Show AMONG GAMBLERS A TRADITION PUNCTURED BY AN experience AT A WINTER RE SORT IN FLORIDA among gamblers and honor achong thieves theres a brace of phrases that we often bear buti I 1 dont believe that many of us ever sea them actually exemplified said a florida merchant now on his annual buying mission in new york youve only got to read tho daily papers to note how frequently the honor among thieves myth Is exploded As for among gamblers I 1 saw it punctured for once anyhow in a mighty singular sort of way down in my country winter before last the story had its beginning and its end at ono ot the noted florida winter resorts a place that Is greatly fancied by wealthy new yorkers to that resort came a year ago last october and long before the opening of the florida season a young new yorker whose medical man had chased him south tor his health ho was a bright clever young chap and became acquainted with most 0 the town officials including tho mayor they liked him because he was a good story teller and a finished sort ot a fellow and no he wag on pretty chummy terms with all of them before he had been in the place a month one day when a batch of new york newspapers reached him the young fell to thinking while reading some accounts of tho raids which your mr jerome was then making upon some of the noted gambling establishments of new york that afternoon he foregathered fore gathered with some of his friends among tho town officials and submitted a few casual inquiries to them was there any kind of a game going at the resort during the winter season no hero any kind of a game he was told there had in former years been some proposition made as to the starting of a camf while the season was on but the propositions ions had been made by obviously cheap people who seemed to be look ing tor all the best of it and so boag of them had been let in well how about a game then conducted in a high class plant and by the topnotch top notch people at that sort of thing that was the second thing that the young fellow from new york cautiously feeling his way wanted to find out well the people with whom he talked sort of met him halt way from the outset fact was they had been thinking for some almo that a good institution of hazard properly conducted on the valet BO as not to of tense to the conservative people who annually visited the resort be such a bad thing when he had abot thus far ho put himself next to the right people and led up to a straight businesslike proposition ion in general terms the proposition was that hed go up to icv york and get the proper sort of square gambler to open up a high grade gamo at tho resort by the time tho winter beason began hed guarantee that the games would all bo on the level and that be run just u much sub rosa aa possible he only wanted the straight word ot tho ha was talking with that the concession tor the game would belong to him and to nobody else they gave him that word without any hesitation then he talked to ahem about their end he figured that about a fifth of the net profits ought to be about right as a payment tor the concession they thought BO too thus it was arranged very amicably j the young man took the train for new york as soon as he had things shaped up BO comfortably two houra after he arrived in new york he was in private conference with a well known new york gambling house proprietor etor a man whose establishment has gone on doing business here so they tell me when most of the other plants have been closed or subject to incessant raids the young new yorker spread out his goods before the gambler who instantly fancied them well three fifths odthe profits will be yours said the young man arriving quickly at the point the people im doing business with get their one fifth I 1 having declared them in to that tune for the concession mine Is one fifth of the net leaving you the three fifths that all right be better was the gamblers reply and its a good thing all around im dead glad to break into the place on those terms and I 1 congratulate you on your head work in getting the thing trained ut the way bouvo got it so the thing was going right along on greased skids as see the young new as soon as he had made bis deal with the gambler returned to florida and look a ax i months leasa of a fine old unoccupied mansion on the outskirts of the winter resort two weeks later the decorators and furniture people took possession of tho mansion having been sent down from new york by the gambler and before the winter season had well begun the old mansion was fitted up like a palace tho gambler arrived at the resort with his manager and a picked staff earby in december when the moneyed ones from up north began to arrive in crovea and the game was on tho game wag a big winner from uie very outset by the beginning of the new year it was evident that the gatine wag going to be the most profitable one in the south the people from whom the young had obtained the concession went about the getting of in a thoroughly thoro ugly businesslike way they put into the rehabilitated old mansion as the representative of their interest a quiet but watchful gambler from gewo orleans at midnight on saturday every two weeks the new york gambler banded him an amount representing exactly one fifth of the profits for the fortnight so tho town folks ot the florida resort had no trouble about their collections and the down for them was tidy but the young man who had set tho whole game going a acted as his own representative ill just permit my one fifth to stay along with tho bank roll he said to the new york gambler end of the season when you can out tho grand total of the net profits of tho season and hand me mine id rather do t that way than take coming to me in occasional bits or beall iota that it was more than satisfactory to tho ivr york gambler running the game the young mans idea was to get his portion in one nice tidy sum aal then with alg recovered health in tho spring to go to new york and start a legitimate business that ha had in mind so during all of the season he let his one fifth accumulate in the gamblers hands only drawing on the gambler to the tune of or tor current expenses ho kept in touch with the people from whom he had acquired the gambling privilege and at the end of the when the gambling club was about ready to close they told him that their fifth had amounted to some i thing like indicating that the S w net profits had been BO that there was elnua what be hal drawn in advance coming to him th day abo club was scheduled to close leaving the new york gambler the nice thing of for his all of it rank velvet as good as presented to him by the young man who had dug him up and offered him this good thing four days before tho gambling club was booked to close the doore tot the season something happened halt a dozen strangers all boggy men in evening clothes appeared at the club in i bunch and began to bat the faro tablet they seemed to he swell players and they took out of the club in two nights play the next night they rapped the club tor neary i more the boxes were turned on them then the club closed its dora two before it was due to c e well we got walloped and good said the new york gambler to the young man who had started him going in florida when the latter called for his settlement on the basis of those gentlemen plungers swooped down on us and cleaned us out all tho profits gone in two nights and of the bank roll abat restarted in with down here im sorry son just as sorry for you as I 1 am tor myself better luck next time the young new yorker scratched his chin and felt badly over it the possibility that he had been chisel led by a man whom ho had always heard spoken of as one of the squarest gamblers in new york never entered his head the new york gambler dismissed his staff closed up the club and hiked back to new york then the quiet new orleans gambler who had been acting as lookout for the town folks took tho young new yorker oft into a corner son he said to him it my butt in and I 1 around the works as I 1 understood my job to watch out tor the interests of anybody except the people who engaged m I 1 got everything that was coming to them right along as you know but they made you the patsy I 1 dont suppose you know that the astonished young new yorker desired to be put wise as to how the thing had been done well said the new orleans gam dier you know those gentlemen plungers who came down and put the game on the fritz wiping out the profits in two nights changing wha nging at the bank they en plungers son they were bum faro bank dealers dressed up in evening clothes they were brought down here from new york by that new york gambler you started in business here just to go through the motions of cleaning out the clubs profits the money waa banded over to them just as it they had really nailed it in their bank play but they passed it right back to their boss as soon as they got oft into a quiet corner how it was done the profits were approximately on the season and youre minus your on a new kind of a shred gag all all of which was exactly true the new york gambler with ane reputation tor was not only not square but he was a most unconscionable hog in the bargain he was worse than that he was a tool he confidently expected that be would gel by with it and he figured on returning to the florida resort last winter and starting up the game again with the young new yorker left out but he the man whom he fastened the can to the year before had the game all to himself in that resort last winter with the new orleans gambler as his manager and he cleaned up just as big on the season as the new york gambler who had done him the year before hes going to have the game again this year too 1 he lives and BO the bad deal that ho received ai the go off wont be such a bad job tor him in the long ruu now tor the matter of that seeing that he ia about strong right now but the next square gambler that that young mans way will have to show him |