The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-11
NgW FIELD FOR CARD SHARPS
THEY'VE TURNED or LATE TO
THE PiCIFIC STEAMSHIPS.
suIts Now Pending Against One OF the
Companies for Barring a Professional
Los Angeles Youth Dropped w. 900
10 n Gambler On Honolulu Run

"A large number of the professional card
,hargers who've been driven from the
atlantic liners have taken to the Pacific
boats. and we're now engaged in a concerted
sttempt to gee rid Of Them" said a San
francisco man CONNECTED with one of
Me Pacific steamship lines. The sharks
,isoovered a fine new field when they
.;itchcd from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Plea sure voyaging on the Pacific has been
Increasing by leaps and bounds during
.ecan, wears, and most of the voya gers
are wealthy PEOPLE.
Travel from San Francisco to Japan and
pawaii has been particularly heavy during
the wear Just passed, and there is a large
tourist drift toward Australia, which In
c,dcs, on the steamship trip from San
Francisco, stops at some of the picturesque
island groups on the south Pacific. The
victims Of the card sharpers fall much
easier or the Pacific boats than they ever
did or the Atlantic liners, for up to within
a very few years the Pacific boats had
the rpj utation of being entirely free Of
travelling gamBT<s SO that the victims
on the Pacific line1 rarely suspect until
il is too late that they are being done by
professional sharks.
some great sums have been crookedly
won already by the Pacific boat sharks
much larger sums than | ever heard OF
being dropped by the victims of the sharks
on the Alta ntic boats.
The first gun in our anti-shark cam
paign was fired a couple OF months ago,
when a company operating a line of steam
As to Honolulu refused to sell transporta-
ION on one OF its boats to a we'll known
shark. Who, after working the gulliblss on
he Atlantic liners for more than twenty
year,. took to the Pacific boats about two
Years ago. This man is said to be worth
half a million dollars.
when this shark applied, about two
months ago, for a cabin on one Of the Homo
iuhI bound steamers, the agent of the line
was summoned. to the desk by the clerk,
who recognized the professional gambler.
The shark was politely Informed by tho
agent that he had taken his final ride on
any Of the steamers Of the company.
Fine rerkily replied the shark But
Why
Because replied the agent, with all
the civility in the world, you're a profess
sional manipulation Of The cards. This
company knows all about you. We've
had a great mauy private complaints about
YOU, The company is no longer going to
furnish Accommodations to fellows OF your
kind. We're going to wipe your tribe out,
80 far as travel on orr line ,is concerned, II
it costs us q million dollars TO do it. That's
lucid talk, isn't it?'
Great talk replied the shark, I'M
daurtod, hut it's also ~defamatory. I'll
rue you, you see. You can't, as a common
carrier. legally refuse to furnish me with
transportation. III sue and let the courts
decide the matter. You'll have a sizeable
case on your hands, and III promise you
that I'll beat you out
Go ahead and sue, and win, if you can
replied the agent. We want you to Sue.
That's why I'm refusing you transportation
because the company expects and hopes
that you will sue. And if we don't lick
you out OF court it won't be for the lack Of
trying.
That nervy shark was as good as his
word. He entered suit against the COM
rany for refusing to sell him transportation
to Honolulu on one Of its steamers without
good and sufficient cause and he put in
another suit against the steamship agent
for defamation Of character. Those cases
have not yet been called, and there Ia q lot
OF SPECULATION out in San Francisco as to
what the outcome is likely to be. Most Of
the speculation congeals on the point as
TO whether the steamship company will be
able to produce as witnesses against the
sharper men who have been bitten by him
on ocean voyages. l think 1 may say that
such witnesses will be produced.
When the professional gambling evil
on the Pacific boats first became manifest
a number OF more or less feeble efforts were
made to shut of the sharks, but none of
these efforts embodied the idea Of refusing
transportation on the boats to the swindlers.
The companies we're afraid OF that method.
One OF the schemes to knock the operations
Of the sharks on the Pacific liners was to
instruct the higher officers Of the steamers
captains, pursers, first and second officers
and surgeons-to pass the word quietly
around among male passengers when a
known shark turned up as a pa ssenger on
one Of the steamers.
This scheme was never fully successful,
for new sharks, hearing about the richness
Of the Pacific steamer graft, were showing
up all the time, and were, OF course,
unknown. 1t takes considerable watohful-
ness on the part Of steamship officers
10 get one OF these newcomers Gown
% pat as to be able to tab and label him as q
professional shark.
so it happened that that class Of foolish
male voyagers who permit themselves to
be inveigled into card games with men
they don't know, got it bad before the steam
ship companies realized how great the evil
had become. OF course, the victims them
selves rarely squeal, but often their friends
and fellow royagers who don't play cards
themselves do the squealing for the soft
marks.
And the victims wives are not chary
about squealing, either. Most OF the
Pacific steamship companies have letters
on fle-pretty violent letters, too, some Of
them-from the wives Of men who have
been badly done by the professional sharks
on the steamers. After a man has been
picked clean in the course Of an ocean trip
by a man with whom he has had no shore
acquaintanoeship and who appears to be
unknown by all the rest Of the passengers,
be sometimes actually has the wisdom to
II conclude touard the end of the VOYAGE,