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.