The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-12
Could Not Be Beaten by Crooked Poker


as I gave him the details of what had
seen he began to look mournful.
land So 1 concluded, your poker
playing on this voyage is at an end
He gazed out in sort of disap-
pointed way at the heaving sea. and
then turning a pleading countenance
upon ME, he said:
Z" Kunnel, don't yo' all break it up.
TO Gawd's sake. Why, man. there
amt airy other game that we can get
into, sub, within 1,500 miles o hcah,
suhP''
Then Tom Middleton of South Caro-
lima and New York told one about
poker player who'd got religion.
Met him at Asheville last winter,
said Mr.. Middleton, "for the first time
in number of years. Back yonder in
the SOS and '90s he certainly had some
| thing on all the poker players of
Charleston, and there were and are
some great ones in Charleston.
Year in and year out in Charleston
he was wont to clean up. He knew the
game backward. and l reckon he'd for
/ got more about the fine Etruscan
| tracery that's only to be made out by
a microscope on the inside of the shell
/ Of the game of draw than any Of the
| rest of US had ever known.
But ne was sure a changed man
when I met him at Asheville last win
/ ter. I'd heard from somebody or other
! that he'd got religion, but L didn't
know that it had hit him real bad. But
when, one rainy evening, 1 was snoop-
| ing around trying to herd up about
seven to sit into little game of the S.
kind and asked this old friend of mine
who'd got religion if he was going to
/ make one of us he Staked me to a gaze
that was both sad and sweet.
My boy he said, 1 thought every
body knew that 1 had mended my evil
ways. l don't play poker any more. l
am a member of the church. l am not
averse to an occasional game of cards
by way of amusement-but not poker
no, siree-not poker. Poker, sir, is a
game of deceit. 1t is a game that en-
ables a man to deceive his friends out
of their money!
Grand said I. wish / had two
bits for every time you deceived me
back yonder in Charleston when
was
Poker. my boy he cut in on me,
! is a game of pure deceit, an under
hand, treacherous. stdb-in-the back
method of gambling. 1 am through
with it, sir. Yes, sir, 1 certainly am
through with it..
Il got together the requisite number
for the game that evening, and my
Charleston friend who had in getting
IEllS ION utNEloDtu SuCii d ulSc1 biON iii
view toward the game of draw, fol-
lowed the troupe over to the cottage to
watch the game.
d" There is no sin to watch it, he eX-
planned to me, rather deliberately, or
the way over. There is sin in the world
all around one, and one has to live in
the midst of it, and, in a way, partici-
pate i'm the results of it.
1T was a right tidy game, and my
leu. ,f4,1
chair, watched it with a kindling eye
that became more fevered and sparkling
every minute the game progressed
He shook his head sadly, too, ovel
some of my poker errors, for he wa:
in position to see my hands, and oc
casionalIy he'd lean over and breathe
religious maledictiOns into my ear fol
something peculiarly fat headed tina
, I'd done with my papers, according t.
his really expert view.
Toward midnight one of the sever
in the game had to drop out in orde
to write some letters at his cattOge 70
the morning mail.
oh, here. kick in. Darson,' 1 sait
to my friend from Charleston who''
, got religion. Take that empty chat
over yonder. You're due to be trimmed
, Overdue. Come on in. The splashing'
! fine
Il could see by his hungry eyes tina
a great tumult was going on in hi
: breast.
Its five dollar limit you all ar
, playing, isn't it? he said, finally, afte
long pause, in a hoarse tone that toll
, Of his inner conflict
g Five dollar limit said /.
Wei, I'm glad of that said he, a
he made the empty chair in tw
strides and pumped into the seat, be
l cause. subs. five dollars is the limit il
! the Episcopal church,
Z "Then he bought a stack and cleane
I the lot of us to a fare-yOu-welL"