The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 46

I 23 JL in all its artistry and action, inspired this fairy print, linan original. This dashing, bar midriff creation will give you tha confidant plaasura of being saan and admired. In soft blue, dusty rose and melon. Sises 10 to 18. $10.95.

Other smart play clothe from $10.95 te SZ2.M. We will be happy te open a charfe account In their heyday, the river gamblers divided millions of dollars every year. HE most fabulous era in American history was the period between 1830 and 1860, when swift. palatial steamers carried the 1 44 1 i 1 -r 1 Jones' specialty was posing as a rube to entice his prey. At his best, he was never a handsome nor a well-dressed man, but when dressed for a killing, he was a cartoonist's nightmare.

Mason Long, who later lectured as a reformed gambler, described Jones in the days when Long roped suckers for the rustic sharper as "a large man dressed in coarse clothes, with a sunburned countenance, a nose highly illuminated by the joint action of whisky and heat, munching a big piece of pie with an expression of indescribably greenness and freshness about him." But despite this lamb-like appearance, Canada Bill's operations on that occasion netted him several thousand dollars and a half-bushel of watches which he converted into cash by selling them back to the suckers who had lost them. After the Civil War killed the steamboat pickings by eliminating the rich planter-sucker, Canada Bill took to the railroads, and so successfully that once he offered the president of a southern railway company $25,000 a year for the gambling franchise on his trains, allowing that he would not molest the good customers, only those natural enemies of mankind the preachers. His offer was refused. Canada Bill Jones died a derelict not many years later, and was buried in style from a fund subscribed by fellow-gamblers. At his funeral, one of his contemporaries offered $1,000 to $500 that Canada Bill was not in the coffin then being lowered.

"Not with me," replied his companion, "I've seen Canada Bill squeeze out of tighter spots than this!" growing commerce of a young nation down ol' man ribber to New Orleans, and when to become a steamboat pilot was the greatest ambition of every young man along 2,000 miles of the Mississippi and its Ohio tributary. Those were the Mississippi's days of glory, immortalized by Mark Twain and a score of other writers. Even today, the story of the thousand-mile race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee has a thrill, for the river's palmy days were the days of America's growth. Many great fortunes were made from river trade in those days, but none of them exceeded the fortunes made by the Mississippi and Ohio gamblers.

They filed no income tax returns, and hence there is no check on the earnings of this illicit fraternity. But in an average year, George Devol, one of the slickest card sharps ever to ply the river, split over $2,500,000 with his two partners. It has been estimated that 2,000 professional cheats operated on the Mississippi alone. How many worked the Ohio is not known. For prey, they had the rich planter and his son, the well-heeled Northern merchant, and even, when other pickings were slim, each other.

For the river gambler had no scruples about fleecing his brethren or even his own partners. Neither had he scruples about being fleeced himself. Most of the money won on board the steamers at poker, three-card monte and euchre immediately was lost at shoreside faro halls. The greatest faro sucker of those days was the three-card monte sharp. An example of this strange gullibility was Canada Bill Jones, acknowledged the greatest monte thrower on the river.

Marooned one night at an upstate Louisiana town, Canada Bill found himself losing to a crooked faro dealer all the money he had won on his river voyage. A friend watched the dealer closely until he saw that the cards were coming from a double box. "Stop playing; it's crooked," he whispered to Jones. "I know it," replied Canada Bill, "but it's the only game in town!" Long awaited moment what more fitting token of Mom's and Dad's love and congratulations than a Genuine Orange Blossom Diamond Ring, graded the Modern Way on the Diamondscope by our Certified Cemologist. tr re.

Tas toeL Made An fdeaf Team DURING most of his river career, Jones teamed with George DevoL They were an ideal team, for where Jones was a physical coward, Devol was a husky specimen who spoiled for a fight. Their two specialties, monte and poker, were noncompetitive, and between them they managed to corral most of the suckers on whatever boats they graced with their presence. Devol's favorite method of fighting was with his head; he was a mighty butter. On one UNI 14 TNI COVSIIS-KUNAL BOTO-MACAIINI LOUISVIU.I..