The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-12-26

but IVORY checks 10 not look So pretty upon "A tabl,
as the piles Of gold and silver pieces which tn,
~eroup!ers handle ut the German gambling houses
Zach player commences moicsuy, with ten checks
and I" fights the tiger " in a small way, while We
look ON speculatiyely. The nice young man twirls q
| wheel that reyoyes horizontally in the centre of the
table. Its periphery is divided into little compart-
mcnts or boxes colored alternately red and black. At
+ the same time he sends an ivory bali whirling around
a groove that surrounds the wheel, but making il
rotate in the opposite direction. Meanwhile the
players put down the counters upon certain numbers
that are marked upon the table. First they play
upon rel, and eagerly watch the whirling ball and
wheel Slower ana slower both revolve at last,
click the ball drops into a red compartment Of the
wheel rel wins, and the players double their stakes.
II the ball had fallen into a black compartment in
stead, they would have lost. Encouraged by their
luck the players put down double stakes next time.
They now play upon black, looking for a change in
the conduct of the ivory ball. 1t occurs and they
win again: Following the same principle, they bet
the next time upon the red, but now they lose and
they lose the next time, and the next, and the next,
for now there is a "run" upon black. and their
calculations are bafied. So the game continues and
the players find that their checks are gone, and they
must buy more or stop playing. For the odds are so
arranged by means of certain numbers which sweep
the board " in favor of the bank, regardless of the
color upon which the stakes are risked as TO be not
less than twenty per cent. against the player. In
other words, whoever risks $1,000 at this exhlarat-
ing game, whether in ten on in a thousand ventures,
has the safe assurance that he will lose at least one
thousand dollars Of that sum. The numbers that
" win any way - turn up very regularly-about so
many times in a thousand. Ii is hopeless to contend
against a . tiger" SO lively, rapacious and frequent
as this. But for this arrangement, it would be pos
sible to win by playing constantly upon one color,
doubling the stakes until that color Won. y profes-
sor in Harvard College claims that he can break any
gambling bank by applying the . law of chances
1t would be interesting to see how soon the bank
would break him. Let him come from Cambridge
and try the experiment. Laplace's Theory of Chances
is not easily applicable to roulette.
Quitting this table, as our sanguine friends are
buying a fourth supply of checks, we turn our atten-
ton to the game of faro. Faro is the king of
gambling games, and holds its subjects in a more
ruinous bondage than the old Egyptian ~despotism
held the Hebrews. \ Westerner, who looks like n
solid man of family, is playing h~eavily-betting
nothing less than twenty-five dollar checks at a time.
He wins and loses loses and wins again and for a
time you do not see which way his fortunes are tend
ing. For the balance of the chances is more nearly
even at a faro table than at roulette. 1t is only in
the long run that you are sure to lose you may
make temporary gains of no small amount. Ben.
Wood won $4,000 at one sitting in John Morrissey's
establishment. But whoever wins is so anxious to
win again that he is pretty sure to play one time too
many. The per centage in favor of the bank in faro,
as played i'll New York, is ten per cent.
Morrissey's gambling house is one of the finest in
the city. 1t stands conveniently near to the Fifth
Avenue Hotel, and draws great store of moneys from
the strangers that there resort. Western men are
opDarauu .ba bnoyiaSt pTayarS THO So,tbropS do
not gamble as much as they did before the war.
Money is scarcer with them than it was-a fact illus
trated by the breaking up and sale at auction, dur
ing the past week, of the Southern Hotel, formerly
the New York Hotel. 1t changed its name q year
ago to attract Southern patronage, but did not sur
yive the experiment. The New Yorker plays occa-
sionally but he goes more frequently, when he
would try the chances, into Wall street. There he
makes his little experiment in stocks or i'll gold. But
the sojourner, the Western or Southern man, un-
versed in the mysteries of " corners of "bear-
ing and OF 4" selling short this is the man who
patronizes the numbered wheel and the naughty
card, and discovers that faro is a snice game, but it
f1uctuates."
Morrissey's establishment is closed during the ses-
sion of Congress, since the election of that eminent
banker to the National Legislature. 1t is a very
delicate act in John. He shrinks from caring at
once - Tue DGDtiJ anu liz pI4Nutt vi lis /
constituents
Watching the table a while, we find the luck be-
ginning to turn against our heavy player. His pile
of twenty-five dollar checks melts away and two
more like it follow the first into limbo before he gets
enough. Then he leaves, gloomily. He does not
look as if he would drop in again tomorrow night.
After losing all their money at these places players
sometimes beg to stake their watches and jewelry,
hoping to retrieve their fortunes. But at the best
g hells . this is not permitted. The proprietor re-
monstrates, MY dear sir, don't play any more to-
night. It's no use. The cards are against you.
Another time you will have better luck. Let me
show you to the supper table, says the manager of
the play, doing his best with gentle speeches to ale
viate the horror of the ruined man. Sometimes he
will refund enough to the loser to pay his railway
fare home. 1t is only among the lower class of
gamblers that brutality and the animus of robbery
arc evident. Yet there is policy in the proprietOr's
kindness. 1t brings customers back to him another
day. Supper is free at these establishments. The
management can well afford the banquet.
Desperate scenes seldom occur at saloons of the
grade We have described. The losing player has too
much good tact to blow out his brains upon the car
pet. But a keen eye can see the emotions in the
players face ut each turn of the cards and of the
wheel.
But it is now > A. NJ, and we must 90. We take a
turn or two at roulette, SO as to lose enough to pay
for cur supper and our experience, and emerge into
the cool night air. The darkey pockets a twenty-five
cent fee as naturally as a French valet would do it,
we turn our backs upon the frst-class gambling |
hclls of New York.
have few personal items to report in this letter.
Nh. G. \. Lathrop has recovered from u recent severe
illness. He sailed on the 9th of October to join his :
in Dresden. His niece, Miss Eva Spencer,
an Islander, accompanied him. She goes to
Dresden to cultivate a very marked musical talent. :
Mrs. Weaver has returned from her European ,
tour, and is now visiting, with her sister, Miss Amelia j.,
Armstrong, lately arrived from Honolulu, in Irving
ton. on the Hudson. .
. Rev. Tlanas Gulick has accepted q call to preach !
IN a new Mission chapel in Second street. /
Lnhn Nan Innen. who WIS in the South during the !