The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-05
THE EVENING STORY
A Hand at Poker.
(By James Johnson.)

a. Inc age OF twenty, ThomaS APP
pleby, Jr., was generally referred to
as Soft Tommy While his father,
who was one of the largest railroad
contractors in the country, was known
as a level-headed man, his only son,
Tommy. was playing going to college"
ana making fool of himself whenever
occasion offered. A compilation of the
idiotic things Tommy di. in the course
OF two years would make a small vol
ume of statistics. He got drunk, he bet
on horses. he played poker, he fell in
love with his laundress, he got into JAIL
he ran himself and his father into debt
to the tune of thousands. AS wind
up he fell in love with a chorus girl at
a New York theater, went on a drunk
lasting two weeks, and was disgrace
fully expelled from college, His old
man stopped building the Colorado
Midland long enough to come east and
bride the chorus girl to let go, pay up
Tommy's debts, talk to him in vigorous
English, and then take him west to fill
some un1mportant position where he
could keep an eye on him.
Tommy's haIcyon days were over. He
had to knuckle down and be good. In
the course of two years he became so
good and so sensible that he was per-
mitted to go east and marry the daugh-
ter of a locomotive builder, with whom
he had become acquainted while she
was making tour Of the west. 1t was
conceded on all sides that Tommy was
terested in his fathers work, been given
a partnership and he was looked upon
as a coming man in the business Of
constructing and Quitting railroads.
Tommy and his bride were to do
the east and then bring up in their
future home in Denver, and everything
went according to programme until they
headed for the west. Then Tommy re-
ceived word to bring along sum of
money from Wall street. The fact that
he had $4,000 buttoned up behind his
coat caused a relapse from virtue on
Tommy's part. He became soft" again.
He drank and staggered and told ev-
erybody what big man he was in the
Colorado Midland, and soon after leav-
ing Ashley on his homecoming he fell
into the hand of the Philistines. Three
thieves and a gambler had spotted him
and We're after his money. They didn't
care how they got hold of it, but after
awhile found that the game of poker
would be the easiest way. When Tom
my began drinking he became obstinate,
and leaving his fearful bride in the par
Ior car he took a hand in the game and
started elsewhere for his particular
benefit.
Then the chorus girl made her en-
trance. She had let go of Tommy for
good. She had never cared for him
from the chorus in New York to the
vaudeville in a western town of hard
repute, and was on her return from
a trip to Chicago when she ran across
lions were those of jealousy to think
that he had married and she thirsted
for revenge against the child-faced
bride Then she reasoned that she
never intended to marry Tommy any
way, and that he and his papa had
treated her very literally, and she gave
over her idea of revenge. Tommy didn't
recognize her during the long day that
she occupied a seat directly across the
aisle, but she saw that he had some
thing on his mind and was drinking
himself up to it. The gamblers were
going to make up a game for the night
and he wanted to be counted in and ar
rive in Denver with a few extra hun
dred dollars in his pocket. The pro-
room and Tommy went in search of
the game. He soon found it. The ex-
chorus girl had sized up the newly mar
ried couple and the situation, and she
reasoned them out as follows:
Tommy the soft is not as big a
fool as he was, but he is fool enough
to be taken in by those card sharps.
From his swagger he has evidently
got a lot of money with him. He has
gone and forgotten me and got mar
ried, instead of pining along in single
blessedness, but 1 won't hold that up
against him. That wife of his is
circus once or twice in her life, but
her knowledge of the world stops
there. If she would take Tommy by
the ear, as 1 used to do, instead of
playing the pdDyi SHe COulO DrlnS MIN
to the mark. But she hasn't the
pluck. Tommy will gamble, lose his
and there will be a scene when
he faces his father. I must do some
thing for the helpless infants"
The game was going on In the
smoker. There were only two or
three passengers in the car, and it may
have been that the conductor stood in
with the blacklegs. At any rate, when
the ex-chorus girl made her appear
ance in the car he politely limited that
she had made a mistake.
mot If the court knows herself"
was her reply. 1T came in here to get |
a smell of this smoke and watch the
game, and 1 don't think there is any
rule to bar me out"
Tommy was drinking with one hand
and playing poker with the other He
also kept his mouth going as to what
a great man he was in connection
with the Colorado Midland. The line |
would have never been thought of nor |
surveyed nor constructed but for him. |
He had played poker since he was ten |
years old. He was no chicken. He |
had the money, and money talked. !
From her nearby seat the woman |
listened to his vaporings and saw the |
gamblers fleeing him at every hand, |
and she said to herself:
IT used to get about a hundred dol |
lars a day out of Tommy when he was |
struck on me- but these sharpers are |
doing a heap better. If he was born
without brains it's not my fault, and I
yet feel sorry for that little wife of |
his. This is all new on her. She is in |
when a wife of spunk would be in I
here raising old Ned. It's none of my
business, and yet can't help but feel /
sorry for her. It's no use to go and |