The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-29
ewcomer in Game Made Speciality
of Full Hands.

Personally, / don't think much Of the
practice which. as l understand it, still
obtains in some localities Of shooting the
man who is caught cheating at cards,
said the gray-haired, young-looking man
in the CLUB smoking room. But there
was an incident in my own experiences
years ago which enabled me to under
stand how the practice can become eStab-
lished in places where law is laxly en-
forced and civilization is more or less
raw.
1T certainly was a hot game we used
to play every Saturday in the back room
Of a Beaver street restaurant. We were
all six Of us prosperous young business
men, accustomed TO risk our money In
thousands on the floors of the exchanges
every day, and all possessed OF the demon
of speculation so fully that time seemed
asted which was not occupied in taking
chances of one sort or another.
Moreover, we never made but one eX-
ceptiOn to the rule we made when We first
began playing. That was that We would
admit no outsiders TO the game. Four OF
US were members of the cotton exchange,
and the other two were stock brokers IN
business for themselves
1.-The single exception we made to the
rule about outsiders was in favor OF
fellow who was known slightly by all OF
Us and particularly well by the two stock
brokers as they had reason to think
His name was Hartley, and he was in
New York as the promoting agent or a
/ large concern in the Southwest which
was selling both stock and bonds of I'M
I
an office in New street, and had done
| "a irlyE well in the six months he mac
been IN town.
Martin and Harry Beggs both announced
/ that they would be out of town on the
| following Saturday and we saw that in
! consequence our party would be reduced
/ 70 four. Then Billy Proctor proposed
| that we should invite Hartley. After 4
/ little talk we decided to invite him. Proc
/ tor was careful to remind us Of that
afterward when We began saying some
/ thing UNPLEASANT about his having
| brought Hartley in.
Came Out Nearly Even.
The newcomer neither won nor lost any
/ great amount of money, but came out
! somewhere near even
( We'll. he played three or four times
after that, and if he had been more
accomplished swindler than he proved to
/ be l have no doubt he would have con-
/ tinued in the party much longer, out
| INV own notion is that he was crooked
! enough to be willing TO cheat, but was
| not trained to it as professional gam
/ bier is. So far as l know he understood
I only one crooked trick, and that ne mad
I I imagine, invenetd for himself and prac-
/ ticed until he thought he could play II
without being detected.
| The second night he was with Us he
| won considerably more than tnousano
/ dollars, having rather more than a 1aIr
1 run of luck. The amount was no start
| ing for Jack Maynard cleaned up about
g co. and Jim Houghton won at least
as much. if not more than Hartley did.
| There was one thing about the game.
| though, that seemed curious to me- II
| was that he seemed to hold most re-
markable number Of ten spots. Whether
| lie played two pairs, three OF kind, OF q
full house, there were always, or nearly
always. at least two tens in any hand ne
| showed down.
AT another sitting, possibly the next
he was equally fortunate. This time
| noticed that he seemed to be as lucky
/ with kings as he had been with ten spots
| the first time. I noticed, moreover, ina
| he threw down his cards without piay
unless he was ready to play to show
down He never showed four of kind
and that, as ] thought of it afterward
was an indication at least OF the system
7 resolved to keep a close eye on hi
play in case he should join our pa RI,
again, which he did not do every Satur
day As 7 think of It now he was
strange mixture of caution and daring
He was certainly bold to play as ne DC
in a party of good players. but he sought
20 dissrn suspicion by not pressing nj
trick too hard
Trick Was Simple.
''As for the trick itself. it was simpl'
enough, and as 1 believe, consisted onl,