Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-04
SHE USED A MAGNET

xvere brought back to me the other day
when / read that dispatch from Houston.
Tex about the two fashionable young wo-,
men tourists who had tripped into Hous-
toms toppiest gambling layout and spread
eagled the outfit at 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,
low settled in Washington. who In his I'M
regenerate days dealt faro bank In most OF
the swift cities of the west.
1T was in Baker City, Greg. in 1887. l
was dealing for JEFF Hopeweil. who was
then running the best bank In the town.
One night was slipping them out for a lot
of cinch people. breakfast money grapoeIssa
it was a little early for the sky players, VINO
generally scrambled in about ~ or II
o'clock-when something pretty cnolce
swept into the room and hlied IL Win
fragrance that made a fellow thlnk oL tne
days when he had the time and the IN
clination to gather trailing arbutus In the
early spring. She was TALL biack-haireo'
black-eyed, ivory-skinned queen IN
sweeping black lace dress and piunaeo
Gaihsborough hat. II Cleopatra were to get
off an F street car at the corner or 9th at
high noon she wouldn't get the Dunch
around that corner more agape IMAM Inns
swagger-looking woman got the men wno
were sitting around that faro room. she
stood in the doorway for a moment with
smile on her face that showed her dimples-
l never saw such winsOme dents on hu-
man map-and every one of US struggled
to a standing posture and stared at ner.
Resume your seats. gentlemen. the ap-
partition said, as we stood like yaps gazing
at her, and l guess maybe her voice didn't
sound like those deep. croony strings on
the harp. L am sorry to interrupt. l am
only here between trains, and 1 should ike
to sit in. May ~
Might she? Pehaps all of US weren't
feeling of our neckties to find out IL they
were on straight when she gracious!y &C
cepted the chair at one side Of the table and
pulled alongside the game.
What are the yellows?' she asked me.
Twenty-Five. madam said I.
STACK. please said she. placing two
handfuls of double eagles on the table:
passed twenty yellows over to her. fiicked
$500 into the drawer out of the gold she had
pushed over my way. handed her back the
500 or so change, and shuff1ed the deck.
Just then a flock of the big players. who
had heard down the street of what was
coming off. strolled in. and the pikers at the
table gave way to them-we had a rule out
there that the chickenfeed people had to
make room for the cloud-riders when they
came along. and a mighty good rule 1t was.
at that. The new arrivals bought in. and
they all bought yellows. too, after observing
that the perfectly calm and collected wo-
man at the table had chosen chips of that
color
1.-THE woman's manners were gracious
ness itself. She wouldn't let the men
around the table put themselves out of the
way in the least for her. and before l be-
gan to deal she produced a gold-bound tab
book OF celluloid 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 players seated around
the table. and four or five making bets from
behind the chairs. Most of them were fell
lows who had been playing bank ever since
they learned how to whittle, and yet not a
man of them observed what was coming Off
at the womans end of the table. any more
than did myself. She played until nearly
o clock in the morning. and yet, as 1 say.
nary one of us got next to her. l noticed
that frequently. when / had half-slid the
cards out of the box when all was set. the
woman had a habit of reaching over the
table and sort of fumbling the set stacks on
the various cards. but 1 attributed this to a
woman's popularity and said nothing about
1t: ! was dealing without a lookout that
night. the lookout who served on my watch
being sick
The woman in the game played on as
say Tor nearly three hours. scarcely ever
saying word keeping her own tab and
winning constantly. She played singles ex-
clusively. coppering most Of the time. When
she pushed her chair back she had my
table trimmed for more than $1,000
The Portland train is DUE she said,
looking at her watch and 1 must be leav-
Remarkably lucky. madam said l.
and was wondering what Jen HopeweI
my employer. would say-he was out or
town-When he got back and found out
that a woman in picture hat had shredded
his game for that nifty bundle of money.
II cashed her in. and, with a gracious
smile all around, she gathered up her lace
train and made her royal swish and frou-
Irou out or the room. all of the boys gaz-
ing blankly after her as If she had been
from another planet. 49,
Two days later the conductor of the
Overland dropped In to play a few turns
before going out again.
Say he said to me before buyine chtns
1 dropped Mrs. Kathryn Cunningham into
town the other evening from my train, and
1 hear she got into you for few, and the
conductor passed me the grin
Little matter of six thousand or so
told him. Is that her name-Mrs. Kathryn
Cunningham?
'Uh-huh,' said the conductor. That and
Sacramento Kate and Magnet Kitty and a
few others that she's picked I'D along the
coast fooled you for six thousand. YOU
say? Say, guess Kitty must have worked
the magnet on you
And that is exactly what Sacramento
Kathryn had worked on me-the magnet
the magnet was a dead new one out that
way then, and that was the only excuse 1
mad for not having got next to it. Mrs
Kathryn Cunningham. widow of Jack Cum
ningham, who had run the biggest faro
heard good deal about. but 1 had never
seen her until that night when she had
Zephyred in and helped to pull the props
from underneath the bank for which was
dealing. Those little eccentric moves of
hers In carelessly passing her hand around
the set stacks on the cards just as l was
In the act of dealing were understood by
me after that little talk with the con-
ductor. The woman had held tiny magnet
pinched TN the hollow Of her right hand.
and when she got the lightning fash at the
cards as L slipped them out she would sim
ply pass the hand with the magnet over
her coppered stacks. The metallic markers
would fly off the stacks and stick to
her little magnet. and thus the stacks
that had been coppered were uncoppered
and left open when she got the eagle glance
at the cards coming out of the box and
saw that the coppered cards were coming
out on the winning side. The fact that i
had no lookout that night made the game
easier for her. but. at that, the magne.
stunt has been worked since by scientitic
men when spies on the outside as well as
lookouts have been watching the layout.
Mrs. Kathryn Cunningham. otherwise sac
ramento Kate and Magnet Kitty, was early
enough on the ground with the magnet
dodge to pick up very large amount OF
money with 1t before the word as to her
scheme was passed up and down the line.