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Show AN INCIDENT OF A FORMER FOURTH It was on the night of July 4, 1699. The little ball spun merrily around the groove of the roulette wheel and the operator raked In the money of a. dozen men or so who placed their chips on the losing numbers. Men stood three deep around the faro tables and, with tense muscles and anxious faces, watched the dealer turn the cards. It was a busy night In one of Salt Lake's most popular clubrooms. Little notice was attracted by a stranger who entered the place. He walked up to the roulette device and, before his presence was observed, he had placed a lighted boom upon the end of the table. Such a firecracker had never been seen before, npr, doubtless, doubt-less, since. It was fully three feet long and six Inches In diameter. The fuse made an awful sputtering. The spitting fuse and size of the bomb were all that was needed to clear the house. Men scrambled in every direction nnd knocked one another over in their mad rush to get out. Even the proprietor and help ran with the others, leaving thousunds of dollars piled up on the tables. Outside they waited in breathless suspense sus-pense for the explosion. Pretty soon the report came "pop." Some heard it. but the majority did not. The practical Joker who had brought the bomb In then explained his contrivance con-trivance to the proprietor of the club. His bomb was a length of ordinary stovepipe, covered with bright red paper. Inside he had placed a miniature minia-ture firecracker, scarcely an Inch in length, with a big fuse attached which protruded from -the end of the pipe. . One of the proprietor's friends suggested sug-gested that they take the big false- alarm bomb to a rival club and there make a scattering. This was aspented to by the practical joker, and off they started. On the way to the house the practical Joker slipped a real bomb, about a foot long, into the stovepipe. When they arrived he suggested that the other carry it In and do the touching touch-ing off. The proprietor's friend was willing. The sight of tho spitting fuse on the roulette table produced the same hasty exits as in the previous case; but Imagine the consternation of the man who applied the match when the report came. It sounded like a Japanese Japa-nese cannonade, as described in the press, and blew out every window in the house. The roulette wheel nnd table were ruined and chips and silver dollars were scattered all over the plncev The practical Joker, however, dug up like a man in settling the damages. |