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41 - Insurgent Mexico by John Reed · Insurgent Mexico

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  Speaker 1: Section forty of Insurgent Mexico. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Insurgent
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  Speaker 1: Mexico by John Reid, Part six Mexican Knights, Chapter one.
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  Speaker 1: El Cosmopolita. El Cosmopolita is Chihuahua's fashionable gambling hall. It
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  Speaker 1: used to be owned by Jacob Latucce the Turk, a fat,
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  Speaker 1: shambling man who came to Chihuahua barefooted with a dancing
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  Speaker 1: bear twenty five years ago and became many times a millionaire.
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  Speaker 1: He owned an extravagant residence on the Paseo Bolivard, which
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  Speaker 1: was never called anything but the Palace of Tears because
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  Speaker 1: it was built with the proceeds of the Turk's gambling concessions,
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  Speaker 1: which ruined many families. But the wicked old man slunk
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  Speaker 1: away with Mercado's retreating Federal army, and when Villa came
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  Speaker 1: to Chihuahua, he gave the Palace of Tears to General
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  Speaker 1: Ortega as a Christmas present and confiscated El Cosmopolita. Having
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  Speaker 1: a few idle pesos from my expense account. We used
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  Speaker 1: to frequent El Cosmopolita. Johnny Roberts and I stopped on
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  Speaker 1: our way from the hotel to take a few hot
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  Speaker 1: Tom and Jerry's at a Chinese bar run by a
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  Speaker 1: Hori Mongolian named Chile. From there we proceeded to the
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  Speaker 1: gambling tables with the leisurely air of rushing grand dukes.
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  Speaker 1: At Monte Carlo. One entered first a long, low room
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  Speaker 1: lighted with three smoky lanterns, where the roulette game was.
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  Speaker 1: Above the table was a sign which read, please do
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  Speaker 1: not get on the roulette table with your feet. It
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  Speaker 1: was a vertical wheel, not a horizontal one, bristling with
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  Speaker 1: spikes which caught a flexible steel strip and finally stopped
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  Speaker 1: the wheel opposite a number. Each way. The table extended
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  Speaker 1: twelve feet, always crowded with at least five rows of
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  Speaker 1: small boys, peons and soldiers, excited and gesticulating, tossing a
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  Speaker 1: rain of small bills on the numbers and colors, and
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  Speaker 1: arguing violently over the winnings. Those who lost would set
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  Speaker 1: up terrible screams of rage as the croupier raked their
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  Speaker 1: money into the drawer, and often the wheel was quiet
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  Speaker 1: for three quarters of an hour, while some player who
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  Speaker 1: had lost ten cents exhausted his vocabulary upon the treasurer,
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  Speaker 1: the owner of the palace, and his ancestors and descendants
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  Speaker 1: ten generations each way, and upon God and his family
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  Speaker 1: for allowing such injustice to go unpunished. Finally, he would
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  Speaker 1: take himself off, muttering ominously, avere, we shall see, while
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  Speaker 1: the others would sympathetically make way for him, murmuring ah
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  Speaker 1: kee malla, swear to they. Near where the croupier sat
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  Speaker 1: was a worn place in the cloth with a small
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  Speaker 1: ivory button in the center, And when anyone was winning
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  Speaker 1: largely at the wheel, the croupier would press this little button,
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  Speaker 1: which stopped the wheel where he wished, until the winner
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  Speaker 1: was discouraged from playing further. This was looked upon as
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  Speaker 1: perfectly legitimate by all present, since karamba, there is no
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  Speaker 1: sense in operating a gambling house at a loss. The
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  Speaker 1: most amazing diversity of money was used. Silver and copper
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  Speaker 1: had long since been forced out of circulation in Chihuahua
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  Speaker 1: because of revolutionary hard times, but there were still some
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  Speaker 1: Mexican bank bills. Besides these, there was fiat money printed
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  Speaker 1: on ordinary writing paper. By the Constitutionalist army and worth
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  Speaker 1: nothing scrip issued by the mining companies, io US notes
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  Speaker 1: at hand mortgages, and a hundred different valets of various railroads, plantations,
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  Speaker 1: and public service corporations. But the roulette table did not
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  Speaker 1: long interest us. There was not enough action for your money.
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  Speaker 1: So we shouldered our way into a small room, blue
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  Speaker 1: with smoke, where a perpetual poker game was going at
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  Speaker 1: a fan shaped base covered table. At a little recess
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  Speaker 1: at the straight side of the table sat the dealer.
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  Speaker 1: Chairs were distributed around the circumference where the players sat.
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  Speaker 1: One played against the bank, the dealer scraping into the
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  Speaker 1: drawer a tenth of every pot the house's commission. Whenever
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  Speaker 1: anyone began to plunge and displayed a large wad, the
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  Speaker 1: dealer would give a shrill, penetrating whistle, and two suave
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen who were employed by the house would come running
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  Speaker 1: and take a hand. There was no limit as long
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  Speaker 1: as you had chips, or if your stack was underlaid
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  Speaker 1: with bank bills. The gentleman in possession of the buck
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  Speaker 1: had the say whether it was to be draw poker,
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  Speaker 1: Serrado or stud Abierto. Stud was the most fun because
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  Speaker 1: a Mexican could never realize that the next card would
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  Speaker 1: not give him a magnificent hand, and he bet increasing
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  Speaker 1: amounts on every card with wildly growing excitement. The strict
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  Speaker 1: rules of the American game, which so restrict freedom of action,
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  Speaker 1: were absent here. Johnny and I would lift a corner
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  Speaker 1: of our cards as soon as they were dealt to
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  Speaker 1: show each other, and when I seemed to be drawing ahead,
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  Speaker 1: Johnny would impulsively push his whole stack over to me.
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  Speaker 1: With the next card, Johnny's hand would seem to have
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  Speaker 1: more promise than mine, and I would push both stacks
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  Speaker 1: back to him. By the time the last card was dealt,
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  Speaker 1: all the chips would be laying neutrally between us, and
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  Speaker 1: whoever had the best hand bet our entire joint capital.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, nobody objected to this way of playing, but
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  Speaker 1: to offset it, the dealer would whistle shrilly to the
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  Speaker 1: two house players and slyly deal them each a hand
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  Speaker 1: off the bottom of the pack. Meanwhile, a Chinaman would
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  Speaker 1: be dashing madly between the table and a lunch counter
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  Speaker 1: across the street, bearing sandwiches, chile concarne and cups of
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  Speaker 1: coffee to the players. Who ate and drank loudly during
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  Speaker 1: the game, and spilled coffee and food into the jackpot. Occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: some player who had traveled extensively in foreign lands got
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  Speaker 1: up and walked around his chair to dispel a run
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  Speaker 1: of bad luck, or asked for a new deck with
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  Speaker 1: an off hand expansive air. The dealer would bow politely,
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  Speaker 1: sweep the deck into his drawer and produce another one.
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  Speaker 1: He had only two decks of cards in the house.
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  Speaker 1: Both were about a year old and largely decorated with
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  Speaker 1: the meals of former players. Of course, the American game
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  Speaker 1: was played, but there would sometimes enter a Mexican who
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  Speaker 1: was not intimately acquainted with the subtleties of the American deck.
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  Speaker 1: In the Mexican deck, for example, the seven, eight, and
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  Speaker 1: nine spots were omitted one such person, a pompous, pretentious Mexican.
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  Speaker 1: In one night, just as I had called for a
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  Speaker 1: hand of stud before the dealer could whistle, the stranger
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  Speaker 1: had produced a great wat of money, all sorts, sizes
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  Speaker 1: and denominations, and bought one hundred pesos worth of chips.
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  Speaker 1: The game was on. I drew three hearts in rapid
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  Speaker 1: succession secured Robert's pile and began to play for a flush.
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  Speaker 1: The stranger gazed at his cards for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: as if they were new to him. Then he flushed
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  Speaker 1: the deep red of intense excitement, and pushed in fifteen dollars.
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  Speaker 1: With the succeeding card, he turned quite pale and pushed
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  Speaker 1: in twenty five dollars, And when he looked at his
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  Speaker 1: last card, he turned red again and bet fifty dollars.
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  Speaker 1: By some miracle, I had filled a flush, but the
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  Speaker 1: man's wild betting scared me. I knew that a flush
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  Speaker 1: was good for almost anything in stud poker, but I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't keep up with that pace, so I passed the
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  Speaker 1: bet to him. He rose at that and protested violently.
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  Speaker 1: How do you mean pass the bet? He cried, shaking
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  Speaker 1: both fists. It was explained to him, and he subsided
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  Speaker 1: very well. Then he said, since this fifteen dollars is
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  Speaker 1: all I have and you will not let me buy
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  Speaker 1: any more chips, I will bet everything, and he pushed
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  Speaker 1: it into the center. I called him, what have you got?
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  Speaker 1: He almost screamed, leaning trembling over the table. I spread
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  Speaker 1: out my flush with an excited laugh. He banged the
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  Speaker 1: table a great blow straight, he cried, and turned up
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  Speaker 1: four five six ten jack. He had already reached out
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  Speaker 1: an arm to gather in the money when the entire
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  Speaker 1: table burst into a clamor. It is wrong, It is
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  Speaker 1: not a straight. The money belongs to the gringo. He
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  Speaker 1: lay sprawled out on the table with both arms round
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  Speaker 1: the pot. How, he cried, sharply looking up, It is
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  Speaker 1: not a straight. Look here four five six ten nave.
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  Speaker 1: The dealer interposed. But it should have been four five
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  Speaker 1: six seven eight, he said. In the American pack there
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  Speaker 1: are seven eight and nine. How ridiculous, sneered the man.
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  Speaker 1: I have played cards all my life, and never never
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  Speaker 1: have I seen a seven eight or nine. By this time,
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  Speaker 1: most of the roulette table throng had swarmed in at
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  Speaker 1: the door. They added their clamor to ours. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: it is not a strait, of course it must be.
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  Speaker 1: Is there not four five six ten nave? But the
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  Speaker 1: American pack is different. But this is not the United States,
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  Speaker 1: This is Mexico. Hey, Pancho, shouted the dealer, go at
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  Speaker 1: once and notify the police. The situation remained the same.
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  Speaker 1: My opponent still lay upon the table with the jackpot
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  Speaker 1: in his arms. A perfect pandemonium of argument filled the place.
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  Speaker 1: In some cases it had developed a personal note, and
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  Speaker 1: hands were stealing to hips. I unobtrusively pushed my chair
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  Speaker 1: against the wall. Presently, the Chief of police arrived with
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  Speaker 1: four or five gendarmes. He was a large, unshaven man
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  Speaker 1: whose mustaches twisted up to his eyes, dressed in a loose,
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  Speaker 1: dirty uniform with red plush appeletts. As he came in,
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  Speaker 1: everybody began explaining to him at once. The dealer made
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  Speaker 1: a megaphone out of his hands and shouted through the din.
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  Speaker 1: The man on the table turned up a livid face,
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  Speaker 1: insisting shrilly that it was an outrage for gringo rules
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  Speaker 1: to spoil a perfectly good Mexican game like stud poker.
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  Speaker 1: The Chief listened, curling his mustaches, his chest swelling with
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  Speaker 1: the importance of being the deciding factor in an argument
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  Speaker 1: involving such large sums of money. He looked at me.
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  Speaker 1: I said nothing, but bowed politely. He returned to the bow, then,
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  Speaker 1: turning to his policeman, pointed a dramatic finger at the
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  Speaker 1: man at the table. Arrest this goat. He said, it
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  Speaker 1: was a fitting climax, shrieking and protesting. The unfortunate Mexican
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  Speaker 1: was led into a corner where he stood facing the table.
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  Speaker 1: The money belongs to this gentleman, continued the Chief of Police.
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  Speaker 1: As for you, you evidently do not understand the rudiments
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  Speaker 1: of this game. I have a mind, perhaps, said Roberts,
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  Speaker 1: politely nudging me. The signor Captain would like to show
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  Speaker 1: the gentleman. I should only be too glad to loan
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  Speaker 1: him a few chips, I added. Raking in the pile, Oiga,
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  Speaker 1: said the chief, I will be glad to do so. Superlative,
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  Speaker 1: thanks sir. He drew up a chair, and out of politeness,
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  Speaker 1: the buck was given to him. Abierto, he said, with
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  Speaker 1: the air of an old hand. We played. The Chief
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  Speaker 1: of Police won. He rattled his chips like a professional gambler,
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  Speaker 1: slapping the buck to his neighbor. And we played again.
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  Speaker 1: You see, said the Chief of Police. It is easy
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  Speaker 1: if you observe the rules. He twisted his mustache, ruffled
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  Speaker 1: the cards, and pushed in twenty five dollars. He won again.
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  Speaker 1: After some time, one of the policemen approached him respectfully
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  Speaker 1: and said, I beg your pardon, mi capitan, but what
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  Speaker 1: shall we do with the prisoner, Oh, said the chief, staring.
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  Speaker 1: He waved his hand casually. Just release him and return
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  Speaker 1: to your stations. Long after the last wheel had been
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  Speaker 1: spun on the roulette table, the lamps blown out, and
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  Speaker 1: the most feverish gambler ejected into the street. We sat
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  Speaker 1: playing in the poker room. Roberts and I were down
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  Speaker 1: to about three paesols apiece. We yawned and nodded with sleepiness,
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  Speaker 1: but the Chief of Police had his coat off and
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  Speaker 1: was crouched like a tiger over his cards. Now he
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  Speaker 1: was losing steadily. End of Section forty