The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1869-05-26

MACHINERY OF GAMBLING DEN-Sjngatzay Dis
coDe1y-The building No. 4l4 Pennsylvania Avenue
occupied for some time the Congress Clothing
Store, is now being pulled down to make room for
extensive Improvements. In taking down of the
Partitions to gas pipe daylight was let in upon
some secret wires which, being traced, were found to
extend through the of the whole upper portion
of the building and with other apparatus forming one
of the most remarkable pieces of machinery for gam.
bling swinding ever exposed to view.
This machinery, now laid bare shows that i'm
mense and labor'were bestowed upon its inven-
ton and preparation. The gambling rooms were in
the second story front. Over them were two garnet
rooms with dormer windows. In the flooring OF each
of these upper trap door had been six feet
in length and three in width. The trap being taken
up shows aperture between the floor and the ceiling
of the room below of size to accommodate the gam
blers confederate; and series of small perforaons
il" tho o4ilnn "nrdea him full vio-s Of the cards held
by the players III the room below. BY his side
end OF thin wire, which, passing along under the
flooring Of the room below, (playing upon nicely ad-
Justed puIleys at the augIeS and until it reached
point drecEly under the caro- table. Here very in
genl0us pedal arrangement into play, by which
with springs of spiral wire triangular piece Of iron
was made to work up through minute aperture in
the floor under the foot of the swindling gambler.
The victim in this operation, 1t will be seen, had no
show whatever. Green, the "retormed gambler" has
shown the system of cheating by marked cards. but
Ltfdb was clumsy anu nOue OF hSCeflaDlg
what the opposite player has in his hand compared to
this system of elegraphy which, by the way, can claim
priority in time over MorSe's invention This system
could not be OF much use to the faro sharper but must
have been fatally effective in the gambling gaines of
thirty and thirty-fve years ago.
In following the OF the wires it noticed that
packing of soft wool had been placed at every point
where the working OF the apparatus would possible
make noise calculated to warn the victim. The oper
ator OF the machinery silent as DEATH and not
an indicator appeared anywhere give him suspicion
of the network Of villany in which he was entrapped
The punctures in the ceiling which gave view of the
cards to the confederate overhead screened from
view by ornamental oval of green figured papeling
aud the aperture in the floor under the card table,
through which the spring played concealed by the
carpet.
SPIRIT PHoToGRAPHY-IFh What the Evidence Stoaced
and Fen Spec5ations - One portion of the evidence
in the great 'sprite photography case reveals some
fearful possibilities. 1t is deposed by witness, pro-
fessional photographer, that he could take man
with an angel over his head with pair of hands on
head" and also that the picture of lady that was
shown him with her hand in gentIeman's hair, might
with equal have been taken to represent this COM
PLEASANT feminine with her aboutthe sitter In
fact, says the witness the process of taking them "
these miraculous pictures " can be changed any ex
tent almost" This being so, what vista does the
fact reveal Who, henceforth trust the accuracy
OF a photograph? Heretofore, we have been led to
believe that nature the whole OF nature and nothing
but nature, could be took :" but whittier shall
we turn when it is possible for Henry Ward Beecher
say, to be presented in the embraces of festive
lorete the ghost of the late lamened be deneaed
with a rawhde in its hand hectoring gang of negroes
in cotton field! What ravage will this possibility
make of private reputation, and what confusion entail
on the historian of future times. Photographs have
been treasured in belief that, like figures they could
not le but here is revelation that they may be made
to lie with most deceiviDg exactness. From this day
out, marriage by photograph will become obsolete for
how Augustus, who has fallen in love with Clo- |
rinda from the beauty Of her letters be really that
it is the counterfeit prcsentment of that fair one which
he mail brings him in to bis piteous request
lorindas nose may be nobly aquiline in the photo
graph but who shall say that in nature it not the
proetarian snub and that by this Photographic
process said snub has been eliminated
md somebody else's aquiine put in? And similarly
ii sameness in the of Augustus his nose. Evil
ienty the lawyers will have furnish up their weap-
ms i'll false pretences if this kind of thing is to come
II vogue and see to it, also, that have special
atutes against Photographic representing the
ieges in places where they were attitudes they
lever assumed and eompanonships they abhor as the
cal, old, original inventor of this process does
loy water.