The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-23

Lam he whispered to ne through his
teeth. apparently not talking at all, and
never 90 much as looking at me, when 1
got up close to him. Blow before you get
to be ~everybody's joke. That stiff you're
with is one Of the new bulls on the poolroom
squad, and in about three minutes you'll
be looking like a seed potato that's sprouted
beforehand in a damp cellar. Beat 1t while
your rubber heels are glued on, Or
Il took a peek at my jowler out OF the Sits
J OF my lamps, and l saw that he was hep
that l was being tipped OF. There was a
foolish grin on his map n he looked like
a dinge nailed by hashlight for a motion
picture with one arm stuck through the
window Of the coop.
tive got to go and match a couple
pieces Of Irish lace for my old aunt in Rah-
way first / said TO the jowler, slinking back
to where he stood, but il you can wait here
for a couple OF weeks I'll
You're the gay room booster, all right
the bull came back at me-, as il 1t wasn't
enough that l got stung. Say, i'll was run
ming a room. and had you on the street
for a plugger, I'd get a Little boy out Of the
Children's Protectory to keep hold OF your
hand SOS you wouldn't get lost or get run
over by a velocipede; and IL l had
Great for a second pick on my first day
out, wasn't it? It's q wonder 1 didn't pick
up Jerome or Bingham. It's a wonder l
didn't traipse down to Mulberry street and
AJAX Mathot what he liked in the fourth
trudge at Ascot and tell him to slip me his
kale and I'd get it down at q place I knew all
about. It would "a been like mo. I'm
not sidestepping it, I'm getting more Dutch
every minute I live.
after losing the jowler I edged over to the
Glass House. and leaning on n OF the
tables was something that looked like IL
had just sold a trainload Of steers and was
waiting for me to brush along and tell him
what TO do with the basketful Of money.
He was big and Nebraska looking, and he
had a pickle on that made all the rest OF the
! ifty-seven varieties look like chow-chow.
-Helluva note he was telling the waiter
who was stacking the damps up in front Of
him, when a goat that only gifts of the
reservation once a year and hits New York
can find no place where he can act like .
clip and chuck in his junk on the ponies
when he's got fourteen different kinds o.
lunches. Why, say. even in Council Bluffs
I could
Il was holding down the bench opposite
his in three glides and telling him all about
1t. He was tickled to death to hear it.
-E~verybody'd been telling him, he said,
that the poolrooms in New York were all
turned into Salvation Army Christmas
turkey dinner plants, n here I was a
tellin' him. He gulped up four OF the
drinks that were ranged around the table
like an outfit of musical glasses In a punk
variety show and asked me to tell him
s'more about the dump where he could get
his coin down.
Then he called for three more drinks
for himself and asked me to have a few
l was there, because l didn't want TO lose
him, but it was pretty early for me. He
paid for the vets out Of a bale as big round
as a can of beans, and then he ordered four
or five more OF the same for himself.
H was getting souseder and souseder.
I may as well bite it.
He sat there right in front Of me and got
30 Spilled that he fell out Of his chair, and
when / tried TO pick him up and carry him
OF to the room the manager OF the dump
strolled out from his desk behind the cage
and told me that that frisk thing wasn't
being pulled of around his place any more
on Thursdays.
Il had to drill out OF there and leave that
pickle in the hands OF three porters, who
began to undress him for bed almost before
they got him on the elevator, when he had
almost enough money with him-three or
four thousand bones, breathing It the easi-
est-to buy one Of those Broadway baskets
of fruit like you don send to your friends
when they go away on a steamship trip. l
suppose that wasn't getting 1t where Little
Low Laughing Water, the Mohawk maiden,
wore the bears claws. neither.
1T was pretty near time for the first race
at New Orleans, and still 1 hadn't boxed
anything up except three puff adders. Then
l maced a hotel baskeep On Thirty-fourth
street to stake me to a live one.
He did. He called him right over from
a corner and introduced him to me.
He was from Chicago, and ned been
asking the barkeep where he'd find a
poolroom. I had zephyred along just m
time. He came right along with me.
Il carried him to the room in a oaloosh.
He was a live one, all right. He bet 100
men on the first race at New Orleans. The
horse he selected was Tom Mankins. Tom
Mankins was at 20 to l in the room chalk.
Tom Mankins walked in.
MY live one collected his 81, 100, slipped
me a cigarette out Of a CUR metal box, told
me that he honest was obliged to me, he
honest was, for showing him the place
and then he went away from there. Then
the boss OF the room came from behind the
desk and asked me II I knew where there
was any more educated money like that
to fetch in there and start something with.
He was still looking scowly when I left.
Il was born on the 18th OF February, and
that's why I'm a nearget and a comic valen-
tine
EXECUTION IN INDIA,