The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-21

whenever he gets a ten or an ace he
scratches it firmly in the upper rigat hand
and lower left hand corners The scratch
ing is done on tine face. two scratches for
ten and one for an ace, and leaves little ridges
on the back OF the card entirely invisible TO
the eye but instantly perceptible to the
touch. 1t NAV be two or TIL &c games he
fore the cards are all scratched, but when it
is done the gambler in dealing them can
plainly tell each one as it passes under the
cushion Of his thumb, and It gives him an
immense percentage. BY the way, casino
is becoming more and more great gam
bling game. 1t used to he left for women ard
children, but is played at present for stakes
all over the country, and in the West,
especially, it even crowds poker. There is
a great deal o. science about IL.
Gard playing as profession is on the
decline, is it nOtf'
"Ol. bless your soul! yes" Mcclellan an
swered, with a sigh. 1T began to dwindle
when the big river boats stopped running,
and to-day there are not more than five or
six really first-clasS men travelling over the
country making living out of the paste
boards They are all very shy, never asso-
ciate with gamblers, and have some Ostensi-
bic business tGar enables them to get the
entree Of gentemen's clubs. l suppose as
good as any, if not the best of all, is DR..
Lake. Years ago he had hardware store
in Cleveland, o., but got in trouble with
somebody else's wife and had 10 leave He
told me that he became a gambler by being
a friend of gamblers. One shOr ed him one
thing and one another and lie pickle up
good deal himself, until finally he could them
give all points. He represents himself TO be
a mining man, and although he has been
exposed time and again, he Is such genial,
who.e-souled, cOmpaniOnabie fellow that his
dupes, IN nine cases out of ten, refuse to
believe anything wrong about him. lie
went to Australia a few years ago and won
5000. Before ne started he called at
place in Chicago, where they sell gambling
tools and filled a small leather trunk with
nearly every device for cheating / saw
him IN California on his return and one of
the first things he showed me was this same
leather trunk, still unopened. He never
had the key in the lock A simple deck of
cards had been all that was necessary. The
doctor is one Of the last of his tribe, think;
they are becoming extinct, like Indians and
buffalo,
did any of the old-time card players ac-
cumulate much money!
"Well, they made great deal and then
threw it away with 10th hands, and usually
died poor and miserable. / can
scarcely recall an exception. Col SOmers,
who must have made and spent a quarter OF
a million, died in the pOorhouse at Salt
Lake City; Jake Henderson was shot in a
brawl near Mobile, and we took up colec
tion TO bury him; he used to charter steam
boats to get on drunk with his friends.
John Waters, Leonard Wells, and Charles
II. Roy were all high rollers in their day,
and thought nothing of passing a $40 piece
to the darkey who BACKED their boots.
They all died broke, and Roy, who had been
a perfect prince in his prime, is thought to
have actually starved. He became a very
much broken-down man, and when he was
finally found dead in his room-a miserable
den-there were some little pieces of bread
in his wash basin, and the supposition was
that he put them there to soften before eat
ing. His stomach was entirely empty