n turn the winner." I said, "You can't bluff me," and
I put up. He turned one of the cards and lost. While I was putting
the money away, he picked up the cards and turned up a corner on
the winner, letting the boys see what he had done; then he said to
me, "Mix them up again," which I did, and he put down a roll,
claiming it to be $500. He turned and won. Then the boys began
to nudge each other and get nervous. The capper then said, "I will
let it all lay, and bet you again." He turned and caught me for
$1,000; and then you should have seen the boys from Texas. There
never was such a cutting of cloths. One fellow pulled off his new
coat and cut the lining nearly all to pieces; another took off his
coat, vest, and shirt, for his money was sewed up in his undershirt;
others had their money down their boot legs tied to a string, so
that they could pull it up when they wanted it. They all wanted
it just then, and they were in the biggest hurry of any suckers I
ever saw. They all put up their pile, except two or three who had
more than the rest. I told them to pick out one boy to turn the
card, so they selected Jim, who was their leader. Jim made a grab
for a sure thing; but when he turned it over, all the boys were
_sure_ they had lost their money. They took it good-naturedly,
and said it was fair. One said I was the greatest man in the world,
and if he could do it as slick as I did he could get all the money
out in their country. I promised that I would come out and see
them, and that they would all be in with me. I did not say just
when I would keep my promise; and as I do not like too many partners,
I have put it off over thirty years, in hopes that some of the boys
would give it up and move out of the country, so if a slick man
did get all of their money he would not have to divide up so often.

MARKED CARDS.

While waiting for a boat at Donelsville to take me to New Orleans,
I fell in with a fellow who proposed a game of cards to pass the
time until the boat arrived. We went into a saloon and sat down
to play a game of poker. He brought out an old deck of marked
cards (which I recognized the minute I saw them). We began to
play. I knew the fellow took me for a sucker, so I let him play
me with "his cards" until I got a chance to down him, which I did
for all he had, amounting to about $80. About this time some one
announced that a boat was coming, so I proposed to quit, but Mr.
"Gambler" did