TITLED CARD-SHARPERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 16

TITLED CARD-SHARPERS

STRANGE DOINGS ON THE CON- ■■' • .;";■•- • TINENT. ■' ■ .

A curious story of. the expulrion of an Italian notable from France is going' round the "clubs of Paris'/ and has found

-I < t.!-way..i?t? the columns of, "Liberte." According to the particulars published in'this organ, there wfes formed in Rome shortly after the war an' association of four—a prince, a duke, a landedproprie■.tor. and a well-known sportsman—having as its object the business of cheattog at cards in tho Italian capital. Putting into operation^ system invented by ;an individual named Massimo for cheating at baccarat, knd-chemin de fer—a SyEfcem in which the co-operation of tha :«roupiers was' essential—it. is said that i^r^Tw!? 6 m ?D, wade P?°fite. totalling 15,000,000f. Nasty stories began to circulate, ana. one of the best-known crabs »i-Rome suddenly ..prohibited gamine on its psenuses without any official reason besng forthcoming. The members of tha association eeem to have overreached jfch'eißselvesr a^lpllowinjg |cine enoraaous gain* ftt^.certßin'olubi thertf was i dsiß»rid-. for Jkfifr- r*Ahutibn,' of 'their heayy.4o.BM« by^ikmie-of^the.Tiqtiin*. This ; was not an eaijy njatter; and: the alleged leader of rtjatperfrj-degcrlbedf by, the •«*■.■- !»n. Italian .. prince "or ilrikrf'-^Oia* :to^Pl&i~*wiiLtin, in' con-junction-with ax JaaeHaux, he organised a similar .oembinatton. But two of the

Italian "nctliM, soonnfc' and a marquis, followed hintj *aA there" were; if i B -said, 1 someiteSary- Muaw'in'.i palatiiil'resiaeoc» in,''*ial»:i2»e > *lleged distiriguishef] cheat hmd"t»fc«O TO W~;a*>ode; .. .-The "liberte" vUm/tbmt O» |>rinc» or duke threatened Ha: wninieri -with death, and that' the attention of the police being c»lle3 to'we BX»tter ; h* wae, as an un■iuinmt «te«4 &>f» ft***.