Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-16
WILES OF WELCHERS
Gamblers Schemes to Recover
Money Lost at Play.
TELL HARD LUCK STORIES
An Incident in Which q Washington
ian Figured.
HE REPUDIATED HIS PLEDGES
How a Woman Outwitted Faro Bank
Man at Palm Beach and
Got $1,000.
TELL HARD LUCK STORIES
HE REPUDIATED HIS PLEDGES

used to make noise like purrlnS when
called The Honest Gambler" but who
branched out as art dealer and the
accepted friend Of sultans and shekhs and
khedives and such like a few years ago
to hear Patrick relate 1t to his i'm
questionable newspaper friends In New
York-fel to talking about his old pro
fession the other day.
1t had been related in the New York
papers how rather well-known New
York man, after being trimmed in poker
game on a steamer returning from Europe,
had demanded his money back. There
seemed but one thing to be done by the
New York reporters handling this story,
and that was to dig up Pat" Sheedy and
ask him about it. And Pat promptly
said he didn't believe the yarn-that men
didn't ask for their money back after
losing it in a gambling game. even if they
were perfectly we'll aware that they had
been skinned. Patrick became very dis
| cursive, not to say verbose, on the topic.
He said that In all his experience as a
gambling person. behind the box and in
front of 1t, he had never known a man to
squeal for his money back, and so on and
80 on.
And when Sheedy gets off that kind of
stuff" was the comment on this interview
of veteran faro bank dealer who lives
in Washington, I'm sometimes inclined to
believe that the only kind of gambling he
ever took part In was to bet tin tags on
the game of bean bag. If Sheedy ever
was the gambler from his heart that he's
succeeded in making whole lot of people
believe he was, he ought to know that there
are pretty nigh as many squeakers as
there are bank buckers.
Asked for ''Toll Out"
"Squeakers? Why. those fellows who,
knowing all about the unwritten gambling
laws, put UP a squeak for their coin back
when they lose, or else WEIGH on their
checks and I. o. us. I'm not saying that
there were SO many of them in the old
days as there are now. When 1 first cut
ventilating hole in the top Of dealers
hat 1t was pretty unusual for a man who'd
gone broke at a bank to lift up a moan for
the return Of his stuff 1t was, of course.
an ordinary thing for regulars In the old
day to ask for little toll-out, to try their
luck down the street. when they'd gone
broke at one bank.
I'm in. such a regular would say I
think I'll take rap at Jim's. or Eds, or
Bits as the case might be, and. as say
1t was then common thing for the bank
boss to slip such loser a note-twenty,
nifty, hundred, even a thousand-accord-
ing to how high the losers play had been.
so that he could try for an even-out chance
at some other bank down the line. Even
dealers, in the absence of the boss were
allowed to stake regulars to the price of
b SIdCh somewhere else. Inc percentage
Of fellows who awaited themselves of this
understood privilege was never very large
at that. The buckers Of the old day took
their medicine. With them 1t wasn't a case
sandwiches for the first time They knew
what they were up against. and. when the
game broke against them, why, they
thought of something lively to Whistle, put
their hats on with considerable care. and
just went away to walt for the better hour
to nudge along. But 1t has been becoming
different for a good many years now. l
hate to say 1t. but it's cinch that men are
not such good losers as they used to be.
They don't seem to be able to stand the
gait.
Now, I'm nothing but an old fumbler of
slip-out box, but all the same you've
got to show me that there isn't something
mighty mean and common about a squeaker
always providing. understand. that he's
had fair deal and no brace at the game
he's hurled himself up against. AS for the
fellows who buck the brace stun. knowing
ly or unknowingly, they don't figure at all,
and they're not even worth knocking. But
a fellow who gets the boots at fair
and square game, and then, when it's all
Of his junk-that ones more ornery than
string of dead catfish lying In the sun,
and I've studied him from every angle.
The first reason why he's mean and
the winnings that he could snag out of the
bank by hook or crook. and he'd take such
winnings with a laugh and boot for dealer
and lookout; but when the wrong ones
squeak. To chop 1t into a short length,
they're all-for-me gamblers, and the bank
Is supposed to lose for them the minute
they get in the door.
Gave Checks for $1,000.
"Over in Baltimore, not so long ago,
heard a bank boss shove a word or two at
q squeaker-and this Iwant-it-back bogus
was Washingtonian. too. He was intro
duced by q man with whom the bank pro-
prietor was well acquainted and so his
paper was good for all the stacks he need
ed. I did the dealing. and along toward
the finish the boss sat in the lOokouts
chair himself. The man scratched checks
for his stacks as he needed them. and there
were six of them in the drawer, each for
$500, when the squeaker got UP. 5000 to
the bad. The checks were drawn on Bal
timore bank
We'll you'll be going some if you beat
me to the bank in the morning. the squeak
er. said, with hang-dog leer, as he started
out.
going to stop payment on the paper. eh?'
said the bank boss in just his ordinary
tone.
IN be within my legal rights II l do. won't
Sure said. the boss. Sure you will
1 could mention you, without drawing
long breath. about 500 cheap things that any
cheap man can do and still be within his
legal rights. Now, If you had won $1,000
of my money, how far down the macadam
drive would you be by now. hot-footing
to get to some screened place SOS you could
count 1t again? You wouldn't have slipped
the 1000 back to me. would you?
oh. when you put it that way, said
the squeaker, but you're a public gambler,
you know. and you're taking chances.
" L
Whereas you don't figure on taking
chance at any stage of the journey, chr
cut in the boss. I'll save you the bother
of staying awake all night SO as to be
at the bank at opening up time in the
morning Here are yoV checks, and the
boss dipped into the drawer and pulled the
paper out
ID oh, If you're going to take it to heart
that way, Of course. you're welcome to the
coin, and / won't stop your collecting, be-
ginning to get next by this time to what
a poor figure he was cutting.
a. Take it to heart hey? said the bank
proprietor and he tore the six $500 checks
into little fragments and tossed them into
the cheap ones face. That move cut the
welcher, but he pretended to take 1t as
joke.
"'Oh, bother-here. I'll write you a check