NEVER PLAY CARDS WITH A STRANGER.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11998, 21 February 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEVER PLAY CARDS WITH A STRANGER.

" Never play cards with a stranger," is the inevitable advice proffered to clients by" a well-known detective, who has " specialised " in the tracking down and undoing of card-sharpers. In London alone, said he (to the writer who records the chat under the title of " Card Playing in Search of Cheats," in " Cassell's Saturday Journal," for January), hundreds of swindlers—fashionablydressed, well spoken, and to all appearances gentlemen—" win "by this means a large income from the unwary. Only recently, a gang of Australian card-charpers was convicted and sent to prison for fleecing a young fellow out of a considerable sum of money. For obvious reasons, however, it is comparatively seldom that the professional card-sharping detective is called upon in open court to give evidence.

Some years ago, sensational stories were current as to queer happenings and high play indulged iu at a certain London club. More than one of the. players noticed that although fortune appeared to fluctuate, iu realitv the money was drifting steadily in a. certain direction. A member of the club— x heavy loser—had his suspicions aroused as to the fairness of the play, and so, without saying anything, he consulted a professional card-sharping detective, to whom 'he minutely described the game. It was arranged between the two that on the following evening the " investigator " should accompany the card-player to his club, and by him be introduced as a distant cousin just returned from Australia,

When the hour for play arrived, it was furthermore' agreed he should ask to be permitted to take a hand. Everything name off as arranged, but it was not until the detective had visited the club three times that he caught his men. A casual observer would probably have noticed nothing wrong, ibiot a word whs said, the game proceeded quietly, but two of the players knew that their "game was up." For the rest of the evening both lost constantly, but this did not save them from being tailed upon soon afterwards to resign their menrbership. No reason whatever was vouchsafed for the request, and the'swindlers asked for none. They resigned. .It had been, of course, a case of flagrant but clever collusion. A daringly simple case of habitual cardsharping practised by a woman *d her daughter was recently brought to light by a shrewd American detective. The scene was a certain smart boardinghouse, much frequented by Americans and colonials, and kept by a woman who posed as the .widow of a distinguished army officer. It had been" the" lady's custom everyevening to invite one or two of her wealthier guests to join her and her daughter in their private drawing-room, at a " quiet little game of poker." Although the game was called "little," the stakes were not low, and the " guests '' almost invariably retired to their rooms considerably out of pocket.