El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-01-03

ONEY flashing In big "1t9
boarse voices calling bets; phone
bells ringing: messengers dash
~ ing bither and thither; telegraph
saunders clicking; excited groups
circIing about bulletin boards
everything in a tense yet subdued nuODuD
ss John J. Felix hurried through the
smoke laden atmosphere and thrust
e5o OOO into the cashier" window OF
fata noolroom to bet on a fake horse run
ming in fake race, duly programmed to
Weld half a million dollars by means of
fake wire tapping scheme. 1t took in &C
tusl time Just six ticks Of the clock for a
talonlike hand TO reach through the cash
Ter" window, grab the $4,000 and jerk
the notes back 70 the other side Of the
nsrtition. That was the last that Felix
ever saw Of his money.
It was the afternoon Of February 6, 1907
when this famous bet was made. The pool
room was very close to the old Fifth Ave
nue Hotel. in New York city, and it was
fitted up to play the plausible poolroom
mart in a most natural and convincing
wav. Nerve. cunning and daring subter-
fuqe made the place the climax Of one OF
the neatest swindling schemes ever dove
tailed together. And to think Of the PER
petrators sticking their fingers TO their
noses at the courts Of the State and going
scot free! Not a single instance Of final
conviction! Not a solitary stroke Of pun
ishment! But-the story viii tell you.
Felix was a manufacturer of musical
instruments, with a place just off Fifth
avenue. in the big City" he was
a man who took an interest in obsev-
ing the various methods by which an
opinion on hazard might be backed
with money. Somehow, Felix's predi-
lection for paying attention to pastimes
OF chance became known until it reached
westward through Thirty-first street to
the vicinity Of Broadway, where men Of
rapid-fire gambling tendencies congre-
gated. It also became known at the same
time that hidden in q secret compartment
Of the Felix office safe we're fifty one
thousand dollar bills 'just aching to be
taken out for a walk" as the Broadway
gamblers and crooks put it They de-
termined to give this money an airing.
At the corner of Fifth avenue and
Thirty-first street, four O'Clock. Feb
ruary 3, 19O5-the day before the $4,000
was grabbed by the talonlike hand Of
The fake "cashier"-an Immediately
groomed and CARRIED gentleman gave his
mustache a final pull and a pat IS he
mentally closed all the details necessary
10 properly approach Felix and acquire
the $4,000. Dressed in the height Of
allowable fashion, sleek and shining,
swinging a nonchalant cane and putting
a prosperous cigar, Le sauntered from the
corner into the manufacturers office.
This man Of winning and attractive
was none other than the no
torious Christopher J. Tracy, justly
called and crowned the King Of the Fake
Wire Tappers. It was his brain that
the scheme resulting in the
transfer Of the $4,000 from the Felix
office safe TO the pockets of himself and
his confederates. They buried Tracy only
the other day-Whieh is partly why this
is written-and if some Of his band ad-
mirers had their way his tombstone would
bear words ehiselled somewhat after this
lies the man who gave
the penal code Of New York State a per
petual vertigo"
Tracy entered the Felix office the
Of urbane suavity. Pro
fusely, yet not fulsomely, apologize, and
in crisply polished phrases, he introduced
himself as one who had met Felix in a
hazard parlOr" and had been attracted
to him. by his sportsmanlike bearing.
Passing by he had noticed the manufact-
urer entering his place Of business and