The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-05-23
GAMBLERS IDEAS.
The Cross-Eyed Jonah and the
Egg Man, Who Bring Bad Luck
to the Players.

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Cynical and incredulous. intensely
lnatter-offact i'm all his dealings, sus-
picious of friend and foe alike, it seems
q most remarkable paradox that the
gambler, the man who lives from day
to day and from year to year, as
thousands do, on the chance turn Of a
die, card or the whirl of wheel,
should he of all others tainted with an
ineradicable superstition. 1t is no ex-
ageration to say that ninety-nine out
OF every hundred professional game
sters in this as well as other cities are
thorough believers in luck-not run
luck wild, but luck produced and re-
tanned by certain methods alleged to
he infallible. The alarming extent to
understanding is carried on in Phila-
delphia to-day affords an excellent OPP
portunity for any investigation to learn
how a man trained to disbe!ieve not
only human nature but almost the
actual evidence of his own senses, will
risk the last dollar he has in the
world or refuse to venture copper,
Just as the supposed facts may dictate.
Amateur gamblers can disregard these
many omens during their noviate;
they may laugh to scorn the advice of
older companions to play only on Ger
tain days in the week, or to eschew
certain suits of cards in their play,
but sooner or later they give in and
become devoted believers in all the
thousand and one signs supposed to
cluster around every green-topped
table.
II would no more think said a
long moustached, bediamond fellow
yesterday, as he fingered with white
claw-like hand a heavy gold watch
guard, "of sitting down at game of
short cards or bucking at faro with
cross eyed man in the room, than /
would of betting on a clothes horse
against st. Julian. No. sir; cross-eyed
men in a card room are noted for
bringing bad luck. 1 never knew ii
to fail"
SOME OF THE SIGNS.
This shark, living. as he has been
for years, on the winnings of other
gamblers and the earnings of foolish
dupes, is a fair sample of the entire
class. While he could sit down and
play as cody for stake of thousands
of dollars as he would for dozen cop
pers, giving no tell tale sign in move
ment or facial expression as to the
strength or weakness of his cards, yet
his frigid imperturbability would be
seriously affected were a foot placed
upon the round of his chair, or a
hump. backed man catch his eye be-
tween deals.
The same signs and omens apply to
the game of draw poker, and vingt-un.
perhaps, however, in a more modified
form. Such little tricks as playing
IRE headed, or covered, sitting at
ertain points of the compass, and the
like. are INDUCED in, and believed TO
a great extent. Many poker players
will refuse to 90 into a game if they
learn that before their coming in seven
hands had been played without a
lack pot" In horse racing bets,
buyers of POOLS depend more on an odd
name of the racer than any knowledge
of his powers, and a peculiar name in
a short horse mot a favorite) is usually
seized upon.
The belief in luck and ill.luck
reaches the most preposterOus bounds,
all the way from lottery policy play
ing. the lowest. up to the faro bank,
the highest form of gambling, and
which seems to be the final net into
which the smaller nets and their mis-
cellaneous catch are drawn. Faro
bank players, the regular, continuous
players, believe that any contact with
a negro will bring good luck. TO
shake hands, unintentionally, with a
colored man or woman, or even to
brush against one, before entering a
bank, is said to invariably result in
extraordinary luck. OF all other
omens, this is taken as the best, and it
is an actual fact that q black aud ugly
Mascot has been deriving a comfort,
able living during the last half
dozen years by hanging around
high grade gambling dens, and
bestowing luck on the patrons.
Ridiculous as it may seem,
veteran gamblers have an uu-
failing faith that to get even a "lucky
rub" from the man who has touched
the negro will transfer a portion of his
good luck to them. An experienced
faro player will. in nine cases out OF
ten, put whole stack of chips on a
duce spot should two colored men en-
ter the room abreast, but should dog