True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 162
244 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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16 2 TR UETRUE STORIES OF OLD
I remember years ago, when I was young and giddy, "sittin'
in" with a lot of professional men. There was one, a young
doctor, one of the honor graduates, who had tough luck from
the start. First he blamed his seat. Then he discovered that
the man next to him had his foot on his chair. Then he located
his hoodoo in the coat; then in his vest; then in a nice pink
shirt he was wearing. One by one he discarded these garments,
but his bad luck continued.
Just as he was about g6ing further in his disrobing his luck
changed and he began to win. "I knew it wvas that shirt," said
he, and, that being the last garment he had taken off, he
promptly ordered the negro boy who was waiting on us to put
it in the stove and burn it up.
Some very funny things result from the active display of
poker superstitions, as every one with the least experience
knows. I remember once in Galveston, before the electric cars
were established and the old horse and mule motive power was
used, I was in the oar with a very distinguished newspaper mrn,
who was a bit of a sport.
There was no conductor, the driver ringing up the fares as
they were deposited in the box by the passenger. There were
two cords extending the length of the car, one to notify the
driver when a passenger wished to get off and the other to
register the fares.
We were in the midst of an interesting conversation when
the distinguished journalist leaped to his feet, grabbed the rope
and began a series of most vigorous jerks, shouting at the same
time for the driver to stop. In his excitement he got hold of
the wrong rope andobefore the wild-eyed driver could get to
him and release the rope from hand he had rung up about $14
worth of fares against the driver.
I looked out ahead and saw a funeral passing down the intersecting
street just ahead of us.
"Why, that fellow liked to ruin me," he said to me. "He was
going to pull us right through that funeral. I had that to happen
to me once and I never held a thing for six months."
He was quiet now that the great disaster had been averted,
but the driver was gone "off his nut" completely when he looked
at the register and recognized that he was a financial wreck
unless my friend paid for all those fares he 'had registered. I
am convinced that he would have deserted the car right there
in the street and never gone back to the barn again if my friend
had not volunteered to go with him to Colonel Sinclair, the
president of the company, and explain matters to him.
The driver readily agreed to that arrangement and since the
returns had been tampered with and the box stuffed it gave him
a splendid chance to fix the genuine figures at any point he
pleased, which no doubt' he did to his own personal advantage.
Another friend of mine, who is an educated man and who no
doubt ridicules negro superstition, will abandon any business
enterprise he may be engaged in and will not resume it again
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/162/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.