Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-06-17
~ShOOTIN' CRAPS"


watched one of their number who held
two little cubes of ivory in his left
hand. These he threw down rapidly on
the cobblestone before him, while his
companions gave utterance to express
sions like these:
Come seven"
Never make four"
"He passed again"
Its my shoot"
A lady passing along the street with
her best young man turned to him and
inquired:
what are they doing, Charley,
dear?"
Shooting craps" he replied, with
masculine sagacity.
she persisted.
ooh, you throw two dice down and
then you win or lose. I don't know ex-
actly how it is DONE"
Every body in Chicago, nearly, knows
what the word craps means, but very
few of them would be competent to de-
liver lecture on the subject.
Craps was first originated by the
negro deck-hands on Mississippi steam
boats, who took the game up as
means of beguiling the time between
landings. From this humble beginning
it gradually worked it's way among the
bootblacl1s, newsboys and tin-horn
gamblers, and has now reached the
gilded gambling halls of Chicago.
But to describe the game in detail
The man who Shoots takes the two
ordinary dice in his right hand and
throws them from him on some smooth
surface. The spots on the upper sides
of the two dice are counted together.
If the first shoot is either pair of aces,
ace-deuce or pair of skies, aggregating
two three or twelve, the player loses,
these mbinations being called
''craps." On the other hand, if he
scores either seven or eleven he is said
to have made pass" and wins.
Should the result be four, five, six,
eight, nine or ten he neither wins nor
loses, but makes his point, as it is
termed, and shoots again. After the
first throw the game narrows down to
this: If the player throws his point or
first score, again before throwing seven,
he wins, but if seven comes up first he
loses. On the first throw the player
has decided advantage. Of the twelve
sides of the two cubes there are six
com bina atoms forming the magical seven
and two marking up the other winning
number, eleven, while the losing points,
two, three and twelve, can result FROM
only four combinations. Thus, on the
first shot, the player has two chances to
win as against one to lose. This adj
vantage is more apparent than real,
however. Two dice may combine in
thirty-six different ways, eight of
which win and four lose the re-
naming twenty-four being neutral,
giving the player his point, which
he must throw again in order
to win. In other words, the chances
are exactly two to one that the first
throw will neither win nor lose After
the first throw the advantage changes
and goes against the shooter. Out of
the thirty-six possible positions into
the pair of dice may be thrown, three
will make up ten and three others four;
four will produce nine and an equal
number five, while two sets Of five each
will score eight and six respectively
In the meantime, seven to throw which
is to lose now, has six chances out Of
the thirty-six. Six and eight are the
best points for the player to make, and
four and ten the poorest, the percentage
against him after the first throw vary
ing from six to five to two to ore, and
averaging three to two. Taking the
entire game together, the shooter is at
disadvantage to the extent of little
over four and half per cent.
Newsboys and negroes are the chief
patrons of the game in Chicago, and the
passionate interest they take in the pro-
ceedings is most amusing to an unemo-
tional looker-on. They howl and laugh
over every point of the game, and will
spend their last cent endeavoring to
win back their lost luck Oftentimes
the affair winds up in fight, especially
when crooked dice are used. Then, if
the affair be a colored entertainment,
razors are drawn and trouble COM
| menceS.
There are two kinds of crooked dice
loaded dice and marked dice. The
ufSG are W0lSnU0Q on one SIDE generally
by small pieces of shot, which cause them
to generally fall with certain number
| up. Marked dice are not marked with
q different number on each face, as is
the case with straight dice. Instead of
that, one cube will have all fves
or all skies, which makes the
lucky man certain of scoring a
''pass" on the first throw. Only
persons experienced with their hands
can expect to be successful in such prac-
tees. For the players are generally on
the lookout for trickery. But one day
this week central detail men arrested
five men for shooting craps. Every one
of them had crooked dice in his posses.
sion, and the grand total amounted to
eighteen cubes.
The police have strict orders to break
up all games on the street, and the re-
suit is that newsboys generally post a
lookout before they sit down to gamble.
But in spite of their vigilance they are
Oftentimss caught taken through the