Connecticut western news., 1878-01-31
GAMBLING IN NEW YORK.
How the Victims arc Fleeced out of their
 MORey-A "Skin Game.''

Since the death of Monbier Blanc, the king of the gambling world at Baden Baden and Monaco, the game of red-and- black has fallen into disrepute among the sporting fraternity, and is seldom played now save in the lowest dens of London, Paris and New York. It was game in which the great gamester, or landlord of gamesters, made thousand fortunes-in which few of his customers made single one.
 Though termed game of chance, it is the most certain of games for the bank ever invented. Born in the brain of swindler, it was conceived for, no other purpose than that of fraud.
 Even when honestly dealt, the chances are almost certainty against the player.
 As played now on the public tables, honest dealing is 8 thing unknown.
 From the mouth of one of the most ex- per1enced London gamblers, have the assurance that there is not an honest red and-black table running anywhere.
 The game is now used only as means for flching the pockets of the poor and ignorant. and is played in places where checks range in value from Lalf dime to an eighth of dollar.
 A few days ago it was placed in my power to visit one of these hells in com pany with man who was conversant with "the tiger as it was bucked" in New York. Introducing me as friend from the country, he was enabled to ex- plain the myster1es of the game to me, and at the same time, without exciting any suspicion, to point out the means employed for making it {" skin game" We found the layout, or table, or bank, as you choose to call it, above policy shop, which in turn was guarded from public observation by the semblance of cigar store, the whole being situated in the Twenty-ninth Precinct of New York city, and within a stone's throw of the Union Dime Savings Bank and Par ker's Hotel. It was reached by passing up dark, rickety pair of stairs, which looked somewhat difficult of descent, and filled one with an unwholesome feeling as to the reception which would be ac- corded from above. The table was laid out in dark, musty, low-ceilinged apart ment, which lacked windows, or had them tightly shaded, and was lighted by 8 kerosene lamp or two. It was not pre- possessing apartment, and shiny re- volver Tn the breast pocket of our coat had friendly and confidential feeling.
 Still less prepossessing were the oc- cupants of the room-a low-browed, dark eyed set of fellows-cowards to the back bone, yet ready with the knife or pistol if occasion required. Their fingers were long and slender, and supple, just the sort of instruments handy for picking a card, lock, or a pocket. Verify, Heaven help the man who fell into the tolls of these vultures
 Red-and- black !--Red their hands, and black, very black, their mode of playing a "game of chance"
 Declining to join in the hazard of the game, we stood and watched it's ebb and flow (principally ebb) for few moments, I in my assumed role of "young friend from the country"
 To give the readers an insight into the
 mode of sklnning emploped in this ne
 farious game, it will be necessary to ex' plain, as nearly as can remember, the naodus opero,aoi of the game, as it was seen by me, and explained by my com panion.
 Upon low table, around which were
 seated the gamblers and their victims
 was traced the fac-similes of number o1
 playing cards, including, think, the aces, the sevens, and the jacks, with rep
 resentatives of each other. At one side
 of the table sat the dealer, his silver boz
 before him, glittering in the lamplight
 with unconscious honesty and innocence
 In which was pack of cards, more o1
 less, face downward. The players stakeo their money upon color, or knave
 ace, or seven, as the spirit moved them
 and the dealer, after laying two cards upon the table, face downward, turned up the third, the color and denomination of which determined the result of the various betting. The dealer doubled
 winning stakes or raked in losing ones l with rapid motion, uttering no sound and seemingly doing his work in an off , hand and careless manner.
 But noticed that beneath his affected ] carelessness he kept keen eye upor , the betting, and that, for some reason 7 or other, the bank took in much more money than it paid out.
 I also noticed that the only winner 7 about the table was rakish- look ing chap, whom my companion pointed out as the "looker-out" man in the pay of the proprietor, who ostentatiously
 made much of his pre-arranged gains, ,anc sought by his manner and remarks (de : ]ivered with the aid of an outsider) tc encourage faltering players to bet long and heavily.
 As I watched the game further, I no ticed that one of the victims-the heav 2 test loser, and apparently the most mon eyed man at the table-began to play ! the same colors as the winning locker out. Almost immediately the latter'' luck changed, and he began to lost I steadily, until the other player agai1 |. switched off upon his own hook, whe1
 again his pile began to increase. And all the time the dealer pursued
 his occupation stolidly and carelessly
 O, so stolidly! o, so carelessly! Th' ! exclamations of the players now winning F. and then again and again losing, hat no effect on him. He seemed merely