The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-12
A Real "Blackie Dawv

A Real "Blackie Daw"
He is assisted by a man strongly re-
sembling the 'Blackie Daw'' of fiction.
The "Old Man" gets us the ideas and does
the finer work, and "Blackie Daw'' takSs
care OF the customers. Besides supply
Ing ali OF this countrys crooked gam
biers, the firm sends q good deal of gam
bling apparatus abroad. For instance,
ak roulette wheels were shipped to China
last week.
From the dim confusion behind the
counter steps the double Of Blacleie Daw.
He has been the assistant of the proprie-
tor for years, and he attends to the GUS
toners while the real owner remains be-
hind the piled boxes at the rear of the
establishment busily loading or shaving
dice, marking cards with aniline dye or
pin pricks. getting up innovations in
faro boxes. sanded cards or electrically
operated roulette wheels.
The "Old Man" and his black-mus-
tached assstsilt feel no embarrassnHnt
whatever at the calling they pursue.
"What do you want?' demanded BlaclSie
DAVIS double sss a reporter strolled in,
-'Dice," was the reply.
winners or losers?' Blackie asked
without hesitation.
The Press man was a bit uncertain.
why not get interchangeables?" sug
gested Blaelkie, Let me show you"
He dived into the gloom at the rear of
the store and presently reappeared with
a box containing three dice.
"These," he said, and held up two of
| them, ARE the winners. That one" and
he tossed the other on the counter, 'is
the loser. You can tell it by the black
spot on the ace being larger than the aces
on the other two. All you have to do
is to throw with the winners when the
dice are yours in crap game, and then
when 1t comes time for the other fellow
to shoot you palm one of the winners and
slip in the loser. These are T. b. loads,
as we call them, and the winners mike
the points five and eight with systematic
regularity. The loser sevens very quickly
with a five and a deuce
The man went on to explain that, the
dice were the most reliable and safest
on the market They sold for IS for the
three
But the Press reporter wa snt satisfied
He explained that he did not want one
a gambling house on the quiet" and he
wanted dice that would trim the pub
| lie ON a crap table with unfailing regu-
| larity
Different Kinds of Crooked Dice
"In that case" advised the ''Old Mans
| assistant. you have two choices. Either
+! the celluloid loads or shapes
| He went on to explain that the ce1lu-
| loid loads are expensive-s25 a pair. The
| reason for this is the skill required il
| manufacturing them. 1t Is easy enough
| to load ivory or bone dice, but celluloid.
are transparent and 1t requires the great
| est skill to prevent the mercury, will
! which the dice are aoaded, frpm being OBJ
/ served by a person examining them In {
| strong light. These dice, he said, ar,
! loaded in the spots-that Is, the mercury
| is inserted in the shadow of the numbe
| spots on the dice.
The shapes he explained, are tn,
| cheapest of all crooked dice. Seventy
five cents would buy a pair of winners o.
losers in celuloid or bone. Shapes ar,
| they are no longer perfect cubes ant
then by almost imperceptibly roundin,
the narrow sides. Thus when the die
are rolled the tendency is never to res
on the narrow, slightly rounded sides, blu
| to turn over to a flat surface. BY round
ing and narrowing various sides dice ca
be made to throw certain numbers muc
more frequently than others.
Most all the New York houses us
losing shapes Blacke explained
There are two or three little crap game
running on Forty-third street now tina
are supplied with losing Shapes"
He then went to the rear OF the stor
and came out with several sets of dice
How strong do you want them?" h.
| asked. and explained that the amount o
shaving could be regulated to make tn
dice almost certain losers or winnersa o.