The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1901-02-12
USED MARKED CARDS.


tIon la which ne Sat.
A prominent turfman here told a good
story the other evening of an adventure
ON a Cunarder "You never heard Of in
visible inkY' be said. well, neither
had | up to a dozen years ago, and my
introduction to it was rather peculiar.
At that time l was considerably greener
in the ways Of the wicked world than J
am at present, and, coming across on tic
Etruria, after a season in London, | was
fool enough to sit in a four handed po
ker game with three fellows l met in the
smoking room of the ship. The vulnera
BILE point about any greenhorn who plays
poker is his proud conviction that he cap
protect himself against any kind OF
work That was my own opinion, and
consequently l didn't care copper who
my three acquaintance might be as long
MS / found their society entertaining
Two of them, ! may as well say right
here, were plain, everyday business men
from Boston. The other was a small,
dark. smooth shaved chap who intro
duced himself by the name of Cum
mings and said he was a lace buyer fol
a firm of importers in New York.
I'VE began playing on the second day
out of Liverpool and inside Of "a hours
we were giving the game pretty nearly
our exclusive attention. The table we
used was In the far corner of the smok
ing room and had four stationary chairs.
As is customary aboard ship, we selected
our seats at the beginning and kept them
throughout the play. Cummings sat with
his back to the partition wall, l sat oppO
- \ . h., Al ~
on either side. l mention this arrange
ment because it has a bearing ON what
followed,
1--WE started out at very easy gait,
continued the turfmap, but soon raised
the ante high enough to make it pretty
warm. As far US | could see none of my
three friends played more than an ordina
~ clubroom game. and at the outset the
bulk of the luck drifted 10 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 winnings myself
and was astonished at the succession o:
good hands | held. As nearly as | can
remember / cleared up something like
500, mainly from the two Boston men,
and Cummings quit about even. Several
times during the day imagined the Bos.
tonians looked at me with some slight
suspicion, all of which afforded me con
siderable amusement and satisfied me in
cidentally that the game was absolutely
on the square. On the third day luck
veered around to the lace buyer, and he
not only gathered in my entire winnings,
but nearly 5000 besides. Meanwhile he
tapped one of the Bostonians for $500
aud the other for $780, Altogether, he
stood about 81 200 ahead at the close of
the afternoon. BY that time we were all
pretty we'll tagged out, and we agreed to
quit for couple of hours and resume the
play after dinner. Cummings left the ia
BILE first, and | tarried for a few moments
TO smoke Il cigar and chat with the Bos'
ton men.
II had to get up to procure light, and
on returning I dropped into the chair
which had been occupied by the lace buy
er and began idly shutting the deck OF
cards. While so doing | happened to no
tice a peculiar metallic speck at the upper
right hand corner of the top pasteboard,
which proved to be the king Of clubs. II
looked like a minute dot of some kind of
aniline ink. The end of the room where
we sat was rather dark. and there was
fixed lamp In the moldiug behind Cum
mings' chair that was kept burning day
and night. The spot caught the CLEAN
from this light and could only be seen
when the card was held at a certain
slant. From any of the other chairs it
was entirely invisible. / was 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 ar
rangement being different in each case.
The discovery upset me completely,
and | could see it was an equal bombshell
TO my two companions. We lay our
heads together, and, 10 make a long story
short, we sent a steward after our lace
making friend, and after a very brief
but spicy preface gave him two minutes
by the watch to disgorge his spoils.
must admit he carried II off pretty well.
This looks considerably like a welsh he
said coolly, 'and il the deck is marked
know no more about it than you do.
However, if you want your money back
you can have it. A gentleman said he,
always wishes TO avoid a scene With
that he counted out his winnings and
bade rs good night.
"A year or so afterward | saw him at
Saratoga and learned that he was a pro
fcssional short card player. who made
business of working the Atlantic boats.
To get back TO the original point, the
stuff he used in marking the deck was
what is known as invisible ink and
while it is seldom employed nowadays it
can still be bought from any dealer in
gambling tools. 1t has the peculiar prop
erty of being visible only by artificial light
and when viewed from a certain angle.
How and when Cummings did his mark
ing and why he left the deck on the table
are matters of mere conjecture. Letting
me win the other fellows money at the
start off and then winding me up at the
finish is easily understood. It's an old
gambling trick and diyerts Suspicion
New Orleans Times Democrat.
Resolution.