The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-21
THE ART OF GAMBLERS.
LOADED DICE AND MARKED CARDS
THE TOOLS OF AMATEURS.
Old Time and Modern Tricks-The Vest
Hold-Out-Top Shutting and Shifting
the Cut-The End that Some Gam
blers Come To.

From the Net5 York sun.
81 want to knock two gambling myths
on the head-loadel dice and marked
cards.
The gentleman who made this remark to
me is known. and pretty well known,
among the fraternity as Billy Mcclellan,
and he has recently been employed by
club house IN Baltimore to protect the
poker game. His duty was to stop any
''workn-that is the generic term for all UNI
de-hand practice-and to keep professional
card players out of the house, and he did
both so quietly and so well that nobody ex
cept the culprits knew the real character of
his employment. A tap on the shoulder, an
interview in the hall. and a man who went
down stairs and never came up again-that
was all there was to it. but to do this, and
never make a scene or a mistake, required
a wide and checkered experience. 1t Is not
10 be presumed that Mr. Mcclellan learned
how TO spot poker sharp by frequenting
church sociables; on the contrary ne &C
quired his art through a career that began
on the Mississippi river steamboats, IN the
racing days, extended all over the frontier
from Butte City, Montana, 10 Tombstone,
Arizona and included numerous trips across
the big pond. until transatlantic gambling
was discouraged few years ago. In short,
he Is an expert and as entertaining a gos-
siper as ever made the needle of the weigh
ing machine fly around TO 2l0. Iran across
him the other day returning from his Bal
timore engagement, and we fell into ram
bling conversation.
mo, SIR he went on to say; "loaded
dice and marked cards are supposed to be
the favorite tools of gamblers. It's all a
fairy story, like lady temperance workers
talk about the curse Of rum Now nobody
drinks rum"
do you mean there are no loaded diceN
YES. Years and years ago there may
have been some very large dice made
hea vier at one face, but with the small dice
made nowadays it would do no good. A
round object, of course, rests on its heaviest
side, but with a cube, like die, the pres
sure would be just the same, no matter in
what position it lay. If you will think
Just moment YOU will see that the loaded
side would be exactly as apt to fall on top
as below, and even were it possible to con
struct die so it would fall infallibly on,
say, six. it would be useless in poker dice,
the popular way of throwing, where the re-
currence of any number would excite sus-
picion at once. | will venture to say that
If you would cut open all the dice in the
United States you would not find twelve
loaded ones
But il does not follow, y | observed, "that
dice throwing is universally honestn
Not at all. 1t is universally crooked
The way 10 cheat at dice is TO be able TO
have them fall at will This is done by hold
ing them, two at a time, between the sec
ond finger and the edge Of the box. When
the box is turned over they appear to come
out right side up. 1t requires great dex-
terity, but once acquired, it battles detec-
ton. The best man at it in the country is
John Mcdonald, Of San Francisco and. by
the way, there Is an interesting story con
nected with him. When Maxwell, the St
Louis trunk murderer, was flying toward
Australia after killing Preller, he stopped
for day or two at San Francisco, and in
the evening dropped into The Mirrors a
sporting saloon on Kearney street. Johnny
Mcdonald happened to be there, and re-
garding the stranger as promising sucker,
proceeded to confidence him out OF $50 of
his blood money. The little game that
caught Maxwell was a dice swindle known
as top and bottom"
Mr. Mcclellan coaxed the smoldering
end Of his Havana into a lambert coal ald
took up the thread of the talk again
Now" as far as marked cards are CON
cerned, - he continued, There are plenty OF
them, but they are made to SELL not to use
1t is an astonishing fact that nine men out
ten, who are otherwise perfectly straight
forward and honest, turn into thieves when
they sit down TO play poker with their
friends. They are continually on the look
out for some advantage, and they are the
people who buy marked cards. They see an
advertisement How to Win. That is the
bait, which they Immediately swallow, to-
gether with the hook, line and a portion of
the pole i do not 90 so far as to say that
years ago they were found to be impracti-
cable by professionals and dis carded The
simple fact is that when the back of a card
iG m mainly n in ha
rapid process Of a deal, it is so conspicuous
that the finest chump who ever wore hay
seed in his bangs can see at glance that
there is something wrong. 1t is absolutely
and utterly impossible to distinguish the
microscopic dots and lines of the ordinary
marked card while it is being dealt off.
the deck, and no man ever lived who could
use them to advantage. The first of the
kind produced were the old-fashioned
stamp backs, but players soon found out
that no system of marks was legibe while
the cards were in motion, and they dropped
them. | suppose that thousands of decks
of marked cards are sold every month"; but
no gamblers buy them"
"How does the modern short-card player
do his work." | asked, little reluctant to
let 60 of the hme-honored marked-card
theory.
"Well, y said the veteran "there has been
great change in card playing in the last
five or six years The old-time poker sharp
was not well equipped unless he had vest
hold-out. That was "A black satin vest with
claws inside that came out of the bosom,
seized the necessary cards, and slid in again.
1t was worked by chain that ran down
the trousers leg and hooked to the heel of
the boot, and was such a clumsy and compli-
Gated apparatus that / would as soon think
of carrying q threshing machine around
with me. Then there was the sleeve hold
out, nearly as bad and different hold-outs
TO faSten to the edge Of the table Strip
pers were also great favorites-that is to
say, decks in which the high cards were n
little wider than the rest, and cut slightly
wedge shape, so that they could be drawn
out at will, and great deal of glass work
was doue."
"What on earth is glass worki
1.-The use of a convex mirror about the
size of a silver dime II is fastened
with shellac TO the lower corner of tho left
palm, opposite the thumb, and reflects the
card as dealt. Gamblers generally made them
by buying those little sllvered glass globes
used for children's Christmas trees and
breaking out piece Sometimes the mir
rors were set in silver dollars and laid care
lessly on the table; but that is all gone by
now, and to-day man must be able TO take
square deck of cards and do all his work
without apparatus. In poker the expert
short card player will make up the hand
he wants out Of the discards, or else hold
out the necessary cards until he gets enough
Il - - 4.