The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-07-08
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HOW A COMPASS
REVEALED A SvvINDLE.
Observation-Disclosures

DuhuiHbs Abb NtoiSAh tNAAh'HN" "s~
at Julesburg, city that, like Jonah's
gourd, sprang up in a night and,
lie sodom, disappeared as suddenly,
though Julesburg's extinction was
from the establishment of 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 fiddles 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, l visited the different places OF
hilarity, finally bringing up In heap
OF boards that had been nailed togeth-
er for gambling den. There were
faro, keno, roulette and In one corner
a 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-
ture of the place. 1t was of polished
black walnut and ornamented. One
of the men throwing dice was a pock-
marked. red headed man with a sin
lister countenance, the other fine
type Of the rugged, honest, fearless
plainsman. / looked on the game for
awhile and was astonished at the way
the dice rolled for the plainsman's ad-
versary. I had heard Of loaded dice
and the skill with which they could
be thrown. but had never dreamed of
anything like this. IL seemed that the
red headed man could do with them
MS he liked. Finally the plainsman
intimated that all was not fair. Tho
other, instead of resenting the imputa-
ton, called on me to throw for him
for awhile. / did so aud met with the
same astonishing luck as himself.
Handing the dice back to him. I
stood wondering how the trick was
done, for did not doubt that 1t was a
trick. or course the pockmarked man
lost occasionally, but 1t was plain to
me that such losses were intentional.
At times his luck seemed to be very
poor, while that OF the plalnsman was
never very good or very bad. How the
dice could be Manipulated, as was
sure they were. could not conceive,
but while 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 IS.
Having an appointment at 10 o'clock, l
pulled out my watch, as thought, TO
note the time, but instead drew forth
a pocket compass. an article ! neededa
constantly. What was my astonish-
ment to see the needle yibrate feverish-
~, and when 1t settled. instead Of
pointing to what / 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 it was where
supposed 1t was.
Here was new food for thought.
looked at the table and saw that under
its top there was an inclosed space
about foot square. l wondered why
a place like that should be in dice
table. Then it occurred to me that
there was something in 1t to influence
the dice. From that l argued that this
something also Influenced my needle,
therefore it must be magnetic.
stranger" | said to the pockmark-
ed man, whats in the box under the
tabieY
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 a horseshoe magnet, or, rather, a
Geographic machine. The plainsman
whipped out a revolver and covered his |
antagonist.
THANK We, stranger" he said to me.
please look into it while | see that |
you have fair play. Hands up. pleased"
to the pockmarked man.
The order was obeyed, and made
the examination. Inside the table, be-
sides the magnet. was battery con-
nected by insulated wires running in |
side 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 I
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 he covered, while with the other |
he reappropriated all the money he had |
lost. There was no disposition on the
part of any one in that country at that I
time to punish such rascality, and as /
soon as he had got his own he went
cut, asking me to so with him. When I
we were alone together he said:
Young man, I've got thousand dol. /
lars to give you for the secret you
found out about what was inside that /
table,"
| replied that never gave nothing |
for something. but he was welcome to |
The secret, and told him how my COM
pass had been influenced by the bat
terry. He seemed very much interest
ed and pleased, remarking that be
must have zone O. them pizen p'intin' /
little things" himself. and offered me /
the thousand dollars for mine. Ideclined /