The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-15
GAMBLERS TRICKS EXPOSED.
The Boss Crook Describes What He Calls q
Legitimate Business.

u
New York sun.
Il have found honesty TO be the best policy,
and have gone into legitimate business" the boss
crook remarked.
what is that2' the reporter asked, having
missed the crook from his usual haunts. :.
Teaching the innocent rustic and the I'M
sophisticated suburban. / average one scholar a
day, and the scheme pays very well. l struck
the racket last winter. and have found it a pic
mic. How do l work it? l put a card in fifty
country papers:
FORTUNES M~ApE.-Gamblers' tricks exposed.
Marked cards, loaded dice, bugs, and patent boxes for
sale, with instructions. Lessons at reasonable rates.
Address, =@,- Bowery.
1.-THE rustic sees this, and in the same paper
reads of a man winning $25, 900 at faro. He
writes me and / send him a price list. 1t is the
same as that used by regular dealers in gambling
goods, only about 80 per cent. higher. If the
fellow wants to buy, l sell, and make a decent
profit. But what catches is a notice at the end:
Having been a professional gambler twenty
years, | am familiar with every trick of the
trade, and guarantee to make any novice pro-
fcient in three lessons, and skillful enough to
meet any blackleg on equal terms. Terms, 81 a
lesson of one hour
.The chump reads that and comes on and
calls. have a deal with the landlord of the
hotel. and receive my pupil in a private parlor.
The best racket is 10 teach him to work loaded
dice or marked cards. In an hour he's got the
hang of it. but of course, is very clumsy. We
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My pal comes up to the bar and looks interested
in the game. He asks us to let him in. / say
certainly, and give my bucolic friend the wink.
My pal then looses two or three rounds and
wants to go for a quarter ahead. We aceede.
My pal loses; the rustic beats him, but / win.
After a few throws | pull my watch out and
plead an engagement and get out. AS / leave /
whisper to the countryman that he has a picnic.
Spd to work the fellow for all he is worth. /
then skip. The game continues, and in fifteen
minutes my pupil is cleaned out. If he kicks,
my pal suddenly picks up one OF the loaded dice
and starts a row. If the man isn't a fighter, my
pal hits him on the nose. If he is we call in the
gang and bounce him for a blackleg. Yon can
bet he never comes back, and he doesn't COM
plain to the police. Even if he did, we'd have
the dead-wood on him, and could easily prove
that he rung in loaded dice on us. The racket's
just the same with marked cards, but only a
little slower. What do you think of the gamer
ingenious; but doesn't the landlord obiectl'
MAO. Don't you see we dizzy upf According
to how good the hotel is, we yield from Is to 40
per cent Why, I'd pay 10 per cent. if l could
work a first class hotel. On the proceeds I and
my pal 60 halves. How much do we collar2
Can't say. Anywhere from an X up. Old
farmers and church deacons generally como to
town quite we'll fixed, and they will often yield
a century. The funniest thing of the whole
matter is that the rustic never tumbles to me.
Three or four times I've met suckers we'd
worked, and every time they came up, shook
hands and treated. They'd tell me yarns now
they put up jobs with the tricks | taught them,
bur they never speak of their losses"