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“I showed Sam the telegram.

“‘Vell, vell, vell. I nefer had a ting to happen like dot in my life,’ said he. ‘Now, I know you are my frient. If you had send dose vlowers while you knew I vas alife, I would have t’ought you done it to sell me a bill but you send ’em ven you t’ought I vas deat. Ged op your stuff, Mark, you bet your life I haf a bill for you. I will make it dobble vat I t’ought I vould. You are de only man dat has proved he vas my frient.'”

“Did I ever tell you how I got on the south side of Ed Marks?” said Sam Wood. We had nearly all heard this story before, but still it was a pleasure to get Wood started, so we all urged him to proceed.

“Well, it came about this way,” said Sam, squaring himself in his chair, as we lit our cigars. “It was in the old flush days, you know, Goodness! How I wish we had some more mining camps now like Ed’s old town. Business was business in those days–to sell a man ten thousand in clothing was nothing! Why, I’ve sold Ed as much as twenty-five thousand dollars in one season. His account alone, one year, would have supported me. I know one time he came into our store and I took him upstairs and sold him the whole side of the house–overcoats that stacked up clear to the ceiling, and he bought them quick as a flash. He just looked at them. He said, ‘How much for the lot?’ I gave him a price, and before I could snap my finger he said, ‘All right, ship them out. Send about a fourth by express and the others right away by freight.'”

“Yes, but how did you start him, Sam?”

“Oh, I’m just going to get to that now. I was something of a kid when I started out west. I’ve always been a plunger, you know. Of course I’ve cut out fingering chips for a long time now, but there was no stake too high for me in those days. It cost a whole lot of money to travel out west when I first struck that country. It was before the time when clothing houses sent out swatches in one trunk. They weren’t such close propositions then as now. They’re trying to put this clothing business now on a dry goods basis.

“Well, I carried fourteen trunks and five hundred wouldn’t last me more than two weeks. I just cashed a draft before I struck Ed’s town. I had heard that he was a hard man to handle and I didn’t know just exactly how to get at him, but luck was with me.

“The night I got into town, I went into the den out from the office. You know that in those days the hotels would board suckers for nothing if they would only play their money. I knew Ed by sight and I saw him standing by the faro table. ‘Ah, here’s my chance,’ said I. I pulled out my roll and asked the dealer to give me two hundred in chips. I played him twenty on a turn and then said to the dealer, ‘What’s your limit?’ The roof’s off,’ said he. ‘All right, 250 on the bullet,’ said I, sliding over. ‘250 goes,’ said he. I lost. I repeated the bet. I lost again. By this time they began to crowd around the table. I didn’t see Ed then at all, you know, except out of the corner of my eye. I could see that he was getting interested and I saw him put his hand down in his pocket. I lost another 250. Three straight bets of 250 to the bad, but I thought I might just as well be game as not and lose it all at one turn as well as any other way, if I had to lose. All I was playing for was to get an acquaintance with Ed anyhow and that was easily worth 500 to me if I could ever get him into my sample room, and I knew it. Gee! Those were great old times then.