The record-union., 1893-03-25

Dealers in gambling implements re-
ported large sale last fall and great in
crease in the business done in cheap
roulette tables, faro layouts, French haz-
ard tables, keno boxes, and other like
gambling devices, says a writer in the
SHa. While the sales in the fine, high
classed goods, such as are used in gam
bling-houses and gambling clubs, has
fallen off, the demand for the cheap run
of goods is so much increased that those
which can be plainly exposed for sale
without violating the law may soon be
found in show windows and in the toy
and games shops. What has caused this
increased sale is the increase in private
and social gambling, especially among
women. 1t is not so many years since
not one woman in a thousand knew the
difference between roulette wheel and
faro layout, or between a keno table and
a French hazard table. The demand be-
gan with wealthier and more fashionable
women who bad played at Monte Carlo
and were Influenced to great extent by
The swagger set in London and the eX-
ample OF the Prince of Wales, and the
fashion has spread from them till it has
reached people whose social life was pre-
quiet dances, with an occasional church
lair lottery. The first roulette wheels to
be used on private social occasions were
brought from Europe by people who
took them home as toys. With these
came the baccarat layouts that fold up
and can be spread over an ordinary table.
The roulette wheel used in a gambling
house is a costly affair, with careful work
manship and Well-pOiSed mechanism
and selling price OF several hundred
dollars.
The cheap toy roulette wheels, which
were brought from Europe, cost as little
as s. or s. apiece. Recently the manu-
goods in large quantities, until a good
American roulette wheel can be bought
for s., and faro, French and baccarat lay
outs for 81. These gam bling tables have
become household articles in q good
many families, TO the scandal of a num-
Der of social sets in suburban towns
around New York. The wheels and lay
outs are used for small gambling parties,
particularly by women and the younger
men. The gambling started with the
small poker parties which came into
vogue in suburban neighborhoOds about
three or four years ago. The limit was.
as low as five cents, and IN extreme cases
fifty cents. The poker party would meet
on stated nights at the house of one or
another member, and the kitty would go
to pay for the refreshments or for some
charitable or other object to be decided on
by the club. 1t might be that all the
winnings'i in the party would 90 to getting
up dance or some other matter in which
local society was interested. These social
COuntenances to poker tended to remove
the ban which, III suburban society,
rested upon all forms of gambling. Poker
parties were popular because they were
more exciting than the quiet whist or
euchre parties whose places they took,
and because the gambling instinct exists
in almost every woman's breast.
From poker 1t was an easy step to rou-
lette, in which there are chances of
greater returns for the money risked, A
scent bet on a number at roulette NAV
win as much as 81 S0-about six times as
much as the same investment can possi-
bly, return at poker. A woman who is
out several dollars may recoup herself by
the success OF a number on which quar-
ter OF a dollar only is staked. Then there
are the fascinating whirl of the wheel. the
run of seeing the ball go round, and the
interest in the faces and stakes of the
other players.
From roulette it was easy to step to the
other gambling games. Faro is a less
popular game with women, but any
clever woman can make a tanciful layout
for herself by taking piece of black or
green satin and painting cards on it by
hand. She can embroider the edges and
put little tassels on, weighted with shot.
Ike woman's Jacket or skirt, which
will keep the cloth in place on the table
Such layout is far moro pretty and
tasteful than can be found in the regular
gambling houses. Then all that is
needed Is pack of cards, which NAV be
dealt without the aid of cue box, though
the dealer takes chances of somebody
seeing an exposed card before it comes
out.
\ number Of gam bling devices are now
manufactured Tor this kind of business,
Some people who have fine country
houses choose to buy regular roulette
table, with the layout on either side and
big wheel between, but the expense of
this is considerable. The kind of a rou-
lette apparatus usually gotten is the cheap
wheel and cloth layout which can be
spread on an ordinary table. 1t is only
recently that this gambling rage has
broken out. buG the results Of it are be-
ginning to appear. Usually a man will
take the bank, and often he is some clerk,
who loses the amount of a weeks salary
II few numbers come against him in
succession. He wants to appear TO ad-
vantage before the company, and is likely
70 take bigger risks than he should.
Thus such young men are not always
able to settle, and sometimes have to
hang up some OF the winners, thereby
causing good deal ofunpleaSant feeling.
Some OF the other social bad effects are
obvious. The women get to waiting
anXiously for the weekly meeting Of the
club, and some of them go as far as TO
join two or three clubs which meet on
different evenings Of the same week.
The amounts involved are small but
losses of q few dollars several times a
week begin 10 count up ana money is
taken out of the household expense fund.
Then the system of borrowing, whicn
every gambler knows is destructive to
friendship, begins.
The dealers in gambling implements do
hot know what to make of the situation
or how long this great demand for their
wares is going to last. So far the trade
has been confined to them, though the
TOY manufacturers make games like keno,
another which can be made into faro and
dice boxes and dice which can be utilized
by anyone who viii take the trouble TO
copy a French hazard layout from
gambling house. Any man who watches
the workings Of the cheap roulette wheels
carefully can easily make a good thing
out of il, as few of these roulette wheels
are mathematically perfect, and there is a
tendency Of the ball to fall into some
boxes rather than others. 1t costs a great
deal of money to make good wheel. and
even in the best gambling houses there
are few wheels which after being used for
awhile do not show q tendency to favor
certain boxes. In the cheap wheels this
tendency is more marked, and any man
who will keep a card on the wheel, as
they do officially at Monte Carlo, will be
able after a few meetings TO ind out the
peculiarities of the wheel and by max
ing judicious use of his knowledge he can
usually break the bank.
The pastors of the suburban towns are
beginning to wake up to the demoraliz-
ing effects of this gambling outbreak on
their congregations, though the church