The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-12
SHE GAMBLED WITH A MAGNET.
How Sacramento Kate Turned q 10000
Trick I'm Baker City.

!
How Sacramento. Kate Turned a wO.OOO
| Trick I'm Baker City.
From the Washing ton Star.
The old days out In the Western country
were brought back to me the other day
when | read that despatch from Houston
Tex. about two fashionable young women
tourists who had trlDped into Houston's
| toppiest gambling layout and spread ca ged
the outfit Mt every game from craps to wheel
and bank. and put the plant out OF business
| TO the tune OF thousands after "a few hours
play" said an ex-gambler. now settled in
| Washington. who in hls unregenerate days
| dealt faro In most OF the swift cities Of the
West.
1T was in Baker City, Ore. in 1887.
was dealing for JEFF Hopewell who was then
running the best bank in the town. One
| night l was slipping them out for a lot of
| cinch people. breakfasts money grabbers--
IT was little early for the sky players, who
generally scrambled in about 10 or II clock
when something pretty choice swept into
the room and filled II with fragrance that
made fellow think Of the days when he had
the time and the inclination to gather trail
ing arbutus in the early spring. She
tail. black-haired. black-eyed. ivory skinned
queen in u sweeping black lace dress and
| pluined Gainsborough hat. If Cleopatra
were to got of an F street car at the corner
OF Ninth ut high noon she wouldn't get the
bunch around that corner more agape than
THIS swaSxer-looking woman got the men
who were sitting around the faro room.
She stood In the doorway for moment with
II smile on her face that sho wed her dimples
Il never saw such winsome dents on
human map--and every one of us struggled
TO a standing posture and stared at her.
Resume your seats gentlemen. the
appariton said as we stood like yaps gazing
at her. and i guess maybe her voice didn't
sound like those deep croony strings on
the harp. i am sorry to interrupt. l am
only here between trains. and ! should like
TO ait In. May ~
Might she! Perhaps all OF us weren't
feeling for our neCkties TO find Out II they
were on straight when she graciously &C.
cepted q chair at ono side of the table and
pulled alongside the game.
What are the yellowsf she asked me.
Twenty-Five madam. said |.
stack. please said she. placing two
handtuls Of double eagles on the table. l
passed twenty yellows over to her. hicked
$500 into the drawer out OF the gold she had
pushed over my way. handed her back the
800 or 30 change and shuffied the deck,
just then a flock OF the big players. who
had heard down the street of what was COM
ing on. strolled In. and the pikers at the table
gave way TO them. We had a rule out there
that the chicken-feed people had TO make
room for the cloud-riders when they came
along. and mighty good rule it was. ut that
The new arrivals bought in, and they all
bought yellows. too, after observing that
the perfectly calm and collected woman at
the table had chosen ohips OF that color.
The womans manners were gracious
ness itself She wouldn't let the men around
the table put themselves out OF the way IN
she, produced gold-bound tab book Of oellu-
loid and little gold-mOunted pencil and
thus indicated that she was going TO keep
her own cases on the game-which she did.
There were seven play ers seated around
the table, and four or 1--WE making bets from
behind the chairs. Most Of them We're fel-
they learned how to whittle, and yet not
man OF them observed what was coming of
at the woman's end Of the table, any more
l O'Clock In the morning, and yet. as l say
nary one OF us got next TO her. ! noticed
t h5 Es S when had half slid the
woman had habit Of reaching over the
table and sort Of fumbling the set stacks on
woman's peculiarly and said nothing about
1t, | was dealing without a lookout that
night tho lookout who served on my watch
The woman in the game played on, as
say, for nearly three hours scarcely ever
saving word keeping her own tab and
clusIvely. 9oppering most, Of the time When
she pushed her chair back she had my table
trimmed to more than $4,000.
The Portland train s due she said,
looking at her watch, and must be leav-
ing. have been very lucky. have not?'
Remarkably lucky, madam said I.
my employer. would say-he was out OF
town-when he got back and found out that
woman in a picture hat had shredded his
game for that nifty bundle OF money
Clghpd gracious
all around. she gathered up her lace train and
made her royal swish and frou-frou out OF
her as II she had been from another planet.
Two days later the conductor Of the Over
land dropped in to play few turns before |
-" Say he said to me before buying chips.
81 dropped Mrs. Kathryn Cunningham into !
town the other evening from my train, and
| hear she got into you for few, and the .
conductor passed me the grn
Little matter Of six thousand or so, 7 |
told him. I. that her nare-Mrs. Kathryn |
"'Th-hnh.' said the, conductor That and
Sacramento Kate and Magnet Kitty and
few @thss That she picked along the
say? Say. guess Kitty must have worked |
Kathryn had worked on me-ths magnet. !
The magnet was dead new one out that !
way then, and that was the only excuse
had for 10, hnyns got adn next If .n Mrs
ningham, who had run the biggest faro game |
In Sacramento was the woman had heard |
a good deal about. but had never seen her |
until that night when she had zephyred In |
and helped 10 pull the props from underneath |
the bank for which I was dealing. Those
title eccentric moves OF hers in carelessly !
passing her hand around the set stacks on the |
cards just as was In the act Of dealing were /
understood by me after that little talk with
the conductor
THE woman had held tiny magnet pinched !
In the hollow Of her right hand. and when she
got the lightning flash at the cards M slipped |
them out she would simply pass the hand
with the magnet over her coppered stacks,
The metallic markers would fly on the stacks
and stick to her little magnet. and thus the
stacks that had been coppered we're uncop-
pered and left open when she got the eagle
glance Mt the cards coming out OF the box
and saw that the coppercd cards were COM
ing out on the winning side. The fact that ] |
had no lookout that night made the game
easier for her. but. at that the magnet stunt
has been worked since by scientific men
when spies on the outside as we'll as look
outs have been Watching the layout, Mrs
Kathryn Cunningham. otherwise sacramento
Kate and Magnet Kitty, early enough on
the ground with the magnet dodge TO pick
I'D a very large amount OF money with II be-
fore the word ns TO her scheme was passed up
and down the line. She was burned 10 death
In her swell home in San Francisco only few
years ago
Oranges Good for Smokers.
From the Philadelphia Rseord