The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
There are many establishments of this description in the city. They are
neither so elegantly furnished nor so exclusive as to their guests as
the first-class houses. There is also another important difference. In
a first-class house, the visitor is sure to meet men who will deal
fairly with him; and if he loses, as he is almost sure to do, it is
because he is playing against more expert hands than himself. This is
what is called a "square game." Everything is open and fair, and the
bank relies on the fickleness of the cards and the superior skill of
its dealer. In the second-class houses, however, the visitor is
literally fleeced. Every advantage is taken of him, and it is morally
certain that he will lose every cent he risks. In first-class houses,
one can play or look on, as he pleases. In second-class houses, the
visitor who declines to risk something is in danger of personal
violence. He will be insulted by the proprietor or one of his
myrmidons; and if he resents the insult, his life hangs by a very
slender thread. The "runner" system is practiced very extensively in
connection with these houses. The visitor is plied with liquor
unceasingly during his stay in the rooms, and the losses of the
unfortunate man during this period of semi-unconsciousness are
frightful.
Many persons coming to the city yield to the temptation to visit these
places, merely to see them. They intend to lose only a dollar or two as
the price of the exhibition. Such men voluntarily seek the danger which
threatens them. Nine out of ten who go there merely through curiosity,
lose all their money. The men who conduct the "hell" understand how to
deal with such cases, and are rarely unsuccessful.
It is in these places that clerks and other young men are ruined. They
lose, and play again, hoping to make good their losses. In this way
they squander their own means; and too frequently commence to steal
from their employers, in the vain hope of regaining all they have lost.
There is only one means of safety for all classes--_Keep away from the
gaming table altogether._
DAY GAMBLING HOUSES
At first gambling was carried on only at night. The fascination of the
game, however, has now become so great, that day gambling houses have
been opened in the lower part of the city. These are located in
Broadway, below Fulton street, and in one or two other streets within
the immediate neighborhood of Wall street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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