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Scarne on Card Games John Scarne Digital Instant
Download
Author(s): John Scarne
ISBN(s): 9780486436036, 0486436039
Edition: Revised Edition
File Details: PDF, 46.48 MB
Year: 2004
Language: english
 r

How to Play and Win

at Poker, Pinochle, Blackjack, Gin
and Other Popular Card Games
 DOVER BOOKS ON BRIDGE AND
OTHER CARD AND BOARD GAMES
Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, R. C. Bell. (23855-5)

Games of the North American Indians, Stewart Culin. (23125-9)

Korean Games: With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan,
Stewart Culin. (26593-5)
Daly’s Billiard Book, Maurice Daly. (25724-X)
The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation,
S. W. Erdnase. (28597-9)
Gin Rummy: How to Play and Win, Sam Fry. (23630-7)

A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming,

Catherine Perry Hargrave. (41236-9)
Tricks and Games on the Pool Table, Fred Herrmann. (21814-7)
Win at Backgammon, Millard Hopper. (22894-0)
Win .at Checkers, Millard Hopper. (20363-8)
Winning Contract Bridge, Edgar Kaplan. (24559-4)
The Art of Card Reading at Bridge, Fred L. Karpin. (21787-6)
Go AND Go-Moku, Edward Lasker. (20613-0)
Defense Strategy in Bridge, Hy Lavinthal. (23010-4)
Games and Fun with Playing Cards, Joseph Leeming. (23977-2)
Bridge Squeezes Complete, or Winning End Play Strategy, Clyde E. Love.
(21968-2)
Handbook of American Indian Games, Allan and Palette Macfarlan. (24837-2)
Favorite Board Games You Can Make .and Play, Asterie Baker Provenzo and
Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. (26410-6)
Bridge for Bright Beginners, Terence Reese. (22942-4)
Master Play in Contract Bridge, Terence Reese. (20336-0)
The Secrets of Winning Bridge, Jeff Rubens. (24076-2)
Win at Poker, Jeff Rubens. (24626-4)
Card Games Around the World, Sid Sackson. (28100-0)
Duplicate Bridge, Alfred Sheinwold. (22741-3)
Games with Pencil and Paper, Eric Solomon. (27872-7)

PaperboLind unless otherwise indicated. Available at your book dealer,

online at www.doverpubiications.coin, or by writing to Dept. 23, Dover
Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, NY 11501. For current
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 I

It

i
 SCARNE
On Card Games
How to Play and Win at Poker,
Pinochle, Blackjack, Gin
and Other Popular Card Games

John Scarne
Illustrations by

George Karger

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York
 Copyright

Copyright © 1949, 1965 by John Scarne

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, published in 2004, is an unabridged republication of

first

the revised, augmented edition of Scarne on Cards, originally published in 1949

by Signet, New York, and revised in 1965.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data

Scarne, John.
[Scarne on cards]
Scarne on card games how to play and win at poker, pinochle, blackjack,
:

gin, and other popular games / John Scarne illustrations by George Karger.
;

p. cm.

Originally published; Scarne on cards. Rev., augm. ed. New York Crown
:

Publishers, 1965.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-486-43603-9 (pbk.)
I. Cardsharping. I. Title.

GV1247.S37 2004
795.41— dc22
2004041437

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y 11501
 —

Contents

CHAPTER
Introduction to the Revised,
Augmented Edition vu
Foreword ix

Part One 1. Introductory 1

2. Card Cheats and Their Methods 5

3. Marked Cards 19
4. The Only Player You Can’t Beat 26
5. Can Luck Beat Skill? 29
Part Two 6. What Is Gin Rummy? 34
7. The Experts Make a Mess of
Things 39
8. Rules for Gin Rummy 44
9. Variations of Gin 55
10. The Play of the Hand at Gin
Rummy 64
11. Cheating at Gin Rummy 83
12. Other Rummy Games — ^I 87
13. Other Rummy Games 101
14. Other Rummy Games — III 122
Part Three 15. Black Jack or Twenty-one 138
16. The Mathematics of Black Jack 148
17. Cheating at Black Jack 161
18. Faro or Farobank 163
19. Stuss, Red Dog and Other Faro
Variants
i
173

V
VI CONTENTS
20. Card Craps, Farmer and Other
Games 187
21. Chemin de Fer and Other
Games 200
Part Four 22. Poker — ^Not According to Hoyle 224
23. Draw Poker and Its Variations 241
24. Stud Poker and Its Variations 258
25. Poker Odds and Probabilities 273
26. Cheating at Poker 283
27. Strategy at Poker 290
28. The Dealer Who Moves With-
out Getting Up . 305
Part Five 29. Pinochle —General Rules 308
30. Two-Handed Pinochle 318
31. Three-Handed and Four-
Handed Pinochle 332
32. Partnership Pinochle and Other
Variations 364
33. Cheating at Pinochle 388
Pari Six 34. Cribbage 395
35. Pitch or Setback 405
36. Casino 408
37. Kalabrias, Klobiosh, Klabber-
jass, or Klob 414
38. Hearts According to Scame and
Regular Hearts 420
Index 429
 INTRODUCTION
io the Revised, Augmented Edition

It is now some 16 years since Scarne on Cards

was first published. In that time it has gone through
nine printings and has provided guidance for many
thousands of card players. But with millions of
Americans playing cards it was inevitable that,
although probabilities and percentages remain the
same, there would be some changes in the popu-
larity of the different card games and also some
changes in rules. It is because by now these changes
are substantial and important that I have prepared
a revision of Scarne on Cards,
The most important change in rules is in Black
Jack, and I have written a whole new section on
this popular game. Also Hearts, Cribbage, Kala-
brias, and Casino have acquired new fans and
new popularity, and therefore I have added full
sections on these classic games. I hope that every
card player will find in this new, revised edition
of my book the guidance he wants on the games of
his choice.

JOHN SCABNE
Fairview, N. J., March, 1965
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https ;//archive.org/details/scarneoncardgameOOjohn
 A FOREWORD

After the last wom^ has been sawed in half,

after the elephant has been made to disappear,
after the last brood of chicks has been made to
appear in a spectator’s pocket, the magicians will
sit around for hours in their magical headquarters
and talk about the simplest of aU efllects.
In the trade it’s called the Scame effect. It’s
known as in another field the Einstein theory is
known.
From an unprepared deck of cards, thoroughly
shuffled and cut, John Scame simply proceeds to
cut an ace. That’s all there is to it. It is thoroughly
undramatic. There’s not a gambler, honest or lar-
cenous, that wouldn’t give his right arm for mastery
of it.
There’s a reason. In the late stages of a grueling
game, in the small hours of morning or well along
toward noon next day, players will be desperately
tired enough to risk afl they have on cutting a
single card. The ability to cut the card he needs
would put a man on easy street. Gamblers, know-
ing this, have tried by mechanical means to imitate
the Scarne effect: they crimp their aces, or coat
them with floor wax, or resort to the use of strip-
pers. It’s risky. It’s going to be considerably riskier
after this book gets out across the world. They’d
much prefer to be able to walk up to a brand-new
deck, bore into it with an X-ray eye, put a sur-
geon’s thumb and forefinger on its sides, and pro-
duce that earth-shaking aoe. But it’s quite a
problem: it is in capsule form, all the problem
there is to magic.
X A FOREWORD

Scarae got to thinking about it. He worked out

—
what he thought might be a solution or, rather,
the solution. Here’s how he tells it. One night he
difi&dently dropped the Scame effect into a pro-
gram he was giving at a party. He asked for a
new deck, shuffled it once or twice, and asked
someone to cut a card. The fellow cut a jack.
“Better than average,” said Scame, “much bet-
ter; but if this was for a thousand dollars it wouldn’t
beat .
.”
.

He had cut the deck. He exposed his bottom

card. It was the ace of spades.
Two distinguished-looking men in evening dress
snapped themselves out of their chairs and con-
verged on him. Scarne was proceeding to finish
the little stunt he’d worked up. He was cutting
the ace of hearts, the ace of diamonds, and (you
may be sure) the little ace of clubs.
He went on with his act. One of the men in
evening dress picked up the deck of cards, ex-
amined it minutely, closed his eyes and felt the
edges of the cards and then their surface, and
finally dropped the pack in his pocket. He glanced
at the other man, and almost imperceptibly shook
his head negatively.
The show ended. The guests departed all but —
two. The second of these waited for Scarae at the
door.
“My card,” he said. “I’m having a little party at
my hotel tomorrow night, Mr. Scarae. I’d like my
guests to see your act. Be there at nine'''
It meant command performance. That was quite
a while before Fiorello. The man in evening dress
was Arnold Rothstein.
That was a pretty blas6 crowd at A.R.’s apart-
ment in the Park Central next evening. These
people had seen card tricks from time to time;
—
among them, they’d done most of ’em for what’s
—
known as a pretty penny in a pinch. They were
just barely polite until, along about midnight, the
single-minded Rothstein got up and said, “Would
you cut for high card with me, John?” Then con-
versation stopped dead.
 A FOREWORD xi

A.R. stripped the wrapper off a new deck of

cards and handed them to Fats Caldwell, who gave
them the gambler’s feather-fingered, low-wristed
^nflae. George McManus cut the pack, and
stepped back. “Yours, Scame,” said Rothstein very
quietly. John Scame riffled the deck once. “Yours,
Rothstein,” said he.
A.R. cut the ten of hearts.
Scame squared the deck, cut, and showed his
bottom card.
It was the ace of spades.
The and more shattering
silence crashed, longer
than any applause. Every man in the room had
lurched to his feet and moved up aroimd Scame.
McManus picked up the deck, examined it darkly,
shuffled, set it down, stood back, and said,
“Again.”
Scame did it again. Again a dead silence fol-
lowed his production of the boss ace. This time
Rothstein, looking troubled, himself shuffled, him-
selfcommanded: “Again.”
Scame did it again. He could have gone on
doing it all night, but he had been hired to work
a show, not run a vocational school, and at 1 a.m.
he went home, leaving seven urbane men in pious
disputation.
Gamblers are, in a queer way, an honorable lot.
Those seven could in good conscience watch what
it was that Scame did; *hey could pool their com-

mon knowledge and technique and attempt to

duplicate it; but they could not in decency admit
before each other that this stranger knew some-
thing about their racket which they didn’t know.
They could offer to buy the effect. They couldn’t
ask to have it explained. They could simply say,
“Again!” Then it was their business to analyze and
reconstruct how it was done.
That’s where Scame left them that night. Evi-
dently the process of analysis and reconstmction
didn’t go too well. Scame’s phone rang next morn-
ing. It was Rothstein., “As *you might have as-
sumed,” he said, “I happen to be giving another
party tonight. You’re hired again.”
XU A FOREWORD

As you must have assumed, the same seven men

were there, and they went right ahead from where
Scame had the night before. McManus cut
left off
the cards, stood back, and said, “Again!”
Silently there under the glare of lights John
worked . . . and worked. He worked seven nights
in a row for Arnold Rothstein at $200 a night
$200 an hour for practicing what he liked to do
best — and at last one of A.R.’s men broke.
“All right,” he blurted, “that’s enough; now,
how do you do it?”
Scame had expected it. “The only possible way,”
he said. “You notice I always give the deck one
riffle myself. When I do it I count the cards so I
can see the indices. When the ace falls I just count
the number of cards that drop into place on top
of it. Then when I cut I count down that number
of cards and break the deck there, and of course
there’s the ace. That must be obvious now, isn’t it?”
There was a long silence.
“If that’s it,” Rothstein said, “it’s uncanny.”
“You can do
four hours a day, in
it
—^hmmyou
easy, if

—twenty
practice three or
years,” said
Scame affably.
“And you’re how old?” murmured McManus.
“Nineteen. But,” John Scame added hastily,
“I’ve been practicing ten hours a day.”
Look. That night, twenty-two years ago, Scame
could have sold that effect for enough hard cash
to put a prudent man into comfortable retirement
for the rest of his life expectancy. But there’s a
stubborn streak of pride in Johnny Scame, a kind
of fierce honesty that maybe even bankers or
ministers wouldn’t quite understand. He can’t be
bought. I know people who’ve tried to buy him.
He can’t be scared. He broke up a multi-million-
dollar gambling racket in the World War II train-
ing camps, and made enemies of buzzards as
dangerous and crazy as any Hitler, and laughed at
their threats.
Scame uses no apparatus except ten steel-spring
fingers and fifty-two playing cards. He moves up
close, and instead of distracting your attention
 —

A FOREWORD xiii

with glib business he insists you concentrate. He

likes to work right under your nose. You know
why, of course. There’s the lee-e-etle ace of clubs
up your left nostril. . . ,
He seems to have started fooling with cards
when he was about twelve years old. At an open-
air Pinochle party (coupled with clambake) in his
native Fairview, N. J., he happened to observe with
interest that a well-kno\ra pillar of Jersey society
who made a habit of winning also made a habit of
abstracting certain discards from the table and
nipping them under his knee joint. A
mellow light
burst upon little John. He skittered home, and
practiced the knee hold-out, and invented a couple
of improvements that would have edified and sad-
dened the pillar of society. By the time he was
fourteen years old he couldn’t buy his way into a
Pinochle game in Fairview. By die time he was
fifteen he was haunting the vaudeville houses
where the late and great Nate Leipzig played. “But
I’ve been practicing ten hours a day,” he told
Rothstein, remember? . . .
By the time he was nineteen he was ready. Late
one night after a show Nate Leipzig walked up to
the desk in his hotel to get his keys. There at the
—
desk a dark young man ^looking a little more like
Humphrey Bogart than Humphrey Bogart looks
was showing the night clerk a card trick. Leipzig
was interested. Scame had rather thought he would
be. Leipzig bent close to watch those sinewy small
hands. Scame liked that. He likes to work under
people’s noses. You know why.
“Come on up to my room,” said Leipzig after
an hour of this. The King of Cards was a courtly
and generous maiL Loudly enough for the night
clerk to hear, he added: “I want you to show me
some card tricks.”
It was Nate Leipzig who, with the endorsement
of another Scame convert, ^e late Harry Houdini,
once put his signature to the statement, “John
Scame is the most expert ei^ponent of wonderful
card effects and table work that I have ever seen
in my life.” Said John Northern Hilliard, manager
xiv A FOREWORD
of Thurston and an authority on magic and its
priestcraft:
“A sleight-of-handster when most boys are
manipulating marbles, Scame knows every turn
and twist of his craft He practiced with sedulous
perseverance, and the result is a mastery which is
unsurpassed.”
During World War 11 at the War Department’s
solicitation Scame acted as games and gambling
consiiltant to “Yank,” the Army newspaper.
He has been called into considtation as an expert
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New
York City Police Department, and law-enforce-
ment agencies throughont the coimtry.
John abandoned his own career for the dura-
tion, and toured Army and Navy bases lecturing
on crooked gambling and teaching G.I.’s how to
protect themselves against card and dice cheats.
He was credited by such persons as Admiral
Ernest J. King, Navy commander-in-chief, and
General H. H. Arnold, the Air Force’s command-
ing officer, with saving servicemen millions of dol-
lars in potential gambling losses. The gambling
trade ruefully certifies this estimate.
There is no short cut to card skill. But if you like
to play and like to win, if you think no game’s
worth playing unless it’s worth playing well, then
I give you into the steady, practiced hands of the
—
ahem, terrific citizen who speaks to you out of
the pages of this text.

WILLIAM A. CALDWELL
Hackensack, N, March, 1949.
 T?art One

CHAPTER ONE

Introductory

There are four kinds of gamblers at cards:

1. The occasional player, who knows little or nothing about
the hard mathematical and psychological facts of the game on
which now and then he hazards his money. This player consti-
tutes the vast majority^ His losses make cards one of America’s
big businesses.
2. The card hustler, who knows a little more about the
— —
game any game than the occasional gambler, and who looks
on the latter with elaborate contempt. The hustler makes most
or part of his living from the occasional gambler’s errors.
3. The professional gambler, who earns his living (or most
of it) by operating a card game. Gambler? I doa’t quite mean
that in its dictionary sense. The professional doesn’t gamble;
he is a businessman who understands his trade, who runs a
house for direct levies on the games or for fixed percentages
which are his overhead for maintaining a pleasure resort. I
have a grudging respect for this professional. He charges what
the traffic will stand, but no more; he provides a service; and
you can’t hold his political acquaintances against him. Since
be takes part in a game of chance, he is known as a gambler.
4. The crook, the cheat, whose gamble is not in winning or
losing, but rather in getting away with it or getting caught
To the average card player the man who makes his living by
cheating at cards is a sharper, sharp, or shark, but to card
hustlers and house men he is known as a mechanic: It is a
tolerably descriptive word. Card mechanics are the masters of
a dull, utterly unglamorous trade; they spend their spare hours
at exacting practice; they know no game but their own; they
are about as interesting and adventurous as the drunkard who
tries to chisel the price of a drink.
There is in cards about the same proportion of honest and
dishonest people as there is an any other field. The ratio varies

1
2 INTRODUCTORY
a little from game
to game, from state to state, just as it varies
in legitimate enterprise. You encounter more sharp practice
in war contracts, say, than you do in the personnel office of a
theological seminary. Likewise you find that a game which
tends to encourage self-policing is less populated by crooks
than a game (say. Gin, or Stud Poker) which tends to lull
chumps into unwariness.
There aren’t many foolproof safeguards against the crook.
He may be caught with a bottom-dealt ace in his hand occa-
sionally and be black-listed or beaten up, but this is one of his
occupational hazards, and he knows how to deal with it: by
moving to the next game. He is least apprehensive about the
law. It is all but impossible to convict and jail a crook for
cheating at cards.
Sure, occasionally a bamboo2ded player may stop payment
on a check after he has gone home, has tossed throu^ the
night, and has realized that he was probably robbed by dirty
means. But it doesn’t happen often, not often enough to drive
the cheat out of business. Most amateur card players get a
stealthy masochistic pleasure from paying a debt to a gambling
—
crook one’s honor, you know, and all that
Is it any wonder that card cheaters stay up nights and pace
the daylight streets riddling an angle; that year after year they
practice at sleight of hand and distracting illusions; that they
invent and have made for them crooked decks, mechanical
holdouts, mirror gadgets, and their many other quaint devices?
It’sno wonder at aU. They want your dollar.
In the end, by the way, they get it—-one way or another, by
fair means or foul. If they weren’t getting it, they’d be extinct
And they aren’t extinct.
This book is written for Class One, the average citizen, Joe
—
Doakes, who likes to play cards for stakes small or large. He
is the lamb that the other three classes of gamblers are trying
to fleece.
When Joe plays with friends he knows well, he has an even
chance if his ability at the game is about ffie same as his
friends*. This is the only time he has an even chance to win.
If he is less expert at the game, he’ll have less than an even
chance. If he’s a better player than his friends, he’ll have a
better than even chance.
All this is obvious, and naturally we all want to improve our
skill at the games we like to play. I have crammed into this
book all the cardplaying savvy and skill I have accumulated
during many years of association with the country’s best gam-
blers and card players. In fact, this book will improve the
chances to win of every card player, even those who play
“social games with close friends only.”
 INTRODUCTORY 3

The only important card game I have not covered in detail

is Bridge. I think the game of Bridge is already excellently
covered in the existing books on the subject. Nevertheless,
Bridge players also will be helped a great deal by the chapters
on cheating and cheating methods.
But nobody plays only with close friends. Think that over.
Let me remind you of what happens. One of your friends
brings along a pal, a visiting fireman from Duluth. Of course
you’ll let him get into the game. Or you’re the visiting fireman
and your friend takes you along to his game. Or you’re on
vacation and somebody stirs up a game. You know most of the
players pretty well and the others certainly look all right. Why
not play? You do, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t,
except that’s how Class Two or perhaps even Class Four may
get into your game, if you’re not on guard, and you don’t know
how<6harpers and cheats work.
Since as a practical matter you cannot always play with the
same people, there is the chance that some time or other there
will be a hustler (Class Two) or a cheat (Class Four) in your
game. What can you do about it? How can you detect it and
avoid being a sucker for him?
Please note the distinction between the cheat who is strictly
dishonest and the hustler whose only crimes are not against
the law: he plays much better than you and he earns at least
part of his living by winning from you.
Human nature makes it difficult to detect the cheats and
the hustlers. You hate to think the other fellow is a better
player than you. “He’s just lucky. All right, he was this time,
but he can’t be that lucky always. Next time I’ll get him!”
Unless the other fellow mentioned above is a good close friend,
look out for that kind of thinking. The fellow who wins regu-
larly may be a cheat or a hustler.
The ways to beat the cheat are covered in the chapters in
Part One. Also, with each game I discuss I describe methods
of cheating particularly applicable to that game. The reader’s
attention is directed particularly to the description of pro-
fessionals* international signs described in the section on
“Cheating at Draw Poker,” page 289.
The wayto beat the hustler is to choose either of these al-
ternatives: (a) improve your skill to equal or surpass his; or
(b) stop playing with him. Many years of observation have
convinced me that the second alternative, apparently so simple
and easy a solution, is the much more difficult choice to make
for the reasons mentioned above. If, .in fact, you have chosen
the first alternative, I wiU try to help you aU I can, in later
chapters.
What about the professional games? What about Class
4 INTRODUCTORY
Three? Well, you know you don’t have nearly an even chance.
The house percentage lidll surely beat you if you play long
enough, though it’s true that in any one session you can come
out a winner. Also, the amount of house percentage varies on
different bets, in the different games. In the discussions on each
game I will give you these percentages and show what the house
cut is so that you’ll know at least where your best chances are.

I think I know most of this country’s big-league blood-

suckers. I shan’t blow the whistle on any one of them by name.
The observation of crooked card players is mybusiness, as the
observation of subhuman primates is* the anthropologist’s, and
I’ll continue to live and let live. But for what it’s worth to you,

I’m going to tell you about them. Then I wash my hands of it

I can’t agree with my learned book-writing friends that the
discussion of cheating has no legitimate place in the proper
study of games. Some of them, being cloistered and naive,
argue that there aren’t enough card cheaters at large to war-
rant exposure of their methods. Some others, not quite so
naive, contend that disclosure of hustlers’ and crool^* tech-
niques will nurture a saddening suspicion of innocents. Let
us say some opponent fails to offer you the deck for the cut
and you draw his attention to the omission; let us say he has a
peculiar way of dealing, now with his palm up and now with
his palm down and always with impressive effects, and you ask
him to avoid this eccentricity. He is offended. A beautiful
friendship ends. This, in a world too full of distrust and bitter-
ness, would be a Bad Thing. So say my learned friends.
I cannot subscribe to this rubbish. There is no excuse for
illegal play at any money game, just as there is no excuse for
illegal practice in any human relationship. If a man isn’t pre-
pared to abide by the rules, then innocent as Little Eva or
guilty as Satan he deserves the humiliation coming to him . He
should obey the law or get out of the game, and let’s not have
any false consideration of personal friendship obscure the
issue. It’s a sound maxim: friendship is out the window when
the cards are on the table. Moreover, the most honest, ethical,
fastidiously high-minded games I’ve ever seen were games
played between top-notch gambling men exhaustively learned
in ^ the mechanics of cheating.
When pros play, they play on the level. Why? Because they
play in the atmosphere in which virtuous, virtuoso card-play-
ing can thrive, the atmosphere of total and icy distrust. They
—
cheat not, because they dare not The game is clean or else!
Relevantly enough, the War Department, which tends to take
a rather worldly view of things, allowed me during World War
 —

CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 5

n to expose in the official Army weekly, Yank, the various
crooked gambling moves. The Army seemed to agree that the
“or else —
!” atmosphere was more wholesome
than the con-
dition of partial innocence which up to that time had been
costing G.I.’s literally tens of millions of dollars a month.

CHAPTER TWO

Card Cheats and Their Methods

If all card players knew how to spot a cheat at work there

would be no cheats.
There are both amateur and professional cheats. I call the
amateur by that name only because he is commonly a back-
alley pantaloon and bungler, not because he doesn’t cash in on
his crookedness.
If all card players could detect a pack of marked cards, then
marked cards would become useless and extinct
The only way in which cheating can be stopped or reduced
is by every player learning to defend himself against it.
The only way in which I can conceive of bringing this about
is by the exposure of every known cheating method.
I think I know them alL Here we go. In the following ma-
terial I propose to detail every artifice, gadget, manipulation,
distraction, and device used by cheats. If after reading them
you still think you are being cheated at cards, let me suggest
to you the joys of marbles and hopscotch.

Stacking the Cards

There the popular delusion that when a deck is stacked,

is
i.e., when certain cards have been put in certain positions in

the pack for a crooked purpose, every card is in its special

place and the gambler knows exactly where it is.
The sharper does not live who can riffle the pack and retain
in his memory the location of every card. Nor does the sharper
live who can stack five or more cards for two or more hands
without previous preparation of the pack.
—
The truth is and remember it; whether your game is a
beery bout of Showdown in a ginmill or the most recondite
6 SCARNE ON CARDS
—
Contract Bridge at an uptown club that a cheater can clean
up by knowing simply the location of a very, very few cards.
— —
As a matter of fact, knowing absolutely knowing ^the posi-
tion of just one card of the fifty-two will give the sldlled
cheater an amazing advantage.
Never overestimate a crook. Don’t expect him to work
miracles. Just expect him to work, hand in and hand out.

The Pick-up
The pick-up the sharper’s most foolproof way of stacking
is
the cards. It requires no special skill; it rarely fails; it is hard
to detect. You’re a cheater, and you’re playing Poker. The next
deal is yours. At the end of the game just concluded five hands
were exposed. Examining them not too obviously, you have
seen that in each of those hands is one card you’d like to have
for yourself in the next deaL Let’s say there are four jacks and
a deuce, one card in each hand.
So you stack the deck in such a way that you’ll now deal
those five cards to yourself. Impossible? Why, it’s not even
improbable. As dealer, you make it your business to pick up
the cards on the table. You pick them up a hand at a time,
and as you do so you put the card you want at the bottom of
each group of five cards. Then you put all five hands together
at the top of the deck, ^d, after some flummery about shuf-
fling and cutting which you take good care to keep from dis-
turbing the position of the top twenty-five cards, you deal.
Naturally you get cards Nos. 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25, the four
jacks and the deuce you want
That’s darned near all there is to stacking as it’s generally
practiced. Professionals use it for most of the card games cov-
ered in this book.

The Riffle Stack

The stack is one of the most difiicult of card-stacking
riffle
methods, but the cheater who has perfected it is by all means
one of the most dangerous of adversaries. If you think you’ve
detected an opponent making one of the moves indicative of
this stack, beware —
^you’re yp against a practiced, unscrupu-
lous, and perhaps even desperate man, be his game Poker,
Bridge, Black Jack, or one of the Rununies.

what’s being done

The cheater has, say, the four kings at the top of the deck.
In the act of riffling (shuffling) he has to cut the cards into
 CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 7
two blocks or groups. It is during the shuffle that he interposes
—
cards between the kings so that in dealing which he will do
—
on the level he’ll get the spaced kings and his opponents will
get cards at random. It may take him three or four riffles to
count off the cards as he wants them; but, if the riffle is his
specialty he can and will do it in a single move. The result he
gets is the same as the pick-up’s, only it’s less likely to be
detected.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

This stack is almost detection-proof, but you do have one
way of suspecting it; and, if you can’t correct matters by forc-
ing the cheat out of the game, you can protect yourself by
forcing yourself out. As a rule cheaters, when shuffling the
cards, will riffle the lower half of the deck fast and then slow
up when they get near the place where the kings lie. And they
must keep their eyes intently on the cards when they’re count-
ing them into place. Riffling in this syncopated tempo and a
too scrupulous regard for the cards are your danger signals.
He may not be a riffle stack expert, but he’s acting like one.
Look out!

The Overhand Stack

The overhand stack is the stumblebum cheater’s best friend.
It is used, Fve observed, in kibitzing cards from here to Mexico
and back the long way, more extensively than perhaps any
other stacking device. It doesn’t involve as much skill as the
riffle stack or as much risk as the pick-up.
The cheater places on the bottom of the deck the cards he
wants. Then he shuffles the cards, slipping one card off the
bottom of the deck and one card off the top at the same time.
The shuffle goes from the right hand to the left, and this stack
is executed once for each card you want stacked. As your left
hand takes the top and bottom cards, you shuffle out of your
right hand two cards fewer than the number of players in the
game. When the correct number of cards have been stacked,
the cheater throws the cards in the left hand on top of the
cards in the right, and the deck is ready for the ded as de-
scribed under the pick-up stack.

False Shuffles

False shuffles are absolutely essential in the arsenal of the

accomplished cheater. A man who can false shuffle may look
as if he’s giving the cards a thorough riffling. He isn’t He’s
8 SCARNE ON CARDS
keeping the entire pack or a group of crucial cards in the
order in which he picked them up from the table. The most
popular and disastrous of these shuffles is the

PULL-THROUGH
This very dazzling and strictly crooked shuffle is executed
as follows:
When a hand of cards has been completed, the cheat scoops
the tabled cards into his hand, taking most special pains not to
disperse the certain melds or discards he wants. These he places
at either the top or the bottom of the pack. The device is use-
ful too when a pack has been stacked already and must be
shuffled and dealt as is. Nowfor the puU-throughl
—
The cards are riffled correctly; no question about that.
But watch the dealer in the split second when he has to block
together the cards in either hand, assemble the split pack into
a single pack. Does he shove them together into a squared-up
deck, as he should? No. With a motion probably quicker than
the eye, he pulls the cards from one hand through the cards
from the other, then whips one bunch back on top of the other.
Although the cards have duly clattered against each other
and made the noise and appearance of a shuffle, actually they
have not changed positions at all. Reassembled, they are in
the same position as they had been when the pull-through
started. Not a single card has changed position. It only looks
as if they have. That’s the way it’s supposed to look. . . .
And you’re supposed not to look.

Nullifying the Cut

The most dangerous hazard in the professional career of any

card cheat is the cut. Let’s glance again at the way you ordi-
narily cut a pack of cards. The dealer pushes them over toward
you and says, “Cut, Mac?” You take a block of cards off the
top of the deck and put them on the table, and the dealer
completes the cut by putting the bottom block on top of your
cut block.
The cheater’s assignment is to get the cards back into their
pre-cut position swiftly and undetectably.
He does so by crimping or shifting. Let’s study these moves a
little more minutely.

CRIMPING
Crimping is used more commonly than shifting in Rummy
— or any other of the popular card games for that matter
because it is (a) easier (b) almost invulnerable to detection
by the untrained or unsuspecting eye.
 CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 9
The crimp by a good, as it were, cheater, is so very
left
slight that the naked eye can hardly detect it at all (the tactile
sense is much more sensitive to this sort of thing), and as a
rule the crimp is put in the card only on that edge of the pack
that faces the cheater. The idea is that a competent crimp is
literally invisible and undetectable to anyone except the cheater
himself.
Though this crimp is so fine that it can hardly be seen, it is

sufificient tocause the pack to break eight times out of ten

exactly where the cheater wants when it’s cut by the unwit-
ting stooge. Why? Because the average player generally cuts the
cards at about the middle of the squared-up pack, and that’s
where the cheater put the crimp.
Eight times out of ten, did I say? Well, the earnest profes-
sional makes it ten out of ten in any card game involving more
than two players; his confederate sits at Ms right and cuts the
cards.
But how is the crimp used? The dealer stacks himself three
kings by any of the devices set forth above. He may complete
his crooked shufiie with the pull-through; in any event he has
his critical cards where he wants them, and he wants them to
stay there. But the cards have yet to be cut. And an honest
cut would bury those cards in the middle of the deck. So . . .
The sharper gives the pack one more crooked shuffle. As he
does so, he gives the top block of cards a fast crimp, then does
a quick cut, bringing those cards down to the middle of the
deck with a little gap or bevel at their top edge. Now the
regular cut is made. The cards break at the crimp. The stacked
cards come back on top, and one player at least is happy.
Or . . .

The dealer uses the crimp plus sleight of hand to slip the
cards back into position after a really honest cut. Here’s how.
Before the cut, he crimps the top cards. After the cut, he uses
the crimp to break the cards where he wants them broken;
then he slides his own cards back on top of the deck by sleight
of hand.
And that is called
SHIFTING THE CUT
The move, while no particular challenge to the exhibition
card manipulator showing off his hobby, is most difficult under
pressure at the gambling table. There are many shifts remem- —
ber, this is a manipulation restoring the cards to their original
position after the cut —
and there are many shifters surviving in
this evil world, but I think I can say without fear of contradic-
tion that the cheater doesn’t live who can execute this move
undetectably without a cover-up.
10 SCARNE ON CARDS
ONE-HANDED SHIFT
The cards are slightly crimped, enough to indicate to
just
the cheater’s sensitive fingers exactly where to shift the cut.
This move cannot be made without a cover. Thus the cheater
distracts attention by reaching for a cigar or cigarette, sneez-
ing, or, in extremis, spilling a drink — ^while he shifts the cards
under ^s arm with his free hand.

THE TABLE SHIFT

This shift must be done with lightning speed. It is very de-
ceptive when done competently, but it must be done rapidly,
in a single sweep of the hand. The block of cards the cheater
picked up in his right hand is shifted to the bottom instead of
the top of the other block.

THE TWO-HANDED SHIFT

The two-handed shift is a favorite with professional ma-
gicians, but it is used by many unpretentious gamblers. The
cards having been cut, the cheater demurely puts the lower
block on top of the upper, but he doesn’t place them there
quite squarely; instead, he leaves a step, an infinitesimal ter-
race, to act as a guide when he picks up the assembled pack.
His little finger is inserted at the step, and the shift is executed.

Mechanic’s Grip

Almost seconds or bottom dealers, as well as what the

all
trade calls holdout men (cheaters who palm cards), use the
mechanic’s grip on a pack of cards. In this grip the index finger
is used to square up the pack when a second or bottom card is
dealt.
Whenever you see an opponent holding a pack this way,
it’s time to reach for your hat and remember a date away at

the other side of town ... or to use the Scarne cut (see
page 16).
Here’s the tip-off. The player who holds a pack of cards,
whether in left or in right hand, with three ^gers * curled
around the long edge of the cards and the index finger at the
short upper edge toward you, is a player who probably knows
entirely too much about cards. It is not inconceivable that an
honest, even innocent, player might hold cards with the me-
chanic’s grip. But it takes a good deal of practice to hold a
pack this peculiar way. Don’t get excited when you spot the
Some mechanics keep two fingers curled around the long edge of
the deck and two around the short upper edge.
 —

CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 11

lodge grip across the table. Just act cool and friendly, as if
you’d found a man practicing at blowing your safe.

Dealing Seconds

Any second dealer of standard model in good repair can

and will take the best of honest card players. His name
ordinary gamblers call him a second deader and specialists of
—
cheating call him a No. 2 Man describes exactly what he
does, which is as follows:
The thumb of the left hand, in which the pack is held,
pushes the top card forward as if to peel it off and deal it with
the right hand.
But the thumb of the right hand' darts in and slides out the
second card, the No. 2 card, instead.
The left-hand thumb then retracts the top card to square
with the pack. It is a split-second co-ordinated act, and when
it is done skillfully, even just competently, it cannot be de-

tected.
Some cheats deal seconds with one hand. To do this without
being detected, the cheat must turn over the pack while pre-
tending to deal the top card.
But second dealing is impossible and useless without marked
cards, and herein lies your defense against this line of attack.
If the cards aren’t marked the talent isn’t worth a plugged
nickel —^unless the dealer peeks or uses a stacked deck. Dealing
seconds is profitable only when the dealer finds a marked card
at the top of the pack and wants to by-pass it, saving it for
himself or a confederate.
When you suspect this deal, make it your business to ex-
amine the cards, not too ostentatiously, for markings.

Bottom Dealer
Bottom dealers, called base dealers by crooks, will win your
money in a hurry. Even though it takes years to learn the skill,
there are entirely too many practitioners floating around.
The bottom dealer saves time because he doesn’t have to
fuss around stacking the cards. He puts the cards he wants on
the bottom of the deck, preferably by some such device as
locating them there when picking up the previous deal’s melds
and wreckage, and he leaves them there through some phony
shuffle. Then — it’s easier said than done —
he deals your cards
off the top and his off the bottom. There’s a foolproof defense
against him. It’s the Scame cqt, which loses the carefully iced
bottom cards away up in the middle of the pack.
 12 SCARNE ON CARDS
Nearly bottom dealers use the mechanic’s grip on the
all
pack; so you can be suspicious when you lose consistently to a
man who holds the deck this day.

Middle Card Dealing

The chances of your colliding witha cheater who can deal

cards from the middle of the deck may be calculated roughly
at a million to one. To execute this deal smoothly is perhaps
the most difficult of all the moves of the modem card cheater.
I happen, after twenty-odd years of practice eight hours a day,
to be able to deal middles without the move being detected;
and so I assume there must be a few others who can do a
competent job at it On this assmnption I warn you: when a
cheater has mastered middle-dealing he is about as dangerous
'
as a man can get with a deck of cards in his hands. He has
by-passed the ticklish business of shifting the cut. Assembling
the cards after a hand and leaving the cards he wants at the
bottom of the deck, he offers the pack to be cut. It is cut, sure
'nough; but the expert crimps a break where the two blocks of
cards are put together again, and proceeds to deal himself
from the middle of the deck the card or cards he needs to win.

Check Cop
At the hazard of meddling with a prospering private-enter-
prise small business, I’d better tell you about this chemical
preparation which, smeared on the crook’s hand, makes a
chip or coin adhere to his palm when he helpfully pushes a pot
toward the winner of the hand. “Here you are kid; they’re all
yours,’’ he says, shoving the winnings across the table; only a
dollar’s worth of chips or so per shove adhere to his hand when
he withdraws it from this amiable gesture. Crooked gambling-
supply houses sell for this weird and lucrative specialty a liquid
chemical they call sure cop. But experienced crooks, always
amateurs in the true meaning of the word, make a thing of
their own which they call check cop by heating a piece of ad-
hesive tape and scraping onto their palm the gummy stickup
stuff. It works. Isn’t that all that counts?
Some cheats cop chips with sleight of hand while pushing
the chips to one side with the hand holding the cards.

Second Dealing Box

The second dealing box a crooked card box that enables

is
the cheater with minimum chance of detection to deal the
second card instead of the top card. It’s useful in dozens of
 —

CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 13

card games. These boxes are made by nationally known manu-
facturers of crooked gambling devices, and sell for what they’re
—
worth to the cheater say, $50 to $150.
Read what one manufacturer has to say about this crude
flimflam:
“Our second dealing box is used for various card games.
Skeleton type, it is substantially made, with a dull nickel finish
which absolutely prevents any flash of the bottom card when
dealing. This box bears the most rigid inspection, but at the
same time the top card is always under control.”
—
The only thing that is crooked or has to be crooked
about this box is that it enables the top card to be shifted
toward the inside edge of the box, so that the cheat can take
the other edge of the second card and' deal it The box is use-
ful only with marked cards, since the point of dealing seconds
is to hold back firsts for oneself.
A second dealing box can be spotted instantaneously. Un-
like other dealing boxes, whose tops are wide open, the second
box has a solid sheet of metal on its top side. Tbrough this
sheet is a small hole to enable sliding cards out with the thumb
—
while dealing legitimately and sliding them back when deal-
ing a second. If you ever get into a game in which the dealing
—
box looks like the one just described, the odds are ^let’s see,
—
now twenty-five to one that you’re playing with a crook.

Palming

Palming cards, called by cheaters holding out, is in all prob-

ability the cheating method most commonly practiced and
most commonly suspected and detected. Like sex, it can be
learned by almost anybody, but doing it well requires some na-
tive talent and assiduous practice.
Palming is risky in fast company, but among half-smart card
players it can be put to fairly profitable use in almost any kind
of game.
It is done as follows:
When the cards are being thrown in for a new deal it —
works for any game involving a deal: Poker, Rummy, Black
Jack, Pinochle — the cheater secretes the cards he wants in the
hollow formed by the palm of his hand. He may hold the hand
folded nonchalantly over his arm, or he may conceal the cards
under his knee or armpit. The move is normally screened by
the cheater’s reaching into his shirt pocket for a match or
hitching his chair closer to or farther from the table.
Having been dealt his new hand, the cheater substitutes his
— —
palmed or, to be precise about it, armpitted or kneed cards
for an equal number out of the hand, making use of the palm.
 14 SCARNE ON CARDS
Then, biding his time, he gets rid of the cards he’s holding out
by chucking them back at the end of the deal or palming them
into the discards.

DETECTION AND SUSPICION

Keep a respectful eye on the player who keeps his hand
rigidly flat with the fingers close together.

False Cuts

False cuts are in order when cheaters move in on card

games involving more than two players. The false cut requires
a pair of confederates. One deals. The other sits next to him.
The latter, when the cards are offered to him, false-cuts. A
false cut is one which leaves the deck or a block of cards in
the deck in exactly the same position as before the alleged cut.
The false cut can be used in any card game. And it can be
—
worked by a man playing alone without allies if the other
players, going on the assumption he’s cutting his deals honestly,
don’t call for the deck, as is their right, and cut it themselves.
But good use can be made of the false cut on the honest
player’s deal too. How?
Well, you’re honest and awkward. When you shuffle, you
fail (a lot of us do fail) to mix thoroughly the cards on the
bottom of the pack. The cheater detects something down there
he wants. Or he glimpses the bottom card during the shuffle,
and decides he wants it. Or he has just palmed some cards onto
the top of the deck, and wants them dealt just so. But the cards
must be cut. So, when you hand him the pack for a cut, he
employs one of the following most commonly used false cuts:
ONE-CARD FALSE CUT
Very deceiving. The cheater cuts so that only the top card
changes position and is sunk in the center of the pack. The
rest of the top cards remain as he wants theuL

TWO-HANDED FALSE CUT

Although many honest players cut like this, train your re-
•
flexes to beware of the man who makes a series of rapid cuts
with both hands, pulling off the top block and putting it on the
table, slipping the bottom block on this, then whipping an-
other block out and snapping it on top, etc. This false cut is
executed with great snap, and the only way of apprehending it
is to watch for a visible step in the deck.
To neutralize this ruse or to avoid any possibility of trouble,
ask (as is your right) for the deck and reshuflie it yourself.
 CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 15
cut it, then offer it to your opponent for his cut. By that time
his dexterity can’t make any difference.

Slick Ace Cards

These decks, sold by gambling supply houses for $1.50,
allow the user to cut the card desired, usually an ace. To cut
an ace, the cheat must give the deck a slight shove. The deck
will break at one of the aces. Then he cuts that block at the
break and he has an ace as his cut card.
An ordinary deck of playing cards is prepared by waxing
the aces, or any cards desired, making them slide easily.
To detect, watch the guy who always shoves the deck before
cutting.

Cold Deck

The cold deck is a pack of cards which the cheater stacks

with larcenous intent before the game starts, or one which the
cheater leaves the game to stack. It is switched into play at the
magic moment when there are important stakes to be won.
The cold deck must, of course, be an exact duplicate in
color and design of the deck in play. The object of the move, in
case there are any men from Mars in the room needing en-
lightenment, is to insure the crook a killing hand and send the
rest of the jolly company home broke.
Among the approved methods of switching them into play:
The prepared deck may be dropped onto the table from
imder a tray in the act of serving drinks.
A holdout machine may be used, although handling the
machine requires some skill. Not many up-to-date crooks use
it because of the risk and because of the fact that possession

of the gadget is prima facie evidence of absolute giiilt. man A

using the mechanic’s grip or a two-handed cut may be inno-
cent, or can at least raise a persuasive defense; a man caught
with a holdout machine can at best try to get out of town in
one piece.
The commonest and cleanest cold-deck switch is pure, sim-
ple sleight of hand. The sharper slips the cold deck out of his
pocket into his lap. Drawing the pack on the table toward him
for the deal, he drops it tidily into his lap, in the same motion
snapping the cold deck into its place at the table’s edge. After
the deal the old pack is wrapped in a handkerchief, already
spread in the lap, and stuffed away in a pocket. A paroxysm
of sneezing, a loud joke with gestures, or a spilled drink will
screen the move.
16 SCARNE ON CARDS
Maximum winnings are obtained by switching the cold deck
in the sucker deal. Just as the sucker offers the deck to be cut
by the cheater at his right, the cheater 2, at his left, asks the
sucker to change a bill. Cheater 1, who has palmed the cold
deck in his left hand, covers the deck on the table with a
handkerchief, places the cold deck on the table and then
pockets the original deck neatly wrapped in his handkerchief.
When the sucker turns to pick up the deck for the deal, cheater
1 executes a false cut, nutting him at ease. The sucker is now
ready to deal himself to the cleaners.

Locater

The locater is a special breed of cheater. I’ve seen locaters

hang around the edge of a banking game for hours without
making a play, only to bet the wad and win at just the right
instant. Their racket is simplicity itself. It is a matter of keep-
ing track of a single card or group of cards through deal, play,
and shuffle; deal, play, and shuffle; over and over. It is not a
skill; it’s drudgery; but it is particularly profitable in such
games as Black Jack, Faro, Chemin de Fer, and Stud Poker.
The locater, to repeat, simply gets to know where in the pack
his card is; then he bets when that card comes up right for him.
The defense against him is to shuffle thoroughly and often, to
shuffle the cards face down on the table flat against the table,
and to memorize the following move:

The Scarne Cut

This is a cut which I invented during World War II for the
defensive use of men in the armed forces. It will work against
any of the ruses set forth above, with the exception of the cold
deck switched in after the cut. I’m told by Army officers that
this cut alone saved G. I. Joe millions of dollars between 1942
and 1946.
This is how the Scarne cut works:
1. Pull a block of cards out of the center of the pack.

2. Place them on top of the pack.

31 Do it again, and again, and as many more times as you
like.
4. —and then only—square up
Then the pack, and cut it in
the regular manner.
Properly and regularly used, this cut will prevent or neutral-
ize most cold-deck switches (most, not all), stacked cards, the
crimp, false shuffles, false cuts, and shifts. At the very least it
will give your crooked opponent headaches enough to mini
 CARD CHEATS AND THEIR METHODS 17

mize his effectiveness. It may frighten him into getting out of

the game or, worse, into playing honestly.

Shiners

Shiners are nothing but mirrors, and they make me wonder

again why gamblers have to invent mock-fancy synonyms for
the crooked tools of their trade. These mirrors, generally very
tiny, are built into rings, match boxes, pipes, coins, or any-
thing else that will lie unobtrusively on a card table. A
shiner
in a pipe bowl, for instance, reflects the top card of a deck
being dealt. Antidote: take a good look at any object on the
table when you’re losing. If you pick up a nickel and see your
own face on it . . .

Peeking

One of the cleanest and least detectable ways of reading a

top card off the pack is by peeking. Some cheats peek while
dealing a player a card, others peek when pretending to look at
the face-down card of the hand. Peeking is used in many card
games, but is particularly effective in Black Jack and Stud
Poker. Agood peeker and second dealer is poison to any card
game. To detect peeking, suspect a player who continually
keeps looking at his face-down card.

'PEEKING ON THE DRAW

Spotting the next to the top card of the stock pile by lifting
the second card while picking the first card is used by both
the bungler and the expert cheat, particularly used in Gin
Rummy and other Rummy games, and in Two-Handed Pi-
nochle when drawing from the stock. Keep your eyes on the
player who seems to hesitate always when picking from the
stock.

The Amateur Cheat

Now, what constitutes a cheater at cards? I myself am some-
times, after all these years and meditations, perplexed about a
player: shall he go into my
book as a scoundrel or as just a
thoroughgoing no-holds-barred good player? I used to play
Gin Rummy with an elderly lady, a business acquaintance of
mine, who might be characterized as straddling this borderline.
She has a habit, after the cards have been cut for her deal, of
peeking at the bottom card iq squ^ng the pack. Harmless?
Yes. She’s looking at a card that will never get into the play
,of the hand. Harmless? Ye-e-es. But her very knowledge that
18 SCARNE ON CARDS
thiscard is dead gives her a measurable percentage of advan-
tage over me in planning the play. She has seized relevant evi-
dence that is not available to me.
She is a cheat.
And she is the most dangerous kind of cheat, the amateur
kind. For the amateur cheat is generally your friend. You are
not going to mistrust him. You are not on your guard. So the
—
amount of money that you lose ^you collectively, all you good-
—
natured American suckers runs into an aggregate millions of
dollars.
For every dozen crooked moves made by the agate-eyed
professional, the amateur cheat will attempt blandly and bra-
zenly a hundred swindles.
1. The amateur cheat in Gin Rummy will attempt to lay off
on a meld a card that doesn’t belong in that meld, or will dis-
card two cards instead of one, or will call his count for the
scoresheet as an amount less than it actually is, or ,

2. The amateur Poker cheat will just forget to ante up, and
then wUl swear earnestly that somebody else is shy.
3. The amateur cheat in Pinochle will fabricate five or ten
points on the count of the hand. Trapped in a recount — any
embarrassment? Not a bit! We’re all entitled to a certain per-
centage of error, aren’t we?
4. Finding the dealer panicky or busy, the amateur cheat
at Black Jack will call a phony count on his cards, collect his
cash, and account the feat an act of skill. Never even pinks his
conscience!
I’m going to refer in detail under each game to the more
common methods of cheating at that game but let me try to
suggest a few general principles.
Never accuse any man, particularly a friend, of cheating. It
is highly possible that an honest player may do quite uncon-
sciously some of the things that cheaters do. You have no right,
and there is no need, to raise a hue and cry. The application
and enforcement, quietly and graciously, of the rules as I’ve
stated them in this book will remedy whatever’s wrong or looks
wrong. If it doesn’t help, you can stop playing then and there,
quietly and graciously. No offense, no harm done, to anyone’s
—
sensibilities or reputation or especially to your pocketbook.
—
Rules are made to be followed or broken revealingly by —
players. A friend told me once: “John, I play with a good
friend of mine. He never offers me the cards for the cut. I’m
afraid to insist on the cut; he may think I’m accusing him, and
I value our good relations. What shall I do?*’
I asked him who was the winner between them, and he said
his friend was a few hundred dollars ahead.
“I don’t know whether your game is lousy or you’re being
 MARKED CARDS 19
cheated,” I told him. ”I*ve never seen you play. But this I do
know: that if you were cutting the cards you would not be
suspicious of your friend. That’s a lot worse than losing a few
dollars.”
You must decide such things for yourself. As for me, I
—
play by the rules I play no more with the old lady who peeks
at the bottom card.

CHAPTER THREE

Marked Cards

The mechanical device most widely used by cheats, be they

amateurs, semipros, or skilled professionals in any card game,
is the use of marked cards:
1. They require no manipulative skill.
2. They are sure-fire money winners.
3. They are all but totally immune from detection by the
average easygoing, relaxed, aw-the-hell-with-it card player.
(Not in one case out of a hundred would the novice know
how or where to look for markings even if he were handed the
deck and told that they were there.)
Markings on a card seldom indicate its suit It would require
too elaborate a code to mark suits as well as values; it would
be too confusing to the cheater; so cards as a rule are marked
only as to numerical value.
The cheater using “readers” or “paper” knows the rank of
every top card coming off the deck. He can identify as to—
—
value every significant card in your hand. Your chances of
winning in such a swindle, playing what amounts to an ex-
posed hand, are plainly next to zero.
Marked cards are commonplace because they are easy to
get. The catalogues of marked-card merchants are widely dis-
tributed— —
through the United States mails, to be sure by sup-
pliers of crooked gambling devices; although if you tried to run
a raffle for your boys’ club Mr. Whiskers would pin your ears
back- Crooked gambling machinery’s a business too, you know.
A cheat may get his toupee knocked off informally for playing
with marked cards, but there is no law in these United States
that prohibits the marking of cards. So free enterprise, bless it,
functioning in due reaction to the law of supply and demand,
goes on grinding them out, grinding out crime and misery and
20 SCARNE ON CARDS
maybe even suicide. A pack will cost you $1.50. They sell in
the thousands per week.
Though you buy the pack yourself from a retailer you know
and trust, it may be marked. On one festive occasion that I
remember every pack in Saratoga was crooked. A mob had
moved in and switched a case of marked cards in place of a
case of cards just shipped by a big and le^timate distributor.
The marked cards were duly jobbed and retailed. No matter
where a player bought a pack of cards that week, they bore
the mob’s markings. I have been told, almost reverently, that
what happened after that was pretty impressive.
It is a common misconception that cards are marked when
printed. They aren’t Reputable manufacturing houses would
never consent to such stuff. Nevertheless their cards are used
in crooked games —
and are marked, like this:
First, the cheat buys sm honest deck of standard brand.
Next, he heats the revenue stamp and removes it.
Third, he removes, also under gentle heat, the tissue wrap-
per of the pack.
Fourth, the cards are marked by hand. (Some plants have
as many as fifty girls employed just to mark cards.)
Finally, the marked cards are replaced in the tissue wrapper
which is then tidily pasted; the cards are restored to the box,
and the revenue stamp is glued back.
Markings on readers or paper are known as light work or
strong work. If a sharper has what he believes to be a smart
and alert opponent he will use light work; if he sizes the
opponent as a sucker, the strong work goes in. If the cheat is
an amateur, strong work is required; if he is a professional,
the light will do.
Light work is a finer mark. It imposes more strain on the
user. Strong work can be read generally all the way across the
table, always up to five or six feet away by anyone with nor-
mal eyesight who knows what he’s looking for. More, ink is
used, that’s all.
Cards are invariably marked along opposite edges, either
horizontally or vertically, so that the cheater can read an ex-
posed edge regardless of the position of the card in the hand.
Regardless of the design of the card and regardless of the
cheating system involved, all card marking falls into one of
these five kinds of work:

Edge Work

A bevel or beUy is drawn on the border between the

slight
design and the edge of the card, A
mark high up indicates an
ace. A
mark a little lower indicates a king. And so on down.
 MARKED CARDS 21

Line Work

The worked into the design on the

finest possible lines are
back of the card. The innocent eye can scarcely detect a differ-
ence, but the cheat knows in an instant what the card is.

Cut-out

A chemical preparation or a fine knife removes a minute

section from the design at the significant place.

Block-out

The same —
thing almost. Parts of the design are covered
with white ink or the figuration of the design is exaggerated
with ink similar to that in which the design is printed. This is
especially effective with cards that are calculated to be mark-
proof: those that have an all-over design on the back, with no
border. An example is the so-called Bee card, the back of
which completely covered with a diamond design. Contrary
is
to popular belief, such cards can be marked easily and effec-
tively by making one of the diamonds smaller or larger than
by blocking-out.
the rest
So much for cards whose backs bear actual marks. How
about marked cards that are not marked?

Shading

A section of the back of the card is worked over lightly with

a brush, leaving a slight coloration over the identifying part
of the design. The ink used is similar in color to the design.
Always remarkable in this kind of work is the infinitesimal
area spotted and the delicacy of the mark. Yet sharpers can
see it across the table.

Trims

This process is used on cards that do have a border between

the design and the edge. The border is trimmed —
away down
on one side for low cards, say, and a little higher for the higher
ones (or the other way around). The amount of white space
between design and edge is trimmecj to less than regulation
size, and the amount of the trimming signals whether the card
is high or low. Of course, the way to detect a trimmed card is

to place it over an honest one. The trim will be smaller.

22 SCARNE ON CARDS

Sorts

you want a fuU-time job for a rainy week-end, or a rainy

If
week, try making up a pack of sorts. When you’re done you
will think that sorts are so much trouble that nobody would
ever bother with them. You will be wrong. One week spent on
a pack or so of sorts will guarantee months and months of
winnings. Gamblers, many of them, consider it well worth
their while. Sorts are the only marked cards that are not ac~
tually doctored, hence they are the safest of all marked cards.
Sorting is based on the one flaw in Bee cards and others with
all-over designs. This flaw is the edge. The all-over design
does not run off the edge at precisely the same point on every
one of such cards. There are bound to be variations along the
edges: some designs will go off the edge high on the diamond
figure, others close to the bottom, others at varying points
midway between. Knowing this, the earnest cheater buys some
forty or more identical packs of these foolproof cards. Out of
the lot of them he laboriously sorts one pack which can be
read by the edges. High cards may be those whose diamond
design is sliced off high, low cards those sliced off low; or it
may be the other way around. Whatever are the markings he
decides upon, these cards are easy to read for the man who
knows they’re crooked and hard to detect for the man who
doesn’t. All you can do, if you suspect sorts, is to see whether
the edges of high cards are all high and the edges of low cards
are all low.
Cards with over-all design can be trimmed to make fake
sorts.

How to Detect Marked Cards

Todetect marked cards use the Scame riflSe. It is based on
the principle of the animated cartoon books with which you
played as a kid. Holding the book firmly in one hand, you
riffled the pages rapidly with the other thumb. And, as you did,
the figures printed on the pages seemed to move. It’s the prin-
ciple on which the motion picture is based.
Try it on any cards which you suspect may be marked by
any of the methods set forth above. Hold the cards in the left
hand. Pull back the cards with the right hand and riffle them
rapidly, keeping your eye on the back of the design. An honest
design will stand utterly still. If the cards have been marked, a
shifting of lines will appear on the backs. When this occurs,
note the exact spot where the shift took place, and compare
it with the like spot on other cards.
 MARKED CARDS 23

Pictures

Here’s another thing you’ll have to remember. Don’t play

with cards on whose backs are pictures or designs which, when
the cards are reversed, will be upside down. A beautiful pic-
ture may delight your emotions, but upside down it may signal
“High cards!’’ and right side up “Low!’’ It seems obvious, but
Edgar Allan Poe isn’t the only man who knew that the more
obvious a device is, the less likely it is to be discovered. If
nothing else, card cheats are good psychologists.

Luminous Readers

These are so called because they are marked with an ink

invisible to the naked eye and are supposed to be legible only
with special glasses or a special visor. Strictly a sucker’s item,
they are advertised by the manufacturers of crooked gambling
supplies as being the last word. When you send your $10 or
$15 you receive by express (these boys don’t use the United
States mail) a red-backed pack of cards that have been gone
over very lightly with a green pencil. Alarge number is made
to denote the card’s value. Along with this you get a cheap
pair of glasses with red-tinted lenses. The theory is that red
glasses will cancel out the red design and the green mark will
blaze out for you alone.
Professional cheaters wouldn’t be caught dead with such
junk. But in case you encounter some imbecile who has bought
them and is trying to get back the money he paid for them,
borrow his glasses or his visor, and look at the cards yourself.

Marking Cards During Play

Cheats are scientists. When they can’t work their pre-marked

—
cards into a game which is what they would much prefer to
—
do they proceed methodically to mark the cards during the
game. This is, to be sure, more dangerous than using cards
already marked, but it is not so dangerous as playing with an
honest deck.

NAILING
Pressing his thumbnail into the edge of a card, the cheater
makes a small identifying mark which can be seen from across
the table. He has to put this mark it precisely the same rela-
tive position on opposite edges of the card so that, no matter
how the card is held, the nailing will appear.
24 SCARNE ON CARDS
WAVING
In this variety of play-as-you-go card marking the practiced
fingers of the gambler skillfully bend the card, over one finger
and under the other, leaving an identifying “wave.” The posi-
tion of the wave indicates the value of the card.
(To detect nailing or wavingy square up the whole pack
and look at the edges. The markings will stand out unmis-
takably.)

DAUBING
The cheatercarries in his vest or coat pocket a tube of paste
or paint similar in color to the color of the design on the cards
in use. Moistening his finger with the color in the act of
reaching for a cigarette or match, he presses a tiny spot onto
the card at a sig^cant place in the design. The daub is a
slight smudge instantly legible to the cheater. Daubing can be
detected by the naked eye on deliberate examination.

PEGGING
Another marking method gives signals to the fingers, not
the eyes. The sharper appears in the game with a Aumb
or
finger bandage. Generally it is the left thumb, which holds the
pack most often. Through this bandage sticks the point of a
thumbtack that has been strapped to the thumb under the
bandage. With this point the crook pricks the right cards in
the right places. In Gin Rummyhe will ordinarily prick only
the Jow cards, aces to threes. Wlien, as dealer, he feels a low
card on the top of the pack, he deals a second (see page 11)
to the other player, and saves the pegged card for himself. To
detect pegging run a finger over the backs of the cards. A
“peg” will feel like a mountain.

SANDING
—
Also requires a bandage for a different purpose. Exposed
through the fabric is a slit of the surface of a piece of sand-
paper. A card is drawn edgewise across the sandpaper, and
the sanded edge becomes white, a glaring clean white. When
assembled with the other, dirtied, cards, this sanded card
stands out clearly enough to enable rigging the deaL Occa-
sionally, a cheat will merely paste a piece of sandpaper on his
finger instead of using the bandage technique.

Belly Strippers

The use of this device is one of the most highly prized —and
high-priced — secrets of fast-money winners. Especially useful
 MARKED CARDS 25
in two-handed games such as Pinochle and Gin Rummy, it
cheats the sucker on his own deal, and accomplishes the
swindle by merely cutting the cards.
Once more, give all the credit to the go-getting American
businessman. Manufacturers and distributors of marked cards
and crooked dic« stock this belly-stripper deck as one of their
standard items. for $2.
It sells
Suppose you want a deck out of which you can strip the
four kings. All right. The other forty-eight cards are cut down
about a thirty-second of an inch on both long sides. Then their
corners are rounded again. They look perfectly innocent, and
they are, except in conjunction with the four kings.
But these precious cards are sliced at an angle, so that they
have a very slightly protruding belly at the middle of each long
edge, and slightly narrower than the other cards on the ends.
Now assemble the deck. In the right hand, tap it upright
on the table. Then lift the right hand up and away. Behold!
The four kings* bellies have caught against your fingers, and
you pull those cards out of the deck. Some crooked gambling
supply houses concave strippers.
sell
What you do with them now depends on your game and
your move. You can deal seconds; you can shufile them into
position to deal yourself a winner; you can deal your opponent
two kings and yourself two, and then lure him into a disastrous
round of betting. Just knowing where the kings are is all a com-
petent gambler needs to win heavily.
Antidote? Just pick up the cards, square them, and see if
any belly strippers come out of the pack. If they do, what’s
your next move? Don’t ask me! But you might try asking for
your money back.

As to can give you only one over-all tip. To

marked cards I
catch “paper” cheaters in any card game, watch the guy who
has to keep his eyes glued on the back of your cards, the cards
that are being dealt, and, if it’s a Rummy game, the top card
of the stock. I like an opponent who keeps up a natural healthy
interest in the cards, but there’s a subtle line of demarcation
between a wholesome concern about what’s going on and a
concern that amounts to cannibalism. I can’t tell you at what
point an opponent’s interest goes morbid. I can suggest that,
next time his concentration seems to you unwarranted by the
current situation at the table, you start taking a scholarly inter-
est in the deck yourself.
And beware of the player who
continuously, against all the
tables of probability, in defiance of your own instinct for aver-
ages, wins and wins and keeps winning. I lay this down as a
broad general dictum: that’s not luck.
 CHAPTER FOUR

The Only 'Player You Can^t Beat

I would rather have spared you and myself the writing of

this chapter,but we’d better face the facts about playing cards
for money. And one of these facts is the cheat you never catch
at his work against you, the cheat you never escape, the really
international card sharper, that prince of good fellows —^your-
self.
You’ll never be a consistent winner at cards unless you learn
the little tricks you play on yourself.
You’ll never win unless you devise ways of preventing your-
self from working against your own interests.
First, you must learn to shuffle a pack of cards correctly.
And acquiring a good new habit must begin with breaking an
old bad one. If you’ve been using the overhand shuffle, which
is the very mere matter of sliding cards in blocks of two or
three or ten from one hand to the other, mixing them grossly,
then you must give up that shuffle immediately. The cards just
can’t be mixed thoroughly that way. Groups of cards will stick
together. Try it right now. Assemble a deck in groups, then
give it an overhand shuffle, then take it apart; you find (don’t
you?) that at least one group remains as you put it together.
—
Cheaters and honest, hard-driving card players too^know
this about the overhand shuffle, and take advantage of it.
Here’s howl
In the previous hand someone held four kings. The inexpert
dealer picks up the cards, leaving the king meld en bloc, and
gives the cards a single overhand shuffle, nonchalantly letting
them flop from the upper hand into the lower. The observant
opponent, watchful as a cat, notices where the kings lodge in
the reassembled pack (that’s easy enough!), and gets ready for
the kill.
The kings were near the top of the pack in the pickup.
The single overhand shuffle puts them close to the bottom.
Your opponent cuts the pack a little below its center, say two-
thirds of the way down. Now, if the game is two-handed, say,
Gin Rummy, ten cards are dealt each player alternately.

26
 —

THE ONLY PLAYER YOU CAN’T BEAT 27

Each player gets a pair of kings. The locater knows you
have a pairl You don’t know he has one. It is quite an advan-
tage for him.
Or one of the kings is lost in the shuffle. The locater gets
only one king. But he holds it, and your chances of forming a
king meld are reduced 50 per cent
Or you catch three of the kings and the locater gets the
fourth; he knows that by holding it he’ll be able to lay it off on
your meld.
Or the locater catches the three kings and you get the fourth.
As a rule you discard it at your first opportunity, giving your
opponent a four-card meld.
And the locater’s knowing which king you hold will always
enable him to avoid discards which would build up a sequence
meld in your hand.
There are numerous advantages, then, which you give an
opponent when you shuffle incompetently. The only defense is
die use of the riffle-shuffle.
And the riffle-shuffle also is susceptible to abuse. Some
players learn the principle, but then shuffle the cards so care-
lessly ffiat the bottom four or five cards of the pack go through
—
the shuffle in unchanged order. See ^now, with a deck
whether you are one of these soft-touch shufflers. If you are,
change your habits immediately, because the locater’s accurate
knowledge of what those car^ are and how they’ll fall gives
him an insuperable advantage over a long session at any game.
— —
And again now, with a deck see whether you are one of
the many amateurs who shuffle the cards at such an angle to
the horizontal that their opponents can see the cards as they
click into position. Always hold the pack close to and flat
against the table in shuffling; to correct your angle, practice
shufiSing in front of a mirror. The mirror will show you every-
thing your opponent can see as you handle the cards. Pretty
revealing, isn’t it?

How to Shuffle the Cards

At least 50 per cent of amateur card-fanciers make this mis-
take after a shuffle: they take the pack up into their hands to
square it before offering it for the cut.
Why, after taking such fastidious pains to conceal that bot-
tom card, must they expose it thus to a hawk-eyed opponent?
Because, make no mist^e about it, the opponent will take ad
vantage of that card. He’ll know where it is after the cut He
can cut the pack in such a way as* to force it into the deal
(placing it high in the pack) or keeping it out. In either case.
28 SCARNE ON CARDS
a significant percentage swings in his favor. Square the cards
flatagainst the table.
It must be a matter of record that I’m a card manipulator
by trade. I know how to shuffle, and I’m going to take the lib-
erty of assuming you’d like to be taught by a professional.
Nothing fancy about it; it won’t take much time; and, while
I don’t guarantee to transform you into a magician, I think
that the next five minutes we spend together will insure you
against ever being embarrassed by shuffling badly.
First, pull about half the cards off the top of the pack with
your right hand, leaving the other half in your left, then put-
ting both halves end to end.
Second, keep your hold on the cards' and riffle the halves
together by running your thumbs up the sides of the cards.
Hold the blocks firm by settling the fingers on the opposite
edge of the cards.
Third, after the cards have riffled together, loosen your hold,
and slide them into a single block. Never take the cards off
the table,- either for the riffle or in the act of squaring the pack.
Fourth, get into the habit of cutting the cards just for in-
surance at least once during the shuffle by pulling out the bot-
tom half and slapping it onto the top between riffles good
protection against locaters.
—
The G.I.’s used to call his the Scarne shuffle. It’s foolproof,
crookproof, and tidy as a con man’s tuxedo . . and it’ll save
.

you money if you never play anything but Solitaire. It just

saves wear and tear on a pack of playing cards.
Acouple of last warnings against yoilr most insidious
enemy:
You’re not playing for paid admissions; so you don’t have
to expose yourself to kibitzers. If you can do so without awk-
wardness, try to sit with your back to a wall so as to cut down
your audience. Many a hand is betrayed to an opponent by a
spectator’s sigh or chuckle or sharp inhalation of breath or such
a fool crack as: “What a lucky pick!”
—
Before each game whether Stud, Draw, Gin, Pinochle, or
any other game—do yourself the justice of counting the cards,
just to be sure the whole pack’s there and nothing is missing by
any accident.
And don't play when you're disturbed. Most of us are con-
vinced we play a pretty in and-out game; we tend to be
champs one day and chumps the next; and we attribute it all
to the run of the cards.
Mullarkey! Irregularity in quality of play at the amateur
level is strictly a matter of mental attitude.
When you play cards, give the game all you’ve got, or get
 CAN LUCK BEAT SKILL? 29
out; not only is one way on earth to win at cards; it*s
that the
the only way you and the rest of the players can get any fun
at all out of what ought to be fun.
You can’t play a tight hand well if your mind’s on that red-
head down the street or the horses or your bo^’s ulcers or your
wife’s operation. When you don^ remember the last upcard
your opponent picked and you throw him the like-ranked card
which puts him Gin, it’s time to push back the chair and say,
“Boys, I just remembered I have a previous engagement.**
Do as the professionals do. When they make a few bad
plays in a row, they just mutter, “That’s all for today, gents’’;
and they m^n it. They mean today is, for certain reasons,

written off; they mean they’ll be back tomorrow, which is an-

other day.
By all means, when you’re in this kind of losing streak, don’t
let yourself get panicky. The more reckless you feel, the more
desperate is the necessity that you get away from that table at
once. Au excited player, a player plunging to recoup losses, is
a player at his worst
Learn to recognize him. That player has been and will again
—
be ^unless you learn how to deal with him ^your own worst —
enemy.
And one more thing. The who
player resorts to systems
just adding method to his madness —
^he is systematically insur-
is

ing his losses. There is no such animal as an unbeatable system.

Only the poor chump believes in one.

CHAPTER FIVE

Can Luck Beat Skill?

Whether you’d rather be lucky than skillful or skillful than

lucky or just can’t make up your mind .

—
.

You’ve argued from time to time ^haven’t you? ^the im-

. ^
—
memorial question: “Can the more skillful player beat the
player who is luckier?’*
Hundreds of earnest, honest, sincere players have asked me
that.
And there’s an earnest, honest answer.
But before I write it out let’s try to define our terms; let’s

see what we’re talking about.

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
his evil purposes are defeated, after many harrowing experiences for
Honour and Ronald.

“Unfortunately the bright promise of the earlier chapters is not

fulfilled. There are thrills and mystery a-plenty, but the author takes
too long in expounding them and by the time they are cleared up
they have ceased to thrill.”

+ − N Y Evening Post p10 O 30 ’20 70w

“In spite of the story being such a jumble, the writing evidently is
that of a trained hand, for the sentences are neatly put together and
the author is not devoid of descriptive power. Readers who enjoy
hurrying along from one disconnected incident to another and who
like a long story will probably find this one to their taste.”

+ − N Y Times p24 D 26 ’20 500w

Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 120w

AMERICAN labor year book, 1919–1920; ed. by

Alexander Trachtenberg. (v 3) *$2 Rand school of
social science 331

“Part I of this book deals with labor in the war, with the
organization of many governmental boards of adjustment and policy-
making, and with the actual administration of those laws which were
drawn to curb ‘seditious activities.’ Part II is a record of organized
labor, with historical reviews of different trade union ventures
(including such interesting experiments as the work of the United
labor education committee) and with records of strikes and lockouts
during the last two years. The third section of the book contains a
digest of new labor legislation, of court decisions affecting labor, and
of the progress of plans for health insurance, pensions and the
minimum wage. Part IV is a more general discussion of social and
economic conditions. It deals with the cost of living, profiteering,
unemployment, woman suffrage, plans for public ownership of the
railways, and the history of the Nonpartisan league in North Dakota.
Part V is a short record of the recent activities of cooperative, labor
and socialist movements in some thirty different countries. And the
final section of the book is devoted to the socialist movement in
America.”—New Repub

“While the volume bears the imprint of the Socialist, it manifests

much less of class or partisan bias than do many articles and
volumes prepared and circulated by ultra-conservative
organizations.” F. T. Carlton

+ Am Econ R 10:366 Je ’20 220w

Booklist 17:82 N ’20

“Unfortunately it is rather an incoherent volume. Though the

arrangement could be better and the statistical tables less partial,
still the year book contains useful material, much of which is
nowhere else easily accessible.” H. J. Laski

+ − Nation 110:594 My 1 ’20 80w

+ New Repub 22:39 Mr 3 ’20 470w

“The editor should be especially commended for his broad and

tolerant attitude towards all phases of the social problem and for his
good judgment in collecting within the covers of one volume so many
significant documents and statistical tables. The volume is
indispensable to teachers, writers, lecturers, and every one else who
has an intelligent interest in the facts and problems of the labor
movement.” L: Levine

+ Socialist R 9:48 Je ’20 350w

“There is evidence of a purpose to stick to facts. If allowance needs

to be made it is for omissions of facts unfavorable to the cause rather
than for inclusion of direct propaganda.”

+ Springf’d Republican p13a F 22 ’20

140w

“‘The American labor year book’ preserves much that otherwise is

hard to obtain and at the same time offers the best available
compendium of current information in its field.”

+ Survey 44:315 My 29 ’20 300w

AMOS, FLORA ROSS. Early theories of

translation. (Columbia university studies in English
and comparative literature) *$2 Columbia univ. press
808
20–4778

The history of the theory of translation, the author holds, is by no

means a record of easily distinguishable, orderly progression. It
shows a lack of continuity and is of a tentative quality. “Translation
fills too large a place, is too closely connected with the whole course
of literary development, to be disposed of easily. As each succeeding
period has revealed new fashions in literature, new avenues of
approach to the reader, there have been new translations and the
theorist has had to reverse or revise the opinions bequeathed to him
from a previous period. The theory of translation cannot be reduced
to a rule of thumb; it must again and again be modified to include
new facts.” (Preface) Contents: The medieval period; The translation
of the Bible; The sixteenth century; From Cowley to Pope; Index.

“The greater one’s knowledge of the literature dealt with, the more
likely one is to approve the care and reading which she displays.” G:
Saintsbury

+ − Ath p271 Ag 27 ’20 780w

ANANDA ACHĀRYA. Snow-birds. *$3

Macmillan 891.4
20–10160

“This volume contains prose-poems or rhapsodies in free verse on

nature, Indian mythology, sentimental or ideal themes, in a style
analogous to that of Sir Rabindranath Tagore.”—Ath

Ath p429 Mr 26 ’20 30w

“Mr Achārya is not as inspired by any means and he does not get
the atmosphere and charm into his lines that Tagore did. But he is
interesting, for he presents the thought of the East.”

+ − N Y Times p16 N 7 ’20 70w

“The poems contained in this volume can scarcely be said to

uphold his title convincingly as either artist or metaphysician. His
vision is neither profound nor vital enough to awake the pulse of
verse, nor has it the mentality that makes the muscle of decisive
prose.”

− + The Times [London] Lit Sup p762 D 18

’19 950w

ANDERSON, BENJAMIN MCALESTER.

Effects of the war on money, credit and banking in
France and the United States. *$1 Oxford; pa gratis
Carnegie endowment for international peace 332
19–19929

A volume brought out by the Carnegie endowment for

international peace as one of the preliminary economic studies of the
war. An introduction sketches in broad outline the effects of the war
on money, credit and banking in the countries of Europe and the
United States. The author then takes up in detail the various
problems involved in the case of France, with a briefer treatment of
the United States. Tables, charts, etc., are given in an appendix and
there is an index.
 “That the work is well documented, well proportioned, and highly
wrought, even brilliantly done, is not to be gainsaid.” C. A. Phillips

+ − Am Econ R 10:137 Mr ’20 1450w

“Readers with an interest in finance will appreciate this clear,

detailed account.”

+ Booklist 16:259 My ’20

Reviewed by C. C. Plehn

+ Nation 111:379 O 6 ’20 220w

ANDERSON, ISABEL WELD (PERKINS)

(MRS LARZ ANDERSON). Presidents and pies;
life in Washington, 1897–1919. il *$3 (5c) Houghton
975.3
20–6432

This is a book of inside gossip about social Washington, where

“there is always something new under the sun.” The author has met
and listened to the “‘senators, honorables, judges, generals,
commodores, governors, and the ex’s of all these, as thick as
pickpockets at a horse-race, ... ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, lords,
counts, barons, chevaliers, and the great and small fry of legations’
who make the life here so varied and fascinating. Some politics, a
touch of history, a dash of description, with a flavor of social affairs—
such are the ingredients of my ‘pie,’ which, whatever its faults, I hope
may not sit heavily on the reader’s digestion.” (Chapter 1) The book
is well illustrated and the contents are: Looking back; “A red torch
flared above his head”; Rough Rider and buccaneer; Parties and
politics; Enter Mr Taft; Sundry visitings and visitations; Cruising and
campaigning; Divers democrats; Allied missions; Pies; A topsy-turvy
capital; Royalties arrive.

Boston Transcript p6 Ap 28 ’20 900w

“It is regrettable that, owing to the lack of a sufficient background,

she has not given us a definitive book on the city of Washington and
its society; but, nevertheless, ‘Presidents and pies’ is a pleasant and
sometimes a brilliant book. At least, it is easy reading, although its
illustrations hardly add to its value.” M. F. Egan

+ − N Y Times p6 Ag 15 ’20 2300w

“A delightful narrative. The style is chatty without being flippant,

and there is always a touch of humor.”

+ Springf’d Republican p8 Ag 3 ’20 280w

ANDERSON, ROBERT GORDON. Leader of

men. *$1 (7c) Putnam
20–8245

A tribute of love and devotion to Theodore Roosevelt, opening with

a poem by the author reprinted from Scribner’s Magazine. In
conclusion Mr Anderson writes: “Theodore Roosevelt was a brave
warrior of the body, he was the mightier warrior of the soul. His life
was a chord of many notes, blending in noble harmony.... Its music is
not mute. It still echoes round the world, sounding the forward
march for the souls of men to that nobler warfare—to victory—to
peace.”

“The author has avoided equally the danger of sentimentalism and

that of over-analysis; his fine sanity of tone gives to his little book the
qualities of lasting excellence.” Margaret Ashmun

+ Bookm 52:346 D ’20 50w

“The author tells nothing very new about Roosevelt, but he relates
in a charming manner what he knew of him.” J. S. B.

+ Boston Transcript p11 My 15 ’20 300w

ANDERSON, ROBERT GORDON. Seven

o’clock stories. il *$3.50 (9½c) Putnam
20–20944

A story in short chapters suitable for bedtime reading. It is a book

about three happy children, Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and little
Hepzebiah. They live on a farm, and children who read the book will
learn all about their three dogs, the other farm animals, the
scarecrow and their friend the Toyman. The pictures are by E. Boyd
Smith.
 ANDERSON, SHERWOOD. Poor white. *$2
(1c) Huebsch
20–27471

In this novel, as in his Winesburg stories, Mr Anderson tells the

story of an Ohio town. It is a story of the transition period of the
eighties and nineties between an agricultural and an industrial
civilization. There was a time in that period, says Mr Anderson, when
art and beauty should have awakened. Instead, the giant, Industry,
awoke. The hero of the book, however, is not an Ohioan. He is a poor
white who wanders up from Missouri, an indolent, dreaming boy,
shaken out of his lethargy by a New England woman who tries to
train his mind to definite channels. The result is the development of
an inventive strain which the awakening giant, Industry, takes and
uses to its own ends. The author’s treatment of Hugh is pathologic.
He is attracted to women but is afraid of them. On his wedding night
he is seized with panic and runs away, to be brought back by his
father-in-law the next day. And never, except for fleeting moments,
does he find satisfaction, either in his marriage or his work.

“Will undoubtedly be criticised by many readers for its sordidness

of detail and its emphasis upon sex, but will be read by those who do
not object to this with admiration for the frank truth of portrayal of a
certain section of life.”

+ − Booklist 17:155 Ja ’21

Reviewed by R. C. Benchley

Bookm 52:559 F ’21 380w

 “Structurally the story is chaotic and badly put together, being
obviously the work of an ambitious young writer who has been
emboldened to do something imaginatively big, but who has no
control of the superabundance of material at his disposal. His ‘Poor
white’ is in its way a remarkable piece of work, but it is not the first
novel that has been written about the life it depicts or the last word
in American fiction.” E. F. Edgett

+ − Boston Transcript p8 D 1 ’20 1700w

“He has made his story a ‘Pilgrim’s’ progress,’ peopled with

characters as actual and as full of meaning as those of the immortal
allegory.” R. M. Lovett

+ Dial 70:77 Ja ’21 850w

“While as a novel the design, rhythms, texture and synthesis are

about as bad as can be, as a book of miracles it is beautiful. The
unexpected marvels of understanding, the terrible flashes of
accuracy, the strange pity and enfolding passion are all incidental
and personal: the epic he sought to write is cumbersome and dead,
but the souls born from his soul live and suffer before us.” C. K. Scott

+ − Freeman 2:403 Ja 5 ’21 580w

“In veracity and intellectual honesty Mr Anderson’s book is

incomparably superior to most of our novels. But compared to ‘Main
street’ it lacks fire and edge, lucidity and fulness.”

+ − Nation 111:536 N 10 ’20 200w

 “To deny that ‘Poor white’ is a creation, an organism, with a life of
its own, would be to sin against the light: but it is only fair to say that
Mr Anderson’s limitations make ‘Poor white’ an incomplete, a
maimed, organism.” F. H.

+ − New Repub 24:330 N 24 ’20 1250w

“‘Poor white’ remains a poetic novel in half a dozen broad senses.

It has the clarity and concentration as well as some of the music of
poetry. In its hold upon certain large pulsations of American life it is
close to Whitman. It certainly belongs with Whitman rather than
with Howells.” C. M. Rourke

+ N Y Evening Post p4 D 4 ’20 1350w

“The book is a careful, conscientious study of certain phases of the

industrial development of America, and especially of the Middle
West.”

+ N Y Times p20 D 12 ’20 650w

“Important American novel.” Eric Gershom

+ Pub W 98:1888 D 18 ’20 240w

“The totality of the book gives the effect of a wood carving done
with a hatchet by a man who could do well if he had a knife. But its
faults are made up for by the dominant fact that Mr Anderson has a
story to tell. The book is not great, but it has the seeds of greatness. It
is worth while, and its author is worth watching.”
 + − Springf’d Republican p5a Ja 2 ’21 500w

ANDERSON, WILLIAM ASHLEY. South of

Suez. il *$3 (6½c) McBride 916
20–18577

The book contains sketches of the author’s wanderings in East

Africa during the war. They are not a consecutive series, but they are
full of local coloring and echoes of the European war. Three of them
give an account of the apostasy of the Abyssinian ruler, Lidj Yassou,
from Christianity to don the turban, and the following uprising, of
which the author was an eye-witness. The contents, with many
illustrations, are: A coin is spun; Soldiers, sand, and sentiment; Aden
of Araby; Cross and scimitar in Abyssinia; Es-Sawahil; Zanzibar—the
spicy isle; The wilderness patrol; Kwa Heri.

“Delightful reading.”

+ Booklist 17:150 Ja ’21

“His tales of peoples so like us in their passions and ambitions, so

different from us in habits and environment, assuredly make for
edification as well as pleasure, and we could stand more of them.” C.
F. Lavell

+ Grinnell R 15:282 N ’20 150w

“The impressions do not always ‘get across,’ good as the author’s

material is.”
 + − Outlook 126:238 O 6 ’20 40w

“His experiences do not form a well-connected story. His

impressions are patchy, with much left for inference. But as it is, the
interest is absorbing and some passages one will read over and over
again.”

+ − Springf’d Republican p10 S 23 ’20 400w

[2]
ANDERTON, DAISY. Cousin Sadie. *$1.75 (3c)
Stratford co.
20–13144

The scene is a college town in Ohio to which the heroine, Sara

Dickinson, descendant of a long line of Calvinistic forebears, returns
after a long absence. She thinks she has shaken off the teachings of
her childhood, but in a crucial situation, involving love between
herself and the husband of a young cousin, the sharp sense of
distinction between right and wrong reasserts itself.

“The atmosphere of an Ohio college town is well done.”

+ Cleveland p105 D ’20 30w

ANDREA, MRS A. LOUISE. Dehydrating foods.

il *$1.75 Cornhill co. 641.4
20–11679
 “‘Dehydrating foods’ tells of a method recently perfected, which
will effect a revolution in the means and methods of food
preservation. As distinguished from drying, it reduces the bulk of
foods without destroying the flavoring, coloring or nutritive
properties. The process used in America is far superior to the
European methods. All this and much more of lively interest may be
gleaned from this volume by Mrs Andrea, lecturer on food, cookery
and canning at the Panama-Pacific exposition, San Francisco, and
the New York International exposition. The book contains detailed
instructions for home dehydration as well as numerous recipes.”—
Cath World

Booklist 17:143 Ja ’21

Boston Transcript p5 S 29 ’20 310w
+ Cath World 112:269 N ’20 180w

ANDREIEFF, LEONID NIKOLAEVICH.

Satan’s diary; authorized tr. *$2.25 (4c) Boni &
Liveright

Satan has assumed human form in the person of a Chicago

billionaire, Henry Wondergood and gives an account of his mundane
exploits in the form of a diary. He finds that, with the body of
Wondergood, he has also acquired some of his human qualities and
is no longer proof against human emotions. Thus, when in Rome he
meets one Magnus and his daughter Maria, a madonna-like woman,
he falls in love with her and allows Magnus to out-satan him to the
extent of robbing him of all his money and finally to blow him up in
his palace after revealing to him that Maria the madonna, is not his
daughter but his mistress. The story is a bitter satire on human life.
In a long preface Herman Bernstein gives a brief sketch of
Andreieff’s life.

“This is not only caustic comment on the conditions and problems

of today on this world, it is a denunciation of all life, a renunciation
of illusions and hopes. Without a doubt this latest and last work of
Andreyev is for the time the last word in iconoclastic criticism.” W. T.
R.

+ Boston Transcript p3 N 27 ’20 700w

“Many of the ideas are brought out in long, rambling conversations

dealing in the characteristic Russian manner with the purely abstract
phases of life, and tending to mystify rather than clarify. At other
times the satire is quick and amusing in its unexpected turns of keen
humour. Sometimes Andreyev shows a gentler side, one might
almost say a romantic strain.” L. R. Sayler

+ − Freeman 2:381 D 29 ’20 460w

“A theme, this, to tempt one of the ‘masters of free irony and

laughter,’ a Voltaire, an Anatole France. Its development in
Andreyev’s hands is disappointing. We have too great a respect for
the Satan of Job and of Milton to believe that he could have been so
easily gulled. But the source of disappointment in the handling of the
theme lies deeper. In this book, as in most of his other writings,
Andreyev shrinks back appalled before the torturing riddle of human
destiny. He hurls his vain questions against the blank wall.” Dorothy
Brewster
 − Nation 112:46 Ja 12 ’21 850w

“Marie Corelli is so far below Andreyev that it may excite derision

to compare them, and yet in one of her bombastic novels, ‘The
sorrows of Satan,’ she actually succeeded in making a more probable
Satan than this one of the great Russian’s. This book is too savage
either for satire or burlesque—and too inconsistent. Besides, even a
good fairy tale should be plausible. Nevertheless, as a story the book
is interesting.”

− + N Y Times p6 O 10 ’20 2050w

ANDREIEFF, LEONID NIKOLAEVICH.

When the king loses his head, and other stories.
(Russian authors’ lib.) $2 International bk.

“The half-dozen ‘other stories’ intimated in the title of this volume

are ‘Judas Iscariot,’ ‘Lazarus,’ ‘Life of Father Vassily,’ ‘Ben-Tobith,’
‘The Marseillaise’ and ‘Dies irae.’ The last two are poems in prose.
The title-story is a high-strung imaginative picture of the French
revolution; ‘Judas Iscariot’ might be interpreted as an attempt to
corporealize an arch-fiend compelled to bring about the final tragedy
of Jesus’ life in order that prophecy might be fulfilled.”—Boston
Transcript

“It is to be hoped that out of Russia’s chaos, when once more life
becomes normal, there will be an end to such masterpieces of
outrageous dissection. They may represent an epoch, but they are
unwholesome and smack of the deadly amanita. Mr Wolfe’s
translation has some good passages, but there are many infelicities.”
 − + Boston Transcript p6 Jl 24 ’20 370w

“This art has passion and humanity and a strange fervor. But to
many its glow will seem the glow of phosphorescence and decay.”

− + Nation 111:48 Jl 10 ’20 400w

Springf’d Republican p6 Ag 10 ’20 600w

ANNESLEY, CHARLES, pseud. (CHARLES

TITTMANN and ANNA TITTMANN). Standard
operaglass. *$3 Brentano’s 782
20–6561

This new edition, revised and brought up to date, includes

“detailed plots of two hundred and thirty-five celebrated operas with
critical and biographical remarks, dates, etc.” (Title page) There is a
“prelude” by James Huneker. and an index to operas and one to
composers. The work was originally published in 1899 and was
revised in 1904 and again in 1910.

Booklist 16:286 My ’20

“Well told, with the chief points brought out with admirable
directness. The arrangement is simple and the indices ample.”

+ Cath World 112:549 Ja ’21 130w

 “One of the best existent guides to opera librettos.” H: T. Finck

+ N Y Evening Post p13 My 8 ’20 180w

ANNIN, ROBERT EDWARDS. Ocean shipping;

elements of practical steamship operation. il *$3
(2½c) Century 656
20–11077

This is the first volume in the Century foreign trade series, edited
by William E. Aughinbaugh. The author, who is lecturer on
economics in New York university, says in his preface: “Within the
limits of a volume like the present it is possible only to touch upon
even the fundamentals of ship management and operation.... The
aim has been to exclude, as far as possible, the academic and
legalistic, and to make the book what its title implies—a practical, if
elementary, guide, based on experience, rather than a theoretical
treatise based on maxims.” The book is divided into three parts. Part
I, The ship, has chapters on An American merchant marine; Range of
the business: Freight rates; The labor problem; Officering and
manning; The cargo carrier, etc. Part II is devoted to The office, with
discussions of Machinery of foreign trade; Foreign exchange; Traffic
manager; General cargo, etc. Part III devotes thirteen chapters to
Charters. There are six illustrations, appendices and index.

“Although the book cannot be described as having a scholarly style

and although the author’s ideas on economics seem to be a bit
unorthodox at times, the reader will find this volume far more useful
than many written in a more literary vein. The author seems to be
thoroughly familiar with his subject-matter.” M. J. S.
 + Am Econ R 10:818 D ’20 160w
Booklist 17:56 N ’20

“The language is simple and direct and free from technical terms.
It has evidently been the aim of the writer to produce a book of
thorough practical value to those engaged in ocean shipping.”

+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 31 ’20 460w

“Excellent manual.”

+ R of Rs 62:224 Ag ’20 50w

ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE D’. Tales of my native

town. *$1.75 (2½c) Doubleday
20–6708

This collection of short stories is translated from the Italian by

Professor Rafael Mantellini and has an introduction by Joseph
Hergesheimer. This is an appreciative comparison between our
Anglo-Saxon short story and that of the great Italian. Mr
Hergesheimer calls attention to the intense realism of D’Annunzio,
which knows no reservations and no shrinking. The tales are: The
hero; The countess of Amalfi; The return of Turlendana; Turlendana
drunk; The gold pieces; Sorcery; The idolaters; Mungia; The
downfall of Candia; The death of the duke of Ofena; The war of the
bridge; The virgin Anna.
 “Here writing is done with the big stick. They are tales of the
noisier passions, executed with meticulous consideration for the
formidable detail, since D’Annunzio writes with all the heat and
strength of pulse that is supposed to belong to the southern
temperament. The translation, with the possible exception of parts of
the conversation, is very smoothly done.”

+ Dial 68:804 Je ’20 120w

“It takes, as Joseph Hergesheimer points out in his exceedingly

interesting preface, a rather carefully prepared attitude of mind to
thoroly enjoy them. They are written with art and skill but with a lack
of reticence in description which is likely to disturb the Anglo-Saxon.
If you enjoy Russian short stories you will probably enjoy these.”

+ Ind 104:70 O 9 ’20 160w

“The stories are of course arresting and at times brilliant.

D’Annunzio’s powerful gifts are beyond question today.” L. L.

+ − Nation 110:sup488 Ap 10 ’20 240w

Reviewed by Rebecca West

New Repub 23:156 Je 30 ’20 500w

“In their English dress, certainly, they are not overwhelming. One
can with a fairly good conscience own to the impression that, with all
their marvel of detail, several of them are oppressively squalid and
even tedious; squalor and tedium having, of course, their part, a
relative part, in the spectacle of living.” H. W. Boynton
 − Review 2:435 Ap 24 ’20 520w

“These tales neither convince nor move the reader. There is a

quickness of action in these sketches, foreign to D’Annunzio’s novels;
his writing has lost a great deal of that sensuality and voluptuousness
so cloying to the American mind. But it has also lost in beauty and
harmonious detail.”

− + Springf’d Republican p6 Ap 26 ’20

420w

ANSTRUTHER, EILEEN H. A. (MRS JOHN

COLLINGS SQUIRE). Husband. *$1.75 Lane
20–8450

“The story of a very modern young lady, Penelope Brooke,

befriended in the early chapters by a cousin. Later on the heroine
embarks on the adventure of earning her bread in London, during
which time her relations with her cousin’s husband become involved.
In the end the inconvenient Mrs Dennithorne dies, and the reader is
led to anticipate a happy sequel.”—Spec

“The author has good powers of description and characterization.”

+ Ath p1411 D 26 ’19 60w

“A pleasant tale of English life. Never very exciting, it yet holds the
reader’s interest sufficiently for an evening’s enjoyment.”
 + − Boston Transcript p4 Je 2 ’20 200w
Dial 69:433 O ’20 80w

“This book is well written—the characters clearly drawn; but that is

the whole measure of commendation that can be bestowed upon it. It
is an exceedingly dull story of contemporary English life. It seems a
pity that such good writing and so much print paper should be
wasted upon a dead level of mediocrity.”

− + N Y Times 25:25 Jl 11 ’20 250w

Spec 124:215 F 14 ’20 60w

“Well written with the principal characters clearly portrayed, ‘The

husband’ lacks vitality. A certain stiffness and awkwardness make
the tale in numerous places ‘heavy going.’ Penelope, with a mild,
Quakerish manner, is the most human and attractive principal.”

+ − Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 25 ’20

220w

“Her choice of the moment for a description and her choice of the
scene to be described show psychological understanding as well as
good craftsmanship. The story is anything but ‘didactic,’ but it is
none the worse for having an ethical direction.”

+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p780 D 25

’19 580w
 ANSWER to John Robinson of Leyden; ed. by
Champlin Burrage. (Harvard theological studies) pa
*$2 Harvard univ. press 274.2
20–12134

“John Robinson is considered by some to be the real father of

American democracy with its emphasis upon the separation of
church and state. The answer to Robinson by a Puritan friend is
against his advocacy of separation from the Church of England. In
this answer practically the entire argument of Robinson, the Pilgrim
pastor at Leyden, for the separation of church and state is given. The
manuscript is of the date 1609, eleven years before the Pilgrims left
Leyden for their ultimate destiny, America. It is now published for
the first time.”—Boston Transcript

Reviewed by Williston Walker

Am Hist R 26:339 Ja ’21 200w

+ Ath p242 Ag 20 ’20 300w
+ Boston Transcript p8 S 15 ’20 300w

ANTHONY, KATHARINE SUSAN. Margaret

Fuller; a psychological biography. il *$2.25 (4c)
Harcourt
20–18959
 A study of Margaret Fuller from the standpoint of modern
psychology, analyzing the hysteria of her childhood and the neurotic
element in her later life. Her contribution to the feminist movement
and her relation to the revolutionary struggle in Europe are also dealt
with from a modern point of view. Incidentally there are brief and
searching criticisms of Emerson, Hawthorne, Horace Greeley and
others. Contents: Family patterns; A precocious child; Narcissa;
Miranda; A woman’s woman; The transcendentalist: The journalist;
Contacts; Her debt to nature; The revolutionist; 1850. There is a
bibliography of four pages and the book is indexed.

“Written in a straightforward, interesting literary style.”

+ Booklist 17:151 Ja ’21

Boston Transcript p4 O 9 ’20 530w
+ Dial 70:108 Ja ’21 160w

“Taken as a whole the book opens up wide intellectual and

imaginative horizons.”

+ Nation 112:46 Ja 12 ’21 400w

“The book is like some fine-grained granite rock of solid

psychological and historical scholarship, all sun-flicked with glinting
humor and warm-hearted common sense.” E. F. Wyatt

+ New Repub 25:22 D 1 ’20 1250w

“Margaret Fuller’s genius was akin to madness, and how far such
an analysis of so abnormal a character is of real value is questionable.
It is, however, unquestionably well done.”

+ − Outlook 126:575 N 17 ’20 80w

“To explain Margaret’s hysteria by a purely Freudian hypothesis is

folly, and something a good deal worse than folly.”

− Review 3:388 O 27 ’20 400w

R of Rs 62:669 D ’20 120w

“Katharine Anthony’s ‘Margaret Fuller,’ a ‘psychological biography’

is infested with preconceptions and is unpleasantly provocative in
tone.”

− + Springf’d Republican p6 O 11 ’20 520w

ANTONELLI, ÉTIENNE. Bolshevik Russia. *$2

(3c) Knopf 947
20–650

This book, translated from the French by Charles A. Carroll, is

from the pen of a former professor of the College de France, an
economist and sociologist, who as military attaché to the French
embassy studied the Russian situation with its historical background
and the character of the Russian ever in view. The conclusion he
arrives at is that Bolshevist Russia, “if not crushed by a new ‘Holy
alliance,’ will prepare for humanity the spectacle of a singular
democracy, such as the world will not have known until then, a
democracy which will not be made up of gradual conquests plucked
by shreds from a plutocratic bourgeoisie, but which will build itself
up out of the very stuff of the people, a democracy which will not
descend from the powerful ones to the people, as in all present forms
of society, but which will rise voluntarily and surely from the
unorganized and uncultivated folk to an organizing intelligence.”
(Conclusion) The contents are in two parts: Bolshevism and politics;
and Bolshevism and society.

“The detailed recital of events in chronological order is

straightforward and clear but for the confusion of names of
individuals and of parties and factions which are almost meaningless
to an ordinary reader in this country. The psychological analysis of
the Russian is interesting, but its over-simplification makes one feel
that it is inadequate.” V: E. Helleberg

+ − Am J Soc 26:113 Jl ’20 170w

+ Ath p355 Mr 12 ’20 80w
Booklist 16:236 Ap ’20

“His record, covering almost the same period as that of Robins in

point of experience, has a much broader historic background and a
more carefully scientific sociological basis.” O. M. Sayler

+ Bookm 51:312 My ’20 1000w

Cleveland p27 Mr ’20 40w

Reviewed by Harold Kellock

Freeman 1:620 S 8 ’20 550w

 “He has not only produced the most authentic record that has yet
appeared of the opening months of the second revolution, but has
written some of the clearest and wisest words which have thus far
been uttered about it.” Jacob Zeitlin

+ Nation 110:399 Mr 27 ’20 600w

“It is distinctly a relief to read one book about Russia that is not
written by a journalist, amateur or professional. M. Antonelli does
not describe a tremendous historical upheaval in the manner of a
reporter describing a street fight. Some of M. Antonelli’s statements
and conclusions are contradictory; but this circumstance merely
confirms his general reliability as a witness. Every revolution carries
within itself the seeds of many contradictions. It is only the conscious
or unconscious propagandist who smooths out all difficulties and
represents the acts of his own party as uniformly righteous, correct
and consistent.” W. H. C.

+ − New Repub 22:384 My 19 ’20 950w

“Valuable as well as interesting. The calm, broad view taken and

the absence of anything like passion or partisanship are not the least
appealing elements in this volume.”

+ N Y Times 25:325 Je 20 ’20 800w

“A colorless but informative historical narrative.”

+ − Outlook 124:291 F 18 ’20 40w

 “Although not himself a believer in Bolshevism, he is capable of
judging fairly the administrative aims of the Lenin-Trotsky régime.
At any rate his contribution contains more fact and less hysteria than
most current publications dealing with Russia.”

+ R of Rs 61:335 Mr ’20 100w

“This book inspires confidence in the author’s impartiality and

freedom from bias. This is the best book on the subject we know of.”

+ Sat R 130:380 N 6 ’20 170w

“A sane and helpful account of his subject.” Reed Lewis

+ Survey 44:48 Ap 3 ’20 150w

“Written with the clarity and quick intelligence one expects from a
well known French sociologist and professor.”

+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p158 Mr 4

’20 60w

“M. Antonelli describes his work as a ‘philosophical survey’; but

the philosophical or rather psychological study of Bolshevism stands
out less prominently than the very full and interesting account of the
methods by which the Bolshevist leaders grasped and held power
during the first few months after their coup d’etat.”

+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p264 Ap

29 ’20 950w
 ARMFIELD, CONSTANCE (SMEDLEY)
(MRS MAXWELL ARMFIELD). Wonder tales of
the world. il *$2.50 Harcourt 398.2
20–18948

Seventeen folk tales from as many countries compose this

collection. Among them are: The food that belonged to all (America);
The birds who befriended a king (Arabia); The cattle that came
(Bulgaria); Lazy Taro (Japan); The prince and the eagle (Greece);
The seven sheepfolds (Hungary); The clever companions (India);
Tom of the goatskin (Ireland); Cap o’ rushes (England); The little
cabin boy (Norway); The chess players (Wales).

+ Booklist 17:120 D ’20 20w

+ Lit D p96 D 4 ’20 40w

ARMSTRONG, DAVID MAITLAND. Day

before yesterday. il *$6 (5c) Scribner
20–18941

These “reminiscences of a varied life” (Subtitle) are edited by the

author’s daughter, Margaret Armstrong. Mr Armstrong was born in
1836 at Danskammer near Newburgh, lived an interesting life as
artist, government official and traveler until his death in 1918. The
contents are: Danskammer; New York when I was a boy; My
brothers; The South before the war; At college; Travels and a
shipwreck; New York when I was a young man; Rome—church and
state; Some Roman friends; The Campagna; Venice; Saint Gaudens
and others; Some pleasant summers; The Century club; My farm at
Danskammer.

“It is singular that so sweet and amiable a book should be so

interesting, so amusing. So much of the charm of the man seems to
me to have got into the book that I expect for it a marked success,
and, what is better, a long life in the future.” E. S. Nadal

+ N Y Evening Post p5 D 4 ’20 2900w

+ R of Rs 62:670 D ’20 90w

“A delightful narrative of one phase of American life at its best.”

+ Springf’d Republican p8 Ja 11 ’21 370w

ARMY and religion; an inquiry and its bearing

upon the religious life of the nation. *$2 (2c) Assn.
press 261

This inquiry had its origin in the desire of certain British Y. M. C.

A. workers “to consider and interpret what was being revealed under
war conditions as to the religious life of the nation and to bring the
result before the churches.” The first step in the inquiry was the
preparation of a questionnaire to be submitted to various classes of
persons, including officers, privates and war workers of all classes.
This questionnaire covered three topics: What the men are thinking
about religion, morality, and society; The changes made by the war;
The relation of the men to the churches. The report is in two parts,
Part 1 dealing with the facts, Part 2 with religion and the army. The