The Benson signal., 1918-07-27
American and Canadian Officers
Visiting London Also FIeeced
by Sharpers.
GIRLS Are USED AS DECOYS
International Coterie Using Private
houses for Games Operates Un-
disturbed-Tragedy of an Avia-
tors Wife-Women Worse
Than Men.

retirement in one of those fine, up
standing old JacObean manor houses,
not fifty miles from London; model
country squire, popular with his ten
ants, a thoroughgoing sportsman, who
rides to hounds most religiously and
entertains on the most lavish scale.
He can afford 1t. His annual income
is somewhere In the 100000 line. Yet
before the war this particular man
hadn't a penny to his name.
The secret Of his extraordinary sue
cess lay in quiet, sumptuously fur
nished back rooms in quiet, common
place houses in those somber streets
that nestle in and around Mayfair.
Chemin de fer, poker, faro, sometimes
a roulette wheel, and the gilded idlers
Of old British aristocracy would be
swarming round like moths about
candle. They seem to have an
intuitive sense for such places,
these folk. Where the average
man would pass by without COM
ment, they nudge ones elbow and
whisper, That's old so-and-so's place,
If ever you feel inclined for quiet
fiutter"-that notorious quiet tiutter"
signifying anything from five-pound
note to $500 or so.
Among this select coterie are men
and 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 in German
pay. Thus they attain a 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 be in the So
cial swim, run blindly into these we'll
baited traps. Perhaps their unpleas-
ant experience gives them wisdom.
They never repeat the performance.
They belong to that eternal type which
thinks it can beat the thief at his own
game. They are gamblers for the same.
reason that drugtakers and dipsomani
acs are what they are. They can't
help it.
The women are worse even than the
men. At least 80 per cent more Of the
other sex favor the green table. They
take their gambling seriously-dead
seriously. To them. is nothing Of the
sporting element of the affair; 1t is
cutthroat business of pay and receive.
Once q woman is seized with the
gambling "bug" nothing on earth can
hold her. 1t 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 commander in the British fly
ing corps. Prior to the war he was
member of the stock exchange and
they lived in a quiet village 80 miles
from London. When he joined the col
ors they sold their home and the wife
went to live in town-in tiny flat in
Knightsbridge. She was little more
than a child, and charmingly unso-
phisticated one at that, so fell easy
victim to the gamblers wiles.
They got hold of her through the
maitre d'hotel of the restaurant she
frequented-event the smartest maitres
d'hotel and head walters are some
times, though unwittingly, the instru-
ments Of the confederates. who go to
the restaurants as part of their daily
business to get at the lonely men and
women with money who are to be dis
covered in every London hotel. One
day q charming woman of distinguished
appearance strolled over to her table
with a polite request to share it with
her. Consent was readily given, and,
they got into conversation.
The welcome stranger sympathized
with her loneliness, and finished by in
viting 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 nome OH lGdNC anu ICSCuC AACA I1AC
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 in the world-even in the
enemy countries-is organized like
company, on profit-sharing basis.
There are trusted agents at every port,
fashion center and high. class health
resort. 1t is the business Of these
agents to live in princely style, grad
ually worming their way into the con-
fidence of the notables of the locality,
giving full detailed reports of their
movements and business transactions
to a general headquarters.
When a moneyed man or woman
sets out from one country to another
the agent at the port of embarkation
wires full particulars of his-or her
business, available capital and intend
ed period of visit to his confederate
at the other end. The victim is shad-