, 1896-03-04
POKER SHARPS.
The Scheme by Which They Converted
IS Into a Capital of $4,000.

''One of the cleverest swindles ever
worked with cards was played IN the
members of a poker club in a small
town in Illinois, about fifty miles from
Chicago, two years ago" said an old
New York gambler.
1.-The. heroes of it were two young fell
lows who used to do a good deil of run
ming for New York faro banks, and
from constant association with gam
blers had come to know about all there
was to be known about cards.
These men knew each other in New
York, but were never intimate friends
until they met in Chicago, both broke,
and without n prospect of getting
at about the same time, and their ex-
periences in the western gambling
houses had been almost the same.
There wasn't a dollar between them,
and all they had in the world was the
clothes on their backs. Both were in
arrears at their boarding houses and
both were d~isheartened and blue.
81 can't raise a cent. and if a million
suckers passed me in a row, | couldn't
pluck one of Them said one.
"If | had $40 l wouldn't need to
wait for them to pass me, said the
other. 4 know where there's a good
thing not far away
Nov the last speaker was AleXan-
der Mcdonald, n of the slickest
young fellows that overturned a card.
Now you must know hat when il
gambler in the cours of his travels
comes across what he regards as a
good thing, and he doesn't happen to
be in condition to tap it as he thinks it
ought to be tapped, he just marks it in
his memory and postpones the pluck
ing until a more favorable time.
This is exactly the condition of af-
fairs with Mcdonald when he met this
other New Yorker. whom l shall call
Jack, although that was not his name.
A few weeks before he had run across
the town mentioned. and hau been in
oualC ihto III pSst ootlCis " "a
local surgeon, whom he had met on the
train.
He had made a bit, and was so well
liked by the men that they made him
an honorary member of the local poker
club. 50. posing as a man of quiet
tastes, he fingered as a guest of the
for a week, and Their went to
Chicago. lost what little he had left.
and met his equally unfortunate ac-
quaintance.
1t wasn't many minutes before the
acquaintance was in possession of all
the facts about the good thing. and the
two had their heads together planning
a way of getting enough money to take
them to the town, which we will call
W.
Mcdonald reckoned that If he could
get his trunk away from the boarding
house, and could raise enough money
to get both to W, all would be well.
He vas satisfied that the good impress
sion he had made on his first visit
would be good for a few dollars. any
how, to say nothing of a vast AMOUNT
OF confidence in himself and in any
body he cared to Introduce into W
society.
We'll. to skip details. Mcdonald got
his trunk all right, and the two started
for W on a single SIS bill that Nc
Donald had raised by pawning his
spring overcoat. On reaching the
town they went right to the hotel and
engaged a suite of rooms.
THE surgeon, who had been notified
by Mcdonald Of their arrival. called
around before long, and other con
spicuous citizens who had met Nc
Donald On his former visit dropped in,
too. until the hotel proprietor made up
his mind that his guests must be peo-
pie Of some consequence. But one
single dollar remained Of that five
spot. Mcdonald having taken the pre-
caution to purchase return tickets, and
for two days those fellows sported on
that dollar.
They kept away from the poker
club. but all the time they had their
eyes open. Mcdonald had a scheme
for fleeing the members, but it would
take patience to carry it out, and he
didn't mean to spoil it by too much
haste.
HE knew from the start that any
funny tricks with the cards or a CO.
operative game with his companion
would be dangerous. The men Of W
were not fools, ana Mcdonald war wise
enough to see It. His scheme was a
deeper one. 1t was nothing more nor
less than to work marked cards on the
poker club, but the point was how to
do this without exciting suspicion.
"He made up his mind that the clubs
own cards must be marked, and he
knew that II he could get at them he
could mark them SO the job would
never be detected.
"As everybody knows, cards are
marked by systems, and Mcdonald was
the most perfect marker I ever knew.
The point with him, then, was to and
out where the club purchased their
cards, and by the second day he knew.
They were supplied by q nearby drug
store, and a little cautious inquiry re-
vealed to Mcdonald the interesting