"The number of new gaming-houses, established at the West End of the town, is, indeed, a matter of very serious evil: but they are not likely to decrease while examples of the same nature are held forth in the higher circles of life. It is needless to point out any one of these houses in particular: it is sufficient for us to expose the tricks that are practised at many of them to swindle the unsuspecting young men of fortune who are entrapped into these whirlpools of destruction. The first thing necessary is, to give the guests a good dinner and plenty of wine, which many of these houses do, gratis. When they are sufficiently intoxicated, and, having lost all the money about them, their acceptance is obtained to Bills of Exchange to a considerable amount, which frequently are paid to avoid the disagreeable circumstance of a public exposition in a Court of Justice, which is always threatened, though the gamesters well know that no such measure durst be adopted by them. "Should any reluctance, or hesitation, be shewn by the injured party, to accept these bills, he is shewn into a long room, with a target at the end of it, and several pistols lying about, where he is given to understand these sharpers practice a considerable time of the day in shooting at a mark, and have arrived to such perfection in this exercise, that either of them can shoot a pistol ball within an inch of the mark, from the common distance taken by duellists. A hint is then dropped, that further hesitation will render the use of the pistols necessary, and which will again be the case, should he ever divulge what he has seen, and heard. "If further particulars, or proofs, are wanting, they may be known on application to certain _Military characters_, who have already made some noise in the world."--(_Times, Feb. 14, 1793._) The Illustration "Modern Hospitality, or a Friendly Party in High Life," is by Gillray, 31st Mar. 1792, and in it we see Lady Archer, and Lady Buckinghamshire, keeping a Faro Bank: and, as they are rather _passées_, the picture has the following, "To those earthly Divinities who charmed 20 years ago, this Honorable method of banishing mortifying reflections is dedicated. O, Woman! Woman! everlasting is your power over us, for in youth, you charm away our hearts, and in your after years you charm away our purses!" [Illustration: Gambling--1792.]