GAMBLING ON BLUE WATER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1202, 15 March 1895, Page 30

GAMBLING ON BLUE WATER.

HOW “MUGS” ARE “TRIMMED UP” ON THE BROAD ATLANTIC.

There are few hotels in the world in which the wants of the inner man are more carefully or successfully considered than is the case on board the powerful Atlantic greyhounds, as the fast steamships are called. This is, of necessity, so. Steamship owners are not more philanthropic than other capitalists, and when they furnish nearly all the comforts, to say nothing of the luxuries, that are to be obtained ashore, they do so in order to attract custom. We are not, fortunately, all constituted alike, so that the first day, or the first couple of days, on the bounding billows do not always have a similar effect. But take the average male. The old traveller, who is not an average male, feel 3 as fit on blue water as on land. The other may feel a trifle doubtful about the stability of his interior mechanism for the first twenty-four hours. During this period his desire for longevity may weaken, and he may experience a distaste for the society of his fellow-men. At times he may wonder if he ever possessed a real appetite for solid food or could swallow his liquor without a shudder. But all doubt upon these points is soon dissipated. He wakes up on the second morning out. He feels that he is alive. HE PRESSES THE THUMB OF HIS RIGHT HAND, unless he be aJeft-handed man, upon an electric button that is embedded in the wall of his state room within tasy reach. There is a knock at the door. A steward enter:?. It is the bath-room steward. He knows his man, and without further ado he says “Hot or cold, sir?” He may add, ‘'Fresh or salt?" Having obtained the necessary information be j vanishes. In i few minutes the bath is i ready. In a few more minutes the misanthropic invalid of the previous day, while rubbing himself down with a Turkish towel, wonders if he can get enough on board to satisfy his appetite. On the way to his bath-room he drops I into the barber’s shop. If the billows do not run too high the barber is at work. [ The ex invalid is shaven and thinks, as J he looks in the glass, that he notices a j. liner and more natural hue of health I upon hi 3 facial area than he ever noticed before. He attires himself in more or less wondrous garments and meanders'with an “ I-was-here-yesterday-also ” air into the saloon. Having eaten a seven-and-sixpenny breakfast, he saunters upon deck and looks out upon the sun-kissed waste of waters as upon an old friend. He meets a man he never saw before. The man says, “Good morning." He says, “Good morning," and wonders, as he says it, why he is so affable. He would certainly never have recognised a stranger in such a way on land. He enters into conversation with the stranger, and they smoke a cigar together. The stranger talks of many lauds and hints rather than says

j that his newly-mado acquaintance is also | a good deal of a globe-trotter. This, because .without-foundation, cements ihe bond. The day pas-es quietly and enjoyably. The stranger is on speaking terms with many of the passengers. He is not a forward person. He smokes unexceptionable cigars, and is generous in his distribution of them. He takes an occasional drink, but evidently more from a desire to be sociable than because he desires te increase the wine steward’s receipts. Some of the passengers INDULGE IN A GAME OF CARDS on the second night out. The game is poker. The traveller’s new acquaintance does not take part in the game. He remarks, in a confidential wa} 7 , that few things give him more pleasure than a small game at poker among friends, but he “ likes to know who he’s playing with." This stamps him as a safe as well as a careful man. On the third day the affable stranger is induced to take a hand in a game. It i 3 played in the cabin of a stranger to whom the average traveller’s new friend is introduced. The latter asks his friend if he knows the man. The average traveller say, “ Not personally," but he is a friend of an old friend of his of whose presence on board he knew nothing on the first or sec nd day out. The occupant of the cabin in which the game is played is the confederate of ihe newly-made friend of the average traveller. Suppose the name of the occupant of the cabin is Grahame. The latter was in this particular line of business once and was now dead. He was killed by a “sport" named “Doc Dougherty," who is now engaged in . serving a sentence of twenty years’ I penal servitude in England for the murder, which was premeditated. Let the name of his confederate be Kurns. That is not his correct name, but it sounds like it, and only quite recently, in travelling between Europe and New York, he won £I2OO at poker from just such people as Grahame and Kurns sat in with. “Bill" Pinkerton, the celebrated American detective, knows him as he knows nearly all the sports who come, here, from the United States to fill their “ kicks " with, the shekels of the unwary. In America a mail who is ABLE TO “PLANT A COLD DECK’’ when he . pleases, which means to do what- he likes with a pack of cards, is called, rather loosely, agambler," or a “crook." In ibis country the..same man would be known, or rather is known, among members of the “clever division," as a “ sport." Grahame and Kurns could manipulate a pack of cards with a dexterity that seemed marvellous even to sports who were equally clever in other departments of “sport.” Kurns could run his.thumb along the edge of a pack of cards like lightning, and spot where the particular card or cards he required for self or partner lay. Then he could place these on top or at the bottom, ju3t as he desired. If he wanted to fill a “straight" or a “ full" for self or partner he could do it; moreover, he could do it while you were looking at him, and evens while you suspected him, and .at the: finish you would be no wiser than at the start, so far as his method was concerned. Five sat down to tho game in question. Three of the five were business men. They played poker for.recreation, because they liked it, because the gambling' e spirit was in them, and because they wanted to win. All of them had a fair knowledge of poker, therefore each of them thought that he had nothing to learn ; for man who.-plays poker to any extent is .far more certain that he play 3 a better game than almost any other man than he is regarding the location of his residence in a future state. There seemed lobe some friction between Grahame and Kurns. Neither of them won at the first sitting, and Kurns was mildly profane in alluding to his back luck more than once. He almost insinuated once that it was due to Grahame. The others, who were winners, took him aside.after the game, and

AsWreS 'HIM THAT GRAHAME WAS “ALL RIGHT,”

and a good, fellow. Kurns admitted th<»t he has been hasty, and if he had injured any one’s feelings, he was sorry. He also insisted upon opening a bottle of champagne, of which all partook. On the following day every one, except Grahame won something, and Kurns was in high good humour. So was everybody else, including Grahame, who even Kurns admitted, was a “good loser:” On the last night but one of the voyage all the “ mugs" were losers. Grahame was also a loser, and he suggested, though in a very unobtrusive fashion, that the limit be raised from two and a half to five dollars. The only man who objected was Kurns, but he was overruled by the three “mugs.” Grahame was the only winner on this night. At the finish Kurns took the three “ mugs" aside, and said, “Didn’t I tell you so ? I didn’t want to raise the limit, but you sided against me, and now that fellow has got afl the money.” “ Still, it was a square game,” said one of the “mugs," “and after all I’m only out a couple of hundred dollars. Besides, we’ve got one night left.” “All right,” said Kurns, “if you’re satisfied, I can’t kick, although I’m a worse loser than any man in the game. But I’ll tell you what we’d better do. We’ve got one night more. Grahame had all the luck to-night. He can’t have it all to-morrow night. He raised the limit last night. Suppose we raise it to-morrow night ? It won’t look well, perhaps, for me to make the suggestion, because Grahame and I are none

too friendly, but he can’t refuse if one of you suggest it; besides, we’ll outvote him, being four to one.” The “ mugs *’ agreed to this proposition, and on the last night of the voyage one of them proposed, just as he was about to deal, that the limit be raised to ten dollars, or two pounds. Much to the surprise of the “mugs” Grahame demurred to this. He said he w as NOT ACCUSTOMED TO PLAYING “ A HIGH GAME.” Kurns was rather indignant, and finally said he would not play unless the limit was raised to ten dollars. The others took sides with him, and with rather a bad grace Grahame said, “ Ail right; let her go.” Grahaine’s luck did not change. If any one else had “ three of a kind ” he had a “straight.” .If any one had a “flush” he had a “full hand.” One of the “mugs” got four aces and a king “pat” once. Ha immediately began raising before the “draw,” but as his position at the table was unfortunate for him there was only £2O in the “pot" when all hands had to draw cards. Then he was chaffed when he drew, only one card. Every one fell out except Kurns, who saw the “ mug’s " first raise of £2. ■The “ mug" took the pot, of course, and everybody said it was “ lough, on him" that there were no other good hands out, Kurns, who saw him, having only a pair of kings. The game was finished at 2 a.m., only because Kurns said that he was “ broke." He had lost £4OO. The three “mugs” had lost between them £ISOO. Grahame bad won all the money. Kurns'had “words" with Gratia me after the game, and it was wiLh difficulty that he was prevented, by the “mugs," from hitting Grahame. The latter wore his honours quietly, yet he was no longer a favourite. Kurns, on the other hand, was in high favour with the three pigeons, and one of them extended to him an invitation to dine with him at the Savoy Hotel on the following night. ' Some hours previously to tl e hour agreed upon for the dinner Gral ame and Kurns met aud divided the spoils. They stopped at different hotels, and were CAREFUL NOT TO BE SEEN ON THE STREET TOGETHER. “ I’ll work Buncom, old man," said Kurns to Grahame, “ and I’ll get a lot of introduction out of him that will send us back to the boys with more money than we know what to do with." “Buncom " will answer for the name of the average traveller, who had asked Kurns to dine withrvhiiq, at the Savoy Hotel. “Be careful and ~doq.;,£ v _say anything good about me," was Graliahie a?nart;mg admonition. “ Hardly," said Kurusi T?here are three ways in which an American “sport" is enabled to line his pockets in England. One is by getting a letter of introduction from a well-known sportsman whom he has met in a casual way, and who gives a letter out of good nature, perhaps, to a “sport" here. This enables the American “ sport " to get a footing in England, though as it is only among the “ clever division " his operations must be limited in number if not in extent. Auother way is to strike up an acquaintance on the steamer with a “ mug ” who is in business, and who believes that his new acquaintance is “straight," and so. believing introduces him, unthinkingly, to other business men as “my friend. ” A third way is for a “sport” to win a large sum from a “ mug " of good standing who has business connections in England, and who is so bitten with the gambling fever that he sticks to the game until liis funds run low, and finally becomes something not unlike a “ stool pigeon " for the “ sport,” receiving a portion of the spoils for the introductions which he furnishes, and the standing which his apparent friendship for the “sport" gives to the latter.— Fall Mall Gazette.