Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-02-01
TIE CARDS INvISIBL. MARKED.
That 10, iasy Were lnvistbie 10 the
Other Fellows Who Were IN the
.:asie With Him.

A prominent turfman here, attend.
ing the winter race meet, told a good
story the other evening of an adven.
ture ON Cunarder. You never heard
of invisible ink?" he said. well
neither had up to dozen years ago,
and my introduction to it was rather
peculiar At that time was consid.
cradle greener in the ways OF the
wicked world than l am at present,
and coming acress on the Etruria, al.
ter a season in London. | was fool
enough to sit in four-handed poker
game with three fellows | met in the
smoking room of the ship. The vul-
nerable point about greenhorn who
plays poker is his proud conviction
that he can protect himself against
any kind of work That was my
own opinion, and consequently didn't
care a copper who my three acquain-
tances might be, as long as | found
their society entertaining. Two OF
them, may as well say right here,
were plain, everyday business men
from Boston. The other was small
dark, slnooth-shaven chap who intro
duced himself by the name of Cum
mings and said he was lace buyer for
a firm of Importers in New York.
I'VE began playing ON the second
day out of Liverpool, and inside OF
twenty-four hours were giving the
game pretty nearly our exclusive at
tention. The table we used was In the
far corner of the smoking room and
had four stationary chairs. AS is GUS
tomary to many aboard ship. we Sc
lected our seats at the beginning and
kept them throughout the play. Cum
mings sat with his back to the parti-
ton wall, sat opposite and one OF
the Boston fellows was on either side.
l mention this arrangement. because
it has bearing on what followed.
I'VE started out at very easy gait"
continued the turfman, but soon
raised the ante high enough to make
it pretty warm. AS far as could see,
none of my three friends played more
than an ordinary club room game, and
at the outset the bulk OF the luck
drifted to the lace buyer and myself.
At the end of the first day We were
each about $3.50 ahead. Next day
made most of the winning myself and
was astonshed at the SUGGESTIONS OF
good hands | held AS nearly as l
can remember cleared up something
like $500, mainly from the two Bos-
ton men, and Cummings quit about
even. Several times during the day
I imagined the Bostonians looked at
me with some slight suspicion. all OF
which afforded me considerable amuse-
ment and satisfied me incidentally
40 q
square On the third day luck veered
around to the lace buyer. and he not
only gather in my entire winnings,
but nearly 5000 besides. Meanwhile he
tapped one of the BostonIans for 5000
and the other for $3.50. Altogether he
stood about 1900 ahead at the close
Of the afternoon. BY that time we
were all pretty well tagged out. and
we agreed to quit for couple of hours
and resume the play after dinner.
Cummings left the table first. and
tarried for few moments to smoke
cigar and chat with the Boston men.
l had to get up to procure light,
and on returning dropped into the
chair which had been occupied by the
lace buyer and began luly shutting the
pened to notice peculiar speck at
the upper r,ght-hand corner Of the top
pastboard. which proved to be the
king of clubs 1t looked like minute
dot of some KIND Of analine ink. The
end of the room where we sat was
rather dark. and there was fixed
lamp in the moulding behind Cum,
ming's chair nat was kept burning
day and night. The spot caught the
CLEAN from this light and couid only
be seen when the card was held at
certain slant. From any of the other
chairs it was entirely invisible. wal
surprised, OF course, and in running
over the deck soon found that all
the face cards and aces were similarly
spotted, some with one and some with
more dots, the arrangement being diff.
ferent in each case
"The discovery upset me completely,
and could see 1t was an equal bomb,
shell to my two companions We lay
our heads together. and, to make q
long story short, we sent steward
after our lace making friend and after
very brief but spicy preface gave
him two minutes by the watch to dis, !
gorge his spoils. must admit he car,
ried it off pretty well. This looks con,
siderably like WEIGH. he said coolly,
and il the deck is marked I know M
more about 1t than you do. However,
II you want your money back you can
have it. "A gentleman. said he. al
ways wishes to avoid a scene With
that he counted out his winnings and
babe lis good night
"A year or so afterward | saw him
at Saratoga and learned positively that
he was professional short-card play
er, who made business of working
the Atlantic boats.
ITO get back to the original point the
stuff he used in marking the deck was
what is known as invisible ink and
while 1t Is seldom employed nowadays
it can still be bought from any dealer
in gambling tools. 1t has the peculiar
property OF being visible only by ar
tificial light when viewed from GER
tain angle. How and when Cummings
did his markings and why he left the
deck on the table are matters of mere
conjecture Letting me win the other
fellows money at the start of and
then winding me UP at the finish is
easily understood. It's an old gamb'
ling trick and diverts suspicion.
New Orleans Times-Democrat.
IL