CARD TRICKS IN COURT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 142, 18 June 1931, Page 10

CARD TRICKS IN COURT

EXPOSURE BY BENCH. MAGISTRATE WHO KNEW. A New York magistrate, Mr Mogilosky, sitting in the West Bide Court in New York, recently, solemnly shuffled a pack of cards. Be plac 'd them face down on the bench and touched the top one. “rhis,” he said, “is tho queen of hearts. He turned it over. It was the qu cn of hearts. “And this,” the magistrate con tinuef, “is the three of ehibs.” Ho turned the second one over, and, surely enough, there it was. Court; attendants stared and twelve chauffeurs and labourers lined up against the bar of the court, gasped. 'Pho magistrate then handed down an opinion. “No magic.’’ he said. “Just a. ‘crooked’ deck. 1 can read the bad

of every card. Vou men have been swindled. ” ? dice table was also dragged into tho court, and underneath it. was a maze of wires. There was also a pair of dice, each with one of its six sides magnetised. Tho cards, the table, and th' dice had been seized in a raid at twe o’clock in the morning on a room over a garage. Tho twelve chauffeurs and labourers, customers of the place, as ere. called as witnesses against the proprietor of the garage. The latter denied that he I rid anything to do with the gambling establishment. (’unstable W. J. McCaffrey a man emerge from tho garage muttering. ‘‘They never Jo* you win in that dump.” He determined to investigate. He found no difficulty in gaining admittance to tho upper room, where he saw the card and dice games in progress. One look at the. dice was enough for McCaffrey. He noticed the magnetised

1 side of each dice gleaming. He lifted the edge of the table and saw the but- > ton so he turned out all tho customers, 1 and arrested the proprietor of the garr age. 3 The chief complaining witnesses 1 were Victor Martin, an oiler, who said t he lost £4O at cards and £3O at dice in 1 one night, and Karl katzeustein, a garage owner, who said he dropped £7t) , the same night at dice. s .Mr Mogilesky was formerly an as* a sistant prosecuting attorney, ami 1 gained a wide knowledge of the - schemes used by crooked gamblers. Ho yr recognised the marked deck O'* soon al ’ j it was laid on his bench.