Litchfield enquirer., 1859-03-17
THE FOUR BANK CLERKs-A TALE OF GAMBLING IN BROOKLYN.

meet alternately at the residence of each, iu
 the city of Brooklyn and pass long winter evenings in playing euchre. Their reunions
 were of the most pleasant character, no betting
 being allowed, and evening after evening pass
 ed p easantly away They invariably broke up
 at ten o'clock and retired to their respective
 homes satisfied with themselves and their eve nings am nsement. The party consisted of Os- scar s. Field, late teller of the Atlantic Bank, | Brooklyn 2 bookeeper in another Brooklyn bank, clerk in bank in Wall street, and the 1 writer. They were yrung men on whom no
 word of reproof had ever fallen from a fault finding world. The meetings at the house of Field were particularly pleasant, for there home joys and comforts were mingled with the pleas
 ures of the game, and each cnvied Field in the
 possession of fond and loving wife, in whose happiness his whole being seemed enwrought
 Oftentimes was the quotation applied to them {: l Two souls with but single thought
 Two hearts that beat as one.
 The winter passed away, and spring came
 The parties were, on account of the shortened evenings, broken up, to give way to summer amnsements. The next fall an effort was made to reorganze them but from some canse it fail- ed, and November passed without any meet ings. On Christmas eve of 1855, there was turkey raffie advertised to come off in marble block in Court street. This'house was the resi- i dence of a man who had once been tailor but had recently risen from that estate, and at the time of which we write he kept an oyster sa- | loon and bar. In the portion of Brooklyn in which he was established there were but few if any, of these saloons, and it was therefore the resort of most of the young men of the city, who had no better place in which to pass their time. There were two rooms on the second | story-in one the bar and the other the one in | which the raff1e was to take place. In this room, on Christmas eve, the euchre party of 1 the former winter together with others of the neighborhood, met. ant. the railing for chanc- es" commenced. The turkeys were raff1ed off by ten o'clock, and supper followed at the expense of the proprietor. After this one or | two of the party commenced playing dice for quarters, and soon after the whole party joined in the game. There were the four bank clerks before alluded to there sat a dentist, doctor of medicine, dealer in hardware a lumber merchant, livery stable keeper, merchant from New York, and others, areund large table, throwing alternately for the pool, and 1 betting that they would throw over certain number (nine) at one throw with three dice. Wine flowed in abundance and daylight on Christmas had long dawned when the party, with hfoodshot eyes and aching heads, broke up and wound their way homeward, many of them having received their first lessons in gam bling. Many lost-some won-most of them were indebted to each other for sums ranging from $5 to $25 while the proprietor of the in- stituton found that he had made the very hand some sum out of the turkey raff1e-he having received quarter from every fourth pool.
 He was not a man (the said proprietor) to let such golden opportunities pass without im- proving them; so ere the fumes from the Christmas eve debanch had cleared from the brains of the party, they received invitations to attend another supper at the same place, where watch, together with ducks, chikens, and turkeys, wonld again be rallied off On New Years eve of 1856 they again met again they raffled again they snpped, und again the dice were thrown again the night and morn- ing was passed in drunken debauchery. The proprietor was pleased, and treated his guests with that respect, or rather reverence, which gained him many friends !; after that evening turkey rallies were almost of nightly occur renee. The institution soon changed it's char acter, and from the former oyster and ice cream saloon it became sort of club room and af- ter a certain hour in the evening none but the members were allowed to enter the rooms on the second story. The character of the games changed also, and cards were introduccd-eu ! chre, seven up pitch trump, and poker were the games ordinarily played Some few of the party were experts at these games-Field be- ing an excellent euchre player and daring l buffer. But the dentist before alluded to, was "sharp' player at all games and, though
 he commenced with a very small capital, he
 was soon in possession of quite superhuity of funds. His trade paid him better than his
 profession. The hardware man was very lucky
 at dice, and one evening he found himself in possession of diamond pin and ring, together l with considerable cash-that which he had not l when he entered the rooms. The bank clerks were generally the losers, and it was astonsh- ing what large salaries they must have received. A hundred dollars or so lost and won at one sitting was not thought of by these exemplary young men and it was very amusing to the rest Of the party to hear the manner in which | they accounted for the possession of such large amounts. One of them had received legacy from a deceased aunt another had drawn a prize in the Delaware lottery while third amused the company one night by informing l them as to the luck he had had that day " buck ing the tiger"-all of which stories the party believed, as matter of course for they were gentlemen, every one of them, and would not 1 play with a man who would steal. They only played for amusement,n was the oft re- peated assertion, which all collectively implicit y believed, but individually, in their own minds
 they did not believe.
 | Suoh eko%, oe erosn. oor1d v,nf ct 1orc,
 and one evening one of the party--a New York bank clerk-was not at his accustomed post