The Washburn leader., 1913-04-11
MYSTERY OF THE
Dice EXPLAINED
Trick Of a Gambler Revealed
by a Compass.

In 1865 or 1906 was civil enginee
on the Union Pacific railroud. ther
building. The western terminus wa,
at Julesburg. city that. like Jonah't
gourd, sprang up III night and
like Sodom. disappeared as suddenly
though Julesburg's extinction was from
the establishment of new terminus
farther on. at Laramie. My headQuar
tcrs were in Julesburg. and more
thorough exponent of all that Is vile iu
humanity never bloomed on the face
Of the earth.
On the evening Of my arrival. curious
to get glimpse of what was going
on, visited the different places ot
hilarity, finally bringing up in heap
of boards that had been nailed togeth'
er for gambling den. There were
faro, keno, roulette and In one corner
u table at which two men with heaps
of money before them were throwing
dice. noticed that this table was
rot improvised, like the other furniture
of the place. 1t was Of polished black
walnut and ornamented. One of the
men throwing dice was pockmarked.
red headed man with sinister coun.
tenance. the other fine type Of the
rugged, honest. fearless plainsman.
looked on the game for awhile and
was astonished at the way the dice
rolled for the plainsman's adversary.
I had heard Of loaded dice and the
skill with which they could be thrown.
but l had never dreamed Of anything
like this. 1t seemed that the red head
ed man could do with them rs he
liked. Finally the rlainsman intimat-
ed that all was not fair. The other.
instead Of resenting the imputation.
called on me to throw for him for
same astonishing luck as himself.
Handing the dice back to him.
stood wondering how the trick was
t!,;:n. fn: did not doubt that it was q
t"i..,S or course the i,Ockmarked man
;cs: occasionally. hut 1t was plain to
At time; his luck seemed to he very
!:o"r, while that of the plainsman was
never very good or very bad. How the
dice could be manipulated. as was
sure they were. could not conceive.
but while was racking my brain to
discover the p!nicsman 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 I
had silver watch worth perhaps S..
Having an appointment at 10 O'Clock I
pulled out my watch. as thought. to
note the time. but instead drew forth
a pocket compass. an article I needed
constantly. What was my astonish-
ment to see the needle vibrate feverish-
~. and when 1t settled. instead Of
pointing to what I had supposed WIS
north. 1t pointed due east. The men at
the table were so immersed in their
game that did not ask them where the
north pole lay. but turned to a man be-
hind me. He told me 1t was where
supposed 1t was.
Here was new food for thought.
looked at the table and saw that under
It's top there was an inclosed space
about food square. wondered why
a place like that should be in a dice
table. Then It occurred to me that
there was something in 1t to influence
the dice. From that argued that this
something also Influenced my needle.
therefore it must be magnetic.
stranger" said to the pockmark-
ed man. whats in the box under the
tableT'
He glanced at me without reply. The
piatnsman bent down. then, putting
his hands to the table top. gave lift.
The top came OF and exposed the in
terror Of the box. There in plain view
was horseshoe magnet, or. rather. a
telegraphic machine. The plainsman
whipped out a revolver and covered his
antagonist.
''Thank ye. stranger" he said to me.
please look into 1t while see that
you have fair play. Hands up. please!'
to the pockmarked man.
The order was obeyed, and l made
the examination. Inside the table. be-
sides the magnet. was a battery con-
nected by insulated wires running in
side a leg Of the table, with button
about midway down. On one face Of
the dice were metal disks. When the
gambler wish. 1 these disks to fall
face on the table he would press the
button with bis knee. turn on q cur
rent. and the magnet drew them down.
Without the current they fell by
chance. Over the disks was thin
coating the color Of ivory.
The plainsman kept one eye on the
man he covered, while with the other
he reappropriated all the money he had
tost There was no disposition on the
part Of any one In that country at that
time to punish such rascality. and az
soon as he had got his own he went
out, asking me to go with him. When
we were alone together he said:
/ young man, I've got $1,000 to give
you for the secret you found out about
what was inside that table" sSs
I replied that never gave nothing
for something, but he was welcome to.