A SHORT AND EASY WAY WITH CARDSHARPERS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 76, 19 April 1879, Page 2

A SHORT AND EASY WAY WITH CARDSHARPERS.

In America cardshaping used to bo a! most' a recognised profession, and gambler and sharper were synonymous terms. The head-quarters of the Mississippi gnmlilers used to be Natchez. When I was in the United States, twenty-live years ago, (says " T.T.," in Truth), the .citizens of that town came to tho conclusion thai they were getting a bad name, and notified the gamblers that they must find some other quarters. As the gamblers did not accept the notification in good part, a vigilance committee was formed and one morning 20 gamblers were found hanging by the necks to the lamp posts before their homes, on which the remainder accepted the hint, and betook themselves elsewhere. I once found myself on a steamer going down the Alabama River. These steamers have on the saloon deck a very long cabin, and at one end of the cabin is a bar where liquor and cards are sold. One evening, for the voyage occupied several days, a passenger asked me whether I would play at whist. I assented, and a whist party was made up. I soon perceived that 1 and a decent-looking old man, who was of the players, were being victimised by the two others, hut I played quietly on until every one oxcept the captain, who was seated at the other end of tho cabin, had gone to bed ; then my brother victim, after paying his losses, which amounted to several hundred dollars, went to his cabin. I took tho carols in my hand, and asked what I owed. It was two or three hundred dollars, " Gaptain," I said, "be good enough to come here; I've been cheated." Up jumped the gamWers, and asked mo whether I wished to insult them ? The captain, a sturdy-looking man, was now by my side, so I handed him the cards and r;questcd him to examine thorn. They wore marked in the manufactory, the stars on the backs of each particular colour being made either higher or lower at the corners. The gamblers swore that they knew nothing of it, and had bought them of the .bar-keeper. Half-adozen citizens were at onco called up to act as a jury, and tho bar-keeper interrogated. After some shilly-shallying, he owned that one qf the gamblers had given him some packs to soil. This was enough; the engines were stopped, and tho gamblers landed on a swamp, where prohably they died, for it was a very long way from any habitation, and, as tho captain said, a place where only snakes could live. It is almost a pity that thore is not ♦his sort of prompt justice now-a-days in Europe.