Show III11 I II Bluejacket Had a Big Run of Luck One nutumn morning in the late t seventies when I was attached to the flagship 1 of the Mediterranean station nald l naval officer who IS l geLLtng on toward the retiring age tho ship pulled Into the harbor 6f Nice and all hands of the starboard watch and I went ashore together Neither of us had ever visited Monte Carlo and wo had lon been promising ourselves n vlaw J of the principality of Monaco and a bit of ploy at the tables just for the experience ex-perience of the thing and because In those days l naval officer who hadnt Jil least taken a peek at the Monte Carlo game was rather patronized iby his messmates We arrived at Monte Carlo 0 little after the hour of noon and after strolling about the place we started for the Casino Ae we were entering we saw a fireman from our ship an odd looking redheaded Bower boy named Tim Burlje trying to convince the pompous attendant at the door that he pmpous coor was entitled to enter the Casino In his I blue jacket uniform The attendant couldnt and wouldnt see It He couldnt speak English but he shrugged his shoulders disdainfully as ho Interposed his large frame between be-tween the fireman and the passageway Into the Casino Burke was addressing the at n < ant persuasively In his tough > Jew York dialect and gesticulating eloquently but It was no use The attendant at-tendant wouldnt budge from his position po-sition Then Burke grinning amiably nil the time began to cuss out the attendant at-tendant He looked as If I he was addressing ad-dressing compliments to the sumptuously sumptu-ously uniformed attendant but If the latter had had any Idea of the horrible things the fireman was saying to him thing therecl probably have been a riot and an International Incident lo follow At this stage of it the paymaster and I made our presence known to the fireman fire-man from out ship Whats the matter Burke I asked the redheaded flrehian who saluted Inform In form and then looked sheepish t Nothln sir he replied except that this dago wont let me in in uniform and Im fcclin1 n lot lucky this afternoon after-noon noonWell 1 Well thats their rule Burke I told him But I tell you what you do I If youre so anxious toget Inand as my suggestion Isnt exactly regulations you want to keep It to yourself when you get back to the ship do you mind You run hack to Nice shed your blue Jacket clothes for a bit and rent yourself your-self a suit of mufti Then come back and youll be admitted all right I The oddlooking Burke looked grateful grate-ful for the advice saluted wheeled 1 about and was off It a Jog The pay muster I and I entered the Casino all watched the play for an hour or so and then we began to venture n few modest louis at one of the roupcetnolr tables We were still Immersed In the game and not much winner or loser when we heard a loud laugh over at one of the roulette tables and we looked up to ace what the fun was The laugh was over our Fireman Burke who had Just entered the room and had begun to play at the roulette table He wan n figure of fun if I over r saw one He had rented an evening suit that was about four sizes shy of i being large enough for him The excruciatingly ex-cruciatingly tight trousers of the suit Were a good nine Inches too short and their shortness afforded a fine view of Burkes Government straight brogans and while socks His shirt was an elaborate plnkohccked affair and his bowknot The I necktie was n huge red sleeves of his swallowtall coat only reached down to a point a bit below his elbows which accentuated the Immensity sity of his huge red hamlike hands His shook of fiery red hair Mood straight on end and the coal dust still clinging to the underllds of his blue eyes made It appear as If he had penciled them that way Burke grinned from car 0 to ear when he saw us looking at him but the laughter of the blase people peo-ple surrounding the table didnt bother him in the least and he began to scatter scat-ter his louis around on the roulette numbers He was lucky from the start and Inside In-side of a quarter of an hour he had a fine stack of gold heaped in front of him His extraordinary appearance attracted at-tracted the attention of all the players and strollers In the vast room and the mon and women playing at the table patronized by Burke left off risking their gold for the fun o watching the queer moves of the funny looking and unabashed Burke He began to win so steadily however how-ever that presently a distinguished looking Russian Grand Duke ho mid been Idly pushing little stacks of gold on the numbers began to follow the firemans play closely risking however how-ever on each turn of the marble ten times the amounts risked by the fireMan fire-Man and finally put lng down the llmtl every time on the numbers selected by our redheaded bluejacket The luck kept up ahd the Russian Grand Duke ook down big sums while Burke stuck to his five louis plays and kept right on winning Then n dissipatedlooking young Englishman a wealthy nobleman who has since mended his ways and distinguished himself In English staes nanshlp took a hand he too following exactly the number plays made by the redheaded fireman and like the RUK Inn playing the limit every time Right on top of this n Hungarian Countess noted at the time for her plunging penchant took up the fire mans system or lack of system and then there were three utterly recklesH limit betters people who were notorious throughout Km ope for their daring gambling I I deliberately following the lead of n United States manowar fireman fire-man In bucking aMomc Carlo roulette game Burke steadfastly resisted the temptation to raise hIt lifts but Continued Con-tinued right along with his llveIouis plays on the number the three t plungers folowlng him on every play Thu < they suck lo It for hours while scores of persons many of them notables no-tables stood curiously about the table and peered over each others shoulders lo watch the game At 5 oclock In the afternoon when Burke had no hess than 3200 gold louis l heaped up In front of him and the others were way ahcml one of the directors di-rectors of the Casino approached the table as It had been expected for sometime some-time that he would and announced to Messieurs and Mesdames that the game was temporarily suspended The ball had bcdn temporarily broken I Binke was on board the flagship clean and sober as D Judge when the paymaster and II returned to the ship that night and on the following morning morn-ing he deposited his 1200 louis winning with the paymaster to bi > kept for him until the windup of his enlistment He only had twenty louis when he began to play the wheel In the Casino Ire told us He lund no Idea of returning to the fonte Carlo tables remarking1 as to that l aint no hog The paymaster and I met the young Englishman who had profited so finely by following the Hi emails play the next time we visited Monte Carlo He had Just had n vmt losing and lIe fcOmcwhat ruefully asked us when that redheaded beggar of a manowars man was coming to Monte Carlo again I One week in that lucky stokers wake he declared with a round oath and Id own the whole principality Washington Star |