Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-08-02
Mistellanrons 8eaaius.
OLD TIME TRAIN GAMBLER.
Made Things Lively In the Southwest
With Gambling.

| seated around luncneOn taDle
at the Waldorf one day not long ago
Iwere three men discussing spectacular
gambling that used to prevail on old
mississippi River steamboats,. 81
doubt" said one, "if gambling ever
disclosed more exciting melodrama
than in those days" The second man
concurred in this opinion by his 81
lence. The third, however. who had
sown the initial seed that had
sprouted in the present conversational
| trend, smiled as IL he realized his
chance had come. Nonsense" said
he; the real melodrama of gam
is far removed from the days you have
mentioned 1t existed not on the Missis-
| sippi steamboats,, but on the railroad
trains of the west and southwest, and
either"
The speaker. a gray-haired, pleas
ant faced man of about 4S years, was,
as his companions well knew, one of
the most famous gamblers Of his day
in the western states. Since reformed,
he was known to have served two
terms in the penitentiary. His name,
ten years ago, rang as familiar in the
shady circles this side of the Missis-
sippi as it did to the westward. 1t
was in response to the pleadings of
the two men with him that, over the
coffee and cigars, he told of some of
the experiences in railroad gambling
In which he and some of his fellow
gamblers had figured. and which he
gave as examples Of some of the more
exciting episodes that had taken place
on the steel roads of the west. His
narrative. which speaks for itself Is
told in his own words:
AT the time of which 1 am speak
ing," he began, II was working the
Nebraska trains with three confed-
crates. Poker was our game, not
three monte, as you may have
thought One day we got wind Of the
fact that a man, who shall be called
Clarke for present purposes, was go
ing to leave Omaha for western trip
the next day. This man was very
wealthy and was known to be great
card player Getting together with
my two confederates, we formed our
little scheme and started in to lay our
wires at once. Accordingly, when
Clarke got on the train ready for his
trip he found the three of us deep
in a game of poker. We were play
ing for very small stakes, and paying
no attention to him, kept our eyes
glued to the game. The tedium OF
the Journey, as we had figured, soon
got on Clarke's nerves, and he spent
his time watching us play. Presently
the playing fever got in its work on
him. and he asked us If he might take
hand. I told him gruffiy that we
did not know him, and that, anyway
we we're afraid If starnger entered
the game he might want to boost the
limit.
After a lot of talk, however, we
let him in with apparent reluctance,
and, once in, we let him win pot after
pot. Not one of us, seemingly could
win. We complained about our luck.
grumbled, grew angry, protested.
Finally, when Clarke won a particu-
larly good-SiZed pot, after we had peeh
playing in constant bad luck for three
hours, l jumped to my feet, knocked
over the chips, grasped Clarke by the
shoulders and shouted out that ne
was a cheat! The other two men also
sprang up, and one of them. seizing
Clarke's coat, drew a card hold
from under the lower left side.
you're right cried my confed-
crate. Look at this
Clarke, flushing, protested-Dut III
vain, and subsequently gave up SS,ooo
TO us under our threat to nave MN
arrested. One Of us had slipped the
| hold into position under his coat
while he was playing. Indeed, this
trick was worked by us a dozen times
a wear, anyway, in those days.
ION one of the Denver trains, work
cd by another gambler and myself,
we cleaned up 100000 in six months.
Five thousand of this amount we got
by Turing two men into big stake
game. and by holding up the table
stakes finally with reVolVers. we
cleaned off all the cash, jumped the
train and got away before the men
realized clearly what had happened.
Things at one period got TO sucn
a pass on the trains running through
the southwest that there would fire.
uuently be two separate sets OF pro
fessional gamblers working a single
train As q result the gamblers not
infreuuently came to blows with one
another, The famous Pat Sheedy
story. alleged to have had its locale IN
q gambling resort in Denver, as q mat
ter of fact had its setting on one or the
Texas trains. Boarding one or the
latter trains, Sheedy found protes-
sional crook whom he recognized, but
who did not recognize him. Inc
crook was sitting with couple OF
travelling men, and was saying IN a
loud voice: Here's money-maklng
proposition for you fellows III Det
YOU $500 to $3.50 that 1 can shuttle
this deck of cards and then cut the
queen of spades the first crack
"Sheedy overheard and approached
the man. Excuse me, sir he said,
| 'but I'll take a hundred of that bet
if you'll let me shuttle the deck my
self
THE man agreed; the money was
put up with one of the strangers, the
second having also come in, ana
Sheedy slowly Shuftled the cards.
Now. then. said the man VINO
had made the proposition, 1 have bet
that | can cut the queen of spades
the first cut. Is that right?'
""The others agreed. The man
quickly drew a hunting knife, and,
bringing it down hard. split the deck
of cards in two. There you are he
said. with n smile, L have cut the
queen of spades the first crack.
Kindly hand me the money
Then Sheedy smiled. Snow US
the queen of spades that you have
cut he said The man went through
| the deck once. twice, three times.
Well. I'll be - he blurted out. For
Sheedy had palmed the card when
he shuffied the deck.
"On the train running out or Hous-
| ton | and a working partner of mine
once had n carefully laid plan Knocked
| into smithereens by accidentally run
ming across the trail OF another gam
bier and his partner. We were all az
| ter the same man, a merchant with a
pile of money, who was travelling
west. Before we could get to this
| nd