Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-08-14
A DAY GAME OF FARO.
How They Play, where it is
Played, and Who Plays IT.
The Lair of the Tiger.

How They Play, where it is
Played, and Who Plays It.
The Lair Of the Tiger.
Iene half minute from Broadway
finds you in the second story of hand
some building, where the furniture Is
of walnut and velvet, massive and sr
mortal, reproduced in mirrors which
might be priced IKE diamonds. by their
carats. The gas is burning, as lift were
midnight, the curtains folded close;
the sunshine world Of business might
be twenty miles away, yet here Is bust
ness, of its kind, grave and anxious
which We may look upon.
A table, narrow and long. reaches
across the place. Upon, its green sur
face are embroidered the thirteen cards
that make up suit. At each end is q
space, colored respectively red and
black. Between these spaces, opposite
the thirteen embroidered cards, sits q
man shutting pack of ffty-tWo cards,
supported by second man, who keeps
tally and rakes in and out checks and
money. There are chairs facing, and
on either side of the dealer. and these
are filed by men who place money or
ivory blocks upon the fifteen spaces
and the spots Of red and black.
When the man in the middle has
shuhed, and eut the pack. of cards, he
places them, with their faces up, in 81
silver box that exactly contains them.
"NoB gentlemen" cries the dealer,
bfiskly, make your bets" -..-'..'
This, then, Is q day gambling.h
and the game to be begun is faro. 4
If you are not familiar with cards,
you may like to know that pack Is
composed of fffty-two, divided into four
kinds or suites of thirteen apiece. Two
of these suites are red two black. The
philosophy of faro, which is supposed |
to be the fairest gambling game, 5. that
the host or banker bets against his
guests promiscnously, upon either the |
denomination or color Of the alternate |
cards, - they are successfully pushed
BY spring at the bottom of the sill |
Yer box. TO compensate him for the |
cost Of the entertainment, rather more
than an equal chance is accorded him,
and this Is Tariously estimated at from
three to fifteen per cent. --a IS
You win see at this midday game
strange people around the board
Here, bending with . al6ughing face ov-
.er his cheque, isthe chief salesman Of
q large mercantile house near by, who
come out to ssunter into Delmonico's
for lunch, and trade being quiet, has
stepped in here TO try stake. Beside
him Is the customer whose note he took /
yesterday for sc, 900 ct six months.-I
Speaking to both Familiarity is g man
who has worn the uniform of Sing Sing |
and can, if he dare, tell how for the one
time he suffered shame there were a
hundred that he escaped it. Here is /
boy, cigar between his teeth, known by
his fathers name among these sban-
doned ones, while the old man in Wall |
Street holds out his grey hairs high, in
conscientious satisfaction that his long
life is without spot.
There were pasties Of gooselmes for
lunch, and bFzndies distilled from the
noblest Burgundy bananas and pine
apples to make favor, and cigars that
are in every roll of the rich leaf q
dream Of sensual contsnt folded away.
And all the the money faRs to eager or
stolid countenances surveying and thos5
who are ruined dare not for their gull
ty vanity, show their despair, and those
who win are lured to come again to-
morrow. Here the extremities ofsoeial
life meet the pickpocket and the de-
tectiye, ready TO turn upon each other
like hyenas as soon as they have
passed their respective portals.
If you will pass from the rear of the
Fifth Avenue Hotel at night, down
Twenty fourth Street, you will see all /
around you the palaces of gamblers,-
They pay the best rents. If you scru-
pie to let your house to them, they will
pay down the full years rent in adj
vance, and bring you police assurance
that you suffer no blame. Here has
long resided . celebrity in his 'pro-
fession. He possesses by nature the
gamblers two great qualifications, bold
ness and plausibility. So glib and def
erential Is he that you do not heed the
coarseness of his English. Strangethat
such men possess almost the friendship /
Of the sages and potent citizens here,
who are of venerable deseents, while all
the day their associates are the ''cap-
per" ''strippers," roper" /" and skip
pefs," who walk the margin Of the pen
itentiary. ~ -.s ..s. II
do not believe that among the re-
spectacle citizens, gambling is 30 uni
Vefsal as in European cities. but the
play more desperate game
Among the lower orders, however,
gambling is the great vice. There are
40. 900 policy shops in New York, and
:, 900 dens and cellars, and crazy tene-
ments, where nakedness stakes the
penny that it begged. Five thousand
IS the estimsted number of profession
u gamblers Of the first carat in New
York, but this probably includes the /
gambling parasites who are anxious to
pass for his rank. These professionals {
10 not acquire more income, upon an /
Iverage than e, 900 . year, and must
Ike out a living by. some other dishon- Z
'rable course. Forty thousand dollars
! night is the estimated sum lost in the '
,ity by games of chance, but the fash
enable clubs for the most part permit I
gambling. Broadway, after midnight,
5 dimly illuminated by the lamps Of Q
gamblers in the second stories, and yet a
" the games that are played, however q
air ostensibly, are nightly made dis o
lonorable. Holes are cut ia the cell
ng, where q spy reads the "hand Of
lnpe, and telegrsphs to his opponent. g
Brace" or false double boxes are used. n
What gambler can be honest or con- u
istent y
G. A. TOWNSEND. =