The Gaming Table | Page 9

he had so much of it.
'By a strange concurrence of events, it so happened that by random throws the Frenchman sometimes knocked all the pins down at a single swoop, though he clearly could not play--Mr Chase was sure of that--while the skilful player made every now and then one of the blunders to which the best players are liable. That the tradesman lost forty sovereigns will be easily understood; and did his tale end here it would have differed so little from a hundred others as scarcely to deserve telling; but it will surprise many, as it did me, to learn that he then walked to and from his own house--a distance of precisely a mile each way--fetched a bill for thirty pounds, which a customer had recently paid him, got it discounted, went back to the skittle- ground, and, under the same malignant star, lost the whole.
'It was the only case in my experience of the work going on smoothly after such a break. I never could account for it, nor could Mr Chase. Great was the latter's disgust, on setting the police to work, to find that the French nobleman, his servant, and the quiet stranger, were all dwellers within half a mile or so of his own house, and slightly known to him--men who had trusted, and very successfully, to great audacity and well- arranged disguise.'
A vast deal of gambling still goes on with skittles all over the country. At a place not ten miles from London, I am told that as much as two thousand pounds has been seen upon the table in a single 'alley,' or place of play. The bets were, accordingly, very high. The instances revealed by exposure at the police- courts give but a faint idea of the extent of skittle sharping.
Amidst such abuses of the game, it can scarcely surprise us that the police have been recently directed to prohibit all playing at skittles and bowls. However much we may regret the interference with popular pastimes, in themselves unobjectionable, it is evident that their flagrant abuse warrants the most stringent measures in order to prevent their constantly repeated and dismal consequences. Even where money was not played for, pots of beer were the wager--leading, in many instances, to intoxication, or promoting this habit, which is the cause of so much misery among the lower orders.
CHAPTER II.
PROFESSIONAL GAMESTERS AND THEIR FRAUDS.
A gambling house at the end of the last century was conducted by the following officials:--
1. A Commissioner,--who was always a proprietor; who looked in of a night, and audited the week's account with two other proprietors.
2. A Director,--who superintended the room.
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, Assassins, &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