uttermost depths, or get left dead on the field of finance. Every gent
should be honest. But more than honest--speshully if he's out to buck
faro-bank or set in on casyooal games of short-kyards--every gent
should be wise. In the amoosements I mentions to be merely honest
can't be considered a complete equipment. Wherefore, while I never
makes a crooked play an' don't pack the par'fernalia so to do, I'm
plenty astoote as to how said tricks is turned.

"'Which sports has speshulties same as other folks. Thar's Texas
Thompson, his speshulty is ridin' a hoss; while Peets's speshulty is
shootin' a derringer, Colonel Sterett's is pol'tics, Enright's is
jestice, Dave's is bein' married, Jack Moore's is upholdin' law an'
order, Boggs's is bein' sooperstitious, Missis Rucker's is composin'
bakin' powder biscuits, an' Huggins's is strong drink.'

"'Whatever is my speshulty, Cherokee?' asks Faro Nell, who's as
immersed as the rest in these settin's forth; 'what do you-all reckon
now is my speshulty?'

"'Bein' the loveliest of your sex,' says Cherokee, a heap emphatic, an'
on that p'int we-all strings our game with his.

"'That puts the ambrosia on me,' says Faro Nell, blushin' with
pleasure, an' she calls to Black Jack.

"'As I observes,' goes on Cherokee, 'every sport has his speshulty.
Thar's Casino Joe; his is that he can "tell the last four."
Nacherally, bein' thus gifted, a game of casino is like so much money
in the bank for Joe. Still, his gifts ain't crooked, they're genius;
Joe's simply born able to "tell the last four."