The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1907-07-18
when Ed BROKE
the BANK

| over the southwest, ana IL begins TO
| look like the only bank they will let
operate now is the kind where the
cashier lays awake nights scheming
| how to grab of more than the direc-
tors" grumbled Col. B.
ITS different from the good old
days when the faro banks We're as
thick as flies around molasses. Guess
the country is prosperous, but money
don't seem to circulate as freely as
when the Indians were paid biannually
and the joints were running wide open.
Speaking of gambling and banks,
reminds me of the time Ed Martin
broke 'Sheeny Joe at the Fort, where
they even stop the street ears on Sun
day now. 1t was the biggest game
ever pulled off there, and while it last
ed it made the stakes at Hot Springs
look like four-card flush.
ED was on the ground first. He had
three places which were adorned by
green shades. and the table covers
were of the same color. Guess it was
hid O hoggish of him to want mo-
iiopply VI dlI lIAt W" uobSo IL,
but it's human nature to own trust.
Did you ever buck bank game
with foolish determination to break
it? No, well, guess you got money
then, That's what Ed did, and he got
away with it. He didn't invite Joe to
come into his parlor to be bit; he went
to Joe's miniature Monte Carlo.
Joe was dealing the game when Ed
walked in. Ed sat down opposite him.
Words were superhuous. They under
stood each other Just as we'll as if Ed
had said: Joe, this is to be finish.
Either you or | must leave this burg.
There amt room enough for both
The few pikers at the table side
stepped when Ed carelessly took the
band off his Bank roll and displayed
layers of yellow backs to a dozen hun
CRY eyes. Joe looked kind O nervous,
bat he shufIled the cards with his ac-
customed skill and slapped them in
the little silver box, ready for the new
deal
That's the way it began. 1t ended
many hours later, but I'm going too
fast. 1t was square game. The eyes
OF the two rival gamblers met on the
first wager Joe understood the flash
from Eds keen orbits. Deal 'em on
the level or it's a pine box for YOU he
might have said, but it wasn't neces-
sary.
Joe won at first, then his luck
changed. 1t seesawed this way
throughout the AFTERNOON, and far into
the night, when Ed began to stack up
blue chips in front of him. Each was
worth $50. No two generals, trained
in strategy, ever figured closer than
did those two card sharks.
Greek met Greek but the Celtic
in Ed began to tell. Joe was breaking
under the strain. Ed saw it, pushed
his advantage and the stampede soon
followed. With a recklessness born of
desperation, Joe turned the cards
faster and faster, Little beads of per-
spiration began to pop from his fore
head. AS Joe's temperature jumped,
Eds GOODNESS, his unrelenting play al
1T recalled tragedies. You inadver
tently remembered the stag you had
driven to bay and had shot as it stood
glazing at you in all its majesty. The
tension couldn't last; it had to break
or | think we all would have died in
our tracks. The end was as unexpect-
ed as it was terrible.
"Joe's face was Of an ashen hue.
His eyes seemed az if they would
burst from their sockets. We gazed
at him. fascinated, thrilled, frightened.
Ed alone was self-possessed. He was
a yeritable demon in those last min
utes. Faster and faster the play went,
and then
"Joe's head struck the layout with
crash My God I'm broke we heard
him say He had died with the loss
OF his idol Gold. Ed gazed at him,
first in contempt, then in pity. He
buried him in regal style and the
wreath he placed on his grave bore
the epitaph He was no gutter
after the funeral Ed claimed Joe's
Joint and bank roll None contested
his right. He's in New York now, and
| guess he'll get a taste in Wall street
of what he gave Joe. Those days have
passed in the southwest when men
will sell their souls to break a faro
bank | guess the modern kind is the
best after all.