hands. Over went the wrong card. I grabbed
the pistol, and told my partner to give me the stake money. Pulling
the gun on him, "Now," I said, "you have acted the wet dog about
this, and I will not give you a cent of your money; and if you cut
any more capers, I'll break your nose." I presented the pistol to
the mate of the boat, who kept it for a number of years, and said
that it was the best he had ever owned.

Another time on the same boat I was playing euchre with a Californian,
when we got to betting on poker hands. He lost $1,600 and his
watch, then told the clerk that he was going to his state-room for
his pistol, and going to kill that gambler on sight. The clerk
soon gave me a hint, and I got out old Betsy Jane; and pretty soon
he came along, holding his pistol under his coat, and just as he
stepped out of the cabin door I pulled down on him, saying, "I have
got you, my boy, and if you make one move I'll turn her loose."
He saw I had the drop on him, threw up both hands; and taking his
pistol away, I threw it into the river.

IT WAS COLD.

There are many occasions when a shrewd man can get in his work on
gamblers, it matters not how smart they are, provided his conduct
is not suspicious, and his ambition so vaulting that when it leaps
it is not lost upon the other side. I shall never forget the trip
I made down the river from Louisville in the good old _ante-bellum_
days. When we reached the mouth of the Cumberland River, Anderson
Waddell, who is now one of Louisville's wealthiest citizens, and
William Cheatham came on board bound for the New Orleans races.
Charles Burns and Edward Ryan, better known to the sporting fraternity
as "Dad Ryan," were along with me. Both Waddell and Cheatham were
gentlemen of good repute in Nashville, and it was not long before
they proposed a game of poker. Burns and Ryan both sat in the
game, and at the time they were unknown to the gentlemen. The wine
flowed freely, and everybody felt very happy, and I resolved it
was about time for me to go to the bar and procure some cards
similar to those they were playing with. It did not take me long
to run up three good hands, and, sitting down by Ryan, I laid the
cold deck in Ryan's lap. It was not long before the cold deck came
up, and then the boys began to bet lively, each getting in a few
hundred. Then Waddell commenced to smell a rat, and turning to
Cheatham, said, "Hold on, Bill, don't go in any deeper, as I think