Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1886 — Tricks in Playing Cards. [ARTICLE]

Tricks in Playing Cards.

“Do you want to biiv a pack of transparent playing cards?” said a man on Broadway, to a reporter who was passing down. The card-seller was a short, heavy-set man, with a black mustache. He wfis well-dressed, and strolled along as if he were a gentleman of leisure. “Let me see them.” “I will. Come with me. Remember mum’s the word.” He turned into Twenty-fifth street, and from the'-Tight reflected ■ from a drug store window exhibited a pack of transparent cards. “What is your price ?” “I ask only $2 for this pack. I have them as high as $5.” “Do you sell many packs ?>” “Some days I do. I have to be very careful. lam alwavs afraid some one will squeal on me, I can read human nature pretty well. Tim minute I saw you' I felt that you would not squeal on me. ” .. “Suppose Anthony Comstock should find you out ?” “Oh, I know him by sight. I went to school with liis boys. He wants bigger •game than me. He is too high up to notice my little racket.” “Have you any marked playing cards?” “to—- “ Get out, you don’t mean it? Well, I can get them for you from $1.50 to $lO a pack. But it’s queer and ticklish work. You can’t play poker —you don’t want them?” “I invented jack-pot poker and taught ex-Minister Sehenck how to play. I want more pointers, ” was the Munchausen answer. “Well, there are thirty-five different marked-back playing cards manufactured. I know how to read with ease twenty-six of them. The marks are on the riglit-liand corner and are read by the eye, and not by feeling, as greenhorns suppose. If the cards have flowers pictured on their backs, then the marks are flowers. They are so cunningly placed that an old professional, Tinless he knows that--style of card is marked, will never suspect anything. Of course these cards are not manu-

factored by legitimate houses. Certain crooked concerns torn them out. This city" is the only place where they are manufactured extensively. A clique of gamblers frequently get a monopoly of certain brands of marked cards and make a small fortune by selling them to saloon-keepers- in the small towns. It takes a man with a good memory to tell at a lightning glance what a card is by its back. The gambling places lip town here never use them. They are afraid to—it ruinfe customers. If a man is cheated once at a place he drops on the house, and not only stops away himself, but blows it to a great many. We work the marked-card racket down town in certain ‘skin’ saloons. Those who lose, as a rule, are professional men, who don’t know until too late that they are playing in a ‘skin’ establishment. Hungry Joe's fate-hasn’t checked the swindling games going on in this city.” “What other methods are adopted to cheat at card playing?” —“The great ‘skin’ poker game now is playing with a ‘sliding’ deck of cards. We also call that kind of a deck ‘strippers.’ It is simply done~by cutting the ,'deok Arkansavr fashion, that is a quick shuffle. The saloon-keeper has a‘sliding’ deck which he hands out to us. After a deal or two I wait until my Opponent is dealing. When I cut I shuffle the deck. The ‘sliding’ cards are somewhat wider, and when I shuffle I pull them out and put them on top. I' know that I have put a good hand on top which will come to me in the deal. My opponent gets a good hand too, and the game is to break him the first bet. I remember not long ago that I played a game called ‘Twenty-one.’ I knew the cards by their backs. I had a pair of tens. Mv opponent had twenty also. ' I saw an ace on top, and on the strength *of it won $l5O on that hand by drawing it. The city is filled with crooks. One crook don’t mind cheating another. It’s business. When I get busted I take a few packs of transparent cards and sell them on the streets. I haven't been arrested for it yet. I hope von won’t squeal on me. ” —Neic York Telegraph.