The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-04

: conviction that he can protect himself
against any kind of work That was
my own opinion, and subsequently
didn't care a copper who my three &C.
quaintances might be, as long as
found their society entertaining. Two
of them, l may as well say right here,
We're plain, everyday business men
from Boston. The other was a small,
dark, smooth-shaven chap who intro
duced himself by the name of Cum
mings and said he was a lace buyer
for 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 pref
ty nearly our exclusive attention. The
table we used was in the far corner of
the smoking room and had four sta
tionary chairs. AS is customary
aboard ship, we selected our seats at
the beginning, and kept them through
out the play. Cummings sat with his
back to the partition WALL / sat oppo-
site and one Of the Boston fellows was
on either side. mention this arrange
ment because it has a bearing on what
followed.
I'VE started at a very easy gait" con-
tinued the turfman, 'but soon raised
the ante high enough to make it pretty
warm. AS far as 1 could see none Of
my three friends played more than an
ordinary clubroom 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 I made most of ne
winnings myself and was astonished
at the succession of good hands | held.
AS nearly as I can remember I cleared
up something like $500, mainly from
the two Boston 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
amusement and satisfied me incidental
| ly 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
and the other for $780, Altogether he
stood about 81, 200 ahead at the close of
the afternoon. BY that time we were
all pretty well tagged out, and we
agreed to quit for a couple Of hours and
resume the play after dinner. Cum
mings left the table first, and l tarried
for a few moments to smoke cigar
and chat with the Boston men,
Il had to get up to procure light,
and on returning I dropped into the
chair which had been occupied by the
lace buyer and began idly shutting the
deck Of cards. While so doing I hap
pened to notice a peculiar metallic
speck at the upper right hand corner
of the top pasteboard, which proved
to be the king OF clubs. 1t looked like
a minute dot of some kind of analine
ink. The end of the room where we sat
was dark and there was fixed lamp
in the moulding behind Cummings
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 one of the other chairs it was en-
tirely invisible. l was surprised, of
course, and In running over the deck |
l 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. |
1.-The discovery upset me completely, |
and / could see it VISA an equal bomb
shell to my two companions. We lay |
our heads together, and, to make a
long story short we sent the steward |
after our lace-making friend and after |
a very brief preface gave him two min
utes by which to disgorge his spoils
| must admit that he carried it off pref
ty well This looks considerably Hike
a welsh he said, cooly, and If the
deck Is marked / know no more about
1t than you do However, if you want
said he, always wishes to
avoid a scenei With that he counted
out his winnings and babe us good
night.
"A year or so afterward I saw him
1T Saratoga and learned positively that
he was a professional short-card player,
who made a business of working the ,
Atlantic boats. To get back to the
original point, the stuff he used in
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 property
If being visible only by artificial light ,
and when viewed from a certain angle
How and when Cummings did the :
and why he left the deck on :
he table are matters of mere conjec-
ure. Letting me win the other fell {
ows money at the start off and then :
winding me up at the finish is easily I
understood It's an old gambling trick d,
Ind diverts suspicion. From the New q
orleans Times-Democrat. :
CLIFF JEWELLERS IN CHINA. 7
Strange Settlement, Like a Colony :