The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-08
washington start

i
| 1t was a five-handed session, and
/ three of the five men who sat in are
| now dead, Marse Henry and myself be-
| ing the survivors. Robert G. Ingersoll
was one of the party He was in
/ Washington to fill a lecture engage
ment. Marse Henry had come up from
Louisville with tue late Colonel Pep
per. the distiller, just to look around
and see how things were going under
the big dome. l attended Ingersoll's
/ lecture with Colonel Watterson and
/ Colonel Pepper, and after the lecture
we picked Ingersoll up and carried him
/ OF to a club for a chat. we talked it
all over inside of an hour and then
somebody suggested that we swoOp
upon Senator Harris, rout him out of
bed if he'd turned in and hector him
| INTO playing a game of draw with us.
We all knew that II wouldn't take
much ,bullyragging to get the fine old
Tennesseean into a game of poker. no
matter how sOundly he might be sleep
ing, for nobody more dearly loved
pokerishness than did Isham G.. almost
up to the day of his DEATH
SO we descended upon him shortly
! before midnight in a barouche. and we
found him up and doing He was rest
ing his mind with a little light mental
regalement before going to bed-that is
~ N''J' hC NtNS IC1ltllS q lew DdgeS
from Gibbons Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire He was pleased to be
bounced upon in that impromptu way,
and we'd hardly mentioned poker be-
lore the good old boy had the round
table in the middle of the room under
the chandelier and the chips all sorted
out.
THE only two in the party who had
any sort of recent familiarity with
each others brand of draw-for it had
been a long time since I'd sat i'm at p
session with Colonel Watterson-were
Colonel Pepper and Senator Harris,
who We're old cOmbatants with each
other at the game. 1t soon became
manifest that Colonel Pepper had his
friend, Senator Harris, marked as a
disgraceful buffer, and that Senator
Harris had Colonel Pepper charted out
as an airy booster on sets and Sc
quences of nothings
A Poker Style.
ITO give an example. Colonel Pen
per opened natural jackpot on a pair
Of knaves. None of the rest of us. ex-
cept Senator Harris, had a thing to
niger with, and so We dropped. But
the tennessee senator, who was the
dealer, reckOned that his were suff-
GENTLY pleasant-looking TO make il $40
moTe-our limit that night was $40
Tor his friend Pepper to draw tickets.
Colonel Pepper was there
How many? inquired the senator.
ready TO dish out cards.
colonel Pepper gazed reflectively at
the ceiling and calculated that he
might just as well struggle along. the
best he knew how, on what he al
ready had. The senator pleaded with
him pathetically to take a few. advis-
ing him earnestly that he'd need 'em.
but Colonel Pepper was resolute. Then
the senator laid the deck bv without
helping himself TO any. They bet the
limit back and forth five or six times.
ColoneI Pepper was the first to ex-
plode. He called Senator Harris.
Ihats good sadly observed Sen
ator Harris, squeezing his cards into
the deck, but, all the same, 1 hate to
see a gentleman from the state of
Kentucky play such Chinese poker
and he gaxed with ineffable disgust ar
the pair OF jacks spread out by Colonel
Pepper. That's only sample of the
way colonel Pepper and Senator Har-
RS tried to rake each other over from
the outset, and the showing was in
structive TO the rest of us.
1 found it rather hard to penetrate
Colonel Ingersolrs game, but / derived
that he was about the same kind of old
army-game poker player as / was
mat Is TO say, that he drew to his pa
pers and played them only for what
ne thought them worth, even in a game
IN which there were at least two Der-
1ectIy obvious and brazen buffers. Rut
along toward the middle of the sitting
caught Colonel IngersoH in q red
handed effort to tOm-tOm me To the
bad lands We were the only two in
ana iI Ia started out with a trio of
deuces. He took one and then began
10 siam the limit at me. The way the
cards were running the three deuces
looked pretty good Il lie, ard 7 rapned |
the limit right back at him. though !
confess that 1 was more than little
AFRAID OF him, not having nailed him
IN the act of Overplaying his hand mn
to that time. His complaisance over
MS papers finally got me weIl-nigh |
stampeded.
When 1 called him he threw his
papers INTO the Stag and endeavored
70 olreet the conversation to an out |
slde channel He used that superior
please forget it. manner, but I'd maid
TO nave a look, so l picked his cards |
up ana turned them over. His hand
was distorted nine-high straight |
And so l had him tabled, too.
wouldn't have thought it of Won
OF being drummed out by a lot of fIorid |
It's the pernieious example Pen
per and Harris have been setting ms
he replied, looking sheepish.
Presently Marse Henry was caught /
with the goods in an attempted steal
by Colonel Pepper. and so he Joined /
the little buffers list. 1 tried to run
away with something myself not long
after that, and so there were the whole |
hve of US under deep and dark sus-
picion
But the tall work commenced when
the last double round OF jackpots be-
gan, about o'clock in the morning |
Colonel Pepper raised Senator Harris |
out on pot that the senator had !
opened on two pairs, and then. in toss
ing away his cards, accidentally faced |
them, showing that all he had pos
sessed was something punctured. Sem
ator Harris quickly took his revenge |
on the distiller by stampeding Colonel /
Pepper out of a pot that he himself |
had cracked with a pair of queens. |
The senator only drew two, cards that /
time, and when Colonel Pepper wiited /
the senator leaned over to me in his |
elation and showed me his spread-out |
hand
Rem "a rlxa hIa draur u-aepst 40, ~