Taking Chances

To the man who, at any period of his days, has been bitten by that ferocious and fever-producing insect colloquially known as the “horse bug,” and likewise to the man whose nervous system has been racked by the depredations of the “poker microbe,” these tales of the turf and of the green cloth are sympathetically dedicated. The thoroughbred running horse is a peculiar animal. While he is often beaten, the very wisest veterans of the turf have a favorite maxim to the effect that “The ponies can’t be beat"—meaning the thoroughbred racers; which sounds paradoxical enough. Poker, too, is a mystifying affair, in that all men who play it appear, from their own statements, to lose at it persistently and perennially. There is surely something weird and uncanny about a game that numbers only losers among its devotees. However, poker-players are addicted to persiflage. The genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, blown-in-the-bottle pokerist rarely acknowledges that he is ahead of the game—until the day after.

These stories, which were originally printed in the columns of the New York Sun, belong largely to the eminent domain of strict truthfulness. If they do not serve to show that the “horse bug” and the “poker microbe” are good things to steer clear of, they will by no means have failed of their purpose; for the writer had nothing didactic in view in setting them down as he heard them...FROM THE BOOKS.