Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-10-04

most popular games were roulette. faro
and poker. Roulette n faro were
square" The turnover of money on a
roulette table guaranteed the owner a
rakeoff OF so great a per cent on even
luck runs that there was little need Of
crookedness and crookedness was rarely
INDUCED in. This was likewise true of
faro. A roulette table was hard to "hx'
for a dishonest purpose.
With dice and cards, however, it was
very different. Dice could be loaded with
such skill as to make the fraud scarcely
discernible, and undoubtedly they many
times were. But in the game of cards
the chance for cheating was many times
greater. Cards have been marked to
battle the keenest eye. They have been
shipped in the edges. The gambler has
been known to ave his 1ngertips ground
so sensitively as to be able to feel the
spots in dealing, though this is an ex-
IRENE instance. An easier way was to
accidentally drop a pool of water on the
cloth of the table. This acted as q mir
ror in which the card denominations
might be seen when dealing, a trick that
would go over, however, only with the
drunken or unsophisticated. Innumerable
other methods of cheating at cards could
be enumerated; but only in law-protected
communities was the card cheater at all
safe from the consequences Of his knav-
cry If detected. On the frontier. the GER
tainty of swift revenge or retribution for
gambling sins kept the games of chance
pretty much on the level.
One Big Winning
I have said that little Of the money
won in these places was ever carried
away; but there have been exceptions.
One night a young man with both legs
cut of at the knees entered French Levy's
place in Butte. He had 25 cents he had
begged to get a bed with. 1t was every
cent he possessed and 25 cents was the
smallest piece of money that was recog-
nized in those places. Instead of getting
a bed, he bet the coin and won at faro
bank. He bet on the high card and won
$57. He kept on betting the whole stack
and doubling 1T until he had 81 500, and
he was one gambler who quit when he
was ahead. Purchasing some clothes and
a railroad ticket to an eastern point, the
lad went to join his relatives.
Another story has been told of a miner
who had managed to save some money
through years of hard work. Entering
q gambling saloon of a Montana camp,
he watched the play for hours. Finally,
as though he had made up his mind to
~ CpOSndi Sbcp, lt dSheQ jut IOultlUS
dealer what his limit was. The dealer,
taking a close look at the miners over
alls and dusty brogans. pointed to the
ceiling. The miner fished out a much
thumbed roll Of bills he had been clutch
ing in his coat pocket, and laid 1t on the
red, gesturing the dealer to spin the ball.
The dealer canine the large roll of
greenbacks. A twenty" was on the out
side; how much was on the inside he
could not tell but scorned to ask-not
over a hundred dollars at the most. He
spun the ball, stake unseen. The red
won. The miner licked his dry lips. The
dealer ook the roll nonchalantly and
unfolded it, and his face went ashen pale.
There was nearly $4,000. The blow almost
broke the bank, but the dealer paid. The
old miner, being questioned, said he had
made up his mind to winning or suicide.
He was worn out with labor. With only
$4,000 he would be forced to go back to
the mines and he felt unequal to facing
that. The winning he would make would
keep him for the rest of his life provided
he invested 1t in a ranch he knew of.
And the strange part of the story is that
he actually bought the ranch.
just Fool Luck
Fool luck was best known to gam
bling house patrons. Once in a northern
Montana railroad town, a section hand
who had been paid off, afraid to trust
himself In a town of saloons and gam
bling places, went to the postoffice and