The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-15
A REAL CARD SHARP.
From the Washington Star.

manipulate EN- ike tndt, Sdlu d Illdll
who was for many years connected
with the management of Hermann, the
noted magician and prestidigitator,
who died few years ago. The nat
ural inference to be drawn from such
remarks was, of course, that Hermann
would not hesitate to avail himself of
his extraordinary skill with the cards
to shred people with whom he happened
to sit into a game. So that, as say, 1t
always got US a bit on the raw when We
heard such remarks. In the first place,
we knew, as everybody who ever got
well acquainted with him knew, that
Hermann was a man of the most ab-
solute personal integrity man who
was giving himself the worst of it in
money matters throughout his entire
career, and who was constantly being
done for large sums by men who pro-
fessed to be his friends. We knew, in
the second place, that HERMAN was
very ordinary poker player. he was
rash performer in a regular game with
his personal friends, trying to get away
with absurd bluffs and calling on moth
ing and making all sorts of freaHsh
misplays, and l never knew him to get
up a winner from a poker sitting. he
could have. had he been so disposed,
won just about as many millions as he
off his mustache and his Mephistophe-
lean goatee and gone into the business
of poker playing for revenue only, for
there was simply nothing that he could
not do with deck of cards, and right
under the watchful eyes of experienced
men at that. But, of course, he never
even entertained a dream of such a
thing.
Hermann rarely played serious poS-
err with men with whom he was not on
terms of friendship, for he always had
the feeling that if he won the suspicion
would be bound to find lodgment in
the minds of the other players that he
had employed his professional skill
with the cards to annex the pots. so
that in his travels around he prefer
red to mystify and have fun with the
casual acquaintance, mostly club men
who entertained him, with whom he
sat into games of draw.
"At the Cheyenne Club in Cheyenne
he once took a chance of standing for
q leaden puncture owing to Whimsl-
cal stunt that he pulled off in game
of draw that started off in earnest,
but that quickly degenerated into a
farce, owing to Hermann's uncontroll-
able inclination to stack the cards in
the most amazing fashion. Three we'll
known Cheyenne men were in the game
with the magician, and when he began
to give them all pat fours and such
like at the same time they enjoyed
the fun of watching how he did it,
for they all knew him. They We're
trying to fathom his method of riff
fling them and dealing them from all
over the deck, when nonresident
member Of the Cheyenne Club, South
ern Wyoming ranch owner, came
along The ranchman asked to be al
lowed to sit in-he knew the three
Cheyenne men-and the three who
knew Hermann and were entertaining
him passed the magician the wink.
They took to playing seriously for
a few minutes and the game went
along without incident until the deal
reached Hermann on buck jack. Her.
mann dealt the out-of- town member,
who sat next to him on his left, four
kings, and, of course, the ranchman
opened the pot with a bang for the
size of it. Hermann handed out the
signal to the other three, to stay
along, and they all did. When the
betting began the ranch owner couldn't
shoot his checks to the center quick.
enough, and all hands, including Her,
mann, kept right on raising him back
until the ranchman's countenance be-
came wreathed in a funny beatitude,
for he felt, naturally enough, that he
had a cinch.
Suddenly Hermann reached over
and, with his thumb and forefinger,
yanked card out of the sleeve of the
ranchman's dinner coat.
"'Ah-har he exclaimed, jumping up
from his seat, what is this that we are
up against?' and he held up the card
an ace-and glared sternly at the
ranchman, while the other three were
putting in their best ticks to keep their
faces straight.
1.-THE ranchman's face suddenly turn
ed purple, and he became speeches..
He was and is known as one of the
squarest men in Wyoming, and here
a Coated stranger with foreign ac-
cent, man he had never clapped an
eye on before and whose name he
didn't even know, had held him up as
a card cheat.
"'And yet another!' exclaimed Her
man, again bending over and picking
another ace from out the other sleeve
of the ranchman's dinner coat.
1.-THE ranchnlan stood up in a dumb
fury. AS he did so a perfect shower of
cards fell from his lap on to the floor,
and then Hermann grabbed the huge
ranch owner by the lapel of the coat,
whereupon another cascade of cards
began to drop from inside the ranch
mans coat.
Gentlemen, solemnly inquired Her
mann, addressing the three club men
who knew him, and who were having
troubles of their own in keeping their
grins down, lis this your western hos
pitality? Have you brought me here to
skin me?
"'Why, you id billygoat!' bawled
the ranchman, regaining his voice and
his muscular powers at the same in
slant, and he whipped out gun like
a flash.
THE other three leaped across the
table at him just in the nick of time,
and, even at that, they were so weak
with laughter that they had been sup
pressing by main force that they could
barely hold the big ranehman while
they explained the situation to him.
'In crossing the Atlantic, Hermann
had many experiences with short card
players, and he enjoyed showing them
up. He uncovered big George Kinslow,
one of the most scientific of the steam
er workers, in a simple way one even
ing, when Kinslow had laid his plans
to COP out the rolls of a pair of
heavy-drinking Western men who were
passengers on a White Star liner
Hermann recognized Kinslow as pro-
fessional shredder as soon as he
boarded the ship, having seen big
George operating on other occasions
and so when Kinslow roped the two
boozed Westerners into a three-handed
game Hermann asked to sit in and was
cordially invited to do so on the more
the-merrier presumption by Kinslow,
who did not recognize the magician
who had n short time before removed
his characteristic goatee after having