Gambling is so controversial. My father’s father was one, that’s how he made his living. Not a good enough living, so my dear little grandmother and her sisters moved away, from Missouri to the snows of Idaho.
Decades later, When that grandfather came to visit us, my dad, who’d achieved financial success by working, had a hard time concealing his scorn. But as a seven-year-old I found him fascinating, especially the rabbit’s foot he always had tucked into his vest.
Gee, and I thought those guys were all like Bret Maverick.
Wow, can somebody untangle that mess of a second paragraph?
I am a river gambler
I make a living dealing cards
My clothes are smooth and honest
My heart is cold and hard
I was shuffling for some delta boys
On a boat for New Orleans
I was the greatest shark they’d ever seen
But the captain bumped a sandbar
And an ace fell from my sleeve
They threw me overboard
As I swore I didn’t cheat
But I could swim
And I’ll ride again
I’ve read that in the Mexican-American War, US Soldiers in Mexico became enamored of Mexican card games, such as Monte.. American professional gamblers, who had followed the Army on its campaigns, had to offer Montegames to compete with the local gambling houses.
They began discrete inquiries into how the “other” sort of Monte cards, and card banks, could be obtained, but apparently could not get the language barrier. They finally resorted to plainly asking where the marked cards and rigged card banks could be bought, and when the Mexicans proved reticent, offered large sums to purchase them. All to no avail. Eventually the American professional gamblers accepted the to them astonishing fact that Mexican professional gamblers didn’t have access to marked cards, or rigged card banks.