The Project Gutenberg EBook of Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi, by George H. Devol

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Title: Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi

Author: George H. Devol

Release Date: November 22, 2007 [EBook #23587]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORTY YEARS A GAMBLER ***

Produced by Ed Ferris

Transcriber's note:

Typesetting errors have been corrected, but what appear to be the author's spellings have not been changed.

LoC call number: F353.D4

FORTY YEARS A GAMBLER ON THE MISSISSIPPI

BY GEORGE H. DEVOL.

A CABIN BOY IN 1839; COULD STEAL CARDS AND CHEAT THE BOYS AT ELEVEN; STOCK A DECK AT FOURTEEN; BESTED SOLDIERS ON THE RIO GRANDE DURING THE MEXICAN WAR; WON HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FROM PAYMASTERS, COTTON BUYERS, DEFAULTERS, AND THIEVES; FOUGHT MORE ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE FIGHTS THAN ANY MAN IN AMERICA, AND WAS THE MOST DARING GAMBLER IN THE WORLD.

ILLUSTRATED.

FIRST EDITION.

DEVOL & HAINES. CINCINNATI: 1887.

Entered according to Act of Congress, the 6th day of October, 1887,
by
DEVOL & HAINES,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.

[All rights reserved.]

PREFACE.

The author of this book has written the stories as they would recur to his memory, and no effort has been made at classification. They are not fictitious; many of the persons named are now living, and they can and will testify that the stories are founded on facts.

He belongs to the celebrated Devol family of Marietta. His grandfather, Jonathan Devol, was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was well known to the pioneer history of Ohio. He was one of the passengers on the Mayflower, which he constructed for the use of the first company of emigrants to Ohio. He erected a house on the Campus Martius in 1788, and was joined by his wife and six children in December of that year. He was one of the committee to explore the country in search of suitable places for mills and farming settlements. In 1791 he repaired to Belpre with his family. He succeeded in clearing a patch of land, and built a log cabin not far below the house of Captain William Dorce. The news of the Big Bottom massacre reached him while attending court at Marietta, and he hurried home. Mrs. Devol, hearing that the Indians were on the war-path, ordered the children to lie down with their clothes on, ready for the danger signal. He became famous by building the floating mill. In 1792 he built a twelve-oared barge of twenty-five tons burden for Captain Putnam. The author's father was Barker Devol, who died at Carrollton, Ky., on the 8th day of March, 1871, at the age of 85. He was a ship-builder, and worked with his father at Marietta. He left a widow and six children, who are all living, except one, the youngest being George H. Devol.

The Author.

CONTENTS.

A Religious Captain
A Cold Deck
A Woman With a Gun
A Shrewd Trick
A Paymaster's Bluff
A Crazy Man
A Good Night's Work
A Euchre Hand
A Good Stake-Holder
A Mile Dash
An Honorable Man
A Bull Fight
A Duck Hunt
A Hard Head
A Square Game
A Coward
Ancient Gambling

Boyhood Days
Blowing Up of the Princess
Beat a Good Hand
Butler in New Orleans
Broke a Snap Game
Before Breakfast
Bill Would Gamble
Bill's Present

Caught a Sleeper
Collared the Wrong Man
Called a Gambler
Control Over Suckers
Caught Again
Caught a Whale
Caught a Defaulter
Canada Bill
Close Calls
Cheap Jewelry
Cold Steel

Didn't Win the Bags
Don't Dye Your Whiskers
Didn't Win the Key
Dicky Roach and I
Detectives and Watches

Even the Judges Do It
Eight Hundred Dollars Against a Pistol

Fifty to the Barkeeper
Fight With a Longshoreman
Foot Race
Forty Miles an Hour
Fights

Got Up Too Soon
Got Off Between Stations
Good Luck
Governor Pinchback
General Remarks
George, the Butter

Home Again
Hard Boiled Eggs
He Knew My Hand
Her Eyes Were Opened
He Never Knew
He's One of Us
How I Was Beat
He's Not That Old

Indians Can Play Poker
It Made a Man of Him
I Had Friends
It Was Cold
I Raised the Limit
It Shook the Checks

Jew vs. Jew
Judge Devol

Knocked Down $300
Kickers

Leaving Home
Leap for Life
Lost his Wife's Diamonds
Lucky at Poker
Lacked the Nerve
Left in Time

My First Keno
My Jew Partner
My First Love
Marked Cards
My Crooked Partner
My Partner Alexander
Married His Money
My Cards
My Little Partner
Mules for Luck
My Visit to Old Bill
Monumental Gall
Mule Thieves
My Partner Won
McCoole and Coburn
Mobile

Now a Gambler
Nipped in the Bud
No Play On This Boat
No Money in Law
Narrow Escapes
No Good at Short Cards

On the Circuit

Put Ashore for Fighting
Pittsburg's Best Man
"Pranking" With a New Game
Posing as Nic Longworth's Son

Quick Work

Red and Black
Rattlesnake Jack
Reduced the Price

Saved My Partner's Life
Sold Out by a Partner
"Snap Games"
Sinking of the Belle Zane
Snaked the Wheel
Stolen Money
Signal Service
Settled Our Hash
She Kissed Me
Salted Down
Strategem
Saved By His Wife
"Short Stops"

The Game of Rondo
Ten Thousand in Counterfeit Money
The Frenchman and the Horse Hair
The Chicken Men and Their Silver
The Hungry Man
The Big Catfish
The Sermon on the (Mount) Boat
The Monte King
The Daguerreotype Boat
The Black Deck-Hand
The Juergunsen Watch
The Cotton Man
Taught a Lesson
They Paid the Costs
The Boys from Texas
The Quadroon Girl
The Captain Spoiled the Game
Too Sick to Fight
The Gambler Disguised
The Best Looking Sucker
The Alligators
The Big Sucker
The Crazy Man
The Brilliant Stone
The Hidden Hand
The Three Fives
The Killer
The Deck-Hand
The Black (Leg) Cavalry
The Paymaster's $3.500
The U. S. Detective's Bluff
The Young Man From New York
The Yellow Jeans
The Jack Fish
The Black Man
The Persuader
The Lap-Robe
The Preacher Away From Home
The Cattle Buyer
The Green Cow-Boy
The Police Signal
The Good Deacon
The Natchez and the Lee
The Trick Knife
Two Forty on the