176 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



gamble was too cowardly to risk my wealth, if you wish 

 to put it in that way. Plenty of good men gamble, and 

 I have other faults, but am not one of those who, as 

 Butler ("Hudibras") says: 



"Compound for sins they are inclined to 

 By damning those they have no mind to." 



I have occasionally played cards in a perfunctory 

 way, without caring for them, and have engaged in 

 games to decide who should pay for oysters, cigars and 

 such other goods as an army sutler possessed, but a book 

 always suited me better. Speaking of games in connec- 

 tion with Potosi wakes me up. In the sketch of General 

 Martin Miller the fact was recorded that Herr Dries- 

 bach, the great lion tamer, used to come to my father's 

 house to play chess, and to my great surprise Bill Pat- 

 terson pointed out a finely-built, powerful man whom 

 we had just passed and said: "That's Driesbach, the lion 

 tamer." I hurried after him, and the result was that I 

 often went out to his farm of an evening and had a game 

 of chess, the only game that I ever thought worth the 

 candle. Chess players were very scarce in Potosi, and 

 Driesbach and I were out of practice, but if I won one 

 game out of five it was sufficient. 



One evening he said: "You aren't one-half the man 

 your father was; he must have been over six feet." 



"Yes; six feet two inches, and no spare meat." 



"Well, I remember once when we crossed the river 

 to Albany in a small boat, and a 'longshoreman was 

 smoking a pipe in the faces of two ladies who sat in the 

 stern, your father spoke to him about it and got an 

 impudent reply, and he then jerked the pipe from the 

 fellow's mouth and threw it overboard. Then threats of 

 vengeance came when we should get on shore. Your 



