The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-20
ODD DEVICES TO AID CRIME.
Some Curious PaTapheTlalia Invented
BY Criminals,

Glasses and Photographs That Abet
Thieves-Some Dangerous Weapons.
Thos Byrnes IN New York Herald
If were to tell Of all the new devices,
the weapons, tho paraphernalia, the tools
of trade used by the criminals to-day it
would necessitate my taking up several
pages of a newspaper, for new things are
coming to heaquarters pretty much every
day. There are many new swindlos
many new devices for gaining money by
trickery, and they will continue to in
crease just so long as men of brains loan
their intelligence to crime for value re-
ceived. have before me on my desk an
instrument that two of my ablest detec-
tives recently brought from a Wall street
Office which ] caused to be raided This
is the latest game In the great mecca of
men Of millions. Wall street hangers on,
the fringe of Wall street, as il were, are
constantly devising new schemes to
swindle the man or woman who has moro
money than brains. Fake mining
schemes, bogus railroads and the like are
resorted to TO take in the golden dollar
But this latest game in Wall street Is far
in advance of these, and Is superior In one
sense to the old bucket shop methods
You simply speculated on the prices for
mining shares that aphOnOgraph squeakod
out from a colossal brass funnel Where
the quotations came from before they got
on the cylinders does not matter Just now
The firm, against whom I received many
complaints, had n dozen cylinders, and
they were primed to supply the demand
for quotations until closing time in the
afternoon. They were loaded so that
dozen fluctuations were recorded in
minute The fluctuations were recorded
on huge blackboard, and the phono-
graph was stationed just in front Of this
blackboard.
An initial fee of twenty-five cents a
transaction was demanded by the firm,
and then followed the original commits
sion of One-quarter of one per cent. The
firm accepted anything from two dollars
to two million margins. Evidently the
fellow who could oVerhear the firm talk
ing quotations to. the cylinders down in
the cellar before ten O'Clock would have
a lead pipe cinch on the afternoon quota
tions, otherwise he might find it exceed
ingly difficult to keep up with the pro-
cession Of figures the funnel squeaked out
every instant. For instance, take Maple,
one of the four mining shares quoted by
the photograph The monograph was
loaded early in the morning to start Maple
at 81 and by easy stages got it up to 81
and then dropped it to $50. The fluc-
tuations that came out of the funnel were
about as wide apart as the most blood
thirsty gambler couldwish.
JUMPING JACK CARDS.
Speaking of gambling, for this Wall
street game was nothing more than crook
ed gam bling, reminds me of a new fang
led faro box which was seized IN gamb-
ling house | raided not long ago. 1t is
what IS known as a sure thing game 1t
was gotten up, l have learned. by an OK
pert mechanic. The man who operated
it and who was taken in the raid gave me
a technical description of this new swind-
| ling device
"The layout and the box are Just the
! same as any layout so far as you can sec, +"
| said he, ''but when toll you the dealer
can make these cards turn somersets in
the box If he wants to, you bet it's a dai-
! sy. Suppose you were playing the nine
| to lose and the dealer secs by means Of a
| small reflector that the nine will lose. he
| just makes that nine change places with
the card under 1t, and instead OF coming
| out first 1t comes out second and you lose
| ] tell you the dealer can make any card
| In the box win or lose, Just as he pleases,
and it's done In this way: The layout at
! the place in front of the box is followed
| out and when the cards have been shut
| fled and put In the box the dealer pushes
! the box close up against the layout and
| this pushes a spring and the pin of the
| layout against the box falls back and
| stays back just as long as the box is held
| up against the spring.
snow In the box there Is a small highly
| polished mirror and it is so placed as to
take in the card under the top card in the
| box and the dealer can see lust what the
card Is. He keeps his hand on the left
| side OF the box where he can reach a
small spring which shoots blade as thin
as sheet of paper under the second
card and raises itup Just the thickness of
| the blade. Then he uses his knees to
which are attached fine catgut, and this
manipulates spring connected with
small clamp, which comes out of the
| opening under the layout and catches the
| second card and pulls 1t out of the end of
| the bop the end opening outward and in
| to the opening under the layout when
the thin blade goes. under the card The
left hand releases the spring In the box
and the under card takes the place Of the
one withdrawn. When the spring is
again pressed the thin knife flies out and
the card which was under the layout
comes back into the box. This can all
be done in three.seconds, while the dealer
is paying a bet or backing up his chip or
asking player what his bet takes.
GIVE seen a good many tricks at faro,
but this is the slickest one ] ever saw
iOu Ctn Keep bu6 CdSSS ana take the DON
in your hands and examine il, and YOU
would never know IL was not straight
Or course the firm or individual making
these boxes charge high kfor them, but
what is s., 900 when you don't need any
bank roll in the drawer and every dollar
put down is sure mOney2'
THOUSANDS FOR NOTHING.
Through the arrest of man for bond
swindling discovered one Of the latest
tricks by which men are swindled at the
gaming table. The culprit was a man
who had won many thousands of dollars
through his methods Of gambling. He
told me that he had visited all the princi-
pal cities Of the west and south with
great success; it was not until he came to
New York that he met with disaster
His plan of operations was simple, though
artistic. He would visit city, select the
gambling house he intended operating in
and visit it for a few weeks quite often
During his visits he would ingratiate
himself into the good graces of his attend
ants. He would select an attendant at
some one table as the best man to take
into his employ, and supply this man with
several packs Of trepand cards similar in
style TO those used in the gambling house.
Then for few evenings he would drop in
and lose liberal amounts at the gaming
tables in order to ascertain the hest time