
him it's waiting yet. He didn't go into
any real estate insurance business
over there. for he ran into a washout,
as most sure-thingers do sooner or later.
"A yappy young moon-faced rookie
from the east first got the. sure-thinger
going
A Grab-Au Game.
zone OF the main games that the grab
all corporal regularly set in motion on
payday nights in unused auartermas-
ter's shop was the old mustang game that
used to be the regular payday slough Il
of gag all through the army. from Gov
ernor's Island to the rock of Alcatraz. The
game is called ohuck-s-luck outside the
army. It's played. as even the jumpers
through the west know, with a big dice
marked with the card pictures and spots.
The dice are chucked onto the cloth from
a big tin shaker. The player stacks his
coin on a diamond on the painted oil
cloth. for instance. and If he slaps out
diamond he hRuls down his own money
and an equal sum Of the dealers. If he
chucks two diamonds he gets twice the
sum ne nAA Oct Lnt running
the game.
But mustang Is as hard a game TO
beat as that Garfield game of solitaire
that some piuheads go up against, the
percentage being overwhelmingly on the
side of the man behind the box. But this
sure4thing corporal made more money,
probably, out OF his mustang game than
he did from his stud and monte and faro
layouts all put together, for. stating q
general proposition, IL you want to win
an American soldiers money all you've
got to do is to deal him a game that has
the biggest pull against his own chances
and he'll fall for that one in preference
to the games that give him slight show.
and play It TIL he's color blind.
For three months IN succession the
sure-thinE corporal pelted the yappy,
moon-faced recruit for his entire months
pay. down to and including the pinch-out
for tobacco. But the rookie didn't appear
TO take the thing so much to heart. He
was a quiet, big-eyed sort of dub who
didn't appear TO possess exactly his share
OF brightness. and that's why we all felt
kind o sorry to see him go up against
the you-lose game for those three months
in succession.
but the rockies fourth pay day expe-
rience with the mustang game was some
different He took his whole S13 down to
the shack where the game was in prog
reas and promptly lost IS OF II. Then.
looking het-up and bit sore and despe-
rate for the first time, he tossed his re-
naming Is down on the oilcloth club.
Then he shook out two clubs from the tin
thing.
PecuIia<itiss of the system.
AFTER this he stuck to Is bets, losing
one OF them occasionally, but in general
winning. He showed considerable par
tiality for the club and the heart. and
played them almost altogether. His prefer
enes for the club and the heart seemed
20 be indicated. at that, for It was no
ticed that he almost always lost when he
toyed with the diamond or the spade.
when he'd pick on about $3.50 OF the
sure-thing corporaps coin, the corporal
shut down the game till he went 70 quar-
ters for more stun When he reopened
the game the yap-faced one was on hand
again with his foolish-lookinE leer, that
acted on the corporal ike salt on a fresh
cut. The rookie immediately began to
shake the mustang game up some more,
and when he'd yanksd in another 500 Of
the sure-thinger's junk the other games
were practically suspended-we all gathered
round the mustang table 10 watch the wrig-
glingb ana 70 listen 20 the gurgltngs OF
the corporal game hacker. who was dis
liked.
by the time taps was sounded the cor
poral. as miserable looking an ex-lance-
jack as ever wore a stripe down his leg
was out a clean $50 on his mustang game
The simple seeming rookie said 'Cer'nly
when the sore corporal asked him II he
wouldn't sive him a setback show on the
following night and then the moon-faced
one strolled out in the direction Of quar-
ters But he never got 20 quarters. Instead
Of that, he got the midnight train on the
Oregon Short Lane for the east and they
never got him. either. When he failed TO
show up for reveills the next morning the
sure-thing corporal was torn by a sudden
agoniEins thought, and he raked out his
mustang dloe in a hurry and examined
them. He found that they waren't his own
mustang dice at all. but first class replicas
OF them. ana that two OF them were Just
about bewitehed 70 roll over so that a club
On one and heart on the other would
turn uppermost about four times out OF
nve,