The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-06-20
How | Won Consent.
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Alice would not marry me without
her fathers consent, and that consent
he would not give. He had the blood
Of a British ducal family in his veins,
while | was an American commoncr.
In vain I argued with him that my
bank account 0n America at IeasO was
to be preferred to blue blood and pov-
erty; in vain | pleaded with Alice to-
pay no attention to the old dotard and
marry me despite his commands to the
| contrary. No. Such disobedieHcc
would break her fathers heart. There
were but the two of them. and n 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 l 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 l
| formed better plan--one equally ha2-
| ardous, but more likely of success. 1t
| had one disadvantage over the abduc-
| ton plan. In that plan | would carry
with me the worlds sympathy; in the
| plan | adopted if detected / would
certainly lose my love and be eternally
disgraced.
Mr.. Cordery, Allces father was an
invetcrate 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.
can art literature, professional and
business methods, were eXecrable. But
poker was IA fine game. ! would not
Join the occasional poker parties he
had in his house, first, because | 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 / surprised
him by taking hand.
| lost small sums at several sittngs
and lost Intentionally. | 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, l 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 it won the loan he had made.
All this was done within a few
weeks. Once, and once only, l was
frightened from the terrible risk
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 | gathered up the
cards, taking the card he was thumb
ing from him and tossing them to the
dealer. That card had been marked,
and had marked it.
Before entering upon these games /
had gone to professional gambler and
paid him to teach me how to win. He
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 mean
the ace Of hearts, two specks the
queen, and so on. But in poker 1t was
not necessary that the specks should
be In any given position. The specks
were made by puncture Of pin
point in the card and filling the pune
ture with wax. My instructor told me
that to be able to feel them I must file
the skin of my thumb down to the
quick and wear kid cap on the
thumb. This l did, and the slightest
touch would give me the denomination
OF the card. AS to the pack used !
found packs similar to those Mr.. Cor
derry kept on hand and surreptitiously
substituted my marked cards for his.
Well, won all Mr. Cordery's belong
ings-they were not large-and made
him pauper. l am aware that In
cases Of this kind. especially In plays,
the next step would be for the loser to
put up his daughter for stake. But
since this was a real case no such
thing occurred. Mr.. Cordery borrowed
small sum from one of the party,
which promptly won. Then he bor-
rowed Of me, and won what l had
lent him. He borrowed more, and |
won that. Finally he gave up the
struggle and shut himself up for three
days was frightened out of my wits
for fear he would do something desper-
ate. He was thinking about his daugh-
ter's future. She would marry no one
but me, and If she didn't marry she
must go to work. OF two evils the
least must be chosen. The old man
gave In and told her she'd better accept
me.
AS soon MS l had received his CON
sent, learning from Alice Of sundry
debts that had long been owing her
father, / sent him 500, purporting b
come from one of his debtors from the
other side of the world. AS expected,
he resumed his poker parties. The ra-
pidity with which he won my money