woman her husband lost the money
gambling, and he could not get a cent back. Then she let go; but
the pistol failed to go off, and he got her to go back into the
cabin, and pacified her by giving her $100. After taking the
charge out of her pistol, I returned it to her. So, reader, you
can see what a gay life there is in gambling.

THE FRENCHMAN AND THE HORSE HAIR.

I knew a Frenchman who used to travel the river playing the wheel,
who made a great deal of money and sent it to France. One night
he opened a $1,000 snap at faro and I was to loan him my tools.
He shuffled his own cards, as he was too smart to use any other;
and I went down on deck and pulled some hairs out of a horse's
tail, and came back and got one of the coppers and fastened a hair
to it. A copper is used to make a bet lose and take the banker's
side. When the copper is off, the bet is open. So I got my partner
to buy a big lot of white checks, so that I could get my small bet
behind them. My checks were $12.50 apiece; he was playing white
checks at 25 cents. We took one corner of the table, side by side.
He placed his checks between the dealer and me; then I would put
my little stack behind his checks, and when the dealer made a turn
he would have to rise from his seat to see if my bet was coppered
or not. If the card lost that we were on, I would let the copper
remain; if it on, I gave the horse hair a little jerk and pulled
the copper off, and we both won. I used to take it off when he
was going to pay the bet, for fear he would get his fingers tangled
in the hair; and in this way we won the bank roll, which made the
Frenchman very sick.

SAVED MY PARTNER'S LIFE.

We were once coming down on the steamer _Belle Key_, of Louisville,
and my partner was doing the playing that day. We had won some
big money, and were about to quit, when up stepped a very tall man,
who looked pale and sickly. He watched the game for some time,
and then pulled out a $1,000 note and laid it on the card he wanted,
and of course he lost. He did not say a word, but started back to
this room. I thought he acted strange, and I concluded to keep an
eye on him. Pretty soon out he came with an overcoat on his arm,
and he walked up as near the table as he could get, and commenced
to push one of the crowd away so as to get closer. Finally he got
at my partner's back, with me close at his heels, when he commenced
to pull from under his coat a large Colt's pis