Las Vegas morning gazette., 1880-10-31
j. A. KOOcLER, Editor.
New Game of Chance.

in their dens, was clearly seen by a re-
porter recently. Sauntering along
one Of the alleys of Chinatown, his no.
ticc was attracted by the unusual
amount of business being done by one
eff the fortune tellers, who locates his
stall at a corner to attract passers by.
The rapidity with which ca II votary
took his departure struck the report
er as something out of the common,
as the practice with the professors OF
tuturity is to keep their victims in
suspense before letting them know
their fate.
Approaching the stall he discover
ed what to a causual observer appears
nothing but small box containing
Chinese writing material, but i'll ~this
case the innocent-looking box had
small slide on the top. The slide be-
ing pushed aside showed small card
inscribed with characters denOting an
animal, fish or a reptil, also Il rude
representation of the subject. Each
Celestial at the time of paying his
stake, namely, a dime, guesses the
name of the object he thinks will ap-
pear on the face. If another object
appears he loses his stake. Should he
be fortunate to hit the right animal
he receives dollar, but the chances
Of winning are so much
against him, the bank rarely
loses. The reporter having qucs-
toned the venerable moon-eyed as
trologer, found that his species of
gambling was conducted on larger
scale at an establishment ostcnsiby
devoted to the sale of drugs, i'll the
heart of Chinatown, and having as
certained the name of the shop, lels-
urcly proceeded to make some further
inquiries into the mOdus operandi Of
the game.
At first admittancc to the back room
where the performance was carried
on was refused, but few words gave
assurance and an entry was
made. Assembled in small apart
ment were about thirty Cinnamon. y
narrow conntcr divided the manager
Of the game from the crowd, and as
the pool was about to open the re-
porter stepped in and took a hand.
Selecting a character and handing two
bits to the banker, he received a piece
of red paper, upon s. hich was written
the character lie had chosen. Thirty
six cards, each bearing q particular
designation, and corresponding to
similar characters shown upon red
paper about eleven inches square,
which was suspended from the wall
were then deposited in an earthen
pot Diving into the pot, the assist
ant banker, who was blindfOldcd,
drew card. and the fortunate midi
viduals whose papers bore similar
characters were paid ten times the
amount of the stakes against the win
ming numbers.
The cards were named as follows
Four literary graduates, represented
by white tis!,, a frog, q goose and a
peacock. Seven merchants, repre-
sented by flying dragon, a white
dog, a white horse, an eggplant, q
wildcat, IL rat and a hornet. -Four
Buddhist priests, represented by q
tor; oise, II fowl, "A yellow ee' and .
fish. Five 6eggars represented by q
shrimp, Il snake, caterpillar, little
singing girl, and sheep. Five gen
erals represented by butterfly, q
piece OF jadestone, d white sparrow, q
pigeon. Four lucky perSonagcs OF the
upper world, represented by monk
ev, toad, a kite and sea dragon
Two Iauist priests. represented by 9
white stork and gOld-color cat. One
nun. represented by ravenous wolf
Should any purchaser of q chance
not happen to be present when The
drawing takes place he comes to the
shop and enquiries, not about any
gambling question, but simply says
TO day how is the great "Sz Machin'
meaning one of the five generals-as
he holds ticket with the characters
"Wong Che Ko," the earth dragon
alias, "Sz Machin," the generals, and
this to a novice, that might be in the
shop, appears to be making an inqni.
nv after some person. The Chinese
courtcsaus are great customers and
send their children to purchase the
tickets to AVOID notice being taken OF
the game by the uninitiated. The
game is called "Tsefa' and is likely tc
prove a large source of revenue to the