Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1911 — GAMBLERS’ GRIM DUEL [ARTICLE]

GAMBLERS’ GRIM DUEL

DYING MAN WON WAGER THAT HE WOULD OUTLIVE OTHER. /. -y“I Could Always Beat' Bam at Any Game," He Whispered, and Passed Away Peacefully, as Any Saint “The ruling passions of men Assert their power even in the face of death," said a physician connected with a leading New York hospital to a Herald reporter. “They will possess the dying at the final moment as Intensely as they did throughout life, and they prove question that the thought of dissolution is subordinate to the dominant passions that control the mind:” “How do you mean?” asked the reporter. “I mead that men who have followed certain paths of life cannot depart from them even at the final moment,” was the reply. “It is as simple a proposition as a common rule of mathematics. When a financier is dying his last thought is upon the securities and funds he is to leave behind him, and until he falls into the state of coma which generAlly precedes death he discusses his financial affairs with members of his family, if a man’s life has been devoted to thoughts of revenge upon his enemies and death overtakes him before his mission has been accomplished, .his only regret In passing Is that his object In life has not been attained.” Then the doctor told of two gamblers who died In a hospital some years ago. They had been chums and both contracted consumption about the same time. One was thirty-eight years old, the other ten years his junior, and each was willing to bet his last coin upon the right or wrong of any question aS he viewed it. “I was In the ward one day when I heard these dying gamblers discussing their situation,” said the doctor. “They occupied cots only a few feet apart, and faced each other cheerfully. They were so exhausted they could hardly speak above whispers, but they felt confident they would recover. I knew differently and I realized, if they did not, that both would be dead within ten or fifteen hours. “ 'Say, Jim,* said the elder man, "we’re getting down to cases. ’Pears to me like you’re goin’ to leash In ahead o’ me.’ ' “ ‘Bet you ?3, all I’ve got, Sam, you cash in ahead o’ me;’ replied Jim, his face flushing with excitement. “‘You’re on, Jim,’ returned Sam,, smilingly. ‘l’ve got the dough in my wallet.’ “This remarkable duel of two dying men,” went on the physician, “necessitated a stakeholder, and the money of both was taken by a nurse and placed upon a chair between them within the reach of either. They chaffed each other for a time, and Jim asked if Sam would donate the stake to the hospital if he won. Sam answered that he purpose*) to have a good time with it at Coney Island or elsewhere. Their joking really was ghastly, and it was quite evident that all thoughts of death had been forgotten in the excitement of the outcome of the wager.”* “The end came swiftly; Sam was eyeing the little roll of bills upon the chair longingly, but his eyes began to droop and his respiration became stertorous. Jim watched Sam longingly, and his quickened respiration and glazing eyes indicated that he was in the final throes. Three bouts after the bet was made Sam lay silent, a smile of expectancy upon his wan cheeks. “The poor chap had lost the bet," said the doctor, “and I lost no time In telling Jim he had‘won. If ever 1 sa' rapture in the eyes of any man I saw it in Jim’s. He asked me to give him the money, and as I placed it in his nerveless hand he whispered, T always could beat Sam at any game,’ and died as peacefully as any saint ' “Jim had a sister, and the money went to her, with some jewelry of slight value.”