Perth Amboy evening news., 1913-02-15
MYSTERY OF THE
DICE EXPLAINED
Trick Of a Gambler Revealed
by a Compass.

/ In 1865 or 1865 | was y civil engineer
on the Union Pacific railroad. then
building. The western terminus was
at ~Julesburg, a city that, Ike Jonah's
gourd, sprang up In IA night and
like Sodom, disappeared as suddenly,
though Julesburg's extinction was from
the establishment of II new terminus
farther on. ut Laramie. My headquar
tiers were in Julesburg, and u more
thorough exponent of all that Is vile 10
humanity never doomed on the face
of the earth.
On the evening OF my arrival, curious
to get q glimpse Of what was going
on, | visited the different places Of
hilarity, finally bringing VI In II heap
of boards that had been nailed togetb
err for II gambling den. There were
faro. keno. roulette and In n corner
q table at which two men with heaps
| of money before them were throwing
dice. ! noticed that this table was
| not improvised, like the other furniture
OF the place. 1t was Of polished black
walnut and ornamented. One OF the
men throwing dice was Il pockmarked.
red headed man with a sinister coun.
%tenance, the other a fine type OF the
rugged, honest. fearless piainsman. !
looked on the game for awhile and
was astonished at the way the dice
rolled for the plainsmaB's adversary.
l had heard Of loaded dice and the
| skill with Svgh,cA they could be thrown.
but I had never dreamed OF ~aanything
like this. II seemed that the red head.
ed man could do with them An ht
liked. Finally the plainsman intimat
ed that all was not fair. The other
instead OF resenting the imputation
called on me to throw for him 10,
awhile. I did so nnd met with the
same astonishing luck as himself.
Handing the dice back 10 him. ]
stood wondering how the trick was
done. for I did not doubt that II was n
trick. OF course the ~pockmarked man
lost occasionally. but 1t was plain to
| me that such losses were intentional
| poor. while that Of the piainsman war
never very good or very bad. How the
dice could be manipulated, as was
sure they were. l 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 I carried no
valuables. In my trousers pocket !
had n silver watch worth perhaps So.
Having an appointment ut 10 O'Clock
| pulled out my watch. as I thought. 10
note the timc. but instead drew forth
a pocket compass. nm article ! needed
constantly. What was my nstonish-
| ment to see the needle vibrate feverlsh'
ly, md when 1t settled. instead OF
pointing to what ! had supposed was
north. It pointed due east. The men nj
the table were 80 immersed In their
| game that | did not ask them where the
north pole lay. but turned to Il man be
hind me. He told me 1t was where
supposed 1t was.
Here was new food for thought. ]
| looked at the table and sa W that under
It's top there was an inclosed space
about IL food square. l wondered why
a place like that should be In II dice
table. Then 1t occurred to me that
there was something In It to influence
the dice. From that I argued that this
something also Influenced my needle
therefore II must be magnetic.
Stranger" said to the pockmark
ed man. what's In the boz under the
table?"
He glanced at me without reply. The
plainsman bent down. then. putting
his hands to the table top. gave a hit
The top came OF and exposed the In
terror of the box. There III plain view
was a horseshoe magnet. or. rather, n
teIegraphic machine. The plainsman
whipped out q revolver and covered biz
antagonist
THANK ye. stranger" he said to me.
"Please look into II while | see that
! you have fair play. Hands up, please!'