The first trip the steamer _Eclipse_ made I was on board. There
were five games of poker running at one time in the cabin. I was
invited into one, and I represented myself as a horseman. I played
on the square, as I wanted to gain their confidence; so when the
game closed for the night, they all thought me a square man. After
all my new friends had retired to their little beds, I got out six
decks of my marked cards and went to the bar. I told the barkeeper
what I wanted, but he objected, as he did not own the bar, and was
afraid it would be found out, and then he would be discharged. I
told him that no one but old gamblers could detect the marks, and
not one in fifty of them, as it was my own private mark. I had
been a good customer at the new bar, so the new barkeeper finally
consented to take my cards and send them to the table where I would
be playing. The next morning after breakfast the games were started,
and my new friends wanted me to sit in. I accepted the invitation,
and when the barkeeper put the checks and cards on the table, I
saw my old friends (I mean the cards). The game was five-handed,
and it was pretty hard to keep the run of all the hands; but I quit
the game a few hundred dollars winner. After the game one of the
gentlemen came to me and said: "I don't like a five-handed game;
suppose we split up and make two games." That was just what I
wanted, provided I could get in the game that had the most suckers,
so I said to him: "I do not care to play, if you gentlemen can
make up your game without me; but as we are all going through to
New Orleans, I will play a little to pass the time. You can arrange
the games to suit yourselves, and can count me in if you are short
a man." The gentlemen arranged two nice games, with me in one of
them. I had no partner, so I had to depend entirely on myself and
my old friends, the marks on the back. We played until the engines
were stopped at the landing in New Orleans, and I was $4,300 ahead.
I might have won a great deal more with the assistance of a good
partner, but then, you know, I would have had to divide with him;
so I was very well pleased with my last day on the new steamer.
I did not forget the new barkeeper, but gave him $50 for using my
cards at one of the tables in place of his own.