The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-06
NO GAMBLING Is
 GREENHUT'S RULE Of Course That Does Not Bar
 Draw Poker "A BACKSLIDER'S ACTION Takes to Faro-Laws of Medes and Persians Were So Good They Never Needed Changing By Fool
 Legislatures.
A BACKSLIDER'S ACTION
From the New York Sun.

| PruSSianS come to in tn old times, said old man Greenhut one day when Jim Waters came in with a proposal that stirred the old man to virtuous indgna- tion.
 Them two nations," he continued, had laws made so sensible an so far rachin that they didn't never have to change em, an consequent there want no fool legislaturs monkeyin' round ev'ry winter tryin' for to straighten things out
 Shows how horse sense will tell in tn long run, f you give it half chance. When you start right, like them people did, you don't have to keep ehoppin' an changin' round from time to time for to try to reform. Same with draw.
 "when you've got thing t tain't never goin to be diff'rent, bein' it's all right as 'tis, it's plumb ongodly an hathenish fir to let go f it an try some thin else Sposn fir example, that 1 shd swap my bungstarter fir a six shooter an sh'd get into a reel difficulty, where'd I be after I'd used up them six shots?"
 Then, as one who has stated indusputa- ble truth, the old man glared at Waters victoriousy. That gentleman. however, was not easily abashed.
 Originally a citizen of Arkansas City and a brilliant though somewhat unrelia- ble member of the coterie of poker players in old man Greenhut's back room, Jim Waters had been led by cir cumstances more or less marvellous to de- vote himself to the game of faro and locating himself in Little Rock had achieved fame as the most skillful ma nipulator of the box in the entire south west. A personal difficulty with the pro- prietor of the bank in Which he was deal CT had led to a sudden break in their relations, and pending the return of the proprietor from a hospital Waters had
 left Little Rock.
 Calling at old man Greenhut's place, he had proposed that Greenhut should
 establish faro game in his poker room, with him, Waters, as dealer and that they should divide the profits equtably There would be, as he stated, no losses,
 since faro as he dealt it was an exact | science
 In the course of the old mans reply to
 this incendiary proposition he made the remarks quoted above, and then, seeing that Waters was unconvnced he con tinued
 "There's a heap O reasons" he said, why it don't appear to be nowadays fit tin fr to run after strange gods in my old age. First off, l don't hold at noth- ins ek'l to draw poker as a eddicatin mejum an a moral influence onto the c'munity, and then I aint what you'd call wise on this here faro game T aint got nothin agin faro. on'y | it's gamblin', an it's ag'in the law, an
 it's suthin' t I don't really understand.
 An besides that, I ain't got no layout.
 "O' course a mans got t get his Twin,
 an if he gambles an he reely does on-
 derstand the game like they say you do, it's proper enough fir you to follow it. I a4nt sayin' t ain't But fir law-abidin' citizen like me to low gamblin' onto his place, like you're proposin, is what I call fyin' in the face O Providence when he's got a well-established business like I've certainly got" But faro aint no more gamblin n poker is," said Jim Waters.
 Now, Jim,' said old man Greenhut, re- provingly, "th' ain't no call f'h you to get sacrilegious. You know well enough t poker is the done pinted way the Lord has p'vided fr them at has talents to make a Twin outen them t thinks they knows more'n they does. For to compare that to faro is plumb blasphe- mous an I don't want no such talk here."
 T ain't a comparin' poker to faro,' replied Waters, hotly. "They ain't to be compared. Look at it reasonable. I've done seen times in this here very room when there's been weepin' an wailin an gnashin' O teeth count O some pirate comin' long what knowed as much as anybody here an got away with a wad." Tn playin' poker" he continued, warm ing up to his subject the other feller's goin to deal some O the time, an tn ain't no law agin him learnin' as much about dealin' as anybody else. Conse- quent. when he's dealin you're liable fir to be the sucker.
 GIT aint so in faro. l deal all the time an he's the sucker all the time. Mebbe he's able to deal as well as me- but he don't git no chanct
 70 course it stan's to reason t he's goin' to win a bet now an ag'in I ain't no such fool as for the bank to win all the time. If did there wouldn't be nobody playin agin bank, not fir long there wouldn't; but they don't nobody get up winner firm a settin', not thout- en I've got some reason for lettin' O him do it, which 1t thought be I'd know he come back fr more"
 That proves what l said" declared the old man. "Faro's gamblin'.
 You say your own self what a man hain't no show fir to win ag'n bank Now, poker ain't gamblin bein' as a man alays has chancet O winnin that Is | if he's good enough player.
 "If the boys can't skin him outen his wad legitimate, what with Jim Blais- dell's dealin an Pearsall an Winterbot- tom ready fir to start crosscut when it's needful, an Joe Bassett settfn in case O rough house-I say if them four can't win legitimate often any stranger t comes here to play, I won't stand fr him bein | robbed other way T aint said nothin so fur said Joe Bassett. interrupting. ''bein' as I knowed t want likely t old man Greenhut was goin' to listen to no such proposition as