Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-09-19
$4,000 LOST IN A NIGHT.
Cleuer Operations Of T,co German
Called NObZe7aen

the vicinity of Aston Place bearing very
respectable name, the originators being
few, young and wealthy North-German mer-
chants, bankers and ship-owners. It num-
bers now some sixty members, has a first
class reading room and well-supolied bar.
The initiation fee is $500. and the annual
dues are over $3.50. New candidates are ad-
rnitted only upon the recommendation
of i've members. The two upper stories
of the building are ueed for games of
chance. Access to them is guarded by far
more strictly than the haunts of professional
game-keepers. In. fact, only the initiated
ones know how to reach the gaming tables.
Three of the latter are devoted to roulette,
and the other three to tren1e ct quarozte
(ronge ct noir.) From an early hour in the
evening until daybreak these tables are sur
rounded by the gambling members, and fire.
quently ISL 900 greenbacks and certified
checks to even larger amounts are piled up
on the roulette figures, or on the mysterious
figures of the rouge ct noir tables. Every
member may
w. 49,, HOLD THE BANK,
But for no longer a period than weeks
time. Strangers may be introduced by men,
the strangers as to their financial standing
before they are admitted to the gaming
rooms. Most of the members are married
men, and it has been noticed that, while they
have sent their families to fashionable water
ng places at the beginning of the warm sea-
| son, they themselves have all along remained
in the city. Square dealing was depended
npon by every member of the club, and, I'M
| til the strange episode which occurred quite
recently in its history took place no one ut
tered any complaint.
TWO H21sTOCRATIC GENTLEMEN.
About a month ago there arrived from
Hamburg two aristocratic gentlemen, who
! had registered on the steamer as Count War
tensleben and Baron Werthern. Both gen.
tlemen had passports apparently issued by
| the Berlin ministry of foreign affairs, and
| letters of introduction to rich North German
! bankers and merchants, some of whom be-
longed to the above mentioned club. They
stated that they were engaged on a voyage
round the world, and would spend two or
| three months in New York. Count War
tensleben stated that he was the grand
| son of the famous Prussian General
: York Won Wartensleben. His history was
| not unknown in this city. He was known
to have very large fortune, and to spend it
/ In the most eccentric way. In fact, Count
,, Wartensleben exhibited here letter of cred
| it for
TWENTY THOUSAND POUNDS.
Baron Werthern also showed plenty of
money. To cut matters short, tho two
strangers were taken to the club, when both
| OF them played roulette and trente ct 7aoSr,
| losing for several days. Baron Werthern
then suggested to the managers of
| the club that sharper might
easily dupe them, the roulette being
one long discarded by the gamblers
| of Europe; and he also advised the use of a
peculiar kind of cards which would prevent
| cheating on the part of the banker at the
| rouge ct 7eoir table. The suggestions were
unsuspectingy acted upon, and on the fol-
| lowing evening new roulettes and new cards
| were used. Count Wartensleben and his
companion played heavily, and lost, perhaps,
"a ,OO0.. Next evening the count proposed to
take the bank, and he was permitted to do
80. There We're great many members
there, and high stakes were played for. For
time the banker lost. This embodied the
gamblers, all of whom gathered round the
roulette-tabie over which he presided. The
stakes against him we're
TwENTY-oNE THOUSAND DOLLARS,
and ne Won. He won in the course of the
evening $4,000 more. Then he proposed
to give them satisfaction at the rouge ct 7,oSr
They accepted his offer, and he Won an ad-
ditional $l4 900. He left the place, promis-
ing to take the bank on the following even
ing. When that time arrived, neither he
nor his friend made their appearance. They
waited for him nearly until midnight, when
they left, shaking their heads. Next day it
was ascertained that the two strangers
had left the Z city. It was discovered
that the roulette at which the Count
had presided had been constructed most in
geniously in such manner that the bank
or could easily send the ball into the upper { ?
lower figure compartments. The cards which
he had set at the rouge ct noi7 table were
found to be
FRAUDULENT,
there being more than one-half black cards.
Worse than this, the certified checks which
he and his friends had staked returned to
the hapless gamblers who had won them, and
prominent stock broker, who had advanced
the count $4,000, gives them up as dead
loss. Cable dispatches to Berlin elected the
fact that the real Count Wartensleben had
never left that city.