The sun., 1907-08-11


represented on my pencIlled schedule Of
back and forth bets represented nearly
5000 when, upon lending hts ears to Dawes
first $1,000 boost, Mr.. An Fong gaSed out
| Of the open window at the whipping blue
sea, with the early morning sunlight dancing
| upon II, and said:
| That's good. David.
Let's call II a night as IL stands, sug-
gested one Of the party then, and us we were
| nll tagged the suggestion went.
Dave said Mr.. All Fong then, leanlng g
| back in his chair with his hands back OF his
hend, the ordinary man hasn't any right
! u he wants to be- popular to show hand
that he has used to blum somebody out Of a
poker pot. But that privilege ought to
belong to kings, especially when they
upon request. Dave, what did you have
then2 How good were your
"kalakaua ppndered for a minute, evil
IDENTIFY wondering whether he would be
doing the right thing to show his cards iIp
the circumstances. Then, not having yet
picked them up to throw into the discard,
he slowly turned his papers over.
He had a pair of>nines. MIR. An Fong
had already faced his jack full.
That's worth gift-it wasn't so badly
done said Mr.. All Fong, with his winning
Chinese smile, and he unfastened huge
emerald brooch which he wore at his throat
and pinned IL 10 the pleated band Of Ka-
lakaua's soft straw hat, which was lying on
a table alongside him.
Dave didn't want to take the huge and
immensely valuable jewel from the Chna-
man. but Mr.. All Fong was a man with a
manner that even kings could respect.
and when he rendered a gift he meant it
and his obvious intention stuck. And
Kalakaua wore that emerald pinned on the
scarf of his straw hat. just as the China
man had put it there. till he took to his
bed in California to die.
But this isn't unraveling ii how q king
King Dave-beat my four queens.
The same people were in that game,
and there was one locker on-a person
of whom you may have heard. Robert
Louis Stevenson by name. He had dropped
into Honolulu harbor on his schooner
yacht few days before. He Was an
old friend anti pal Of kalakaua, and he
,.s liked to look up upon large pok en eTshness.
him self aud preferred cribbage. at which
he was powerful.
The game took place on the lanai
that g what we call a veranda in Kanaka-
df my house in Waikiki. a suburb of Homo
lulu. We sat in at 10 o'clock at night and
played along till in the morning. Steven
son sat coled up crosslegged on a couch
back OF kalakaua. slipping Scotch and
burning up about million cigarettes OF
his own manufacture in the progress of the
play. and he stayed till the finish, when all
hands went into the surf for dawn bath.
That was one of the nights when IL was
pretty hard to head me. I went out in
front almost from the first dishout. and
stayed there. not even swaying or at any
time beginning to curl up, till right at the
finish.
then got slammed by the King.
"He was dealing them himself, and,
barring him, the dealer, was the last man
who had to make the pronunciamento
about opening the pot. They all raped
their knuckles on the board TO indicate that
than Aidn'f aDuf hing in THAR
of papers.
"I'm a great hand not to look at my cards
in a jackpot arrangement till the fellows
ahead of me have cracked it or passed out,
and then / generally pick 'en one by one.
which is irritating TO nervous players
around a table but that's my kind of poker,
and pay the tolls. and can't help il. |
was some stunned on this occasion, l think
| may mention, when ] picked up four
queens. one right after the other
Il tossed q white bean, meaning n five
dollar one. to the centre. and opened it
with what | plumed myself upon being
fine stimulation of indifference-the indif-
ference, we'll say, of somebody who has
pair of knaves to open with and doesn't
much care for the prospect of having folks
stick along and draw against him.
Dave, dealing as | say, took peek at
the margins of his cards then, and then
gazed reflectively at the ceiling for quite
a bit. I'd seen him do that before es-
pecially when, not so long before then he'd
chased Mr.. kh Fong to the cactus with his
pair Of mines. So wasn't worried.
Il wasn't excited. either. except with
the certainty of conquest. when he tilted
IL $500 to draw anything. The others
couldn't see that, and there | was all heeled
20 stake an anointed king to the trouble OF
his whole poker career.
We'll, | was so far ahead OF the game
that money didn't look like more than 50
cents on the dollar TO me, and so ! handed
Dave one of those 81 600 hosts. I'll say II
TO his credit, he Just saw it, and that was all.
How many? he asked me, and | told
him thought I'd try to worry along, best
| knew how. with what he'd given me in
the first place.
when he tossed the deck away and
calculated that he. too, might traipse along
without needing any strengtheners, I
with Helen OF Troy. Cleopatra, the Queen
of Sheba and Catherine the Great, more
than a haokload, in my hand?
1T was my bet, of course, and / was just
on the point of beginning the thousand
dollar stuff. when | had a sudden hunch.
1t wouldn't be decent. l reflected, Kalau-
kaua had always been more than fair to me
in a lot OF transactions, and IL didn't seem
like just the goods to bet on fours Of the
size | was holding.
better call this showdown. I've got you
tied in here and like to be as decent as
know how in all my worldly relations.
No gentleman ought ever TO bet on
ION the kind of cards that I've got here
broke in King Kalakaua right there, to my
intense surprise, and ! was just about to
say the same thing when you took the
words out of my mouth, and he spread his
papers out in front Of him while ! did the
same.
His was a five TO nine sequence flush
Of hearts. and he could have put me in the
poorhouse with it il ne had not been--as
he was-the squarest and best hearted
dusky man that ever ruled over an island
kingdom"
MEMS FASHIONS FROM PARIS.