Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 113, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1913 — STORIES from the BIG CITES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES from the BIG CITES

Society People See Expose of Crooked Gambling!

Philadelphia, pa.— society here has been startled by a unique and sensational expose of crooked gambling in their midst, and after losing amounts aggregating to a fortune at roulette, each received the exact amount of their losses in a sealed en l velope at a dinner given by Arthur Wheeler, one of the city’s prominent club men, who staged the startling af* fair.

The host, who has frequently produced new and unheard of events in the whirl of social doings here, had the cotillion room of his Spruce street residence converted into a miniature Monte Carlo, or Palm Beach Casino. Every device from bacaret, rouge et noir, to the humble but lucrative American game of craps and Klondyke, was in evidence, with faro and roulette as the chief game for the society plungers. The play was heavy and fast, with the percentage all for the house. Society matrons who had begun their dabbling wagers ih a spirit -of fun, soon became tense and white with the strain of trying to recoup losses, and men whose faces are prominent on the stock exchange, scrib-

bled I. O. U.’s, with which to purchase* >SOO stacks of chips. Suddenly for-’ tune seemed to smile on the players' gathered about the large ornate roulette wheel. All players won heavily 1 and other games were deserted, while the entire gathering placed their beta on the whirling ball. Just as suddenly as they had wont, the wheel began to play against them, and in a dozen turns the players were broke. More written promises and checks were accepted by the host, and the crowd again feverishly attacked the wheel. Again the little ivory sphere settled in all points favorable to the bank. Suddenly the play was ordered stopped .by the ringing of a gong, and further play was refused. The party were ushered to the banquet hall, and went, unwillingly and without appetite. At the plate of each was a squarewhite envelope, and within it the exact amount that they had lost, to* gether with their L O. U.’s and checks. After the dinner the guests were' again led to the cotillion room, wherethe host directed some mechanics totake apart the roulette wheel. Ho showed them the electric wires which run up the leg of the table upon which it rested, and how the slight pressure of the croupier’s foot controlled the ball with its metal filling. Marked cards, loaded dice and crooked faro boxes, were all demonstrated to the astounded guests, who, after the strain of their losses, found it hard to believe that they had not lost their money.