"Hold on. I have been watching him, and am going to take him in pretty soon." I then gave Bill the wink to keep on, and turning to the old fellow, I observed, "Don't leave here, as I may want you to hold stakes for me."
"All right," was the answer; and then I turned to Bill and said, "Let me see your cards;" so I picked up the one with the old woman on it and put a pencil mark on it, which I showed the old man (who, by-the-by, was a large wholesale grocery merchant, whom I had known for twenty-five years, and he had seen me play monte many a time). I asked the old fellow that was turning the cards, "if he would bet on the game."
"Yes," he replied; "I'll bet you can't find any card you may mention, after I mix 'em up."
Then I said, "Hide the old woman." So he mixed them up again, and I said, "I know it's hard to find, but I'll bet you $1,000 I can pick her up the first time." He laid up the money on the table, and I continued, "This gentleman will hold the stakes." "All right," said Bill, and he put the money in the grocery-man's hand, and I turned the card. Bill said, "All right; fairly won. Give him the money;" and I pocketed the stuff. Then I offered to bet him $2,000, but Bill declined to bet with me any more; so my friend the grocery-man spoke up: "I'll bet you I can turn the card." Bill replied, "I have just lost $1,000, and if I bet any more it will not be less than $2,000." So I handed my friend the money to put up; but Bill wouldn't stand it, and spoke up: "I won't do that. If you don't play your own money, I won't bet;" so I told him to just lay it up and turn the card, and I would hand it to him. He got out his wallet and put up $1,700, and I loaned him $300 to make it up; so he turned the card. The old fellow could not believe himself. He stood still for a few minutes, looked at Bill, then at me, and finally said, "Devol, lend me a five-dollar bill, and I will go home and stay there until I get some sense." He did what he said he would, and I never saw him for a couple of months, when one day, as I was passing his house, he hailed me, and calling me in he counted me out $305 in five-dollar bills, and said, "Here is what I owe you. Now I want to know if you have found any more old fellows who don't know how to play that game of monte." Of course I laughed at the joke, and we were always good friends.
DICKY ROACH AND I.
While playing one night in St. Louis at old Mr. Peritts' game of faro, and Dick Roach was dealing, luck ran dead against me, and at every play I turned up loser, when in came a drunken man who was quarrelsome, and insisted on annoying me. I told him that I was in no condition to have anybody clawing me around. Then he got mad and wanted to fight. I said nothing, and stood it as long as I could, when I got up out of my chair, and hit him a slug in the ear that curled him up on the floor like a possum. Then I cashed my checks and set out for a walk. I knocked around for about half an hour, and got to thinking about how much money I had lost, and resolved to try my luck again. There was no other bank open, so I went back to Peritts' game, and there, sprawled out on the floor, lay the big lubber that I had knocked over, and Roach was kneeling down by him and rubbing him with ice water and a towel, so I resolved to take another walk, when Roach, catching sight of me, said: "Devol, I guess you owe me something for taking care of your patient, and if that's the way you hit, I don't want you to hit me. I've been rubbing this fellow ever since you left."
Dick was fond of fun, and had a man who went by the name of Shell Fairchild, who he thought could throw down or whip anybody, and he was willing to put up his money on him. One night we were all in Loops' saloon, when Fairchild and Dick Roach came in. Thurston and Roach got into an argument about wrestling, and Thurston said, "I have got a man that can put your man on his back for this fifty- dollar bill," pulling out the money. Roach covered it in a minute, and then Thurston asked me if I would wrestle him. "Yes," I said.
We picked out a place, tossed off our coats, and I put him on his back in a minute. That wasn't satisfactory , so I did it again.
"Satisfied," said Roach, as he handed Thurston the money.
Sherman, poor fellow, bucked the fifty dollars right against the bank, and then, of course, Roach got it all back again, and Sherman only regretted that he hadn't stuck Roach for more.