The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1909-09-10
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PLAYS CHECKERS
FOR A LIVING
Ran Who Playa From Forty
70 Sixty Games an Hour.
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This IS the story Of a man who
eu'neu ms chlet recreation into a
H'aHS OF livelihood. The mans name
= James McEntee, and he halls from
ho'hester, y. T. In 1873 he began
~ pay checkers for amusement. To
gay ne pays checkers for his bread
ana bulter and does il so vel that
ne mas TO employ an assistant. But
mere his own story just told il at
ooHey Island one afternoon last
week.
grew up in the show business and
was crack piano player in the DAYS
When the crowd sang the chorus OF
Nellie Was Lady Old Black joe
ana Massa s in the Cold. Cold Ground
Many a ballad singer who made good
IN The Blue Alsatian Mountains and
Alter the BAR did | play accompani-
mehts for, but when rag time came in
| was too old to master its kinks.
mad 10 find something else 10 do but 7
knew Ia have TO stay in the show
business. That had been my living for
100 many years TO drop il In my old
age For years my one recreation had
been checkers. and when | was NOT
playing for folks to sing or dance I
was licking somebody at checkers.
Men came from far and near around
Rochester 10 beat me. but they
couldn't | had not only studied ont
thousands of moves for myself hut |
had read everything written on check
ers, worked out all the difficult games
told about in newspapers and met
every champion that came my way.
! said TO my checker board: Here
you've got to pay back with interest
the years of work I've given you And !
The wise old board just seemed 10
shake with glee al the idea took
out a concession permit and went TO a |
country fair TO try my luck | spread \
out couple OF boards. PLAYERS who /
won a game from me did not have TO I
pay: those who lost gave me 5 cents.
Well, | didn't get rich that first season.
but that winter | got so that | could
run six boards. or rather play against
SIX people. at a time The next fair
season that one idea made a hit. and
u was not hard to keep six players at
the boards most OF the time.
Well. OF course. If you make good
anywhere else you want TO get TO the
Dig town so ] came to Coney Island
and set up my boards in the open air.
wise ones said: Too tame for Coney
island, but they were wrong. Coney
likes a little of everything. and men
VINO hadn't seen a checkerboard since
they got TO wandering down the Great
White Way seemed right glad TO see
me Farmers and out-of-town folks
generally said il felt like home TO
meet up with checkerboard
"On bright day I'll play from 40
to 90. games an hour, and have about
three of four right busy hours each
afternoon. Some folks think | must
get tired. but, while the game is al.
most mechanical with me and | can
almost always foresee just what each
players next move viii be: YOU never
get tired of studying people and their
There's the young man
who wants to show his best girl what
I sport he is. even at checkers. | lick
him 20 finish. but let the girl beat
me. and that just tickles her to death. {
Then sometimes a husband and wife {
will come along. and the wife will Just
iit and chuckle watching me beat her a
husband. or she may get spunky and [
PAT MISC-9 {
make him play to show what he can
To- That sort OF woman takes il so
seriously that you've got to let her c
husband win or she'll worry him to
leath about H.
Everybody may not know that
heckers is one OF the oldest games in
history and antedates chess Egyptolo-
lists have discovered traces of its be.
ng a recreation 5000 years ago. so
on see there is nothing new. not even
game. under the sun: only IL is a
ew idea for man TO make his living
y it.-New York World.