The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-09-28
COUNTING A MINUTE.
NOT EASY TO TELL OFF SIXTY SEQ
oNps ACCURATELY.


Cameo Ring AND Who Used to Work
the Passengers ON ocean Steamers.
"What time is IT'D" asked a man who
was riding with a detective in cab the
other day.
The detective pushed an almost In
visible lever on the side Of the setting OF
q large cameo ring that he wore ON the
third finger of his left hand. Then he
placed his left hand at his left ear and
listened for moment.
"Seventeen minutes past g." he replied.
"Now you can 60 ahead and tell me
about that" said the man who was riding
with the detective. The man had watch
ed the detectives method Of ascertaining
the time with interest. 81 can see that
that big ring of yours Is a repeating
watch, Of course. Lees have the rest
Of it."
''This ring and repeating watch eotn-
bined," said the detective belonged to
one of the most notorious OF the swagger
gang of short card players who used to
work the ocean steamers, He's been
dead for ten years now, md as his fam
by are pretty goed people. needn't men-
ton his name. He was the champion of
his cfass, though.
"This card sharper had this ring I'm
wearing made in Switzerland for a pur-
pose. He made many thousands Of dol
lars with it. His game was this way:
When a gang Of men on one or the
steamers on which he was a passenger
would get together In the smoking room
or cardroofh and get to betting on the
~ 80 he fhnr
on the days voyage, on any old thing, he
would gently butt in with crack to the
effect that there wasn't one man out of
hundred that could properly count off
a minute-that is, that could exactly, Or
anything like exactly, apprehend the
passage of 80 seconds.
'aThis would lead to a discussion, and
the sharper would attempt to prove his
statement by referring to the fact that
few referees of prizefghts are able to
count ten seconds over PROSTATE fighter
with anything like accuracy. Then
there'd be more chaw on this point, and
finally the sharper would suggest that all
hands present chip into q pool, say, OF
500 each. the whole bundle to be walked
away with by the man ii the pool who
could count the nearest to q minute. The
crowd never failed to bite.
"Now, II you want to experiment, you
let your wife or some one hold a watch
for you, and you try to count a minute.
If you come any nearer than five seconds
to the minute without plenty Of practice,
you may call yourself a man with a
pretty good idea of time. There are few
things harder to do than to agree with
the second hand of a watch In ccunting
60 seconds.
"Well. they'd all 90 into the pool, al
some dksinterested chap'ud be brought
In to hold the ticker, and each mans
count would be set down on slip of
paper. As the man who suggested the
pool, the card shark would modestly
wait until they'd all had their trials be-
fore he essayed to count his minute.
He'd rest his head in his left hand and
watch them amusedly while they tried
watch. and il never happened that any
of 'ein got within better than three sec
onds of it, one way or the other. They
were always at least that much shy or
that much overdue.
"Still leaning his head in his left hand,
then, this crafty, cheerful worker of the
steamers would wait for his turn. and
then, with this almost inaudible but an
dible enough bit Of a ticker close to his
ear, he'd wade in and count 60 seconds
to the dot almost. He never did it ex-
actly to the dot. because he didn't want
to excite suspicion naturally, but he al
ways got under the wire a winner by d
second or so from all the rest of the
bunch in the pool. AS say. he won
thousands at this scheme. and only one
of the victims ever suspected that he had
an inside way of keeping tab on his
minutes.
"He worked this trick once too often.
Oddly enough, Scotland Yard man got
next to the gag. Now, Scotland Yard
men are, as a rule, pretty obtuse and
Opaque and few other things like that,
but this Scotland Yard man was an eS-
ception to the rule. and he tumbled to the
card sharper's little stall. The Scotland
Yard detective was in a minute guessing
pool for a f5 note himself, and the atti-
tude of the short card man in counting
off his precise 60 seconds struck him as
being bit peculiar. He didn't say any
thing right then, but after the short card
man had gone out. after gathering up the
pool, he mentioned his suspicious to o
couple of other passengers. When the
short card player returned to the card
cabin, the Scotland Yard man, sure that
he was right. walked up behind the
sharper, who was sitting down. and sud-
denly grabbed his left wrist, saying:
LETS have an inspection of that
ringv
1.-THE sharper promptly jumped to his
feet and knocked the Scotland Yard man
fat. The cat was out of the bag, how
ever, and all the men in the compart-
ment who'd been in the minute guessing
pool called upon the sharper to show up
his ring. With a very much aggrieved
air the shark pulled off the ring on his
third finger and threw it on the table,
protesting in dignifed manner that they
had no right to doubt his integrity.
When they'd got through examining
the ring without finding anything I'M
usual about it, he took it back. laid it on
the table again, got hammer and broke
it open. 1t was just n plain cameo ring,
with no works or anything else inside of
it. This sharper had a duplicate-as
far as the outside went-of his watch
ring along with him for just such an
emergency. The Scotland Yard man got
the laugh, of course, and the shark was
restored to the favor of all the men and
was able to pose before them as an out
ragged man for the remainder of the voy-
age. But he never tried the game again.
This short card man quit the steam
ers and with a competency led square
life for some years previous to his cash
ing in. When he was on his last bed.
he sent for me-Id known him for long
while-and handed me this ring: said he
didn't want to leave his children any old
thing that had served him in his former
life of grating. It's fine bit of work
and is worth about $1,000. I've worn it
off and on for number Of years now
Na,., vorL S,p