A FREAKY THING IS LUCK

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 8 September 1904, Page 8

A FREAKY THING IS LUCK

J —r *" * X £ ** TbeCaaeofHennc««yWho« 5 5 Luck Waa Stolen. F

*»CTTOUDNT that bump you!" YY murmured the faro dealer, reflectively, as a thin pock-marked ru:ui passed the corner of Broadway and: Thirty-eighth street. "What's that?" asked the race follower. "Seem* you throw the frapped countenance up against Hennessy. Say, wasn't you feedin* him couple yeara ago, when I seen you down i' New Orleans?" "Sure I" said the race man. "And now you throw hint down?** 1 "That's right." "Woman?" V 5 "Not on your .life." "What then?" "Say," said the race man, "d'y* ever hear how me and Henneasy oome torn ther, an' what happened to both ol "Nope." ■* "Well, it's a qtfeer story, and it goea to show what a freaky thing luck is. . We couldn't ever trot double. If Hennessy is flying high, I'm cold broke an' if Tm a winner, Hennessy's on tht pork. Besides, he could ntver staj square with a friend nohow." "Well, how about .itr aaked th« :*aro man, "It was after the season closed a 1 Brighton Beach in '97. Henneasy had been up against it for four long warm, weary months. He'd beer playin' everythin' in the businesi from favorites to 100 to 1 shots, an couldn't win breakfast monsy been foll'in' the western circuli all summer an' had nursed up quit* a wad, an' when I come back to New York the first man I run against ii Hennessy. He was comin' out of I Sixth avenue beanery, where they sel coffee for two cents a cup, an' say, hj ever any man looked like a bad nickel, it was Hennessy. Pd seen him when hf was rollin' high out in California, an' I had a few drinks with him them, an' some guy had told me that Hennessy was a man 'at never stood by his friends. But say, I was sorry to see a man down on his hick, an' I says to myself, I'll help him to take a brace. So I fits him out from feet to finish, an' then I promises him $5 a day for two weeks to play the ponies —me layin' off awhile to rest. "Well, after a few days Hennessy begins to do business again, and inside of a month had nursed together a little wad of about three hundred dollars. " 'Now,* says I, "we're off to New Orleans.* "An* wa went an' started Into the game the next day. But Hennessy's luck had changed again, and there wasn't anything he could win. Neither of us could make it out. Hennessj said he's gone into the theater with his umbrella up, an' I guess p'rhapi that's what it was, but anyway, hj« was a dead one from that on, and ii two days he didn't have but SSO in thi world. Then I told him to stick te me and follow my plays, and he did, and in two days I had lost $1,700 and all of Hennessy's SSO was gone. So ] gave Hennessy $lO to start fresh on and told him to lay his own money an* keep away from me. So he did and lost every nickel of it before night. •** "Well, it was up to me to take care r" him. So he goes off and gets a I. .tie more somewhere, and every mornin' he's 'round to my room for breakfast money and Pm givin' him S3 to feed himself and play with. That kept up the whole winter through, me givin* him $3 ererj day, besides drinks an' cigars, an* laundrj bills, and every now and then a tenner to get his stuff out that he'd hocked. But I guess it was luek to me, because I lived high everr minute of the time and quit the game $3,300 better than when Hennessy and me started south. "I guess Hennessy thought the same thing, 'cause he comes 'rtmnd cue morning and says if I'll stake him lo a little roll he'll quit me and try Lis luck on the western circuit. So 2 gave him SSOO and he started for Chicago. It wasn't long before we heard of his luck, and my five hundred be* gins to come back. "Good? Why things just swam his way. I was glad of It, although I wasn't doing so well myself. As Hennessy's stock went up nisi started to slump, and pretty soon I was In the hole up to my neck. When the meeting closed It left me stone broke, with only one suit of clothes left and livin' in a hall room near the corner of Ninth avenue and Thirty-second street. Then I began playin* the poolrooms with what money I could borrow here and there, but 1 couldn't get enotigh ahead to make any kind of a play, and I began to think if things didn't come my way Td have to quit the game and go to work.** "Say, wouldn't that bump you?** cai«! the faro man. "W« ii about this time one day," reninied '.he race follower, "I was coming down Broadway, feeling pretty ?orc and mean and raggy. I'd had nr.tr fcig for breakfast but batter cck.-s and coffee, and I didn't just know who was going to stake me for dinner, let alone a dollar or so Just to try If my lnck had begun to change. Well, while I was feelin* this way, not exactly sure if I wouldn't chuck the whole business and chase a job, who do I run against but Hennessy. He was Just coming out of Martin's with a toothpick sticking out of his* jaw and a look on his face like he was full up to the chid "with given turtle soup and baked trout and roasted caavasback gPdg-jfcjjgai 1 pint r-* •-*— -^y^ t * for tow* *wWl», p VjswtSa «gsr>»a. a praventive c 4 th* mot" rrs' fcavcufW: for wearpincengb. Jfc-B?w*ys * f»es and cares tyuJcUj.—"W Wtjur ard BctsteU^t &

p a pousee cafe at'the end of oil. . it made me hungry just to look at his mug. and he was wearin' a hot silker an' a long coat and a diamond lamp fit to knock an eye out of the prince of Wales, and, say, when I saw Hennessy that way I thought it was like flndin' a mine. There waa ready money all over him." "An', of coarse, he staked you good and plenty?" said the faro man. "Did I say that Hennessy had » pint?" mused the race follower. "Weil, maybe it was two of them and maybe it was three; Anyway, Hennessy had a little skate on. It wasn't enough to excuse him and it was just enough to make a mean man nasty. " 'Hello, Hennessy,* says L "•Hello,' says Hennessy. "And I saw then and there that my gold mine was a frost. Hennessy was givin* me the go-by. But I was too hard up to be haughty, so I stops him. "'Say, Hennessy,' says I, 'are you goin' to walk past a man like that? Don't you know me?' " Tea,' says Hennessy, with a kind of an ugly grin, 1 know you well enough.* " Tve been In hard luck since I sav# you, Hennessy,' says L Tm on the hog for fair —stone broke, old innnl* " "That don't surprise me,' says Hennessy, 'not a little bit.' " Tt don't 1' says I, and you can bet I was surprised, if he wasn't. "'Not a particle,' says Hennessy, 'you went broke when I quit you, because I was your mascot. You stole my luck, and I fijfure that you owe me about $5,000. The minute I left you things came'my way.*' "Well, I tried to laugh. "Why, Hennessy, old man,' says I, 'you're stringin' me. D'ye take me for a hoodoo?* "That's what I do,' he aaya, 'the worst hoodoo this aide of the Rocky mountaina.' '"WeIL say, Henneasy,* aaya I, 'stake me for • hundred and let It go at that?' MJ Not a nickel,' aaya Henneasy. 'You got my luck once, but you don't get it again, seel' , "Then he turned back into the eafe, and I could see him through the window ordering a new quart." "Wouldn't that bump youl" aaid the faro man. # "Say, isn't luck about the queerest thing on earth?" continued the race man philosophically. "Here was Hennessy a tramp only a* year before, when I was a high rider. Now, I'm on my uppers, and Hennessy's on the wave, and yet at that very minute my luck was on the turn. I walked around the corner where I could curse Hennessy on the quiet and there in a little heap of wet dirt by the curbstone I saw something shining. I picked it up. It was a five-dollar gold piece, and there was a hole in it. Say, do you remember me coming into your bank with it?" "Sure," said the faro man. "Say, it needed af|ot of nerve to lay the whole Ave, on one card, and me hungry, too, but I *as afraid if I'd break the five I'd break my luck, see?" The faro man saw." "So. I laid it in one bet, and won ten times running, then I called the turn, and finally quit $4,000 winner. Say, that was about the dizziest game I ever played, and when I cashed in I went and eat the beat dinner that the Tenderloin afforded. "WelL I didn't see anything more of Hennessy until January, when I went to New Orleans again with a small interest in a string of good ones and another interest in a combination book that a guy named Shorty Allen was running. I was riding high again, and Hennessy wasn't. It did seem queer,~but it looked like we both couldn't do business at the same time. I ran against him several times and made as if I'd forgotten the throw down he gave me in front of Martin's, and at laat one day he came sweatin* around to my rooms, lookin* for a tip. One of our horses was entered for seven furlongs on the next day, with about one chance in a million of winning, but Hennessy had an Idea In his hat that the race was to be fixed. He didn't know I was interested In tht nag, but he did know that I had an inside track with the stable and came to find out which way the cat was goin* to jump. " 'Say, old pel,' he said, Tve only got SI,OOO left and I want to make a big play to-morrow bo's to get even again and I can't take any chances. Can't you put me wise?'" "Say," aaid the faro man, "wouldn't that bump you?" "So I told him to see me an hour before the race," the race follower went on, "and he went away. Say, d'ye think i t was up to me to give him any straight tip?" "After the way ha turned you down? Nitl" returned the faro man. "Well, next day the mare was a flve-to-one shot, and about an hour before the race Hennessy came sneaking up. " 'Do I play her?' hesays. ~~ " 'For all you're worth,' says L "'Sure?' he says. A "'Sure,' says L ' ™ £*T" "Well, the book I was interested In was offering a shade better than the others, and Hennessy went against it to the limit. In 20 minutes every nickel be had in the world was laid against my horse. When i aey were at the post Hennessy sneaked up again. " 'Sure?' he asked. "I gave him a cold grin and just said: MiddlinV "He turned pale and gasped. *But rou said: "Sure!"' " 'Oh, well, Hennessy.* I said, 'there's lothing sure. I always thought I was •ure of you until yon fooled me. The -nare might spring a tendon, or run •ride, or anything. See?' And something did happen—l'm not sayin' what , Anyway the favorite romped in an rasy winner nrul fit nnesßj wns broke He'» been broke evt-r since."— S. V. •Sun.