The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-08
KING PHARAOH.

KING PHARAOH.
Frauds of the Faro Fraternity. by n
Student of the "Cue Papers,"
Some time last year gambler styling
himself "John Morris, published, from
New York minus the imprint of any
publishing-house), a book of some 500
pages, under the taking title of Wan
behring's of VGEabond," purporting to
be an autobiography with a complete
exposure of all that he knew profess
sionally and by observation of the
thousand and::one ingenious devices for
cheating at games of chance. A good
portion of his so-called autobiography
is devoted to an exposure of the frauds
practiced by dealers of the game of
faro, perhaps the most generally played
of all gambling games in this country,
and which has wrought more wreck and
ruin, of morals and fortune, than any
other ever discovered. The game is
played with full pack of 80 cards, to
be dealt out of metal box prepared
for the purpose, the betters placing
their stakes on any of a suit of 13
cards spread out on table in front of
the dealer, and called " Layout"
The players hayingplaced their stakes
upon the " lay-o out, and all other pre-
limiuaries being settled, the dealer
shuffles the cards, cuts them, and places
them face up in small metal box, u.s.
ually silver, which is a little larger
than the pack to be admitted this box
is open at the top so that the top card
may always be in view. It also has a
small opening at the side, sufficiently
large to permit a single card to pass
through it conveniently. AS the cards
are pushed out, or dealt from the top
through this opening, the remainder of
the deck is forced upward by springs
placed in the bottom of the box, and
thus the cards are kept in their proper
place until the pack is exhausted.
We will suppose, by the way of Illus
tration, that the ace is the top card, as
it appears in the box. This card is
showed through an opening, when the
ten appears-this the bankers card, and
been placed upon 1t. The ten, like the
ace, is removed, disclosing a king,
which is the players card, the bank
losing all stakes found upon it. The
dra wing of those two cards is called 6
turn" which, being made, the dealer
takes and pays all the money won and
lost, and then proceeds as before,
drawing ont two more cards-the first
for the bank and the second for the
player, and so on till the whole are
dealt out.
The enumeration of the various de-
vices and inventions for swindiing at
this game, by this vagabond autobio-
grapher, ought to be sufficient to con-
vince the dullcst and most infatuated
of the victims of the "tiger" how ut
terly hopeless must be the delusion
that there is the remotest possibility of
winning at such odds. We quote few
of them with the hope that they may
serve as lesson to the unwary:
THE GAFF.
In 1926 a matchmaker in Cincinnati
invented a method of cheating called
"Gaff." This trick was played in the
following manner The plate covering
the mouth of the box was very thin and
flexible, so as to give upwards, if decir-
able, to force two cards with concealed
pointed metal gait from the box at once.
The next thing required was a pack of
cards that could be stocked to suit the
wants of the manipulation. This was
accomplished by trimming the cards of
different denominations in convex and
concave shapes. For example: The
kings, queens, aces and deuces were
separated from the others these were
trimmed by convex plate made for the
purpose, while the remainder of the
pack were trimmed with cOncave plate.
The pack being now ready for use, the
manipulation shuf1es it thoroughly, in
the usual manner, then strips it in the
following fashion He holds one end of
the pack between the fingers and thumb
of his left hand, while the other end is
resting on the table he places the fin
gers and thumb of his right hand on
the sides of the pack, at the middl
which makes them rest on the convex
cards. He then draws the pack apart
with quick jerk, which leaves the con-
cave cards in his left hand and the con-
vex in his right these he throws upon
the top of the pack, which leaves it
ready for stocking. This was formerly
done in the following manner While
holding the pack above the table firmly
in the fingers and thumb of the left
hand, he "milks it down" with the
thumb and fingers of his right hand
that is, he draws a card from the bottom
of the pack and one from the top at the
same time, and continues to do so until
he has "milked" off fifty-two cards,
making a concave card and a convex one
fall alternately together, which COM
pletes the stock. He then cuts the pack
and puts it in the dealing-box. If
king, queen, ace or deuce (the convex
cards. are seen on the top in the deal
ing-bOx, or at any time during the deal
after turn is made, the manipulation
will know that all these cards will win,
and by showing two cards at a time. he
can instantly change the stock.
GROUNDS"
In 1885 a new invention was set
afioat, called rounds" but it is not
certain who was the inventor. The
" credit is generally awarded to a ge-
MUS living in Nashville, Tennessee, by
the name of John Powers. A pack of
rounds were manufactured as follows :
The kings, queens, aces, deuces, trois,
and red sevens were taken from the pack, |
and the tens, mines, Fights, skies, fives, |
tours, end black sevens we're trimmed |
in this way On one of their sides. |
near the corners, a slice about the width |
of the thickness of two cards was trim |
med off, while the middle was left I'M
touched this gave them a slightly |
oval shape each of these cards was |
sanded on their faces, and those of the |
other portion on their backs. When |
the trimmed and untrimmed cards were
placed together, the pack on one side
had a serrated appearance, especially
near its corners, while on the other
side the natural shape was preserved.
The reader can now easily understand
how, by separating the trimmed from
the untrimmed cards, and "milking
them down." the whole pack was COM
pletely stocked. The dealer, while
pack of rounds" kept the
serrated or trimmed side next him, and
held the pack near the corners with his
thumbs resting ON the trimmed part,
and on the sides of those which were
The trimmed cards held