In the centre of the smoking-saloon, there was a table, and around it
some half-dozen men were seated. Other half-dozen stood behind these,
looking over their shoulders. The attitudes of all, and their eager
glances, suggested the nature of their occupation. The flouting of
pasteboard, the chink of dollars, and the oft-recurring words of "ace,"
"jack," and "trump," put it beyond a doubt that that occupation was
gaming. "Euchre" was the game.
Curious to observe this popular American game, I stepped up and stood
watching the players. My friend who had raised the false alarm was one
of them; but his back was towards me, and I remained for some time
unseen by him.
Some two or three of those who played were elegantly-dressed men. Their
coats were of the finest cloth, their ruffles of the costliest cambric,
and jewels sparkled in their shirt bosoms and glittered upon their
fingers. These fingers, however, told a tale. They told plainly as
words, that they to whom they belonged had not always been accustomed to
such elegant adornment. Toilet soap had failed to soften the corrugated
skin, and obliterate the abrasions--the souvenirs of toil.
This was nothing. They might be gentlemen for all that. Birth is of
slight consequence in the Far West. The plough-boy may become the
President.
Still there was an air about these men--an air I cannot describe, but
which led me at the moment to doubt their _gentility_. It was not from
any swagger or assumption on their part. On the contrary, they appeared
the _most gentlemanly_ individuals around the table!
They were certainly the most sedate and quiet. Perhaps it was this very
sedateness--this polished reserve--that formed the spring of my
suspicion. True gentlemen, bloods from Tennessee or Kentucky, young
planters of the Mississippi coast, or French Creoles of Orleans, would
have offered different characteristics. The cool complacency with which
these individuals spoke and acted--no symptoms of perturbation as the
trump was turned, no signs of ruffled temper when luck went against
them--told two things; first, that they were men of the world, and,
secondly, that they were not now playing their maiden game of "Euchre."
Beyond that I could form no judgment about them. They might be doctors,
lawyers, or "gentlemen of elegant leisure"--a class by no means uncommon
in the work-a-day world of America.
At that time I was still too new to Far West society, to be able to
distinguish its features. Besides, in the United States, and
particularly in the western portion of the country, those peculiarities
of dress and habit, which in the Old-World form, as it were, the
landmarks of the professions, do not exist. You may meet the preacher
wearing a blue coat and bright buttons; the judge with a green one; the
doctor in a white linen jacket; and the baker in glossy black broadcloth
from top to toe!
Where every man assumes the right to be a gentleman, the costumes and
badges of trade are studiously avoided. Even the tailor is
undistinguishable in the mass of his "fellow-citizens." The land of
character-dresses lies farther to the south-west--Mexico is that land.
I stood for some time watching the gamesters and the game. Had I not
known something of the banking peculiarities of the West, I should have
believed that they were gambling for enormous sums. At each man's right
elbow lay a huge pile of bank-notes, flanked by a few pieces of silver--
dollars, halves, and quarters. Accustomed as my eyes had been to
bank-notes of five pounds in value, the table would have presented to me
a rich appearance, had I not known that these showy parallelograms of
copper-plate and banking-paper, were mere "shin-plasters," representing
amounts that varied from the value of one dollar to that of six and a
quarter cents! Notwithstanding, the bets were far from being low.
Twenty, fifty, and even a hundred dollars, frequently changed hands in a
single game.
I perceived that the hero of the false alarm was one of the players.
His back was towards me where I stood, and he was too much engrossed
with his game to look around.
In dress and general appearance he differed altogether from the rest.
He wore a white beaver hat with broad brim, and a coat of great "jeans,"
wide-sleeved and loose-bodied. He had the look of a well-to-do
corn-farmer from Indiana or a pork-merchant from Cincinnati. Yet there
was something in his manner that told you river-travelling was not new
to him. It was not his first trip "down South." Most probably the
second supposition was the correct one--he was a dealer in hog-meat.
One of the fine gentlemen I have described sat opposite to where I was
standing. He appeared to be losing considerable sums, which the farmer
or pork-merchant was winning. It proved that the luck of the cards was
not in favour of the smartest-looking players--an inducement to other
plain people to try a hand.
I began to feel sympathy for the elegant gentleman, his losses were so
severe. I could not help admiring the composure with which he bore
them.
At length he looked up, and scanned the faces of those who stood around.
He seemed desirous of giving up the play. His eye met mine. He said,
in a careless way--
"Perhaps, stranger, _you_ wish to take a hand? You may have my place if
you do. I have no luck. I could not win under any circumstances
to-night. I shall give up playing."
This appeal caused the rest of the players to turn their faces towards
me, and among others the pork-dealer. I expected an ebullition of anger
from this individual. I was disappointed. On the contrary, he hailed
me in a friendly tone.
"Hilloa, mister!" cried he, "I hope you an't miffed at me?"
"Not in the least," I replied.
"Fact, I meant no offence. Did think thar war a some 'un overboard.
Dog-gone me, if I didn't!"
"Oh! I have taken no offence," rejoined I; "to prove it, I ask you now
to drink with me."
The juleps and the late reaction from bitter thought had rendered me of
a jovial disposition. The free apology at once won my forgiveness.
"Good as wheat!" assented the pork-dealer. "I'm your man; but,
stranger, you must allow me to pay. You see, I've won a trifle here.
_My_ right to pay for the drinks."
"Oh! I have no objection."
"Well, then, let's all licker! _I_ stand drinks all round. What say
you, fellars?" A murmur of assent answered the interrogatory.
"Good!" continued the speaker. "Hyar, bar-keeper! drinks for the
crowd!"
And so saying, he of the white-hat and jeans coat stepped forward to the
bar, and placed a couple of dollars upon the counter. All who were near
followed him, shouting each out the name of the beverage most to his
liking in the various calls of "gin-sling", "cocktail", "cobbler,"
"julep", "brandy-smash," and such-like interesting mixtures.
In America men do not sit and sip their liquor, but drink standing.
_Running_, one might say--for, be it hot or cold, mixed or "neat," it is
gone in a gulp, and then the drinkers retire to their chairs to smoke,
chew, and wait for the fresh invitation, "Let's all licker!"
In a few seconds we had all liquored, and the players once more took
their seats around the table.
The gentleman who had proposed to me to become his successor did not
return to his place. He had no luck, he again said, and would not play
any more that night.
Who would accept his place and his partner? I was appealed to.
I thanked my new acquaintances, but the thing was impossible, as I had
never played Euchre, and therefore knew nothing about the game, beyond
the few points I had picked up while watching them.
"That ar awkward," said the pork-dealer. "Ain't we nohow able to get up
a set? Come, Mr Chorley--I believe that's your name, sir?" (This was
addressed to the gentleman who had risen.) "You ain't a-goin' to desart
us that away? We can't make up a game if you do?"
"I should only lose if I played longer," reiterated Chorley. "No,"
continued he, "I won't risk it."
"Perhaps this gentleman plays `whist,'" suggested another, alluding to
me. "You're an Englishman, sir, I believe. I never knew one of your
countrymen who was not a good whist-player."
"True, I can play whist," I replied carelessly.
"Well, then, what say you all to a game of whist?" inquired the last
speaker, glancing around the table.
"Don't know much about the game," bluntly answered the pork-dealer.
"Mout play it on a pinch rayther than spoil sport; but whoever hez me
for a partner 'll have to keep a sharp look-out for himself, I reckon."
"I guess you know the game as well as I do," replied the one who had
proposed it.
"I hain't played a rubber o' whist for many a year, but if we can't make
up the set at Euchre, let's try one."
"Oh! if you're goin' to play whist," interposed the gentleman who had
seceded from the game of Euchre--"if you're going to play whist, I don't
mind taking a hand at _that_--it may change my luck--and if this
gentleman has no objection, I'd like him for my partner. As you say,
sir, Englishmen are good whist-players. It's their national game, I
believe."
"Won't be a fair match, Mr Chorley," said the dealer in hog-meat; "but
since you propose it, if Mr Hatcher here--your name, sir, I believe?"
"Hatcher is my name," replied the person addressed, the same who
suggested whist.
"If Mr Hatcher here," continued white-hat, "has no objection to the
arrangement, I'll not back out. Doggoned, if I do!"
"Oh! I don't care," said Hatcher, in a tone of reckless indifference,
"anything to get up a game."
Now, I was never fond of gambling, either amateur or otherwise, but
circumstances had made me a tolerable whist-player, and I knew there
were few who could beat me at it. If my partner knew the game as well,
I felt certain we could not be badly damaged; and according to all
accounts he understood it well. This was the opinion of one or two of
the bystanders, who whispered in my ear that he was a "whole team" at
whist.
Partly from the reckless mood I was in--partly that a secret purpose
urged me on--a purpose which developed itself more strongly afterwards--
and partly that I had been bantered, and, as it were, "cornered" into
the thing, I consented to play--Chorley and I _versus_ Hatcher and the
pork-merchant.
We took our seats--partners _vis-a-vis_--the cards were shuffled, cut,
dealt, and the game began.