United States or Mayotte ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
What of all that? The surprise might have been well feigned. Possibly enough; and after my late experience of the pork-merchant, probably enough, Monsieur D'Hauteville was also a partner in the firm of Chorley, Hatcher, and Co. I wheeled round with an angry expression on my lips, when the current of my thoughts was suddenly checked, and turned into a new channel.
An Irish pork-merchant was seated at dinner next a Jew, who regarded the pig in toto as an abomination a lady, a scion of a ducal family, found herself next to a French cook going out to a San Franciscan eating-house an officer, going out to high command at Halifax, was seated next a rough Californian, who wore "nuggets" of gold for buttons; and there were contrasts even stronger than these.
"Quite sure of it. Oh! I often travel up and down to New Orleans. I have seen them all before." "But one of them has the look of a farmer or a merchant, as I thought a pork-merchant from Cincinnati his talk ran that way." "Farmer merchant, ha! ha! ha! a farmer without acres a merchant without trade!
He wore a white beaver hat with broad brim, and a coat of great "jeans," wide-sleeved and loose-bodied. He had the look of a well-to-do corn-farmer from Indiana or a pork-merchant from Cincinnati. Yet there was something in his manner that told you river-travelling was not new to him. It was not his first trip "down South."
Therefore there was nothing to be surprised at, in our finding them where we did. At first seeing them, however, I felt astonishment, and my companion seemed to share it. I turned towards him, and was about proposing that we should leave the room again, when the wandering eye of the pseudo pork-merchant fell upon me. "Hilloa, stranger!" he cried out, with an air of astonishment, "you hyar?"
Most probably the second supposition was the correct one he was a dealer in hog-meat. One of the fine gentlemen I have described sat opposite to where I was standing. He appeared to be losing considerable sums, which the farmer or pork-merchant was winning. It proved that the luck of the cards was not in favour of the smartest-looking players an inducement to other plain people to try a hand.
Partly from the reckless mood I was in partly that a secret purpose urged me on a purpose which developed itself more strongly afterwards and partly that I had been bantered, and, as it were, "cornered" into the thing, I consented to play Chorley and I versus Hatcher and the pork-merchant. We took our seats partners vis-a-vis the cards were shuffled, cut, dealt, and the game began.
Yes there sat the two sharpers, side by side, behind the faro-table not as mere bettors, but acting respectively as banker and croupier of the game! Chorley held the dealing-box in his fingers, while Hatcher sat upon his right, with cheques, dollars, and bank-notes piled upon the table in front of him! A glance around the ring of faces showed us the pork-merchant as well.
The latter surrendered it once more to the gambler, who opened the case, and commenced inspecting the interior. It was an elegant watch, and chain also of the fashion usually worn by ladies. They were worth more than Chorley had offered, though that did not appear to be the opinion of the pork-merchant.
Hatcher's bank "got broke" soon after, and a series of ill-fortune at length reduced him to the condition of a race-course thimble-rig, and small sharper in general. The pork-merchant I met many years afterward, as a successful monte dealer in the "Halls of the Montezumas."
Word Of The Day