The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
He made them play for money instead of with counters, in consequence of
the large sums that were owing to him upon those counters.
8. THE TRAVELLERS' CLUB,
next the Athenaeum in Pall Mall, originated soon after the peace
of 1814, in a suggestion of the late Lord Londonderry, then Lord
Castlereagh, for the resort of gentlemen who had resided or travelled
abroad, as well as with a view to the accommodation of foreigners, who,
when properly recommended, receive an invitation for the period of their
stay.(41) Here Prince Talleyrand was fond of a game at Whist. With all
the advantage of his great imperturbability of face, he is said to have
been an indifferent player.
(41) Quarterly Review, No. cx. p. 481.
Rule 10 of the club directs, 'that no dice and no game of hazard be
allowed in the rooms of the club, nor any higher stake than guinea
points, and that no cards be introduced before dinner.'
CHAPTER VII. DOINGS IN GAMING HOUSES.
Besides the aristocratic establishments just described, there were
numerous houses or places of resort for gambling, genteel and ungenteel.
In vain did the officers of the law seem to exert their utmost
vigilance; if they drove the serpent out of one hole it soon glided
into another; never was the proverb--'Where there's a will there's a
way'--more strikingly fulfilled.
COFFEE-HOUSE SHARPERS.
Sir John Fielding thus describes the men in the year 1776. 'The
deceivers of this denomination are generally descended from families
of some repute, have had the groundwork of a genteel education, and are
capable of making a tolerable appearance. Having been equally profuse
of their own substance and character, and learnt, by having been undone,
the ways of undoing, they lie in wait for those who have more wealth
and less knowledge of the town. By joining you in discourse, by admiring
what you say, by an officiousness to wait upon you, and to assist you
in anything you want to have or know, they insinuate themselves into the
company and acquaintance of strangers, whom they watch every opportunity
of fleecing. And if one finds in you the least inclination to cards,
dice, the billiard table, bowling-green, or any other sort of Gaming,
you are morally sure of being taken in.
For this set of gentry are adepts in all the arts of knavery and
tricking. If, therefore, you should observe a person, without any
previous acquaintance, paying you extraordinary marks of civility; if
he puts in for a share of your conversation with a pretended air of
deference; if he tenders his assistance, courts your acquaintance, and
would be suddenly thought your friend, avoid him as a pest; for these
are the usual baits by which the unwary are caught.'(42)
(42) The Magistrate: Description of London and Westminster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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