Year: 1876

They were, says the New York
Sun, sitting around The table in a
fifteen ward faro bank that is tenn
porarily closed through some misun-
derstanding with the police, and hav-
ing tired Of short-cards they fell to
telling stories. "You may have
heard this one" said a square, ,jawed,
firm-faced, gray-whiskered man, " fol-
it was printed briefly at the time; but
| was there:


I" In the latter part Of ga | made a
trip down the river. There came on
board at Cairo young pay-master
who was on his way to pay brigade
of troops somewhere IN the neighboT
hood of Vicksburg. 1t was very
quiet on the boat, and on the first
night below Caro- the paymaster
spent :. good deal of his time after
supper walking up and down the sa.
loon. There was also walking up
and down the saloon trim, square.
shouldered man, who seemed to be
suffering from the same tediousness;
and when they had met few times
the stranger smiled little at the pay
master, and said:


"Dull.'


"'D- dull said the paymastcr.


"' Suppose we have a little game
of draw said the stranger.


"sGood idea,' said the pay-master;
and they sat down and went at it.


"Both of them were playing mere
ly to pass time, at least the pay-mas-
ter was, and the other man seemed
to be. They had 1t one way and the
other for an hour or two, paying
about $5 for a top bet, and neither OF
them winning or losing much, but
getting more and more interested. -
Finally each seemed to get big
hand, and they began betting heavy
in the most natural sort of way. The
fire had been smouldering, you see
and it broke out apparently without
their knowing it.


Neither of them seemed disposed
to lay down, and they kept on raising
and raising till they were making
bets of two, three, five hundred dol
lars, and they got the pot up to about
seven thousand. Then the stranger
rested his eye on the pay-master for a
moment and made an estimate of the
amount of his pluck and the proba.
bic size of his pile, and the result OF
his observations seemed TO be a be.
lief that he could bluff him or freeze
him out, for he threw his hand down
on the table, and leaned over and
pulled bowie-knlfe out of his boot.
and drove the point of it down
through the cards into the table
Then he took q big wallet out of his
breast pocket, and counted out TWEEN.
tyone ti> e-hundred dollar notes. He
saw the pay-master's last bet of five
hundred, and then hauled revolver
off his hip, pushed the twenty other
bills into the pot, and said:


"' raise you ten thousand dollars.


"The pay-master looked at the
gambler abo two seconds. Then
he becked to his colored boy, a bright
young fellow who had taken the
thing IN from the start, and who
would have given his master the wink
if he had ever happened to look in
his direction, which he didn't. But
he frightened up when he heard the
word, and walked straight off for the
pay-master's stateroom. He disap.
peared moment, and then showed
up again, backing through the door,
dragging trunk after him; and he
came down the saloon rolling that
trunk along on its end, just as handy
as though he had smasked baggage
on a through line all his life. The
pay-master took a key out of his vest
pocket, threw up the lid Of the trunk
and took off u sheet of sole leather
that seemed to serve as a sort of bind
cr for the bundles of bills underneath
He took two big packages out OF the
end and laid them upon one side OF
the table. Then he began taking ou,
the other bundles and stacking them
upon the table IN front of him. He
kept taking out and stacking up till
he had built big, triangular-shaped
pile, like two pairs of stairs meeting
ut the top and filled in solid under
meath.


"Then he threw his hand down on
the table and pulled a bowie-knife out
of his boot and spiked it down
through the cards, and while the han
die was still shivering, he handed
two bundles into the middle of the
table and said: Il see your ten
thousand dollars here he braced
himself back against the pile and
began showing itup the table, contin
uing to talk all the time and Iraise
you 4 hundred and seventy-five thous
and!' and then (he did it so quick
that l couldn't see when it was done
he had a pistol off of each hip and
was resting an elbow about half way
up on each side of the greenback
stairs, both shooters covering the
gambler, and holding them very
straight and steady, too.


"Now, the gambler was an Older
man, and of much more experience
than the pay-mastcr, and under any
sort of ordinary circumstances he
could have handled Him ten to one
and he knew it, and had no though
of laying down, even then, and he
seemed to revolve the thing in hi
mind for about quarter of minute
and when he had settled what to do
he looked up, ready to act, but ont
glance at the pay-master made hin
change his mind; for he could see
shining through the young mans
face, all the accumulated, unused gri
of years, and man with half an ey,
could have seen that he meant busl
ness.


"The gambler realized that fact
He pulled his knife ont of the table
stuck his pistol into his pocket, ant
walked off down the saloon, whist
ling Rosa Lee just as soft ant
pleasantly as though he was going
Tor cigar after dinner. Then thu
pay-master booted his knife and slune
his shooters and packed his trunk
putting in along with the rest thu