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
M. Robert-Houdin says that this application of the term 'Greek'
originated from a certain modern Greek, named Apoulos, who in the reign
of Louis XIV. was caught cheating at court, and was condemned to 20
years at the galleys. I think this a very improbable derivation, and
unnecessary withal. Aristotle of old, as before stated, ranked gamesters
'with thieves and plunderers, who for the sake of gain do not scruple to
despoil their best friends.' We afterwards find them bearing just as bad
a character among the Romans. Says Juvenal--
Graeculus esuriens in coelum jusseris, ibit.
'Bid the hungry Greek to heaven, to heaven he goes.'
Dr Johnson translated the words, 'Bid him to h--l, to h--l he
goes'--which is wrong. A DIFFICULTY is implied, and everybody knows that
it is easier to go to the latter place than the former. It means that a
needy Greek was capable of doing anything. Lord Byron protested that he
saw no difference between Greeks and Jews--of course, meaning 'Jews'
in the offensive sense of the word. Among gamblers the term was chiefly
applied to 'decoys.'
GAMING TABLE SLANG AND MANOEUVRES.
Captain Sharp. A cheating bully, whose office it was to bully any
'Pigeon,' who, suspecting roguery, refused to pay what he had lost.
St Hugh's bones. Dice. A bale of bard cinque deuces; a bale of flat
cinque deuces; a bale of flat size aces; a bale of bard cater treys; a
bale of flat cater treys; a bale of Fulhams; a bale of light graniers;
a bale of gordes, with as many highmen and lowmen for passage; a bale of
demies; a bale of long dice for even or odd; a bale of bristles; a bale
of direct contraries,--names of false dice.
Do. To cheat.
Done up. Ruined.
Down-hills. False dice which run low.
Elbow-shaker. A gamester.
Fulhams. Loaded dice.
Fuzz. To shuffle cards closely: to change the pack.
Game. Bubbles, Flats, Pigeons.
Gull Gropers. Usurers who lend money to gamesters.
Greeks. Cheats at play.
Hedge. To secure a bet by betting on the other side.
High Jinks. A gambler who drinks to intoxicate his Pigeon.
Hunting. Drawing in the unwary.
Main. Any number on the dice from five to nine.
Paum. To hide a card or die.
Pigeons. Dupes of sharpers at play.
Vincent's Law. The art of cheating at cards, by the banker, who plays
booty, Gripe, who bets, and the Vincent, who is cheated. The gain is
called termage.
Vowel. To give an I. O. U. in payment.
Up-hills. False dice which run high.
SPECIMEN OF A QUASI GAMING HOUSE CIRCULAR.
'SIR,--I hope you will join with the rest of the parishioners in
recommending what friends you can to my shops. They shall have good
candles and fair play. Sir, we are a not gang of swindlers,
Like other Gaming Houses,
We are men of character.
Our Party is,
Tom Carlos--alias Pistol,
Ned Mogg,--from Charing Cross,
Union Clarke, ------------
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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