Find the lady is an ancient and classic confidence trick or scam. Typically the conman will operate on a street corner with a table on which are three playing cards. These cards are shown to the audience to be three different and ordinary cards, one of which is a queen. The cards are dealt face down in a row and a victim asked to select which is the queen. Then the cards are slid to different positions and the victim again asked to locate the queen, this continues until the performer believes the victim is ready to be tricked. Finally the victim is invited to place a wager on their ability to locate the queen. The cards are slid about as before to change their sequence, but the queen is not where expected. The performer, an expert card sharp, has used sleight of hand to trick the victim. Often an accomplice will pretend to be a member of the audience, and will 'win' the wager, thereby enticing gullible members of the audience to try. In variations, a victim may be allowed to win a small wager, and perhaps another, before being and invited to try a large wager, at which point flushed with their own perceived success at the 'game' they lose. Research Find The Lady
Pool hustling is an occupation in which a professional pool player invites games of pool with unsuspecting members of the public who consider themselves to be quite good. An ideal victim is one who brags about his playing ability. The first game will always be lost by the hustler, who will then perhaps play and lose another game before inviting the victim to place a wager on the game. If the wager is small, the victim may win and be invited to play for a larger wager, when the stakes are sufficiently high, the hustler wins the game conclusively and walks away with the money. The scam is in the deliberate deception of the victim who is led to believe that the other player is not quite such a good player as they are, as distinct from an honest game in which the professional will invite a wager and play to win the wager. Research Pool Hustling
Trial by Battle also known as Wager by Battle, was a Norman innovation by which some civil actions and trials for felony at the private suit of the persons wronged might be decided by personal combat. A woman, a priest, a peer, or a person physically incapable of fighting could refuse such a trial. In civil cases men were usually hired to fight the duel, but in cases of felony or murder accuser and accused fought personally until one was slain. If the accused gave in, he was put to death: if he killed his opponent or the fight lasted from sunrise to sunset, he was acquitted. The last trial by battle was waged in the court of common please, Westminster in 1571; in the court of chivalry in 1631; and in the court of Durham in 1639. In the case of Ashford v. Thornton in 1818, the accused in a trial for murder pleaded 'Not guilty; and I am ready to defend the same by my body.' The plea was held good, and the accused set free, as the accuser would not fight. Trial by Battle was abolished by statute in 1818. Research Trial by Battle
Henry Wager Halleck was an American soldier. He was born in 1815 at New York and died in 1872. He graduated at the US Military Academy in 1839 and entered the engineers. He published 'Elements of Military Art and Science' in 1846, which was a classic work at that time, and a treatise on 'International Law'. He was raised to the rank of captain for his services in the Mexican War. He was prominent in the military and political movements in California from 1846 to 1854. In 1854 he left the army and settled in San Francisco as a lawyer and director of a mining company. On the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 he was appointed major-general of the US army and assigned to the Department of Missouri,, and successfully organized that district. In 1862 he received command of the Mississippi Department, and was soon after appointed commander-in-chief of the army, a position he retained until Grant was made lieutenant-general. After the American Civil War he commanded the Pacific Division until 1869, and the Division of the South from 1869 to 1872. Research Henry Halleck
A hustler is a person who makes a living by dishonest means. Typically the term is applied to confidence tricksters who scam their victims in games such as pool (pool hustling) or poker, where the confidence trickster deceives the victim into thinking that they can win, and entices the victim to place a large wager on a game's outcome - the victim believing they are the better player - only to lose the game and the wager. Research Hustler
Cruel Intentions is a drama starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe in a story about spoilt high-school student who makes a wager with her stepbrother. Cruel Intentions was directed by Roger Kumble in 1999. Research Cruel Intentions
Rouge et noir (red and black) also known as Trente et Quarante (thirty and forty) is a gambling game played with cards. The game is played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth, having at either end two large diamonds coloured red and black respectively and a triangular space called inverse. In the centre are two divisions known as couleur.
Six decks of cards are shuffled together, from which the dealer takes a convenient quantity in his hand each time a coup is dealt. Court cards count ten, and the ten down to ace bear their face value. The dealer first deals for noir (black) until the pips on the cards faced in a line number 31 or not more than 40; and then does the same for rouge (red), the winning row being that containing pips totalling the nearest to 31. Should the pips number exactly the same (between 32 and 40) in both noir and rouge, the deal is void. In the event of both rows totalling exactly 31 each, half the stakes go to the bank, or the players have the option of leaving their entirestakes down for the next deal, the successful ones receiving their stakes back, but without any profit. In the case of the losers the bank takes all. This is called the refait, and acts in favour of the bank in the same manner as zero does in roulette.
Players who stake on couleur wager that the winning colour will be the same as the first card turned; those backing inverse, that it will be the opposite. Stakes placed on the red or black diamond denote the backing of that particular colour to win. The dealer holds the bank, and the other players are termed punters. Research Rouge et Noir
HMS Kempenfelt was a British Wager Class destroyer of 1710 tons displacement launched in 1943 as HMS Valentine. HMS Kempenfelt was powered by two Admiralty 3-drum type boilers providing a top speed of 34 knots. She carried a complement of 186 and was armed with four 4.7 inch guns; four 40 mm anti-aircraft guns; four 20 mm anti-aircraft guns and four depth charge throwers. In 1944 she was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed Algonquin. Research Kempenfelt
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
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