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
Ladies are admitted to play, but there were none occupied this morning.
I was glad of it; indeed, though English travellers are accused of
carrying about with them a portable code of morality, which dissolves or
stiffens like a soap-cake as circumstances may affect its consistency,
yet I sincerely believe that there are few amongst us who would not
feel shocked at seeing one of the gentler sex in so unwomanly a
position.'(82)
(82) Reminiscences of the Rhine, &c. Anon.
WIESBADEN.
The gambling here in 1868 has been described in a very vivid manner.
'Since the enforcement of the Prussian Sunday observance regulations,
Monday has become the great day of the week for the banks of the German
gambling establishments. Anxious to make up for lost time, the regular
contributors to the company's dividends flock early on Monday forenoon
to the play-rooms in order to secure good places at the tables, which,
by the appointed hour for commencing operations (eleven o'clock), are
closely hedged round by persons of both sexes, eagerly waiting for the
first deal of the cards or the initial twist of the brass wheel, that
they may try another fall with Fortune. Before each seated player are
arranged precious little piles of gold and silver, a card printed
in black and red, and a long pin, wherewith to prick out a system of
infallible gain. The croupiers take their seats and unpack the strong
box; rouleaux--long metal sausages composed of double and single
florins,--wooden bowls brimming over with gold Frederics and Napoleons,
bank notes of all sizes and colours, are arranged upon the black leather
compartment, ruled over by the company's officers; half-a-dozen packs
of new cards are stripped of their paper cases, and swiftly shuffled
together; and when all these preliminaries, watched with breathless
anxiety by the surrounding speculators, have been gravely and carefully
executed, the chief croupier looks round him--a signal for the prompt
investment of capital on all parts of the table--chucks out a handful of
cards from the mass packed together convenient to his hand--ejaculates
the formula, "Faites le jeu!" and, after half a minute's pause, during
which he delicately moistens the ball of his dealing thumb, exclaims "Le
jeu est fait, rien ne va plus," and proceeds to interpret the decrees of
fate according to the approved fashion of Trente et Quarante. A similar
scene is taking place at the Roulette table--a goodly crop of florins,
with here and there a speck of gold shining amongst the silver harvest,
is being sown over the field of the cloth of green, soon to be reaped
by the croupier's sickle, and the pith ball is being dropped into the
revolving basin that is partitioned off into so many tiny black and red
niches. For the next twelve hours the processes in question are carried
on swiftly and steadily, without variation or loss of time; relays of
croupiers are laid on, who unobtrusively slip into the places of their
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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