Description

Taking Chances by Clarence Louis Cullen

189 pages

To the man who, at any period of his days, has been bitten by that ferocious and fever-
producing insect colloquially known as the “horse bug,” and likewise to the man whose
nervous system has been racked by the depredations of the “poker microbe,” these tales of
the turf and of the green cloth are sympathetically dedicated. The thoroughbred running
horse is a peculiar animal. While he is often beaten, the very wisest veterans of the turf
have a favorite maxim to the effect that “The ponies can’t be beat”—meaning the
thoroughbred racers; which sounds paradoxical enough. Poker, too, is a mystifying affair, in
that all men who play it appear, from their own statements, to lose at it persistently and
perennially. There is surely something weird and uncanny about a game that numbers only
losers among its devotees. However, poker-players are addicted to persiflage. The genuine,
dyed-in-the-wool, blown-in-the-bottle pokerist rarely acknowledges that he is ahead of the
game—until the day after.
These stories, which were originally printed in the columns of the New York Sun,
belong largely to the eminent domain of strict truthfulness. If they do not serve to show
that the “horse bug” and the “poker microbe” are good things to steer clear of, they will by
no means have failed of their purpose; for the writer had nothing didactic in view in setting
them down as he heard them