hought they were pretty good poker players, I felt as though
I owned the earth. I had my hand in my pocket, hold of the roll of
greenbacks, and in that way constantly realized that I was no common
pauper. I had never thought that I was an expert at cards, but this
triumph convinced me that there was more money to be made playing poker
than in any other way. I figured up in my mind that if I could win a
hundred dollars a night, and only played five nights a week, I could
lay up two thousand dollars a month. To keep it up a year would make me
rich, and if the war lasted a couple of years I could go home with money
enough to buy out the best newspaper in Wisconsin. It is wonderful
what a train of thought a young man's first success in gambling, or
speculation, brings to him. I went to bed with my hundred dollars
buttoned inside my flannel shirt, and dreamed all night about holding
four aces, full hands, and three of a kind. All that night, in my sleep,
I never failed to "fill" when I drew to a hand. I made up my mind
to break every officer in the regiment, at poker, and then turn my
attention to other regiments, and win all the money the paymaster should
bring to the brigade. I got up in the morning with a headache, and
thought how long it would be before night, when we could play poker
again, and I wondered why we couldn't play during the day, as there was
nothing else going on. It got rumored around the regiment that I had
cleaned the officers out at poker the night before, and the boys seemed
glad that a private had made them pay attention. I had not yet got my
commsssion, and so any victory I might achieve was considered a victory
for a private soldier. Several of the boys congratulated me. The nearest
I ever come to quarreling with my old partner, Jim, was over this poker
business. I showed him my roll, and told him how I had cleaned the
officers out, and instead of feeling good over it, Jim said I was a
confounded fool. I tried to argue the matter with Jim, but he couldn't
be convinced, and insisted that they had made a fool of me, and had let
me win on purpose, and that they would win it all back, and all I had
besides. He said I had better let the chaplain take the hundred dollars
to keep for me, and stay away from that poker game, and I would be
a hundred ahead, but I didn't want any second-class chaplain to be a
guardian over me, and I told Jim I was of age, and could take care of
myself. Jim said he thought I had