Year: 1876

sissippi During the War.


In the latter part of '64I made trip
down the river. There came on board
at Cairo young paymaster who was on
his way to pay brigade OF troops some
where in the neighborhood of Vicksburg.
1t was very quiet on the boat, and on
the first night below Cairo the paymaster
spent a good deal of his time after sup
per walking up and down the saloon.
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 a
little at the paymaster and said:


Dull"


every dull" said the payinaster.


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


"Good idea," said the paymaster,
and they sat down and went at it.


Both of them were playing merely to
pass time, at least the paymaster was, and
the other man seemed to be. They had
it one way and the other for an hour or
two, playing about So for top bet, and
neither of them winning or losing much,
but still getting more and more inter
ested. Finally each seemed to get big
hand, and they began betting heavy in
the most natural sort of way. The fire
had been smoldering, you see, and it
broke outapparently withouttheir know
ing it.


Neither of them seemed disposed to
lay dawn, and they kept on raising and
raising till they were making bets of two,
three, five hundred dollars, and they
got the pot up to about seven thousand.
Then the stranger rested his eye on the
paymaster for a, moment, and made an
estimate of the amount of his pluck and
the probable size of his pile, and the re-
suit of his observations seemed to be q
belief that he could bluff him or freeze
him out, for he threw his hand down on
the table, and leaned over and pulled a
bowie knife out of his boot, and drove
the point of it down through the cards
into the table. Then he took big wal
let out of his breast pocket, and counted
out twenty-one e-hundred-dollar
notes. He saw the paymaster's last bet
OF five hundred, and then hauled re-
volver off his hip, pushed the twenty
other bills into the pot, and said:


81 raise you ten thousand dollars"


The paymaster looked at the gambler
about two seconds. Then he beckoned
to his colored boy, bright young fell
low who would have given his master
the wink if he had ever happened to
look in his direction, which he hadn't.
But he frightened up when he heard the
word, and walked straight off for the
paymaster's stateroom. He disappeared
q moment, and soon showed up again,
backing through the door, dragging o
trunk after him; and he came down the
saloon rolling that trunk along on its
end, just as handy as though he had
smashed baggage on through line all
his life.


The paymaster took O key out of his
vest pocket, threw up the lid of the
trunk, and took off sheet of sole leath-
er that seemed to serve as sort of bind
er 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 out the
other bundles and stacking them up on
the table in frontof him. He kept taking
out and stacking up till he had built a
big triangle-shaped pile, like two pairs
OF, stairs meeting at the top and all filed
in solid underneath.


Then he threw his hand down on the
table and pulled bowie knife out of his
boot and spiked it down through the
norIo onI xuh1la tha Lonl1n Oh
shivering he handed the two bundles
into the middle of the table and said !:
II see your ten thousand dollars -
here he braced himself back against the
pile and began moving it up to the
table, continuing to talk all the while
"and | raise you a hundred and seventy
five thousand |" and then (he did it SO
quick that I couldn't see when it was
done) he had 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 hold
ing them very straight and steady, too.


Now, the gambler was an older man
and of much more experience than the
paymaster, and under any sort of ordi-
nary circumstances he could have
handled him ten to one, and he knew it,
and had no thought of laying down even
then, and he seemed to revolve the
thing in his mind for about quarter of
minute, and when he had settled what
to do he looked up ready to act, but one
glance at the paymaster made him
change his mind /; for he could see
shining through the young mans face
all the accumulated unused grit of years,
and man with half an eye could see
that he meant business.


The gambler realized that fact. He
pulled his knife out of the table, stuck
his pistol into his pocket, and walked off
down the saloon, whistling Rosa Lee
just as soft and pleasant as though he
was going for cigar after dinner.
Then the paymaster booted his knife
and slung his shooters and packed his
trunk, putting in along with the rest the
thirteen thousand odd of the gamblers
money and he didn't play any more
draw that trip.


And 1 am told that he was so much
impressed by the revelation to himself
of his own backbone and nerve that he
made up his mind there was something
better for him to do than wasting his
time in gambling, and he hasn't handled
q card since.