The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1908-07-03
HOW a COMPASS
REVEALED a SN!iRDlE.


In 1866 or 1866 was a civil engineer
on the Union Pacific railroad, then
building The western terminus was
at Julesburg, a city that. like Jonah's
gourd, sprang up in a night and,
Ike Sodom, disappeared Us suddenly.
though Julesburg's extinction was
from the establishment of a new ter
minus farther on, at Laramie. My
headquarters were in Julesburg, and a
more thorough exponent of all that Is
vile In humanity never bloomed on the
face of the earth. All night could be
heard the sound of f1ddles in the dance
halls, zone more lady in this set"
| Keno" and other similar cries.
On the evening Of my arrival. curious
to get a glimpse of what was going
on, / visited the different places of
hilarity. finally bringing up in a heap
Of boards that had been nailed togeth-
er for a gambling den. There were
faro, keno, roulette and in one corner
table at which two men with heaps
/ of money before them were throwing
dice / noticed that this table was
not improvised. like the other furni-
1 ture of the place 1t was of polished
| black walnut and ornamented. One
| OF the men throwing dice was pock-
marked. red headed man with a sin
! lister countenance, the other a fine
| type of the rugged, honest, fearless
plainsman. l looked on the game for
M ho6 a ho
the dice rolled for the plainsman's ad-
versary / had heard of loaded dice
and the skill with which they could
be thrown. but had never dreamed Of
anything like this 1t seemed that the
red headed man could do with them
as he liked. Finally the plainsman
intimated that all was not fair. The
other, instead of resenting the imputa-
ton, called on me TO throw for him
for awhile. I did so and met with tie
same astonishing luck as himself.
Handing the dice back to him,
stood wondering how the trick was
done, for I did not doubt that it was a
trick. OF course the pockmarked man
lost occasionally. but it was plain to
me that such losses We're Intentional
At times his luck seemed to be very
poor, while that of the plainsman was
never very good or very bad. How the
dice could be manipulated, as I was
sure they were, | could not conceive,
but while l was racking my brain to
discover the plainsman had lost sew
eral thousand dollars, and the pile be
fore him had been reduced to nearly
nothing
While in that country [ carried no
valuables. In my trousers pocket
had a silver watch worth perhaps S..
Having an appointment at 10 o'clock,
pulled out my watch, as I thought, to
note the time, but instead drew forth
a pocket compass, an article needed
constantly What was my astonish-
ment to see the needle vibrate feverish-
~, and when it settled, instead Of
pointing to what L had supposed was
north, it pointed due east The men at
the table were so immersed in their
game that did not ask them where the
north pole lay, but turned to man be-
hind me- He told me 1t was where
supposed it was.
Here was new food for thought.
looked at the table and saw that under
it's top there was an inclosed space
about a foot square. l wondered why
a place like that should be in a dice
table Then it occurred to me thar
there was something in 1t to influence
the dice From that argued that this
something also influenced my needle
therefore it must be magnetic.
Il
ed man, what's In the box under the
! table,
He glanced at me without reply. The
plainsman bent down, then. putting
his hands to the table top. gave a lift.
The top came off and exposed the in
terror Of the box. There In plain view
was horseshoe magnet, or, rather, a
Geographic machine. The plainsman
whipped out revolver and covered his
antagonist.
Thank We, stranger" he said to me.
"Please look into 1t while 1 see that
you have fair play. Hands up, please!"
to the pockmarked man.
The order was obeyed, and l made
the examination. Inside the table, be-
sides the magnet was a battery con-
nected by insulated wires running in
side a leg Of the table, with button
about midway down. On one face OF
the dice were metal disks When the
gambler wished these disks to fall face
: on the table he would press the button
with his knee, turn on a current. and
the magnet drew them down. With
out the current they fell by chance
Over the disks was thin coating the
color of ivory.
The plainsman kept one eye on the
man lie covered, while with the other
T be reappropriated all the money he had
lost. There was no disposition on the
I part Of any one in that country at that
t time to punish such rascality, and as
} soon as he had got his own he went
S out, asking me to go with him. When
we We're alone together he said:
i, Young man, I've got a thousand dol
e lars to give you for the secret you
e found ont about what was inside that
4 table"
!. I replied that I never gave nothing