Evening star., 1919-05-11
FIFTY YEARS AGO In THE STAR

In. the. days before xhs odv11 war
there were some famous gambling
establishments
A Crooked Gambling inwa'hinEton,
Establishment. st.r q s Of Nav NJ a. a.
1853. dfsclose0 that some OF these, At
least were done on tho "sure-thing"
basis. A bit Of demolition prepara-
tory to reconstruction work on tho
Avenue brought to light q place
whore tho player had no chance what
ever:
THE building 414 Pennsylvania
avenue" (the numbers were then quite
different from at presently. occupied
for some time as the Congress Cloth
Ing Store. is now being pulled down
to make room for extensive improve
ments contemplated by the present
proprietor. DR.. Daniel B. Clarke. In
taking down some OF the partitions
to remove gaspipe daylight was let
in upon some secret wires. which were
found to extend through the rooms
Of the whole upper portion of the
building. and with other apparatus
forming one Of the most remarkable
pieces of machinery for gambling
swindling ever exposed to view.
This building is one of the Oldest
upon the Avenue, and was many years
ago known as the Rockendorff house.
having been occupied for long time
by Mrs. RockendorR as confec-
tionery store. Afterward IT fell into
tho hands Of the gambling fraternity.
brought the devils own ingenuity to
work to transform 1t into q suitable
den for the operations OF villainy.
This machinery as now laid bare
shows immense care and labor were
bestowed upon its invention and prep
aration. The gambling rooms We're
In the second story front. Over them
were two garret rooms with dormer
windows. In the flooring of each OF
these upper rooms a trap-door had
been out about six feet in length and
three in width. Tho trap being taken
up shows an aperture between the
floor and the ceiling Of the room be-
low of a size to accommodate the
gamblers confederate. and q series OF
small perforations In the ceiling AZ
forded him a full view of the cards
held by the players at the table in
the room beneath. BY his side was
the end Of thin wire, which. passing
along under the flooring OF the attic
to the walls, ran down to the nooring
Of the room below. playing upon NICE
ly adjusted pulleys at the angles. and
so on until 1t reached a point directly
under the card table. Here a very
ingenious pedal arrangement came
into play by which, with springs OF
spiral wire. a triangular pfece Of iron
was made to work up through q
minute aperture In the floor under
the foot Of the swindling gambler.
Tho victim in thir operation. 1t Will
be seen, had no show whatever.
Green. the reformed gambler. has
shown the system OF cheating by
marked cards. hut that was a clumsy
and inefficient mode Of ascertaining
what the opposite player has In his
hand, compared to this system OF te-
legraphy, which. by the way. can
invention. This system would not be
Of much service to the faro sharper.
but must have been fatally effective in
the gambling games of twenty and
thirty years ago. In following the
course Of the wires 1t is noticed that
packing Of soft wool has been
placed at every point where the work.
ing Of the apparatus could possibly
make noise calculated to warn the
victim. The operation of the machin-
cry was as silent as death, and not an
ln0lCdtlOn appeared any WucIc u give
him suspicion of the network Of viii
lainy in which he was entrapped.
Some years ago, 1t will be remem-
bered. a somewhat conspicuous char
acter by the name OF Donovan was
implicated in some gambling rascality
that led to his serving a term in
penitentiary. This, building was the
scene Of his gambling operations. but
though the establishment had q bad
name, 1t was not suspected that the
villainy there had any such diabolt-
cal backing as was afforded by this
machinery"
Half a century ago there was q de-