St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-21
HOW 1T is DONE.
A System to Beat the Pool Room
and Its Operations.

A System to Beat the Pool Room
and Its Operations.
The ingenius attempt few days ago
in Minneapolis to cut and tap a tele-
graph wire so as to. get possession of
racing news in advance of pool room
for the purposes of speculation, is not
new idea. 1t was worked in St.~PaHl
about year ago. and doubtless has in
a number OF other places. Some years
ago, an operator familiar with the
ocean cable system, with smaH
boat and crew, went out some
miles to sea and raised the
London cable. He tapped it and sent
to the New York board of trade, Eure-
pean war news. that raised the price.of
wheat 10 cents in as many minutes. He
belonged to a pool which had bought
large quantities of wheat to unload on
the market as soon as the scheme
should be sprung. There was wild
rush to buy wheat or anything else that
would be an investment in case
of a great war. and, in consequence the
pool realized handsome thing. Since
that time several successful ventures in
this line have been made, notably on
the base ball and race wires of New
York city Within the last two years. In
one instance where the scheme was
wholly unsupported the cut was made
and the scheme operated for several
months before discovered. 1t is need
less to say the participators lined theii
pockets with a competency Wherewith
to make themselves comfortable for
some time to come.
The scheme for which several we'll
known young men in this city was ar
rested last week was very similar to
that operated Oh the race wire in New
York. The way in which it was done.
was something like this: They ascer,
tain a leased wire running to a pool
room or turf exchange, over which
passes every few minutes all sorts OF
news of the races. The wire runs 4di-
rectly from the exchange to the race
track, and an operator is placed at each
end. A few minutes before race
the horses that will run, the
mounts, weights, ETC., are all
given. They are called off at the ex-
change as the news comes and copied
on the boards. When the start is made
the operator at the race conveys the In
formation to the pool room in a space
of time not exceeding two seconds. All
other information is sent in like man
ner, almost as quick as one can think.
so that those at the pool room know the
result of race sooner than majority
of those present at the track.
At some point where it is not likely
to be discovered, the wire is severed
and either end of the cut is connected
with an ordinery set of Morse's instra-
ments, including a sounder, key and
cut-out, and two ground wires, to-
gether with a strong local battery.
This is simply placing another Office on
the wire. A Morse operator is placed
in this Office, and at a critical point,
such as the start. he puts in e
plug connecting the race office
with the ground, and copies
the race report verbatim. Some one
present rushes over to pool-room, and
knowing the winning horses from the
information received at the secret Office.
places his money on them. The oper-
ator at the secret Office holds the result
which he has intercepted for three, four
or five minutes, and then places. the
ground wire on between himself and
the race track. takes the one Off between
himself and the exchange, and sends the
full report to the exchange. The. very
short delays are not noticed, -still they
are enough to make money when the
scheme works. Immediately after send
ing the report to the exchange he re-
moves both ground wires, and the cir
cult is uninterrupted between the house
and the track.