We left New Orleans on a Red River packet, and had been out about
an hour, when a man came up to me and said, "Captain, have you any
objection to a man opening faro on your boat?" I said, "No, you
can open any time you please." He took me to be Captain Heath,
and I knew he did not care. He said, "I will open after supper."
It was near that time then, and I thought I must go to work if I
wanted to beat this man. I found out what room he occupied, and
then told my partner to stay and entertain him till I returned.
I went to his room, and found an old-fashioned valise that held
his tools. I tried the keys I had, and found one to fit. I opened
the valise, took out the cards and punched every one of them; then
I put them back and carefully locked the valise, went back and
invited them to take a drink. Then we went to supper, and after
it was over the old fellow brought out his kit and opened a game.
He shuffled and put the cards in the box. I asked him what limit
he was going to deal. He said, "If any of you put too much on a
card, I'll tell you." A good many of the passengers changed in,
and he had a lively game. I stood alongside of him, so I could
look down into the deck; and when I saw white show, I would copper
in the big square, and my partner would play the other end and
middle open--for when the white showed, it would be an ace or deuce.
In this way we got the old fellow rattled. He changed decks every
deal, but had the same bad luck. We finally broke him, and then
won his tools. We returned the latter, paid his passage to
Shreveport, and gave him $50. After breaking up the faro man, I
said, "Gentlemen, I have a game here in which I only need three
cards." I opened out, had a fine play, and took in all the money,
watches, and pistols that they had. We were then ready to light
out, as we had won $2,000 from the old faro dealer, and about
$1,200, besides the watches and pistols, at monte. We bid the boys
good-bye, and got off at Baton Rouge.