Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-18
HE CLEANED UP CUBA.
Spanish Counts Revenge on Havana
Gamblers.

/
| Word comes from Europe Of the
death of Count Alberta Blanco in the
town of Granada, in Spain, man who
took one fling with fortune and won,
never to play again. ...
It was in the good old days when
Havana was one Of the greatest gamb-
ling cities in the world that the count
was called there on some business
matters which he hoped to finish up In
a week or two, and then return to his
home in Spain. Fate willed otherwise,
and decreed that the game Of his life
should be played in Cuba, and that the
stakes should be a competence for life
or ten years in prison.
Whether or not he was really a count
Is a matter of no importance now. In
Havana he was known as Blanco, and
as Blanco he will probably be for long
time remembered as the man who car
ried through one Of the biggest card
swindles in history. .ssss
It appears that upon the occasion Of
his first visit to Cuba the count real
lied that the whole island was practi-
cally given over to gambling, from the
contagion of which he did not escape.
He had the misfortune to fall into the
hands of some fashionable sharpers,
who fleeced him so numerically that
his resources were hopelessly crippled
for the time being, so much so that the
object of his trip had to be abandoned.
When he mentioned the matter to
his friends they simply laughed at him
and showed so little sympathy that he
determined to be revenged upon the
whole town IL 1t should cost him every
cent he had. Night and day he brooded
over his misfortune and turned over in
his mind scheme after scheme for get
ting even with the people who had rob-
bed him and then laughed at him.
It was during one of his walks about
the capital that he got an idea. The
more he thought about 1t the simpler
it seemed; all 1t needed was patience
and courage, with a little luck in get
ting things started right
The idea was to use marked cards
and to make unwilling confederates Of
the tradesmen in Havana by compsll-
ing them to supply him with those
cards under such circumstances as to
leave him absolutely free from suspi-
cion. He made inquiries as to the style
and make of the cards used in princi-
pal clubs, the prices at which they were
sold. and the agencies through which
they were purchased. Quietly and un-
obtrusively he gathered up this infor-
nation and then departed for his ma
tive land.
Within two years he was ready for
his revenge. He had purchased enor-
nous quantities of playing cards Of the
style and pattern in vogue in Havana.
Every pack Of these cards he had care
fully opened, and had marked the back
of every card for sequence and suit, US
ing an ink which is made for that pur-
pose, and which sinks through the
enamel,ed surface without leaving the
slightest trace that can be detected by
holding the card to the light. He could
read the backs of these cards as clearly
as IL they were face up. He was now
ready to spring the trap.
Renting a small office under a false
name in another town, he began by
mailing sample packs Of unmarked
cards to dealers in playing cards in
Havana and to such Of the clubs that
bought direct. He represented these
cards as bankrupt stock, which must be
sold at once, and the prices he quoted
were irresistible. In two months he
sold them all.
OF course the count was not long In
following up his goods. He put up at
the best hotel, called on his old friends
and spent his money freely. He was
welcome in all the clubs, he was re-
ceived in the best society, his intended
victims showed him every attention,
and no one was unkind enough to re-
mind him of the reverses of fortune
that he had suffered on his last visit.
Perhaps they thought he had forgotten.
He lost no time in sitting down to
play, and finding his own cards ready
to his hand wherever he went, he made
no bones about the size Of the stakes he
played for. Within a week he had re-
paid himself Of all his losses on selling
bankrupt stock below cost and was pill
ing up profits at a great pace. In a
month he would have made a fortune.
"Trot as fast heat as you can while
the mare is on her legs" he kept say
ing to himself. "She will never run
again"
Unfortunately for the count, there
came to Havana about this time a
Frenchman named Laforcade, who had
by some means obtained very good in
Productions. He was really a profess
sional card sharper who was determin-
ed to make the best Of his time before
he should be exposed and his introduce
tions repudiated.
BY a singular mischance this gamb-
lers' speciality was using marked cards,
but he was not familiar with the pat
tern which he found in use all over
Havana so he took one of the packs to
his hotel to study its peculiarities with
a view to devising some system Of
marking 1t.
NJ Laforcade had not spent many
minutes studying the pattern Of the
cards that he had spread out on the
table before he hit upon the precise
spot at which they had been already
marked. At first he was too much as
tonished to believe 1t, but after an
hours work he was satisfied that he
could read them himself. The conun-
drum was, who had marked them?
On thinking over those whom he
knew to play high his suspicious nat
urally fell upon Blanco, but the mans
social position, his Spanish connections
and his known business standing
seemed to forbid such thought. The
only gleam Of light was that Blanco and
the cards came from the same place.
Laforcade knew enough Of the ways
of the world to realize the fOlly of ac-