Watch very closely an uneasy player, one who is almost constantly on the move; using the cuspidor often, though neither chewing [25] ]nor smoking; his hands and arms continually on the move, while they ought to be quiet on, or above the table. The probabilities are that such a player is taking cards from the pack, and secreting them in some place on his person—inside of his neck collar, under his handkerchief, in his lap, up his coat-sleeve, or holding them in the bend of his knee, and using them whenever the hand dealt him can be benefited thereby. At other times, two or three cards of like denomination are held in the palm of the hand, to be used with the next hand given, in helping to make a very large hand. This is done by many so cleverly that it is impossible to see the cards so held. This is called ‘Holding out cards.’
“Eleventh.—
You have undoubtedly noticed, my boy, hanging in the saloons of our River and Sound steamers, a card on which is printed these words: ‘Beware of well-dressed persons who invite you to play euchre.’ Now these well-dressed persons are known as travelling [26] ]‘Card Sharps.’ They are always well dressed when travelling, for their dress is their card of introduction to their fellow-travellers. If you should accept an invitation of one from these, and sit down with two others to a game of ‘Euchre,’ or ‘All Fours,’ it will always result in the cards being ‘put up’ at some stage of the game, so as to have you receive a very large poker hand, and one of the others a larger one. Although professing to be entire strangers to each other, the fact is, they belong to a gang, who travel for the purpose of playing and robbing others, as a business. The whole plan now is to induce you to bet on your hand as a ‘poker hand,’ which, in your verdancy, you would be tempted to do, but surely to lose if you did. Parties have often been taken in, in this way, and been known to lose all the money they had with them, together with their watches, and other valuables about their persons. These fellows, and their game, are becoming so well known that they find it difficult to pick up a [27] ]‘Greeny,’ or ‘Flat,’ or ‘Sucker,’ as they call their victims. Your Uncle George was attacked by one of these gangs once, while on the cars, coming from Albany to this city. Knowing their game, he allowed them to go on, until he got the large poker hand, and their offering to bet on theirs being a better one. Thinking it had gone far enough, he looked at them all squarely for a moment, and then said: ‘You think you have got the best poker hand, do you? Well, now; I give you just one minute to “git,” all of you’; and they did ‘git,’ too. While leaving, one grumbled out to another, in an angry tone, ‘You must be a d——d fool to take that man for a “Flat.”’ They all left the train at the next station. I would have informed the conductor, but it is said that some conductors are afraid of these fellows, or, worse yet, are ‘in with them,’ so I said nothing.”
“Well! well! uncle, I should think you had travelled. And now, as I have been a good deal puzzled over an incident that occurred only [28] ]last week, the thought strikes me that you can explain it; so, if you will allow me, I will relate it.
SEE [PAGE 19].
“A friend of mine said to me one day: ‘Charlie, I have an intimate acquaintance in Pine Street, who has a small back office, and does a commission business on foreign account. Though his commissions are heavy, yet he has much spare time, and is very fond of playing poker, although he knows nothing of the game.’ Said he, ‘This person thinks no more of losing a thousand dollars than a dollar; and I have a plan by which I know we can beat him sure, without taking any risk.’ I’ll give you his plan, uncle, in his own words. Said he to me, ‘I will stand behind, and so as to see my friend’s hand, and will telegraph you with my fingers, whether he has one or two pair, triplets or better; and with this knowledge of course you can beat him, sure.’ His proposition and plan seemed somewhat mixed to me, and besides, I didn’t like it; so I excused myself, saying I had but little time for playing the game, and when I did play it [31] ]was only for recreation, with a made-up party of friends, or at the club. But I have thought of the proposition of my friend many times since, and have wondered what it meant.”
“Well! my boy, I am delighted to know that you had moral courage enough to refuse. It was a gilt-edged temptation, and the thousands who have taken in the bait will die with the secret of their losses, and the way it was done, remaining in their own breasts untold. A friend, was he? May God deliver you, my boy, from all such friends! This is an old trick. This friend is your worst enemy. He is ‘in with’ this ‘Pine Street commission merchant,’ as he calls him, and the plan is to rob you. This is the way they do it. Back of where you sit at the table, and so as to enable a confederate to look through from an adjoining room and see your hand of cards, is a small aperture in the wall or ceiling, and by this means your hand is seen and telegraphed, under the table, to your opponent, so perfectly, that this ‘merchant on foreign [32] ]account’ knows the exact value of your hand, from one pair, up, and down, to any card high.
“Now, this advantage will invariably beat you; for your friend, as you call him, telegraphs you as to one, or two pair, triplets, etc., held by your adversary; while his confederate in the adjoining room telegraphs him the exact size of your hand; even, as I have said, to the highest card, when you held no pair. This robbery is carried on quite largely in this and other cities; and large amounts lost, without the fact ever being told of; for the reason that the one who has been taken in, and lost, must, if he attempts to expose, acknowledge that he himself yielded to the temptation to do wrong. Your friend’s friendship is like that of the spider to the fly. The Pine Street office is the parlor, and your money is the fly, which walks in, but goes out as yours, no more. I am very glad you have mentioned this incident, and I know you will not forget my explanation of it.