Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-02-18

Something About the EARLY History OF the
Cancels Career in New York.

''HaVe you any idea by whom or
when the game OF faro was inventedp"
asked a reporter for The Commercial
! advertiser few days ago while talking
with Charles Dunn, the well-known
gambler. The question was asked in
the course of conversation about gam
ING in general, and particularly about
the prevalence of it in the city. Dunn
had previously said that there was more
| gambling going on at present within
| the precincts of this devoted city than
! at any other time in its history.
"Well, that is q question, ereplied
Dunn, crossing his legs with a grunt of
supreme comfort and lighting another
cigar. ''Faro, my boy, dates back to
the inventors Of almost all the games
that require thought, 1t was invented,
| have heard, by the Pharaohs after
they had got tired of playing chess and
backgammon and all the other innocent
Gttle games which brought them so
much enjoyment. But the new invent
ton was the ruination of the Pharaohs,
for they gamblod so much that finally
the shepherd kings went for them and
| pulverized them, rs we say nowadays;
so faro was temporarily forgotten. The
! Ptolemys revived it, and then it crossed
over into Italy, where mosaics in the
ruins of Pompeii have been found rep
resenting two players deeply absorbed
in the primitive game. No. I'm not
| Joking. | never Joke about any such
serious matter as faro. But, honestly,
no one knows when the game was real
! " invented. 1t was one of those things
which partook of the nature of Topsy
and simply crowd.
1.-The earliest record we have of the
game is in the thirteenth century, when
it had assumed considerable popularity
in Italy and France. am inclined to
believe that it is of Italian origin. From
the italian we get the word 'parlee,
which is used in the game now, and
means to let the stake lie and double.
The Italian original is paroH. To make
paroi, as it was originally called, a
player was required to bend one corner
of the preferred card over. 1t was al
ways his right to withdraw a bet after
the time when he had won his first
stake, but previously to that he had to
let his money remain. At that time
there were no 'lay-outs.' Every player
had his own pack and made his bets on
the cards that he himself turned. When
he won he simply showed his card to
the dealer and he was paid A century
ago no box was used. The dealer dealt
out his hands, and SO ran great chance
of showing most of the cards. The box
is a great protection against the inquis-
tive, and it is really the only protec-
ton the player has against any pcssi-
! BILE manipulation on the part of the
dealer. If faro was dealt out of hand
as it was in former times there would
be 4 decided number of shootings in
this police-ridden city.
ut is hard to say when faro was in
troduced into this country. The prob
abilities are that it was played in Eng
| land long before anyone ever dreamed
of colonizing the new world. We know
that it was played in Virginia long be-
fore the revolution. The old planters
were not chary about betting their
| slaves on the turn of a card, and had
none of the Puritan narrow mindedness
which kept faro out of New England.
| The game was played at that time with
out a box. The players chose their
cards from their own decks, and had
ample opportunity to manipulate it as
they pleased. They got no benefit
| from a split-that is, when two cards of
a like denomination are turned up and
the stakes are equally divided between
| the player and the bank. They didn't
| even have the advantage of 'cue-box'
| to check off the cards which had been
| dealt. OF course, there was rash bet
| TING in consequence, and manipulation
was common on the part of tho bank
and of the player, and you may be sure
| both took advantage of their changes
to the best of their ability
''Have there been any recent changes
in the game?"
Il should think so. And they all
have had tendency to make the game
much fairer than it was originally.
| Thirty years ago, / remember that it
was the rule that if q man put bet
down on the table he was compelled to
leave it there until it had lost or WQA
its equivalent. Now he is able 10
change his bets as many times as he
chooses. At that time when man sat
down at faro-table he sat down only
to bet to win. Now he can bet either
to win or to lose. At that time there
| wasn't any such thing as copper;
| aoW 2 man can copper the ace and bet
chat it will lose and still win on a los
ing card. Then there is considerable
difference in the way faro is played in
the west. If man puts his chips at
The corner of the king heading to the
deuce, in this city, the bet takes in the
king and the deuce only; but out west
such placing of chips would mean the
king, queen, ace, and deuce. Checks
have only been used during the last fiji.
ty years. Previous to the ivory disks
which represent so much money, coin
was used, and oftentimes the faro table
would be strewn with gold and silver as
the game went on. The first time faro
was played publicly in New York was
in 1927, It increased to an alarming
extent until 1884 before the great fire,
when that calamity left the city almost
without money. The distress of the
following two or three years almost
killed the game, but as business reviv- /
ed and money again became plenty,
faro arose from the ashes as it were,
and resumed its sway. In about 1910
the Legislature passed bill declaring
faro to be illegal gambling, and thence
forth whenever a man wanted to buck
the tiger he had to do it on the sly.
Virginia took action forbidding the
game in the last century. In 1850 she
passed law requiring the subjects of
the king to refrain from playing the
game of faro The penalties for break.
ing this old law were very severe, in
GLIDING heavy fines and a long term of
imprisonment" --Neao York CONNER
eiaI AdvertiSer.