This is sort of an odd entry which fits with this odd game. In part this entry is to document that Scarnie was not a predecessor of Scarney. John Scarne used his name in many games in many variations. It makes trying to reconstruct his contributions to board games even more frustrating. Having never seen the game itself, I'll attempt to describe it from the rules. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be quite enough information to entirely reconstruct this game.
To make matters a bit more confusing in his book The odds against me Scarne has a 1929 picture of him playing a game named Scarney with Jimmy Braddock. The picture shows a game which fits this Scarnie game for which the rules are available (see weblinks). Being a good promoter Scarne didn't show him opposing the water boy at the boxing camp, but the champ himself!
Equipment
Scarnie is played on a board with four stations. Each station has the numbers 1 to 7 arranged in a semi-circle arranged in front of the player. There is common "pool" area in the center of the table.
There are 28 men which we will say are black discs. There is a number on one side of the disc, with each disc having one of the numbers between 1 and 28. 20 numbers are say red, and eight are say green. (Sorry but rules don't specify color/number association!!).
Play
The men are place numbers down in the pool area, and then each player fills his stations consecutively (thereby selecting seven pawns total for the station) and keeping the numbers hidden from the other players. The dealer calls "play" and the men are turned over to reveal the numbers.
The rules mention "Double", "Triple" , and "Draw" positions which I cannot explain. The available rules do describe other aspects of play. The gist is however that the pawns are eliminated from the board, and the last pawn left on the board scores points for that player.