The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-08-27
A SQUEEZE : SPINDLE ROW.
LAYOUT or sURE-THTNG GAME IN
GUTHRIE TEN YEARS AGO.

,Jink McAteo, Clever Horse Thief Couldn't
SEQ Through swindiinE Play and SO
Lost All His Money-His Pooling Enter
prise Also Lost-Escape OF tho Dealer.
WASHINGTON. Aug. 26.-'T don't just recall
the name OF the cheerful worker who invented
that wise phrase. There's sucker born every
minute. and they never die but who
ever he was he had something inside
his head besides mayonnaise dressing" said q
giant from the Indian Territory, when the talk
among q party Of Westerners at a roadhouse
near here the other night switched around to
sure thing games ald cinch propositions. Il
don't suppose there ever was yet sure-thing
game rugged up that didn't get its quota OF
nbblers and even its occasional easy
marks, who'd go up against 1t with
their whole rolls I'm not speaking 80
much now OF brace games as l am OF
layouts that might just as we'll have the
words. You lose. painted all over EN-. they're
such obvious air-tiehts for the dealers. l sup
pose we've all been up against brace faro.
That's som ethlng that man can't heel himself
against; the most he can do. when he gets next
to 1t that two of'em are Slipping out Of the box
at one and the same time. is to stick up tho
dealer at the business end OF .45-if he's
| quick enough-acoumulate all the money in
sight. and back toward the door.
But man who'll lay up alongside OF brace
| faro layout or brace wheel need not necessa-
| riy be sucker enough to hand his dust over to
| a smooth duck who's dealing game that has
| all the scars. moles. tattoo marks and other
| perfectly visible Bertons OF a dead open and
shut sure. thing layout. Yet I've seen men
| who were wise in their own business-horse-
| rustling, for instance-go broke against games
| that you'd think ten-year-old would size up
| correctly without the assistance Of an X Ray
| apparatus
| Pm thinking OF the time that Jink MoAtee.
| afterward one OF the foxest horse-thieves who
ever used an upside down brand in the South
| west, got interested in squeeze-spndle In
Guthrie. 1t was in Guthrie. in May. 1899. Just
after Oklahoma had been opened up. that the
two Reeves brothers. Bill and AL. and Arthur
| Po1dleton. started an al-around layout In
| what was the first two-storv shack that had
| been thrown up in the town. The two Reeves
| boys are still running the biggest layout in
Guthrie, but Pendleton Is dead. The Reeves
| Pendleton brand o. faro. as we'll as their keno,
wheel. stud. and other legitimate games. was
| perfectly on the level but in addition they had
| few games In operation that were plain cases
| to most OF the patrons Of the layout Of the
sure-thing. The Reeves and Pendleton people
didn't club anybody into stacking up against
their sure-thing games. They just started 'sm
going. hired q man named Gatey to run EN-.
and struck the attitude that II among the
sooners and boomers OF Guthrie there were
people imbecie enough to want to hit up these
sure thing games 1t wasn't their funeral.
The most alluring among these sure-thing
games was the outfit called the squeeze-spin-
die. You used to run across a squeeze spindle
quite often down in the Southwest. but so
many OF the dealers OF that game got shot up
and slithered that It has sort O. passed out
| It's a lottery game ostensibly. whore the player
| makes what the dealer calls conditional
| winnings, and the dealer has to have the as
| sistance OF boosters to throw confidence
into the suckers. 1t took good con man to
run q squeeze spindle game. Tho sucker
would put up a hundred to win five hundred
he'd cop the coin 'oondtionally that ia tc
say. the arrow that few around in the middle
OF the box had to point to another number Of
the suckers selection before the money would
be bis to walk away with. and in the event o
the arrow pointing to the right number the
| player would get twice the sum.
"Of course. the arrow never went the suck
er's way twice handwriting. and equally o
course 1t was game where the dealer got al
| OF the money. The reason it was called
| squeeze-spindle was because the dealer hat
only to squeeze a button beneath the table t.
stop the arrow at any old point in its High
around the numbers that he wanted to. Wher
a sucker was up against the game. booster
money. treble it on a couple OF straight turn
OF the spindle, squeezed Just his way by thu
dealer. and then the sucker would conclude
that 1t was only his lack Of capital that cause'
him to lose-just as the pin head who doubles oil
, iavoritss at the races tries to convince hmsel
when's he broke and smoking punk pipe tina
} he'd have been able to put all the bookmaker
l out Of business II he'd just had the capital t.
keep on with his system Once In great Will
\ | H. o,,lI 14k -
) good things get away with bunch OF money
l II he felt reasonably sure that the sucker wou
l come back at it with tho coin later on an
r thus the ingenious little fiction 'ud go aroun
!. that So and-So had pasted a squeeze-spindl
= dealer for his whole roll. and this would max
3 business.
Now, here was a game that you wouldn
think man with the sense he wa
: born with would bet twenty cents wort
OF zinc money on But this man Gatel!
!. who ran the squeeze spindle for tn
Reeves Psndleton layout on salary and com
mission basis. was pretty smooth Razebu u
. his gsnerati on. and he landed the good thing
. with his layout right along. and often for size
y able money. He was quiet. rod boarded chal
with a mighty convincing. persuasive wa
l. about him. and man who put up fight to-
In a corner He had free rein In the runnin
OF the squeeze spindle and two or three othe
sure-thing devices that formed sort OF side
show to the main Reeves Pendleton layou
and the proprietors pretended that his QUIT
+ was really Independent Of their plaintiff,
Gatsly was simply renting space from thel
and going 1t alone. But all of Guthrie kne
differently.
Well. up against this squeeze spindle plar
n goes this here Jink McAtee that l started I
!. tell you about. Jink wasn't then known as
: horse thief. He had been sooner-he got
= long before the trumpet call on thorough
bred Kentucky horse that he was afterwar
- found to have pinched out OF a barnard h
, had made pretty good thing out OF the Gutt
:, rie corner-lot that he had staked off. He sol
it three days after the dash for $4,000. an
then he laid back on his liquor with a Who'll
- lot OF content. He vas low forehead in look
and manners He was the yeriest duiTer in h
- attempts to make the Reeves Pen dleton CON
4 blnation put up their shutters by attackin
- their square games. and he lost owe
. $1,000 OF his corner lot money
a their faro tables. He blew In anothe
~ counla ~ thouRand ~ thu bunch at tho hon III