Hattiesburg daily news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1907-1908, 1907-06-25
How / Won Consent!


ne WOulu mol GIVE I1e HsiO tit ploOu
of British ducal family in his veins,
while l was an American conlmoner.
In vain argued with him that my |
bank account Gin America at leasD was |
to be preferred to blue blood and pow
erty; In vain pleaded with Alice to |
pay no attention TO the old dotard aud |
marry me despite his commands to the
contrary. No. Such disobedience
would break her fathers heart There
were but the two of them, and rup-
ture was out Of the question. 1t seem
ed to me that one might as well talk of
breaking the heart of bullock as this
obstinate Englishman.
Since Alice would neither give me up
nor marry me led a very uncomfort-
able life. Indeed, the time came when
was almost ready to carry her off In
spite Of herself and her father But
formed a better plan-one equally haz-
ardous, but more likely of success. 1t
had one disadvantage over the abduc-
ton plan. In that plan 1 would carry
with me the worlds sympathy; in the
plan l adopted If detected l would
certainly lose my love and be eternally
disgraced
Mr.. Cordery, Alice's father, was an
inveterate gambler. The only thing in
America that he approved of was the
national game Of poker. American So
ciety was to him boiling pot Ameri
/ ~ t,1r
business methods, were execrable. But
poker was a fine game. / would not
join the occasional poker parties he
had in his house, first, because l dis.
like the excitement of gambling; sec
| ond, when the old gentleman was busy
at the game / was free with Alice.
However, my plan involved my play
ing poker, and one evening l surprised
him by taking hand.
l lost small sums at several sittings
and lost intentionally. l would never
bet high with any opponent except Mr..
Cordery and in this way avoided win
ming or losing any considerable sum
from any one but him. In his case,
however, ! kept losing and winning,
always winning more than had lost,
till my opponent owed more than he
could pay without mortgaging the lit
tie property he possessed. This final
ly forced him to do, and when he had
done 1t won the loan he had made.
All this was done within few
weeks. Once, and once only. l was
frightened from the terrible risk l
was running One of the players while
toying with card fell to rubbing his
: thumb on its back. Feeling little
! speck, he tried to rub it off. With a
| throbbing heart I gathered up the
I cards, taking the card he was thumb
ing from him and tossing them to the
dealer. That card had been Marked
and I had marked it.
Before entering upon these games
D had gone to professional gambler and
t paid him to teach me how to win. He
4 Initiated me into system of marking
! the cards on the back with little specks
: The four suits by this system are des
ignated by the position of the specks
! on the back of the cards. Thus one
speck in certain position would NEAR
s the ace of hearts, two specks thu
J. queen, and 30 on. But in poker it wal
It not necessary that the specks SHOULD
d be In any given position. The speck
4 were made by puncture of a PHI
! point in the card and filling the pune
: ture with wax. My instructor told M
that to be able to feel them I must fl
the skin Of my thumb down to tn
d quick and wear a kid cap on tn
D. thumb. This did, and the slightes
touch would give me the denominatio
" Of the card. AS to the pack used,
. found packs similar to those Mr.. Coz
2 derry kept on hand and surreptitiousl
substituted my marked cards for his.
J. Well, / won all Mr.. Cordery's belong
8, ings-they were not large-and mad
* him a pauper. l am aware that |
cases of this kind. especially in play
,r the next step would be for the loser
&c put up his daughter for a stake. BIZ
since this was a real case no sue
thing occurred. Mr.. Cordery borrowe
u a small sum from one of the part
which promptly won. Then he DO
e. rowed of me, and won what ha
~ lent him. He borrowed more, and
r. won that. Finally he gave up til
~ struggle and shut himself up for thre
days. was frightened out of my wi
for fear he would do something despe
ate. He was thinking about his daug
ters future. She would marry no OF
but me, and If she didn't marry 81
% must go to work. OF two evils Il
A. least must be chosen. The old ma
a, gave in and told her she'd better accel
me.
~ AS soon as | had received his co
sent, learning from Alice of sundl
debts that had long been owing b
father, | sent him 500, purporting
he come from one of his debtors from Il
a. other side of the world. AS | expecte
he resumed his poker parties. The r
81 pidity with which he won my mon'
Oh was astonishing. In three sittings