A FREAKY THING IS LUCK

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 428, 21 July 1904, Page 8

A FREAKY THING IS LUCK

LTb*Cu«orH«>BMS7WboM J Luck Wm Stolen. % ••"iJTOUDNT that bump you!" YY murmured the faro dealer reflectively, as a thin pock-mar£« man passed the corner of Broadwaj and Thirty-eighth street. i "What's that?** aaked the race foil lower. 1 "Seein* you throw the frapped com* tenance up against Hennessy. Sajfc wasn't you feedin* him couple ago, when I lean you down i' Naw (m leant?" jj "Sure!" said the race man. J j "And now you throw htflt downl** m • That'i right." I { "Womanr *. I "Not on your Hfa." I ! "What then?" 1 "Say," said the race man, "fy* evef hear how mi and Hennessy come i&\ gtther, aa' jrhat happened to both erf "Nop*." ' j "Wall, it'a * qtfter story, and it goeq to ehow what a freaky thing luek kh We eomldn't erer trot double. If Hem neaay ia flying high. I'm cold brokflj an' if I'm a winner, Hennessy's on thi pork. Beeklea, ha could never stag square with a friend nohow. 1 * > "Weil, how abott* .itr aaked m laro man. * - I

"It waa after the leuon eland «4 Brighton Beeeh in '97. Hennessy had been up against it for four lonfe warm, weary months. He'd been plsyin* every thin* in the- business from favorites to 100 to 1 shots, an' . couldn't win breakfast money. * been foll'in' the western circuit all rammer an' hsd norsed up quite ■ wed, an* when I come back to New; York the first man I ran against if Hennessy. He was eomin* but of a abrtfc avenue beanery, where they sell •oflee for two cents s cap, an' say, if tw any man looked like a bad nickel, it was Hennessy. I'd seen him when ha WM rollin' high out in California, an* I had a few drinks with him then, an' some gay had told me that Hennetjsy was a man 'at never stood by his friends. Bat say, I was sorry to aas a man down on his luck, an' I says to myself, rii help him to take a brace. So I fits him ont from feet to' finish, an' then I promises him $6 a day for two weeks to play the ponies i—me layin' off awhile *o rest. "Well, after a few days Hennessy begins to do business again, and inside of a month had nursed together a* little wad of about three hundred Hollars. " ITow,'says % *wa*ra oft to Ifew Orleans.* J "An' we went an* started into the game the next day. But Hannesay's luck had changed again, and there wasn't anything he could win. Neither of us could make it out. Hennessy »ald he's gone into the theater with his umbrella up, an* I guess p'rhaps that's what it was, but anyway, he .was a dead one from that on, and in two days he didn't have but 950 in the .world. Then I told him to stick to me and follow my plays, and he did, and in two days I had lost $1,700 and all of Hennessy*s SSO was gone. So I gars Hennessy $lO to start fresh on and told hiss to lay his own money an' keep away from me. So he did and lost avery nickel of it before night. * "Well, it was op to ma to take care of him. So he goes off and gets a little more somewhere, and every mornin* he's 'round to my room for breakfast money and I'm givin' him •3 to feed himself and play with. 3hat kept up the whole winter through, me givin' him $3 every day, besides drinks an* cigars, an' laundry bills, and erery now and then a tenner to get his stuff out that he'd hocked. Bat I gaess it was luck to me, because J ttred high ererr mincte of the fiat and quit the game $8,900 better than whan Hennessy and ise started south.

I futev Henneasy thought 'the tome thing, 'cans* he eomea 'round os« morning and aays If HI stake him to • little roU hell quit me and try Ue loek on the western circuit. So I gave him 1100 and he started for Chicago. It want long before we heard cf hie lack, and my fire hundred be> |a« to ecene back. "Ooedt Why things just swam Ms way. I wee glad of It, although I wasn't doing so well myself. As Henneeay'e stock went up mine started to ilump, and pretty soon I waa in the hole up to my neck. "When the i meeting eloeed it left me atone broke, with onry one suit of clothes left and Erin' in a hall room near the corner of Ninth avenue andjpThirty-aecond •tree*. l*hen I began playin' the poolrooms with what money I could borrow here and there, but I couldn't get enough ahead to make any kind of a play, and I began to think if things didn't come my way Td have to quit the game and go to work." **Bay, wouldn't that bump yeul'* •aid the faro man.

- "Well, abort thia time one day," resumed the race follower, "I waa coming down Broadway, feeling pretty •ore and mean and raggy. I'd had ■Otkaug for breakfast but batter •akee and coffee, and I didn't Just know who waa going to stake me for dinner, let alone a dollar or so just to try if my hick had begun to change. Wen. while I waa feelin* thia way, not exaetly sure If I wouldn't chuck the whole business and ehaae * Job, who do I run against hut Henacesy. He waa Just coming out of Xcrtin'e with a toothpick atioJdng cut of hie Jaw and a look on his face »ke he wa* full up to the ehfij*with green turtle soup and*baked trout "Jwjetedgaw**** andnetKfaode "- %£*o ""lit - i iT*

VD& yi pousee cafe at the end of all. Sn. .: made me hungry just to look hi hi* mug, and he was wearin' a hot silki-r.ila' a long coat and a diamond tlamp fit to knock an eye out of the '■prince of Wales, and, say, when I saw Henncfisy that way I thought it waa like findin* a mine. There waa ready money all over, him." "An", of course, he staked you good and plenty?" said the faro man. "Did I say that Hennessy had a pint?" mused the race follower. "Well, maybe it was two of them and maybe it was three. Anyway, Hennessy had a little skate on. It wasn't enough to excuse him and it was just enough to make a mean man nasty. " 'Hello, Hennessy,' says I, "'Hello,' says Hennessy. "And [ saw then and there that my gold mine was a frost. Hennessy was jivin' me the go-by. But I was too hard up to be haughty, so I stops him. "'Say, Hennessy,' Bays I, 'are you I £oin' to walk past a man like that? ' Don't you know me?' " 'Yes,' says Hennessy, with a kind •>f an ugly grin, 'I know you well enough.' " 'l've been in hard luck since I saw you, Hennessy,' says I. Tm on the hog for fair—stone broke, old man!' " 'That don't surprise me,' says Hennessy, 'not a little bit.' . " 'lt don't!' says I, and you can bet I was surprised, if he wasn't. " 'Not a particle,' says Hennessy, 'you went broke when I quit you, because I was your mascot. You stole my luck, and I figure that you owe me about $5,090. The minute I left jrou things came my way.' "Well, I tried to laugh. 'Why, Hennessy, old man,' says I, 'you're stringin' me. D'ye take me for a hoodoo?' "'That's what I do,' he says, 'th«> worst hoodoo this side of the Eockv mountains.' *$

" 'Well, say, Hennessy,* says 1. 'stake me for a hundred and let if go at that?' ""Not a nickel,* says Hennessy. "You got my luck once, but you don't get it again. Bee!'

"Then he turned back into the cafe* and I could see him through the window ordering a new quart." "Wouldn't that bump you!" said the faro man. -

"Say, Isn't luck about the queerest thing on earth?" continued the race man philosophically. "Here was Hennessy a tramp only a year before, when I waa a high rider. Now, I'm on my uppers, and Hennessy's on the wave, and yet at that very minute my hick was on the turn. I walked around the corner where I could curse Hennessy on the quiet and there in a little heap of wet dirt by the curbstone I saw something shining. I picked it up. It was a fire-dollar gold piece, and there was a hole in it. Say, do you remember me coming into your bank with it ?'*• "Sure," said the faro man. ■.« "Say, it needed a lot of nerve to lay the whole five on one card, and mo hungry, too, but I was afraid if I'd break the five I'd break my luck, see?" The faro man saw.

"So I laid it in one bet, and won ten times running. Then I called the turn, and finally quit $4,000 winner. Say, that was about the dizziest game I ever played, and when I cashed in I went and eat the best dinner that the Tenderloin afforded.*?

"Well, I didn't see anything more of Hennessy until January, when I went to New Orleans again with a small interest in a string' of good ones and another interest in a combination book that a guy named Bhorty Allen was running. I was riding high again, and Hennessy wasn't. It did seem queer, but it looked like we both couldn't do business at the same time. I ran against him several times and* made as if I'd forgotten the throw down he gave me in front of Martin's, and at last one day he came sweatin' around to my rooms, lookin" for a tip. One of our horses was entered for seven furlongs on the next day, with about one chance in a million of winning, but Hennessy had an idea in his hat that the race was to be fixed. He didn't know I was interested in the nag, but he did know that I had an inside track with the stable and came to fj nd o u t which way the cat was goin' to Jump.

" 'Say, old pal/ he said, 'l've only got fI.OOU left and I want to make a big play to-morrow so's to get even again and 1 can't take any chances. .Can't you put me wise?'"

"Say." said the faro man, "wouldn't that bump you?" "So I told him to see me an hour before the race," the race follower went on, "and he went away. Say, d'ye think it was up to me to give him any straight tip?"

"After the way he turned you down ? Nit!" returned the faro man. "Well, next day the mare was'a five-to-one shot, and about an hour before the race Hennessy came sneaking up. " 'Do I play her?' he says.

" 'For all you're worth,* aays L " 'Sure?' he says. **' Sure,' says L "Well, the book I was interested in was offering a shade better than thr others, and Hennessy went against u to the limit. In 20 minutes every niekei he had in the world was laid nguilist my horse. When they were at the post Hennessy sneaked up again. "'Sure?' he asked. "I gave him a cold grin and just said: MiddlinV "He turned pale and gasped. 'But 1 rou said: "Sure!" ' "'Oh, well, Hennessy." I said, 'there's lothing sure. I always thought | wsi;. ;ure of you tint il you fool- ri hie. Ihe mare might spring a tendon: «>i run wide, or an.vi hing C See?' And -i.ru. thiniftKd happen- I'm not*nyin wliai Anyway the f»v»;ri»i- romped in ;n easy vvhii*. • jii (I Ps mis >:-y \\:i«. l>roln He's hren broke cut sim-e ' N. \ Sun.