This generous proposition was, in the majority of cases, readily agreed to. The farmer would accompany Ben to his nearest neighbor, and there use his influence toward obtaining a subscription. Dismissing farmer number one, Ben would proceed to make the same offer to number two, assuring him that he would get the piano by the payment of twenty-five dollars.
This proved a pretty profitable kind of recreation for our hero; but when the farmers assembled in town on the appointed day, and found that the promised piano didn't arrive, it was, perhaps, well for Ben's health that he was a good many miles distant from the spot.
Another little incident showed how the biter may sometimes get bitten himself. Stopping off at Little Rock, Ben fell in with a crowd of sharpers who introduced him to a faro bank where the worst kind of a skin game was dealt. It made no difference what the result over the board might be, the policy of the crowd being to freeze to the money when they had once got it into their possession. The bank was located in the upper room of a hotel, where, presumably, no gambling was allowed. While Ben was engaged in the game, and after he had invested four hundred dollars in chips, one of the sharpers slipped out of the room unperceived, and disguised himself in the uniform of a policeman. Then a mock raid was made upon the bank. The lights were put out, and a general hubbub ensued. The first that Ben knew he was in the hands, as he supposed, of an officer, with the prospect of spending the night in jail. Then he did precisely what the sharpers had counted on his doing--offered two hundred dollars to be set at liberty. The bogus policeman hesitated, said he couldn't do it; that he would have to lock Ben up; but in the end, of course, took the money. When Ben discovered, as he afterward did, that the whole thing was a put-up job, he probably felt like butting his head against a stone wall just for fun.
After these and other adventures, which space prevents me from recounting, Ben at last reached St. Louis. His intention was to proceed to Hot Springs, but before doing so, he spent some days in St. Louis, stopping at the Planters' Hotel. He visited a number of his acquaintances in the city, among others Jack Looney and Tom Allen. The latter asked him if he had given up boxing, to which Ben answered that he had. Allen and Hogan drove out together to Mollie M'Cool's, opened a number of bottles of champagne, and drank to one another's health--or rather Allen did most of the drinking, and Ben settled the bill.