The morning times., 1896-05-17
EXTRAORDINARY PRECAUTIONS MUST EVER Be TAKEN
Not Ore Than Two Them Existence But These
Very Active.
HOW THE THING WORKS AND WHAT TO WATCH FOR

/ body, every machine being built to fit
the man who buys it. The construction
takes from five TO six weeks, and when
the work is done the buyer must go to
the makers place daily for two weeks
and practice for couple of hours under
his membership. There have been in
stances / n which trade has fallen through
at this stage by reason of the customers
Clumsiness and inability to learn how TO
manipulate the machine properly. When
this happens, which is rarely. The maker
retains the $500, and the disappointed ed
customer goes away under pledge to keep
his mouth shut. If everything goes well
the man pays the other $500 and takes his
machine out into the world TO rob people
with.
WHAT MASKELYNE DIDN'T KNOW.
When John Nevil Maskelyne. the Eng
lish expert, made his famous exposure
of gambling devices in ''SharpS and Flats"
the innocent were astounded. There was
nothing in the exposure" with which
sharp protest. OnalS were not familiar.
but to amateur card players aud hettors
il seemed to be complete revelation OF
the tricks aud implements of dishonest
gamblers, and every man who studied it
faHeied he had ample protection against
robbery. one OF tie strong features of
MaSkelyne'S book was an account Of the
workings OF the Kcpplinger hold-out, with
the aid OF which the maker had for mouths
robbed professional card players in San
Francisco OF large sums of money. This
hold-out was thought at the time TO be
the acme of mechanical ingenuity, but it
is a clumsy affair in comparison with the
machine now being made in Chicago.
The Kepplinger hold-out, as pictured by
Maskelyuc, was a sleeve machine worked
by cord from the knee, and was useful
principally for holding out cards with
which TO strengthen the users hands. 1t
neCesStated the making of shirt with
double sleeve and false cuffs inside OF
which the mechanism of the hold out rested,
and while terrible execution was done
with it. IL had some fatal drawbacks. one
OF these was the necessity for ''hitching
up every time the player sat down to the
table-by which Is meant the passing of
the co ri from one knee to the other so as
to operate the machine. When ''hitched
up" it was impossible to straddlc a table
leg, and the user had to have choice posi-
ton in which he could spread his knees
without running the risk OF hitting one of
the other players with them.
Before he could rise from the table he had
to"unhitch'' the cord and there waSanother
! handicap in the fact that it was necessary
| TO wear cuffs all the time to conceal the
sleeve part OF the machine, and this, under
| some conditions, was inConveDient. But
| despite du UIeSe OTdWbdCkS hcppllnE
made some big killings with his machine,
and 1t was only his greed in trying to
| make every hand win that led to his
| detection. The gamblers with whom he
| was playing were using marked cards.
sinners, and other advantage" goods, but
Repplinger kept beating them all the time.
| They knew something was wrong but
| they could not tell what it was until they
| overpo wered and searched him one night,
when the secret of his luck was readily
discovered.
WHAT THE MACHINE WAS LIKE.
Among the men who read MaskeIyne's s
| book and were Interested in the deScrp-
tion of the Kcpplinger hold-out was an
| inventive model maker in Chicago. This
man studied the machine closely, and
! saw at once where a great Improvement
could be made in the mechanism and the
scope OF the contrivance widened. He is
not card player and had no acquaintance
with professional gamblers, but he un-
derstood clearly what was required. 1t
took him nearly a year to get his first
machine in good working order, but when
he had shaped it to his liking it was q
wonder. In the main he adopted KEEP
piingers idea for the body and arm