Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1913-01-31

Every OuS hAO"o ShoS'
This dealer took a seat in front of the table
and in the course Of a few hours had won fifty
dollars. Then he stopped. He would pass In
and out g dozen times a day, play a little here
and some there, but always he would bring up in
front of the roulette table, and more often than
otherwise left it winner. His luck was amazing.
He started a bank account. He was saving his
money to get into business with. he said.
He won SO steadily that it made the proprietor
of the place shiver every time he came in.
One day, while the ex-dealer was playing, an
old man dropped in and. glancing around the room
for a moment. asked:
Who runs this place."
II do" answered a bewhiskered individual
who was watching his former employe rake in
the cash.
Will you do me the favor to tell me where
you got that wheel?" he asked, pointing to the
one that proved such a hoodoo.
Il know it's a Jonah. That fellow over there
wins all the time
"So?" said the stranger.
He walked over and watched the man lay his
bets.
passed out a card:
Il represent this house, which, as you see,
deals in gaming devices. l take it that the man
sitting at the wheel makes a killing every day?"
He does, stranger, to the tune Of fifty or q
hundred"
For a thousand l can tell you how to bust his
luck and make him look the living picture of re-
morse. You would have to agree to purchase a
new wheel from me, also"
If you show me, I'm game"
It's a bargain" said the drummer.
Walking over to the wheel, he waited until the
ball dropped, stopped it. and turning to the pro.
prietor asked:
See anything strange with that wheel"
No"
We'll, see, there are two nineteens and two
twenty-threes on this wheel. They are unusual
numbers-so that the fellow who plays them has
about the same percentage in his favor. on those
numbers that you have when a man D1ayS on a
regular wheel. We made this wheel more than
thirty years ago. 1t was sold to a house by a
couple of sure thing men, who almost broke the
outfit. Then we lost track Of it."
The ex-dealer had noticed the double numbers.
and therein was the secret of his luck" How
the numbers had escaped attention so many
years is one of those mysteries of gambling that
can never be explained.
When Seattle was the big noise in the North
west gambling world. and the primeval forests
were closer to her doors, some big games were
played.
One night a stranger stepped into one of tho
principal houses and took a seat at a faro table.
An hour later he had lost more than five thou-
sand dollars. The proprietor sent him a fifty
cent cigar, A few moments afterward the
stranger had a couple of hundred dollars. and
within an hour had regained his five thousand.
Then commenced a streak of luck that has sell
dom been witnessed in any gambling house. The
roof had been raised ito the sky and Mr..
Stranger "coppered' the king and doubled a bet
- ~ ~ ii0u ~ dSdiH y a repeat
er, with ten thousand. and drew back twenty vel
low chieps. worth one thousand each.
After that he made bets of a thousand eacn.
and before he had smoked the cigar he was TWEEN
ty-eight thousand to the good, Then he quit.
Who he was, where he came from. where he
went, no one ever knew, His coming and going
were as mysterious as his winnings were sensa-
tional.
Probably one of the greatest stakes ever hung
up was raked down on a mule race in Arizona
A man owned a hole in the ground" He was
satisfied that it was worth a fortune. His
friends thought he was crazy. He refused to go
to other "diggings" where the prospects were
better. He was more than twenty-five miles
from water, which had to be carried in on the
hurricane deck of a mule He worked away.
nursing his claim and sticking it out alone. Then
he went>to a settlement some distance away. He
became excited over the performances of a mule
owned by another man. and in a moment of ex.
uberance bet his claim against one owned bv a
prospector from another section that his mule
could outrun the other fellows. He lost.
He had the privilege of plotting the winner to
the mine and saw him take more than seventy
thousand dollars worth of silver, net, out of a
pocket, almost on the surface of the ground,
Since then the property has produced millions.
1t all came about because one mule could not
run SO fast as another.