The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1918-08-10
American and Canadian Officers
Visiting London Also Fleeced
by SharperS.
GIRLS ARE USED AS DECOYS
international Coterie Using Private
Houses for Games Operates IN
disturbed-Tragedy of an Avia-
tors Wife-Women Worse
Than Men.

London.--There Is man living in
retirement In one of those fine, up
standing old Jacobean manor houses,
not fifty miles from London; a model
country squire, popular with his ten+
ants, thoroughgoing sportsman, who
rides 10 hounds most religiously and
entertains on the most lavish scale.
lie can afford II. His annual income
IL somewhere in the Sl0O,U00 line. Yet
before the war this particular man
hadn't penny to his name.
The secret of his extraordinary sue
cess lay In quiet, sumptuOusly fur
nished back rooms in quiet, common
place houses I'm those sOmber streets
that nestle I'm and around Mayfair.
Chemin de fer, poker, faro, sometimes
u roulette wheel, and the gilded ldlers
of old British aristocrncy would be
swarming round like moths about
II candle. They seem to have an
iriuitive sense for such places
these folk. Where the average
nun would pass by without com
ment, they nudge ones elbow and
whisper, That's old so-and-so's place,
II ever you feel inclined for quiet
fiutter"-that notorious quiet iiutter"
sienifying anything from a fiveepound
note to $500 or so.
Among this select cOterie are men
ind women Of doubtful nationality.
who make best use of their business
for extracting information of their
more highly connected clientele. This
was proved In the case of recent
raid, where the woman proprietor was
discovered to be an agent I'm German
pay. Thus they attain Il double OBJ
1ect.
Women Worse Than the Men.
But there Is also another class who
frequent these places. Manufacturers
from provincial munition districts,
flushed with their new and easily won
fortunes, and wishing To he in the so
cial swim, rrhr 'blindly into these we'll
faited traps. Perhaps their unpeas-
mt experience gives them wisdom.
They never repeat the performance.
They belong 10 that eternal type which
thinks II can beat the thief Mt his own
game. They are gamblers for the same
reason that drugtakers and dipSomanl-
rcs are what they are. They can't
help II.
The women are worse even than the
men. Al least GO per cent more of tcie
other sex favor the green table. They
take their gambling scriously-dead
seriously. TO them, is nothing OF the
sporting element Of the affair; II IS
cutthrOat business of pay and receive.
Once y wonan is seized with the
gambling "bug" nothing on earth can
hold her. II Is the first step of the
many great tragedies Of life.
Tragedy Of an Aviator's Wife.
Perhaps one of the most tragic in
stances Of this nature was that Of the
wife of II commander in the British fly
Ing corps. Prior 10 the war he was II
member Of the stock exchange and
they lived in quiet village 30 miles
from London. When he joined the col
Ors they sold their home and the wife
went Ia live in tOwn-in II tiny fiat in
EnightSbridge. She was little more
than n child, and charmingly unso-
phisticated one at that, so fell easy
victim to the gamblers wles.
They got hold of her through the
Inaitre d'hOtel Of the restaurant she
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT the smartcSt maitres
d'hotel and head walters are some
times. though unwittingy. the instru-
ments of the confcderates. who 90 to
the restaurants as part of their daily
business To get NJ The lonely men and
women with money who are to be dis
covered I'm every London hotel One
lny a charming woman of distinguished
appearance strollcd over to her table
with polite request to share II with
her. Consent was readily given. and
they got into conversation.
The welcome stranger sympathlzed
with her loneliness, and finished by in
wiling her to dainty maisonette Off
Park lane. After dinner cards were
produced And the fleeing had begun.
By the time her husband was able to
get home on leave and rescue her the
unhappy woman had been robbed of
the best part of $4,000.
organized Like company.
That Is only one of the brilliant
methods employed. This international
gang-its agents cover every city and
large town I'm the world-even In the
enemy countries--is organized like
company. on profit-sharing basis.
There are trusted agents nj every port,
fashion center and highrclnss health
resort. II Is the business of these
agents to live I'm princely style, grad
ually wormlng their way into the con-
fidence of the notables of the locality
giving full detailed reports OF their
movements and business transactions
TO general headquarters.
When moneyed man or woman
sets out from one country to another
the agent at the port of embnrkatIon
wires full particulars of hls--or her
business, available capital and intend
ed period of visit TO his confederate
nj the other end. The victim is shad-
owed and approached on the train.
aboard the ship. even In hotels. Their