The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-16
A SQUEEZE FARO BOX.
Description of One Taken From a
New York Gambling House.

NEW 1OIk UamDilng House.
/ The New York sun has this descrip-
/ tiOn of the squeeze box taken from
/ the house raided there to secure the
men wanted for swindling George \.
Snow of this city;
Whether or not anyone was swim
/ died. the faro layout taken from the
SiNty-ninth street house was a marvel
/ OF cTookedness. 1t was what is known
as the wedge brace" That is. every
card in all of the decks. and there
were half dozen decks. had a little
shaved off one edge, so that one end
of each card was narrower than the
other. This wedge shape of the cards
gives the name to the fraud. The
shaving is done by a machine, fitted
with gauge and a sharp knife, so
that the work viii be nicely done
Half the cards in each pack are
rubbed with sandpaper on the backs
and the other half are rubbed on the
faces. This is called sanding the
deck" This done. each card is mark
ed tthe marking VIII be explained
later and then the deck is ready fo-
use
The dealer takes deck, half in each
hand, With the narrower euds OF the
cards pointing toward each other, Then
z
small ends Of the cards in either hand
are brought together and one pack is
made by shaving together alternately
card from the half pack in either
I hand. This "hutting in or a similar
shuttle can be repeated as much as the
dealer likes.
IN the previous arrangement Of the
| twenty six cards in each hand the
dealer has taken care that all the VIM
ming cards, that is those which will
! be bet on in the game TO turn I'D in
the deal box. are in his right hand and
the losing cards in his left. The win
ming cards are the ace, tWo-spOt. three
spot, king, jack and the two black
sevens. The losing cards are the four
! five, six, ten. nine and eight-spots and
two red sevens. When the cards are
( "butted in each winning card is on
top Of a loser.
The deck is then put into the deal
box. In straight deal box only one
card can be snapped out at a time.
/ In the box OF a brace game two cards
may be snapped out A faro table Is
50 laid out that there are two rows
of painted cards on If. In the upper
row are the king, queen. jack, ten,
nine and eight-spOts, in the lower row
are the ace, Two. three, four. five and
sixspots, While at the right of both
rows and midway between the TWO is
the seven-spOt.
The first three cards In each roy,
from left to right. are the winning
cards. The other three are the losers.
while two sevens win and two lose.
With the cards IN the box the bets
OF the players are made. The sand
ing" Of the cards has given the dealer
perfect control over them when they
are in the box. As the cards come out
the first one loses and the second one
wins. That Is. the players 50 arrange
their chips or the painted cards on
the table that Il can be seen that they
are betting that the first card out OF
the box viii lose and the second one
Will win
Now, If Jones bets on the ace to
win, the dealer simply presses the top
card ia the box a little harder than
usual and the sand" gets in its work
so thar the Two cards stick together
and are Withdrawn. instead of one 1t
is here that the marking OF the cards
comes IN. All the winning cards, cor
responding with the lower row on the
table, THAI Is, the ace, two and three.
are marked with small dots in ink.
The dot on the ace is close in the lower
corner. The dot on the tWO-sDOt is
about quarter Of an inch from the
bottom of the card and close to the
right edge. The dot on the three-spot
is still further from the bottom Of the
card. The cards corresponding TO
them. the king, queen and jack. are
marked in the same way, except with
two dots instead OF one.
Il follows, therefore. that when the
dealer pulls out two cards at q time
and pushes the upper one about q six
teenth of an inch, the dots tell him
what card ii is. The losing cards. the
four, five, six. ten, nine and eight are
similarly marked. but the dots are ON
the ends Of the cards instead of along
the edges. The winning sevens are
marked with three dots along the edge
the losing sevens with three dots on
the bottom.
When the dealer has pulled two cards
and has looked at the dots on the hot
tom one, he signals TO the case-keeper
what the bottom card is, The number
Of the dots and their position on the
card tell this. The signaling to the
case-keeper Is a nice piece of. work
OF course. if the case keeper isn't most
ed. the buttons on the case viii be
wrong at the end of the deal So if
the four-spot, for instance, is the hot
tom one Of the two cards drawn the
dealer puts one finger on the upner
left-hand corner of the deal box
Other cards are shown by varying ar
engagements Of the fingers.
This was the kind of a layout the
police got at the West Sixty-niDth
street house. The cards were marked
and sanded and the deal box was ac-
commOdatinE.