Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — Extracting the Tiger’s Teeth. [ARTICLE]

Extracting the Tiger’s Teeth.

Among the thousand and one incidents that go to make up the variety and • adventure of railway travel, nothing is more exciting or more likely to be remembered than witnessing the turning of a three-card monte trick, and the invariable fleecing of greenhorns that follows. The passengers on thpß. & M. this morning had the pleasure of witnessing the introduction of an unusual feature in the little game. A monte man with a capper took the train at Kearney, and kept an eye out for business. The train filled up, as it passed the various stations, with village merchants and farmers, and if there hadn’t been any conductor the monte sharp would have reaped a rich harvest. At last, however, the temptation grew too strong to be resisted, and he spread out his little game. A brawny granger sat near him, and Monte obligingly explained to him the mysteries of the aforesaid game. The Granger concluded that he saw through it, and was easily induced to bet $lO, which he won. In handling his pocket-book he displayed a roll of greenbacks that made Monte’s eyes glisten. The game went on and several turns were made, Granger winning two out of three—the stakes being laid on the sill of the car-window. The granger became excited and wanted to bet SIOO. Monte didn’t want to bet very much, but he finally got mad and told Granger he could scoop him to the amount of SSOO, but maybe Granger was just biowin’—p’raps he hadn’t as much nerve as he let on. Granger ’lowed he didn’t know 'much about nerve, but what he knowed he knowed; and he knowed whar that card was just SSOO worth. A thousand dollars was placed on the window sill amid the breathless silence of the spectators who crowded around. The granger unbuttoned his vest, straightened in his seat and turned up—the Wrong card. Monte reached for that thousand dollars very vigorously, but just as his hand rested on the money the granger’s hand rested on his, and a ten-inch bowie blade appeared simultaneously from some mysterious compartment of the granger’s wardrobe. Monte suddenly paused in his money-making career, and the remaining two cards were turned over with the point of the knife, and neither of them was the card Granger had bet upon. “ That looks like swindlin’,” remarked the son of toil, “ and I never allow no man to play a game on me unfair," and the knife descended slowly toward the wrist of the gambler, but when it reached the precise locality where blood might be expected to flow the offending hand was withdrawn, and the granger quietly rolled up the greenbacks and deposited them in his trowsers pocket. When the train stopped at Lincoln for dinner a Star reporter was loitering about the depot, and recognized an old acquaintance among the crowd that stepped off the cars. When they had separated the reporter was asked: “ Who was that man you were, talking to?” “Why, that is Gil Hawkins, an old cattle-drover, from San Antonio, Tex.” A long whistle from the interrogator led to the narration of the true story as given above. Hawkins is on his way to Chicago, but it is thought that he knows enough to take care of himself.— Lincoln (Neb.) Star.