Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-01-02

of the day She handled the cards like the slickest gambler. and her run of luck was phenomenal. On two or three occasions she manipu- lated the cards in such a man. ner that had she been a man I should have called her down, but as it was had to give her the benefit of the doubt and kept silence. She didn't want to win. she explained-she would rather lose than win in playing with a dear friend-but if luck insisted that she win she must pocket the stakes, you know. When she had won $35O from me 1 cashed the slips and went out of the game, pretty well satisfied in my own mind that I hadn't been given q square deal. and from that day on Miss Judson had no further use for me. When I tried to bask in her smiles, as usual, the smiles were not at home to me. She had confided to me that she found me congenial, but there ! seemed to be some mistake about that after l had decided not to lose any more money.
 The next victim was the son of an English manufacturer, who was going out to India to invent new ways. of spending his fathers surplus cash. It was said that he had Z 5, ,000 in the pur- ser's safe. That was when he began playing cards with Miss Judson. How much he had left after he got through no one could say, but that she got at least half of it was common talk, and he himself went so far as to declare that he had been sharped. In the course of three weeks the "Judson Crowd" was dissolved. One after an- other was cleaned out of his spare cash and withdrew, and Miss Judson was certainly several thousand dollars to the good. Nobody was willing to ad- nit his exact loss. Indeed, nearly every man lied about it and denied any loss at all, but at the same time each loser knew that the other loser lied. There was no card playing for fun, and soon after it had ceased we were treated to several sensations in success sion. The first was the disappearance of several diamond rings and a brace let, which had been left on the piano by player They had disappeared in broad daylight, with people sitting or moving about. and as the value was considerable the sensation was equal. After little it was found that the iewelry had been taken while only six people svs@-=ai Csee.l. f5nr of these ,vezre married ladies, the fifth Miss
 Judson, and the sixth the young nat
 uralist who had been taken for faev.
 The cabin was turned upside down in
 the search, but the missing valuables
 could not be found. Then everyone
 of the six persons demanded that his or her stateroom and luggage be searched but the captain hushed mat ters up by suggesting that one of the servants was the thief and that the plunder would soon be discovered Three days later a married woman had a sensational complaint to make. Dur ing her temporary absence from her stateroom some one had entered it and stole 2 100 in cash, gold watch and q costly breastpin. Her stateroom was only two doors below mine, and in leaving my room at three o'clock in the afternoon I had caught glimpse of some one entering hers. I just got sight of d skirt, but I was sure in my own mind that it was one I had seen Miss Judson wear. The bold robbery was a shock to everyone. We surely had thief aboard the ship, passenger or servant, and no ones belongings would be safe until that thief was dis covered. It was natural to at first sus- pect the servants, and the captain had them before him in succession and tried his best to fix the guilt. While this was going on the mate and stewardess were searching quarters and baggage, but no admission was made by any of 1 the questioned, nor could any trace of the plunder be found. Some thought the thief had flung the stuff overheard ] to escape detection, but the majority settled down to the belief that one of the passengers was the guilty party. Many who had jewelry and small sums of money hastened to the purser, and people began looking at each other in an unpleasant way. One-haf prob ably suspected the other half, but that wasn't discovering the criminal. I felt sure I could give a good guess as to who it was, but guessing and declar- ing are two different things. Miss Jud- son was loud in her indignation and feversh in her anxiety to have the mystery solved, and the average de teetive would have reasoned that she rather overdid it.
 Four days later another stateroom was entered and more jewelry taken, and right in the midst of the sensation lady missed pair of diamond ear rings which she had put out to clean. There was an indignation meeting in the cabin. and several persons made speeches and introduced resolutions and the captain found his position mast embarrassing one. It was finally decided to hold all the passengers and servants together on deck while search was made of every stateroom. This search was most thorough and ex- haustive, but not one of the missing valuables was discovered. It was, Io,-avar tho Ia ct theft committed per-