Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1883 — Monte Man vs. Newspaper Man. [ARTICLE]

Monte Man vs. Newspaper Man.

Mr. Joseph Howard, the well,-known New York newspaper man, was coming home from Boston on one of the big Bound steamers one night, when he was surprised to be taken in hand by a three-card-monte man. He carefully concealed his knowledge of such wickedness, and listened calmly to the gambler, who put it in this way: “Now, sir, this is a swindle, and I frankly tell you so. Here are three cards. One is a jack, and the rest are spotted. I lay them face downward, thus; and what I offer to bet is that you can’t pick out the jack." “But the odds would be against me,” said Howard. “Then Til bet you SSO to $25,” said the gambler. All this time he was laying and relaying the three cards in a row, taking care to bend the corner of the jack in the usual manner, as though by accident, so as to make Howard believe that the right card could be surreptitiously identified. Well, having placed them finally, with the bent card seemingly the jack, while of course it wasn’t, he said: “There they are. I will not touch them again. You think you know which is the jack, but I’ll bet you two to one that you don’t. Here’s my $50.” “Too small an operation,” said Howard, lazily. “Make it any sum you, please. Say SSOO to $250.” By this time a group of interested passengers had gathered round the two men. “All right,” said Howard, as he counted out s2so* from his wallet, and laid the money down. “And there’s my $500,” said the gambler, putting ten SSO bills on the pile; “understand, sir, that if you "pick out the jack, at one trying, the money is yours, and if you fail, the money is mine. ”

“Exactly so,” was the response. The spectators thought, “What a fool!” and expected to see Howard pick up the bent card. So did the gambler. But he didn’t. He was perfectly familiar with the trick, and therefore aware that, by avoiding the bent card, the chances were even that he would hit upon the jack. His luck proved good. He turned over the jack. “Young man,” he remarked, as he pocketed the stakes, “I did feel resentful toward you, for it struck me that I ought not to have been mistaken for a gullible millionaire. But I forgive you. Let there be no animosity between us. We will even drink a bottle of wine together. And let me tell yon how to work a man like me successfully. Just bend the corner of the right card, instead of the wrong one—see ?—and let him boomerang himself with his own smartness.”