The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-01
MORAL INFLUENCE
 OF DRAW POKER Shown In Case of PegIeg Hig-
 ginStorn OF NEW GREENVlLLE Was Poor White With Large Family. The Ways O Providence Is Sure Mysterious" Says Old
 Greenhut.
NEW GREENVlLLE

|
 From the New York Sun.
 ''The ways of Providence is sure mys- ] terious, said old man Greenhut, some what mournufuly. There's some gets what they don't want an there's more l wants what they don't get. i Pears like a spring flood shows up ev'y year for to keep us in mind Of it. ] Someres up noth they get a eXtry supply of water oneet in so often. an it just rolls off, bein' tn amt no place for it. Thea us down here in the valley goes lookn' f'r dry land an can't find enough on it to get aerost the street thought wadin'. Now 1 reckon it is t the good Lord
 pears to be so busy chuckin blessin's down onto ongratefl world He don't have nQ time to watch out where they're goin' to hit. Just shovels 'em out in bulk an lets em fall any old place. like He does the rain. what the Good Book says some of it falls on the dust an some don't
 "O course there's some pvson made 1 fir sortin things out when they get here. If they want l reckon we'd all choke flood times. f we hadn't done starved already when there was d drought. Ie
 
 water but when it comes to tn dstribu- ton O wealth pears like Providence seen t somepin' extra had to be did, an that must a been how come draw poker.
 ''There was old Pegleg Higginstover, t found that out, late in life, to be sure, but there want no shnin'er 'xample O the benefcatory effects O poker n he was when he done seen it fir the first time. 
 "Pegleg were a DO white t lived into cabin nigh hand to the no'east corner O Zebulon Strawbridges plantation, just out O Greenville, when I were boy, but tEere want nobody had nothin' D ticker ag'in Pegeg Higginstover, on'y t he was ongodly shifless. Feared like he done been borned hathaway an not hovin' nothin O his own, he just atrally mar ried a woman t didn't have nothin' nelth- CT, n was a sight more shif fless n he was.
 When I first knowed him he had 12 dogs an slew O children, nobody lSnowed how man O them there was, 'thougften 5twas Marm Higginstover, an she couldn't count above six, 'thouten mistakes. The just lived, like the DO whites does, but why they did. r what they got outen It. nobody old tell on'y they peared to be tol'able happy, dogs an all, like the DO whites gen'ly is
 "Or Zebulon Strawbridge was consid-
 l heap O ways. First off, he was richer n mud. Had plantation O three or four thousand acres. an more niggers n anybody else knowed how many there was
 That was afore the wah. when nig- gers was wuth reel money. An he had horses an cattle an no end O money in the bank. till he had to hire law yers clerk to help him keep count O what he had. Made him stoop shoulder ed, thin an haggard like, thinkin' over It.
 "There was somethin' though, t Zeb- ulon Strawbridge didn't have what Peg ! leg Higginstover had. F'r one thing, he l hadn't a child bein' 8 he was too mean to keep a wife, an s fur s anybody lknowed there want none O his kin to leave his money to, an him gettin' old.
 "They said that worried him heap but not as much as it did toi study how to get richer He was hell bent on that
 Come a night when feller rid up to Pegleg Higginstover's cabin, tol' able late an ast if he cd stay till daylight. bein as twas powerful stormy Pegleg took him in, give him a corn pone an told him he cd bunk in with the dogs an the children bein' as tn want no other place.
 "Then they got tal1in' an the feller ast who lived in the big house beyond. Peg leg told him an the feller sort O sighed
 
 |" I wish I cd get the old pirate into game O poker
 An Pegleg says. Why
 Fears he'd growed up monstrous ig- norant an while he knowed in a genl sort O way what draw poker was he hadn't never been eddicated to see the gre't moral advantages O the game. so when the feller says he'd like to play with Zebulon Strawbridge, all t Pegleg cd say was 'Why?'
 "el, the feler looked at him a spell sort O sprised like, an then he said:
 "'So's't I ed take some O that on- healthy mass O riches away f5m him. O course. If I cd get him to play long enough I'll bet mule I'd have the hull on it.
 "Pegleg Higglnstover he studied over this fir d spell Feared he had sort of a thinkin' machine inside of his nut ony it didn't get wound up frequent an the feller d gave it jog like. "When the feller went away next morn- in Pegleg Ike kep' on studyin'. Pears he was havin pleasant dreams with hisself Q what he'd do f he ony owned all O Zeb- ulon Strawbrdges nggers, that beln the p'ticlzIer form O wealth what DO white alays wanted the most when niggers was propty.
 Well, the more he thought about 1t the more he seen it were up to him for to get eddicated, old as he was, so he set about studyin' draw poker
 Lord knows how he ever learned, ben' as he hadn't no gre't opportunities, an he hadn't never studied nothin' afore; bIt he kep' at it perseverin', five or six years, an' they do say he come to be tol able fair poker player, on'y he didn't never get chanst O benefitin much bein' as them t he knowed was as poor as him, an there want no considerable game round what he cd get into | "He stuck at 1t, though, till he felt some | confident O what he thought do f he ca | on'y get a chanst, an then ne set apoue l studvin' how he cd rope Zebulon Straw | bridge into a freezeout
 "If I ony had one nlgger fir start | err he uster to say to hisself. T cd double