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NATCHEZ NAN AND HER GAMBLING MAN
by
C. H. Wheeler
Derringer Dan was a gambling man
Who plied his trade on the Nellie Bly,
Whose paddles dipped in the Mississipp
As the swampy banks slid by.
The backs he glimmed as the cards he skimmed
With never a crooked move;
Early and late he shuffled them straight,
For his heart held naught but love.
The guiding force who mapped his course
Was his sweetheart, Natchez Nan;
The captain's daughter who loved the water,
And worshipped Derringer Dan,
As with smiling lips he stacked his chips
In towers blue, white, and red.
She lived in dreams of New Orleans
And the day when they would wed.
The whistle blew for Belle Bayou
With its landing piled with bales;
The lusty shouts of the roustabouts
Answered the planter's hails.
Then up the plank with swagger and swank
Came a gent with a long mustache,
Clerical frock, and a pearl in his stock,
Who looked like ready cash.
Handsome Hank strolled up the plank—
A pearler, rake, and scamp;
A "nigger robber" and "poker dauber,"
From an up-state mussel camp.
He bartered pearls with crib-line girls
At "Natchez Under the Hill,"
And would oft' flim-flam a digger of clams;
In fact, he'd been known to kill.
Natchez Nan watched Derringer Dan
When Hank horned into the game.
She heard Dan say in his quiet way,
"My friend, I have heard your fame
As a wizard at cards in the mussel yards,
So forgive me if I must chide.
Retain your gloves, but your coat remove—
Those sleeves are much too wide!"
Nan saw the flash, the crimson splash,
As Dan sank to the floor;
With a panther's glide she stood beside
Her love who lived no more.
He faced his God, but his two-barreled rod
Was safe in the hand of Nan,
Who slammed a ball in the cabin wall
Through the heart of the pearler man.
"Your game was rank," she sneered at Hank,
"'Twas a rotten card you played.
You yellow scum, you lousy bum,
Your last draw is a spade.
You did away with my fiance,
Now we'll follow him on his trip."
And the captain's daughter who loved the water
Hopped into the Mississipp. |
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