The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
Dennis O'Kelly was the Napoleon of the turf and the gaming table. Ascot
was his elysium. His horses occupied him by day and the Hazard table
by night. At the latter one night he was seen repeatedly turning over
a _QUIRE OF BANK NOTES_, and a gentleman asked him what he was looking
for, when he replied, 'I am looking for a _LITTLE ONE_.' The inquirer
said he could accommodate him, and desired to know for what sum. Dennis
O'Kelly answered, 'I want a FIFTY, or something of _THAT SORT_, just to
set the _CASTER_. At this moment it was supposed he had seven or eight
_THOUSAND_ pounds in notes in his hand, but not one for less than a
_HUNDRED!_
Dennis O'Kelly always threw with great success; and when he held the box
he was seldom known to refuse throwing for _ANY SUM_ that the company
chose to set him. He was always liberal in _SETTING THE CASTER_, and
preventing a stagnation of trade at the _TABLE_, which, from the great
property always about him, it was his good fortune very frequently
to deprive of its last floating guinea, when the box of course became
dormant for want of a single adventurer.
It was his custom to carry a great number of bank notes in his waistcoat
pocket, twisted up together, with the greatest indifference; and on one
occasion, in his attendance at a Hazard table at Windsor, during the
races, being a _STANDING_ better and every chair full, a person's hand
was observed, by those on the opposite side of the table, just in the
act of drawing two notes out of his pocket. The alarm was given, and
the hand, from the person behind, was instantly withdrawn, and the notes
left sticking out. The company became clamorous for taking the offender
before a magistrate, and many attempted to secure him for the purpose;
but Captain Dennis O'Kelly very philosophically seized him by the
collar, kicked him down-stairs, and exultingly exclaimed, ''Twas a
_SUFFICIENT PUNISHMENT_ to be deprived of the pleasure of keeping
company with _JONTLEMEN_.'
A bet for a large sum was once proposed to this 'Admirable Crichton' of
the turf and the gaming table, and accepted. The proposer asked O'Kelly
where lay his _ESTATES_ to answer for the amount if he lost?' 'My
estates!' cried O'Kelly. 'Oh, if that's what you _MANE_, I've a _MAP_ of
them here'--and opening his pocket-book he exhibited bank notes to
_TEN TIMES_ the sum in question, and ultimately added the _INQUIRER'S_
contribution to them.
Such was the wonderful son of Erin, 'Captain' or 'Colonel' Dennis
O'Kelly. One would like to know what ultimately became of him.
DICK ENGLAND.
Jack Tether, Bob W--r, Tom H--ll, Captain O'Kelly, and others, spent
with Dick England a great part of the plunder of poor Clutterbuck, a
clerk of the Bank of England, who not only lost his all, but robbed the
Bank of an immense sum to pay his 'debts of honour.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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