HOW OCEAN CARD-SHARPERS WORK

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW OCEAN CARD-SHARPERS WORK

SPECIALISE IN RICH AMERICAN BUSINESS MEN (By ONE OF THEM) .

After all, the sea is the place to catch mugs. Men who will not, even talk to their neighbours at home treat confidence men like brothers when aboard ship bound for Europe. It isn't the ship, or the water, ( or the salt in the air, that makes them loosen up, but the thought that they are going away from home and from • business. Americans bound abroad are the best suckers in the world, because Americans away from home are the best fellows in the world. The harness is off, and they like to talk. They brag and boast and lie about what they have done and are going to do. When they are in this mood they are easy marks for confidence men. '- 'You can't treat them rough, of course, and get their money. You have got to meet them on their own ground and swindle them as if they were gentlemen. A good ocean steamer confidence man must be a great actor and a great salesman. He must,appear to be what he isn't, and' sell what the mug wouldn't touch if lie knew what he was buying. The hot end of a poker is not a saleable commodity unless properly disguised. But a confidence man who knows -his business can catch men on a ship that he would have great difficulty in meeting on shore. « Let us suppose now that you and I are confidence men bound for Europe from the United States, and I will show you how the game is worked. We know who is on the ship. Maybe a gambler out West tipped us off that an easy mark from his town was sailing. All gamblers do that and get a rake-off or perhaps a blabby fellow at the ticket office put us wise. It is ' always a good pl&n when you are buying tickets to look bored, and say you would not like to book on the ship you are -considering unless interesting people 0 were to be along. It is ten to one that , if anyone of importance . is going the 1 young > fellow will bleat it out. The passenger Jists are more ( or less printed in the newspapers the day • of sailing, .anyway, but it is always better to have advance information. It Always Looks Nifty. Now we may be going by ourselves, or we may have a bride and groom with us. I'll tell you about the bride and : groom later. We will-make believe they are along on this trip, and we will assume that you also have your car with you. We are going to be rich fellows on this trip, and we are to do a little motoring when we have finished our business on the Continent. It always looks nifty to take a car. We knew before we set foot on the ship wL;i"i we are to play for. He is -a very resectable gentleman of varied jfinahcial, interests. He is what you might call an, up . and coming citizen whose feet are 011 the ground.. In other words, he lias his eyes on. everything that is happening in the U.S.A., but- in his investments does no wildcating. But he knows, all about developments' in water power, electricity, mining and manufacturing. He is making, a trip to Europe now to do a. little business, and has brought his wife and.daughter along to keep them from being sore. . You can see hie wants them with him about as much, as a dog wants fleas, but they stick to Mm. • You see them parked in a row of. deck chairs, with papa in the middle, or they promenade the deck together. The only time the poor fish can get away is after they have gone to bed. Then he goes to the smoking •room and puts in a few happy hours. •' About the third night out he gets ■me. He gets me—l don't get him. He . speaks to me. as. we sit side by side in ;the smoking room, making a conventional remark like, "Well, I guess I'll turn in," or something, and I come back \vith • "Yes, it is getting late." The ice is broken, and we talk a few minutes before going to'bed. We don't say anything important, but next -morning I-see papa, mamma and daughter hoofing it around the deck, and papa speaks to me. • Baiting .the Hook. . That night I . see the fish again , when he comes down to smoke. I let myself out a little now. I' talk just enough and in the right, way to cause him to let me know .what is on ..his ,mind, •Pretty'soon I find out what he is most interested in. If, it is mining, .say,' I presently mention that I am travelling with one of the biggest mining engineers in the world. That is you. I say that •you were with Hoover in. Australia when lie was 'over there for. an 'English .syndicate; that -you were with the Guggenlieims for a while, but left them about a year ago to undertake a big project in South America for a British-American syndicate. It is ten to one he will say he would like to meet you. If he does not, I will see that he meets you, anyway. You go down with me the nexf night and I introduce • you, but I don't stay. I'm not feeling quite right, and go to "bed early, leaving you two tc smoke it out. I boosted you as a great mining engineer, but was dumb as an egg aboul myself. You now boost me. . ,You tpi the fish that I am the big man in J P. Morgan and Go." Nobody ou'tsidf knows : it; but such is *the J fact. I air 60 reticent,- so self-effacing,. that • my own mother would not- know what J -Was doing if Morgan did ,not'tell her— that is what you Say. And you spill .a Obig lot of stuff about iny extraordinary ■ cleverness, asr a financier. ■ You boost mc tp the limit, bu* don't / say a word about yourself. .The next day is the sixth day out, and ■we are on a seven-day-boat: It is time to get to business. You and I go out about noon to meet papa, mamma and daughter. We take the bride and groom along. I told, you remember, that we ■were travelling with a bride and groom, We are now well enough acquainted with papa, so that it is- a thousand to one we can flag him for a moment's conversation. I give him a look with a twinkle in my eye as if the sight of him had suddenly reminded me of something. His curiosity causes him to wonder, and he stops to see. He is compelled then- to introduce his wife and daughter to Morgan's man and:, the big engineer. That gives us our opportunity. I introduce the bride, and groom. The bride is a girl who could get across anywhere —good looking, well -.bred. She had to 'be, or experienced men like ourselves would never have agreed to pay' lier way across and give her 10 per cent of whatever, the plunder might be. The groom is a good card sharper, and knows how to follow directions. ... * .... Now you are wondering what the bride is for. This bride is to" hold the old woman and her daughter while we are putting jaekscrews under the old man's pile. You know how women fall -for a bride. This bride clicks into her place- like gears that have been shifted jiif-t right. Before you know it, the arc going away by themselves,

and papj» feels that lie is a free man for the first time since the ship sailed. But we do not take hira in tow. We let him thke us in tow. We know what the old man will do. He will head for the smoking room. That ,is nuts for us, but we just walk along, talking about whatever seems to be 011 the fish's mind. All you have to do is to let a man talk long enough and he will finally get down to his weaknesses. There is so much. sharp practice among business men that it is sure to come out sooner or later. They are all gamblers at heart. want to get something for nothing. It is only a question of minutes until this fellow will get around to poker or bridge., When he -asks us if we ever play, we don't fly at him like a hawk aftffr ai chicken. We take it easy. Yes, we play once in a while. We mention the names of half a dozen very rich men who are known to be full-house magnates and add that we occasionally sit in with them ait the Hotel Hoptedoodle in New York. And when he asks what the limit shall be, we say: "Oh, we never play a limit. Table stakes are better." Just to be Sociable. This fellow is no piker, of course. We knew that before we started. We know he plays for big money once in a while. He likes table stakes as well as we do. Probably he will show a letter of credit for 20,000 dollaps or 30,000 dollars, but it doesn't make any difference whether, he does or not. as we know just what his rating is and what he is good for. You show a letter of credit for 50,000 dollars, and I flash one for 40,000 dollars. Of course, our letters are not worth a whoop—they are forged—but the fish does not know that. We let him act as banker, and each of us takes 10.000 dollars* worth of chips. He takes the same amount. *The groom does not want to play at all, but finally takes a 5000-dollav stake just to be sociable. Now you know the rest of it. We win 8000 or 10,000 dollars at the first sitting. We do not take all he has the first crack out of the box, for two reasons. We don't want him to suspect anything. Furthermore, we know he is good for more than his letter Of credit, if we can string him along. We did not bring that motor car along for nothing. We'll hit him for 8000 dollars' or 10,000 dollars more the last night, and we will arrange to meet him in Pari3 as soon as we have transacted our business« in London, to go motoring for a few days while the ladies are looking through the shops'. We win as we please, of course, because we play with marked cards. We know the kinds of cards that are for sale on the ship, and bring along a supply of the same kind' that are marked. It is easy enough to bring our own cards into play, and there is nothing to it after that. We meet this fellow .'in Paris, arid take him down the line for a week. Some days he wins, some days you do, some days I do. .'We take care, however, that he shall never win very much. As the days go by he falls more and, more behind. Near the end of the trip' he is about 40.000 dollars to the bad. He is now thoroughly interested. It is not that his losses hurt him, but his pride is wounded. Therefore, on the last night before we get back to Paris he tries to get even. If he i$ a particularly good thing, we give him both barrels—that is to say, we set him back for all we think he will stand. If he is not so good, we let 'him go after he has lost a final 5000 or 10,000 dollars. On the last night, as 011 all the other nights, he gives us an order on his London bankers for what he has Jost. 5 'i The biggest winning that was ever made 011 ithe sea was made by the fellows who did up old Barney Barnato, the South African diamond king. They "trimmed him for £95,000. They caught him ,'on •a ship bound from Capetown to Liverpool. He was in. a tight fix financially, anyway, and he played not for pleasure, but in hopes.of winning a big sum. His loss pinched him so hard that he committed suicide on his way back to Africa. . ; All sorts ,of' fish arc brought up in the ocean ste'amer'sharpers' net. They let women dlone. because women, if they were swindled, would raise such a row that the sharper might have to jump overboard. Women are bad losers, and are not afraid to howl, when a man Would pocket his loss and keep the peace to save his reputation. But, the card cheaters 1 get bankers, brokers, merchants,*, manufacturers, and pretty nearly everybody else. . Sometimes a "Bloomer." I should say there are about forty professional gamblers who make a regular business of riding the steamships. That number does not include the "brides" who are sometimes taken along to entertain the women of the victims' parties while their husbands and fathers are getting the' third degree. I am of ; the. opinion that these forty gamblers' get at least 1,000,000 dollars a year. It costs about 1000 dollars each for a ; gambling party to go abroad. They usually travel in parties so they can make up their own games and have things just as they want them. Sometimes a party will make a voyage and not take in a cent. Such a trip is called a "blooirfer." But many a time they pull down big money—twenty, thirty, even forty thousand dollars at a crack. Besides the professional ocean gamblers, there is a large flock of buyers who try to pay their expenses by playing poker. These fellows are terrible plsts. They try to break into games where professional gamblers are performing an operation on a rich guy, and it is hard to keep them from spoiling everything. Men who are posing as 3 ' big financiers and engineers cannot bawl these fellows out as they would like to, because that would give them away to the gentleman upon whom they are operating. These buyers are as crooked as they can be, but they don't know enough to be very dangerous. Still, they may win a good deal iri tne course of a year. One of them told me the other day that he won 4000 dollars on his last trip across v You have to give the ocean gamblers credit. They know their business. They get by without working because they know how to look, dress, and act the parts they have to play. Some men play one line of parts and some another; When' I was in the business, I always did the stuff of a country banker. I could get away , with that, but I would not have been worth a cent as Morgan's partner or as an engineer. On the other hand, men who could get away with the financier and engineer stuff could not have fooled anybody as country bankers. A swindler must fit himself into the game or fail. ("Star' and A.A.N.S. Copyright.) V ■'