A man by the name of Charlie Adams, Tripp, and myself, started out
from Chicago on the Michigan Central Railroad one day, to turn a
few honest dollars. We took separate cars and began looking for
a game. I was in the ladies' car, and thought I saw plenty of
material, but the most of it was handicapped with female riders.
There was one old gentleman sitting alone, so I took a seat beside
him and began to feel his pulse. He had sold a pair of horses for
$800, and an interest in a patent for $1,600. I did not want to
play him in that car, for I wanted some of the other a little later
on; so I invited him to join me in a smoke. He declined, and told
me that he never smoked a cigar, chewed tobacco, or drank a drop
of liquor in his life. Then I knew he would be a darling sucker;
so I invited him to go over in the smoking-car until I could have
a little smoke myself. He consented, and we went over. We took
a seat just behind a green looking countryman who was smoking a
cob pipe, and it was not long until he turned round and asked us
the name of a station we had just passed. We did not know the
name, so he said: "I don't wonder you can't tell the names, for
I never saw so many towns strung 'long a railroad. Why, out where
I live we don't have a town only about once in fifty miles."
I asked him where he lived. He replied: "When I'm to hum, I lives
on a ranch in Colorado; but I've been to Chicago sellin' of my
steers, and them thar fellows came nigh gettin' the best of me with
some of their new-fangled games; but they gave me some of their
tickets, and when I get home I'll make the boys think I didn't take
my critters to Chicago for nothing. I guess as how they would have
got more of my money, but I left it up at the tavern with the feller
that had his hair all glued down to his forehead as if he thought
it would fall off. So when they got all I had with me they thought
I was broke and let me go."
The old gent asked him to show us how they beat him with the tickets.
He said, "I've not larnt it yet, but I will try and show you;" so
he got out his three tickets and began to throw them on the seat,
explaining that we must guess the ticket with the little boy on
it. We guessed, sometimes right and sometimes wrong. I bent up
the corner of the little boy ticket, and told the old gent not to
turn that card until we got a bet out of the fool; so we would miss
it every time after that. Finally I offered to bet him $500 that
I could turn up the boy ticket the first turn. He said, "No, I
won't bet on her yet, for I can't play her good 'nough." Then I
offered to bet him five to two, so he got out his big roll, saying,
"This is the money I left up to the tavern, so I'll just try you
once." I put up my $500, and he put up $200. I turned the ticket
with the corner bent, and won.
He looked at me a moment, then said to the old gent, who was holding
the stakes, "Give him the money, for gol darned if he didn't get
her fair."
Then I offered to bet him $1,000, but he said, "You got an eye like
an Indian, and I don't want to play with you any more; but I will
play with your pap" (pointing to the old gent).
The old fellow said, "I am a church member, and never bet; but I
expect some one will win all that fellow's money before he gets
home."
"Certainly," said I; "and we may as well have it as any one else."
The old gent got out his money and wanted to bet $100, but the
fellow would not bet less than $1,000. I then offered to put up
the balance, but the fellow would not have it, saying, "Your eyes
are too good." Then the old gent put up the money in my hands and
turned the card; but it was not the winner, for somehow, in mixing
them, the corner of the boy card had got straightened out and the
corner of another was turned up. I put a mark on the boy card with
my pencil while the fellow was putting away his money, and then
told him as he was a little winner he should let me bet once more.
He said, "All right," so I put up $1,000, turned the marked card
and won.
The old church member could not stand it to see me win all that
fool's money, so he put up $1,000 more in order to get even. The
fellow told him he would make it $1,500; and as that would get him
out ahead, up she went, and he turned the marked card; but, as was
the case with the crocked corner, the little mark was on another
card. The old gent dropped back in his seat with a groan, and just
then a gentleman who had been sitting across the aisle got up and
said, "You fellows have been trying to rob this boy out of his
money. I have been watching you, and will report you to the officers
at the next station." The old gent got up and started back to his
car, saying to me in a whisper, "You had better get out of this,
or you may get into trouble." I replied, "I think so myself." So
I got up and started back with him, but he was in such a hurry that
I got lost from him. When the train got up to the next station,
there were three less passengers on board than when that fellow
said, "I will report you to the officers."