Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-07-27

been driven atkkortlaDd, Ore.-thdt
last spike of the Northern Pacific rail-
road by which thscontinent was span
ned
Helena, Mont, vas in the heyday
Of lusty. unabash&. crude youth. The
released graders tom the completed
railroad thickenedfhe crowds In its
streets. ALI had moty; all were aflame
to spend It. The uF main street was
two lines of saloonsydance balls, gam
bling bells, all openAll crowded from
dawn to dawn.
OF the several busyministers Of for
tune then and there resent, Railroad
Jim was the busiest He ran a little
game Of three card fpnte in a back
room of the Montana Hriors, by which
name was glorified onepf the smallest
and worst saloons in II town.
He was busy indeed, fr custom was
brisk, and he had no assistant An
assistant, to have been Anything but
costly luxury, must haV had fingers
as agile as Jim's own, inheir peculiar
way. Such a one was NJ to be had
very readily. The last hti been shot
by an indignant victim. n Railroad
Jim's opinion, the man Ind deserved
his fate, for he had bee culpably
careless, almost awkward and had
thus invited bis DOOM
So now, perforce, Jim tled indie
fatigabIy. When be slept VS. a mys-
terry beyond any mans soltng. His
meals were sandwiches, swalhwed dur
ing the progress of the game. His sole
drink was coffee
OF course such labor desertd a re-
yard, and equally of course railroad
Jim had it A steady streamPf men
slouched from the saloon into te back
room and anon slouched outjagain,
much poorer and not whit thswiser
for their experience.
But there were no complaints-kcept
against the goddess of fortune, vSo, in
truth, was most ungallantly and igor
ously cursed betimes. Yet, whilt the
losers reviled their own bad judgtent
or i'll luck, they candidly admiredum
for the dexterity with which hepe-
fooled them. For he won honestt-
he ran square game" trusting to he
artfulness of his ten fingers for Is
modicum of profit.
All who gambled there knew tina
Jim was honest, because he held tn,
game down to a limit. ANY one cal
see that, had he cheated. the limi
would have been a palpable absurdity
No man would refuse to take all h
could get on certainty.
But Jim, aware that a SUFFICIENT.
acute observer might sometimes pfcl
the right card. refused to accept AM
single bet of more than $500. To b,
sure, no one had as yet offered to be
so large an amount on one throw OF
the cards, but that fact had no infiu
ence on public opinion.
Jim was a large man, with a large
nose, a large chin, lofty bald skull
and bullying, CLASSY eyes. He was no
at all pretty, but very imposing. HI
had big hands, too-hands that wer.
like brooding wings over the thre,
cards with which he toyed SO con
stantly.
1t was really an edifying spectacle
to behold those hands as they manipu
lated the three cards-the ten Of
spades, the ten of clubs, the Jack OF
diamonds. The cards seemed never
quite to disappear from view. More
over. the movement was rather slow
than hurried.
The faces of the cards were first ex
-hibited. two in the right hand, one II
the left. Then they were held backs
up and deposited softly. one by one
A n ct
keep an eye persistently on the jack
of diamonds-to watch it unwinkingly
till it was at last put down. Then II
only remained to place the bet and
finally to turn over the card selected.
Unfortunately for the crowd, this
card was rarely the jack. The unhap
py losers shook their heads and rue
fully admitted that Railroad Jim was
"a cussed slick un with tn paste
boards"
Among many others, Old Ike lost
He had been in Helena just week
and already he was a familiar figure
in the various resorts. He was a man
Of about sixty, short, thin, clean shaw
en-, bright eyed, taciturn.
He drank a moderate amount OF
whisky without going on the rampage
and he gambled here and there, also
in moderation. Every night he drop,
ped in at the Montana Parlors and
regularly made two fifty-dollar bets
with Railroad Jim. In his fourteen
efforts he had lost precisely $T0O.
However, he took his losses calmly
and remarked each night that he
guessed he could afford 1t, whereby all
his hearers knew him to be a man OF
wealth.
On the eighth night of his stay In
Helena Old Ike got drunk. He visited
every bar in the place and drank at
each with democratic impartiality.
Anon he varied this pursuit by a mild
effort to beat a faro game, in which he
failed ANONYMOUSLY.
1t was near midnight when he stag
gered into the Montana Pariors and In.
vited every man there present to the
bar. Having drunk. Ola Ike announc-
ed TO all and sundry that he purDoSed