The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-12

body out of a poker pot. But that privi
lege ought to belong TO kings. especially
when they don't do Ii voluntarily and
gloatfully. but upon request. Dave, how
good were you just them
"kalakaua pondered for moment. cyl
IDENTIFY wondering If he would be doing the
right thing to show his cards in the cir
cumstances. Then. not yet having picked
them UP 10 throw them into the discard.
he slowly turned his papers over
He had "a pair of jacks. All Fong al
ready had faced his ten full.
That's worth gift-it wasn't so bad
" done said All Fong, with his winning
Chinese SMILE and he unfaStened huge
emerald brooch which he wore at his
throat and pinned it to the pleated band
of Kalakaua's soft straw hat, which was
lying on the table alongside him. Dave
didn't want to take that huge and i'm
mensely valuable jewel from the China
man. but All Fong was man with
manner that even kings could respect.
and when he rendered a gift he meant 1t.
and his obvious intention stuck.
But all this isn't unraveling how
king-King Dave-beat my four queens.
The same people were in that game AMI
there was one looker-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
and pal of Kalakaua. and he liked to look
upon large pokerishness. although he
preferred cribbage. at which he was pow
full This poker game took place on
urb of Honolulu. We sat in ct 10 o'clock
at night and played along until in the
morning. Stevenson sat coiled cross-leg-
ged on a couch back of Kalakaua, slipping
Scotch and burning about a million cigar
cites of his own manufacture in the prog
ress of the play. and he stayed till the
finish. when all hands went INTO the SURF
for a dawn bath. That was one of the
nights when it was pretty hard to head
me. l went right out in front almost
from the first dishout, and stayed there,
ming to curl up. till right at the finish.
Then l got slammed by the king.
He was dealing them himself. and,
barring him. the dealer, / was the last
opening the pot They all raped their
knuckles on the board to indicate that
they din't see anything in their arrays of
papers--Im great hand not to look at
my cards in a jackpot arrangement till
the fellows ahead of me have cracked it
or passed it along. and then l gener-
ally pick 'em up one by one, which is ir-
ritating to nervous. players around n ia
bic, but that's my kind of poker, and
pay the tolls. and l can't help 1t. l was
some stunned on this occasion. think l
may mention. when L picked up four
queens, one right after another. | tossed
a white bean meaning five-dollar thing.
to the center. and opened it with what
plumed myself upon being fine simula-
ton of indifference-the indifference. 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
| he gaZed reflectively at the ceiling for
| quite bit I'd seen him do that before
| especially when.- not so long b-<ore that
| he chased All Fong to the cactus win his
| pair of jacks. So wasn't worried. no. ]
| wasn't excited. either, except with the
certainty of conquest. when he tilted il
| $500 to draw things The others couldn' I
1 / hpplpd
| stake an anointed king to the trouble Of
| his whole poker career. Well. | was so
far ahead OF the game that money didn't
| look more than fifty cents on the dCSlar
to me. and so handed Dave one of those
81 900 hoists. I'll say it to his credit ne
| Just saw 1t. and that was all.
How many% he asked me. / 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
| trudee along without needing any new
| stuff I wasn't bit worried-is why
| should I be- with Helen OF TROY. Cleo
| patra the Queen of Sheba and Catherine
the Great. more than hackload. In my
hand?
eft was nv bet, of course. and was
inst on the point of beginning the thou
sand-dollar bluff when ] had SUDDEN
hunch It wouldn't be decent, reflecteo
| Kalakaua had always been more than
| fair IN me in a lot of transactions. and II
didn't seem just like the goods for me &c
bet on the fours of the size ! was hold
ing. 49,,
:. Il think, David I said then. thai
we'd better call this a showdown I've
got YOU sewed in here and ! ike TO OF
ss decent as know how in all my world
" relationships. No gentleman ought ever
to bet on"
"'On the kind of cards that I've go
here broke in King Dave right there: L
nv intense surprise. and was Jus
| about to say the same thing when yo'
took the words out of my mouth. and h
, spread his papers out in front OF him
while / did the same.
"His was a seven to jack sequenc
|, flush of hearts. and he could have pu
me in the poorhouse with ii if he not bee
las he was-the suuarest and best-heart
ed ducky man that ever ruled over al
island kingdom"