The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Volume 2 Part 2

3. An Operator,--who dealt the cards at the cheating game called Faro.

4. Two Croupiers, or crow-pees, as they were vulgarly called, whose duty it was to watch the cards and gather or rake in the money for the bank.

5. Two Puffs,--who had money given to them to decoy others to play.

6. A Clerk,--who was a check on the Puffs, to see that they sank none of the money given to them to play with.

7. A Squib,--who was a puff of a lower rank, serving at half salary, whilst learning to deal.

8. A Flasher,--to swear how often the bank had been stripped by lucky players.

9. A Dunner,--who went about to recover money lost at play.

10. A Waiter,--to fill out wine, snuff candles, and attend the room.

11. An Attorney,--who was generally a Newgate solicitor.

12. A Captain,--who was to fight any gentleman who might be peevish at losing his money.

13. An Usher,--who lighted the gentlemen up and down stairs, and gave the word to the porter.

14. A Porter,--who was generally a soldier of the Foot Guards.

15. An Orderly-man,--who walked up and down the outside of the door, to give notice to the porter, and alarm the house at the approach of the constables.

16. A Runner,--who was to get intelligence of the Justices' meetings.

17. Link Boys, Coachmen, Chairmen, Drawers, and others, who brought the first intelligence of Justices' meetings, of constables going out, at half a guinea reward.

18. Common Bail, Affidavit Men, Ruffians, Bravos, a.s.sa.s.sins, &c. &c.

It may be proper to remark that the above list of officials was only calculated for gambling houses of an inferior order. In these it is evident that the fear of interruption and the necessity for precaution presided over the arrangements. There were others, however, which seemed to defy law, to spurn at justice, and to remain secure, in every way, by the 'respectability' of their frequenters. These were houses supported at an amazing expense--within sight of the palace--which were open every night and all night--where men of the first rank were to be found gambling away immense sums of money, such as no man, whatever his fortune might be, could sustain. 'What, then,' says a writer at the time, 'are the consequences? Why, that the UNDONE part of them sell their VOTES for bread, and the successful give them for honours.

'He who has never seen the gamblers' apartments in some of the magnificent houses in the neighbourhood of St James's, has never seen the most horrid sight that the imagination of a thinking man can conceive.

'A new pack of cards is called for at every deal, and the "old" ones are then thrown upon the floor, and in such an immense quant.i.ty, that the writer of this letter has seen a very large room nearly ANKLE-DEEP, in the greatest part of it, by four o'clock in the morning! Judge, then, to what height they must have risen by daylight.'

It is a melancholy truth, but confirmed by the history of all nations, that the most polite and refined age of a kingdom is never the most virtuous; not, indeed, that any such compliment can be paid to that gross age, but still it was refined compared with the past. The distinctions of personal merit being but little regarded--in the low moral tone that prevailed--there needed but to support a certain 'figure' in life (managed by the fashionable tailor)(4), to be conversant with a few etiquettes of good breeding and sentiments of modern or current honour, in order to be received with affability and courteous attention in the highest circles. The vilest sharper, having once gained admission, was sure of constant entertainment, for nothing formed a greater cement of union than the spirit of HIGH GAMING. There being so little cognizance taken of the good qualities of the heart in fashionable a.s.semblies, no wonder that amid the medley of characters to be found in these places the 'sharper' of polite address should gain too easy an admission.

(4)

'How shalt THOU to Caesar's hall repair?

For, ah! no DAMAGED coat can enter there!'

BEATTIE'S Minstrel.

This fraternity of artists--whether they were to be denominated rooks,(5) sharps, sharpers, black-legs, Greeks, or gripes--were exceedingly numerous, and were dispersed among all ranks of society.

(5) So called because rooks are famous for stealing materials out of other birds' nests to build their own.

The follies and vices of others--of open-hearted youth in particular--were the great game or pursuit of this odious crew. Though cool and dispa.s.sionate themselves, they did all in their power to throw others off their guard, that they might make their advantage of them.

In others they promoted excess of all kinds, whilst they themselves took care to maintain the utmost sobriety and temperance. 'Gamesters,' says Falconer, 'whose minds must be always on the watch to take advantages, and prepared to form calculations, and to employ the memory, constantly avoid a full meal of animal food, which they find incapacitates them for play nearly as much as a quant.i.ty of strong liquor would have done, for which reason they feed chiefly on milk and vegetables.'

As profit, not pleasure, was the aim of these knights of darkness, they lay concealed under all shapes and disguises, and followed up their game with all wariness and discretion. Like wise traders, they made it the business of their lives to excel in their calling.

For this end they studied the secret mysteries of their art by night and by day; they improved on the scientific schemes of their profound master, Hoyle, and on his deep doctrines and calculations of chances.

They became skilful without a rival where skill was necessary, and fraudulent without conscience where fraud was safe and advantageous; and while fortune or chance appeared to direct everything, they practised numberless devices by which they insured her ultimate favours to themselves.

Of these none were more efficacious, because none are more ensnaring, than bribing their young and artless dupes to future play by suffering them to win at their first onsets. By rising a winner the dupe imbibed a confidence in his own gambling abilities, or deemed himself a favourite of fortune. He engaged again, and was again successful--which increased his exultation and confirmed his future confidence; and thus did the simple gudgeon swallow their bait, till it became at last fast hooked.

When rendered thus secure of their prey, they began to level their whole train of artillery against the boasted honours of his short-lived triumph. Then the extensive manors, the ancient forests, the paternal mansions, began to tremble for their future destiny. The pigeon was marked down, and the infernal crew began in good earnest to pluck his rich plumage. The wink was given on his appearance in the room, as a signal of commencing their covert attacks. The shrug, the nod, the hem--every motion of the eyes, hands, feet--every air and gesture, look and word--became an expressive, though disguised, language of fraud and cozenage, big with deceit and swollen with ruin. Besides this, the card was marked, or 'slipped,' or COVERED. The story is told of a noted sharper of distinction, a foreigner, whose hand was thrust through with a fork by his adversary, Captain Roche, and thus nailed to the table, with this cool expression of concern--'I ask your pardon, sir, if you have not the knave of clubs under your hand.' The cards were packed, or cut, or even SWALLOWED. A card has been eaten between two slices of bread and b.u.t.ter, for the purpose of concealment.

With wily craft the sharpers subst.i.tuted their deceitful 'doctors' or false dice; and thus 'crabs,' or 'a losing game,' became the portion of the 'flats,' or dupes.

There were different ways of throwing dice. There was the 'Stamp'--when the caster with an elastic spring of the wrist rapped the cornet or box with vehemence on the table, the dice as yet not appearing from under the box. The 'Dribble' was, when with an air of easy but ingenious motion, the caster poured, as it were, the dice on the board--when, if he happened to be an old pract.i.tioner, he might suddenly cog with his fore-finger one of the cubes. The 'Long Gallery' was when the dice were flung or hurled the whole length of the board. Sometimes the dice were thrown off the table, near a confederate, who, in picking them up, changed one of the fair for a false die with two sixes. This was generally done at the first throw, and at the last, when the fair die was replaced. The sixes were on the opposite squares, so that the fraud could only be detected by examination. Of course this trick could only be practised at raffles, where only three throws are required.

A pair of false dice was arranged as follows:--

{Two fours On one die, {Two fives {Two sixes

{Two fives On the other, {Two threes {Two aces

With these dice it was impossible to throw what is at Hazard denominated Crabs, or a losing game--that is, aces, or ace and deuce, twelve, or seven. Hence, the caster always called for his main; consequently, as he could neither throw one nor seven, let his chance be what it might, he was sure to win, and he and those who were in the secret of course always took the odds. The false dice being concealed in the left hand, the caster took the box with the fair dice in it in his right hand, and in the act of shaking it caught the fair dice in his hand, and unperceived shifted the box empty to his left, from which he dropped the false dice into the box, which he began to rattle, called his main seven, and threw. Having won his stake he repeated it as often as he thought proper. He then caught the false dice in the same way, shifted the empty box again, and threw till he threw out, still calling the same main, by which artifice he escaped suspicion.

Two gambling adventurers would set out with a certain number of signs and signals. The use of the handkerchief during the game was the certain evidence of a good hand. The use of the snuff-box a sign equally indicative of a bad one. An affected cough, apparently as a natural one, once, twice, three, or four times repeated, was an a.s.surance of so many honours in hand. Rubbing the left eye was an invitation to lead trumps,--the right eye the reverse,--the cards thrown down with one finger and the thumb was a sign of one trump; two fingers and the thumb, two trumps, and so on progressively, and in exact explanation of the whole hand, with a variety of manoeuvres by which chance was reduced to certainty, and certainty followed by ruin.(6)

(6) Bon Ton Magazine, 1791.

CHEATING AT WHIST.

In an old work on cards the following curious disclosures are made respecting cheating at whist:--

'He that can by craft overlook his adversary's game hath a great advantage; for by that means he may partly know what to play securely; or if he can have some petty glimpse of his partner's hand. There is a way by making some sign by the fingers, to discover to their partners what honours they have, or by the wink of one eye it signifies one honour, shutting both eyes two, placing three fingers or four on the table, three or four honours. FOR WHICH REASON ALL NICE GAMSTERS PLAY BEHIND CURTAINS.

'Dealing the cards out by one and one to each person is the best method of putting it out of the dealer's power to impose on you. But I shall demonstrate that, deal the cards which way you will, a confederacy of two sharpers will beat any two persons in the world, though ever so good players, that are not of the gang, or in the secret, and "THREE poll ONE" is as safe and secure as if the money was in their pockets. All which will appear presently.

The first necessary instructions to be observed at Whist, as princ.i.p.als of the secret, which may be likewise transferred to most other games at cards, are:--

Brief or short cards,

Corner-bend,

Middle-bend (or Kingston-bridge).

'Of brief cards there are two sorts: one is a card longer than the rest,--the other is a card broader than the rest. The long sort are such as three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine; the broad sort are such as aces, kings, queens, and knaves. The use and advantage of each are as follows:--