The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12

tne Tracks paralyzlng the roads and
leaving the congested business sections
helpless Late dinners and much suf-
fering are the usual result when a heavy
rain puts the entire system out of COM
mission. Incidentally, a recent storm
played havoc throughout tho suburbs.
causing the undermining of sidewalks.
with considerable damage to property.
to merely slightly Increase the percentage
of times they would win or lose. He
rolled pair out on the counter, and the
reporter saw then what had worn those
deep burrows and grooves In the wood.
1t was the constant rolling and reroll-
ing of dice to demonstrate them to gam
blers from all parts of the country who
came to New York to fit out with appa-.
ratus to rob the public
The visitor ordered two dozen of the
shapes" one-sixty-fourth strong, as
Blaclie called them-in other words, with
a sixty-fourth of an inch shaved from
faro outfit.
Finer Arts of Cheating
This was getting into the finer points
of the art of cheating the public. and
Blackie grinned. There We're very few
crooked faro boxes, and while most all
gambling houses that included crap tables
| in their roster of games used shaped dice
| to make the results quicker and more
certain, cheating at faro was much more
difficult and required not only higher
| Skill in operation but in manufacture of
| the appliances as well.
Broadly speaking, there is but one Sind
| of cheating faro box that has proven suc-
| cessful. This is the spring box The faro
box is a small steel case which holds a
| deck of cards and from which the dealer
deals one card at time through "a slot
When the faro box is straight, the player
\ has an almost even chance to win, burt
when 1t is fixed he has none
| The spring box is so called because of
| an inside spring by means of which the
| dealer can with a slight pressure of his
| finger lift the lid of the box the fraction
of an inch until the slit through which
| the cards are slipped out is large enough
to admit of the passage of two at the
| same time instead of one, as in an honest
| box.
The advantage of this is readily seen.
| Suppose that player is betting heavily
on certain card. The dealer knows,
| through the cards being sanded or
marked, that this card is about to win.
| BY touching the spring he is able to slip
| the card out of the box with the one he
is obliged to slip. and the player is pre-
vented from winning.
Opposite the dealer sits man who
keeps the cases." tally which shows
which cards have been taken from the
box as the game progresses. 1t is an easy
| matter for the dealer to signal to the
| casekeeper, a confederate. what card he
is about to slip out double, and for the
casekeeper to tally it as turned without
being observed.
Should any player become suspicious
the makers of the spring box have pro-
vided, with admirable foresight, a little
contrivance that is calculated to COM
| pletely disarm a sucker who thinks he is
| being cheated.
| This contrivance is false screw on the
bottom of the box, which, when pressed,
| Immediately holds the changeable lid,
making the box square one to all ap-
| pearances. The dealer presses the small
/ screw with a single movement and tosses
the box over to the suspicious player. who
| look as he may, can find nothing appar-
emily wrong. mere turn of the screw
| instantly makes -he box crooked again
Sandtell in Faro
| The sandtell Is nersly a spring fare
| box operated with deck of cards, certain
| of which are heavily sanded--rcughene
with mucilaginous substance containing
| fine sand or emery powder.
| This roughness makes the card bailx
when the dealer attempts to push 1T out
of the slit in the box In 9th er words
/ the roughness makes it slip out with a
curious. sticky, grating feeling that is
| unmistakable.
| Suppose the kings of deck are sandel
| A player has a large bet on the king to
win. AS the dealer starts to shove out
the top card he finds that Il slips har I'd
and roughly.
| This instantly tells him that the king is
next. and he presses his spring and slips
| out both cards together, making it inl-
| possible for the man with the bet on the
king to win.
| 1t was with such sandtcii that Riley
Grammar, the late plunger, was once
! trimmed of $4,000 in New York
| Blackie explained that with the oxcep-
ton of dioe, crooked faro outfits and rou-
| lette wheels are only used in houses in
emergency, which, he said, meant when
man was winning heavily and had to be
stopped. or when chance presented Itself
I to make a handsome killing from a
sucker.
I'VE can do anything with cards. he
explained, when asked about marked
cards for poker Every man of course
has his own system of marking, and We
don't like to suggest anything. but we do
beautiful and safe work in analine dye
or ink, or pinhole work. 1t is impossible
for an outsider to detect our marked
cards, and we supply all the big houses
At this point there was an interruption
Two sailors from one of the battleships
came in to call for crooked dice they had
ordered. 1t developed that the two blue
Jackets cleaned up about $500 a month
from their comrades by tht aid of phony
dice supplied by the "Old Man,
In reply to inquiry regarding crossed
Wheels the proprietor said: why. YOU
don't need them. The natural percentage
aG-ast the player is enough to get him
in the long run. You never heard of
man beating roulette for any length of
time"
But the customer wanted crooked
wheel He wanted to be on the safe side.
Neither the "Old Man nor his assist
ant had any hesitancy in discussing va
rious experiments they had made in con-
trolled wheels.
Nearly every Imaginable thing has
been tried to make the wheel that will
behave consistently, as the dealer wants
1t to. Tho mule ear YOU hear SO much
about never amounts to anything"
The mule ear Is a segment OF wocd
In the saucer Of the wheel which. at
the pressure of spring by the deal |
er, Is portruded almost imperceptbly