Toronto by Gaslight: The Night Hawks of a Great City: As Seen by the Reporters of "The Toronto News"Toronto News
History
Toronto by Gaslight: The Night Hawks of a Great City: As Seen by the Reporters of "The Toronto News"
Toronto News
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel
was a painful one, but it ended happily, the latter having promised never
to touch a card again. He meant at the time to keep his word, but in less
than a month the “cappers” regained their old influence over him, and
he became more fascinated than ever with gaming. When he was unable to
get more money from his father he pawned his jewelry, until one night he
took the second decided step in the downward path. There were five seated
at a table, George among them, two being strangers, and the other two
being regular “skins,” when the writer entered the room, but they were
so engrossed with their play that they paid no attention to the visitor.
It was draw poker, twenty-five-cent ante and five dollars limit, and
much to the surprise of at least one person in the room, George was away
winner, having half a dozen stacks of chips in front of him, along with
a roll of bills and a pile of silver. His face was deeply flushed, his
eyes sparkled, and his whole frame quivered with the intense excitement
that consumed him, but when the “luck” commenced to turn, and he saw his
chips and bills gradually fading away, a ghastly pallor spread over his
face, driving back the gambler’s blood to his heart. The “skins” had
been utilizing a pack of “markers,” and in order to rob the strangers
had first dealt George the winners, so as to more securely hide their
villainy, and had then fleeced him at their leisure. When the unhappy
young man found himself completely ruined, with his I.O.U. for $25 in the
hands of one of the gamblers, he was filled with a great remorse, and
wept like the child he really was. He felt that he must pay the debt of
“honor” contracted over the poker table or be
DISGRACED AMONG HIS “FRIENDS.”
And he did pay it, but at the expense of his honesty and his employers.
He stole goods from the store, pawned them to pay his gambling debt,
was found out, and would have been sent to jail but for the respect the
employers had for the father. After this exploit the reckless young man
went headlong to the devil. He became a frequenter of the lowest gambling
dens in the city, practised “skin” games till he became as skilful as his
old-time “cappers,” and his passion for the card table became so strong
that when he could find no other game he would take a hand at “nigger
loo” with the most notorious colored gang in the city. By this time his
stakes had dwindled down from a $10 bet to one cent ante and fifty cents
limit. He needed the balance of his cash for whisky! Three months ago
the writer saw George Reynott making his way with “kindly curves” to a
gambling house on King street. Last week a dispatch announced that he had
been sent to Joliette prison for ten years for burglary.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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