'I know better,' he will say, 'don't I? What will you
bet--five, ten, fifty, hundred? Tush! you dare not bet, you know you are
wrong;' and with an air of superiority and self-satisfaction, he will
take long strides over his well-washed floor, repeating, 'I
know better.'
"Slick used once to boast that he had never lost a bet; but since a
little incident which made all New York laugh at him, he confesses that
he did once meet with his match, for though he certainly won the bet, he
had paid the stakes fifty times over. Now, as I heard the circumstance
from the jolly landlord himself, here it goes, just as I had it, neither
more nor less.
"One day, two smart young fellows entered the Franklin; they alighted
from a cab, and were dressed in the tip-top of fashion. As they were new
customers, the landlord was all smiles and courtesy, conducted them into
saloon No. 1, and making it up in his mind that his guests could be
nothing less than Wall street superfines, he resolved that they should
not complain of his fare.
"A splendid dinner was served to them, with sundry bottles of old wines
and choice Havanas, and the worthy host was reckoning in his mind all
the items he could decently introduce in the bill, when ding, ding, went
the bell, and away he goes up stairs, capering, jumping, smiling, and
holding his two hands before his bow window in front.
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