Year: 1863


The gamblers in Richmond are multi
piled as the lice of Egypt. There is not
handsome. front on Main street behind
which this vermin does not swarm.
Nearly every third doorway in the most
frequented part of this thoroughfare dis
plays the gilt numbers and painted glass
which garnish the fashionable gates to
hell. AT the hotels, in the street, every
where in Richmond, may be seen the sin
ister-eyed gambler, glistening in fine
clothes, and waiting like purring cat for
his prey.


Every other vice in this city is put
under tribute to him. He keeps around
| him crowd of obsequious villains, who
are the jackals for the lion, and maintains
a parasitical host of prostitutes who are
pampered by his drunken and lustful
| munificence.


Indeed, the prostitutes of the city are
said to have generally taken up their
abode in the upper stories of the gambling
houses, where they find convenient sane
tuary from the Mayors police. In the
lower rooms Of this sanctuary of vice are
to be found representatives from all the
vicious and depraYed classes. One NAV
see here the thief and garroter disguised
in fine clothes ; the seedy and bloated
vagabcnd from Washington in a cheap
paradise of free liquor and the bogus
military man of Richmond, whose title is
but recognition that has been given him
in brothel. Mixed with this crowd are
victims of various distinction. 1t is not
many months ago since a virtuous deacon
was captured in gambling saloon of this
city, and on the same occasion, it is said
that Cabinet minister, who was in one
of these inner-chambers, reserved for dis
tinguished guests and sacred to the mys-
teries of "blue checks, effected his escape
by jumping from window.


We are informed that there are not
less than forty well known gambling es-
adjustments in this city, The expense
Of maintaining these establishments is
enormous The market bill alone of one
of these fashionable houses is said to
averge hundred dollars a day. Not
withstanding their vast expenditures in
sumptuous repasts in free liquor, in
princely upholstery, and in enormous
rents, these houses coin money like the
mints of genii The gamblers have glut-
ted with money certain classes of Rich
mond they put up the price of every
luxury; they toy and wanton with money
in all sorts ofgiddy and fantastic extrava-
gance, and throw Confederate notes to the
wind as if they grew on trees. Recently
a bid of eighty-6ve thousand dollars was
made by gambler in this city for a
princely landed estate in this vicinity, the
name of which is historical


1t is fearful calculation that under
takes to determine the sources from which
this great glut of gain comes. A portion
Of it is wrung from ruined lives and bro
ken hearts; but the cup of private misery
alone is not sufficient to account for the
stream of ill-gotten wealth poured out
from the gambling establishments in this
city. Much Of their gain is the money of
the Government, squandered at the gam
bling tables by Commissaries, Quarter
masters, and others who have the use of
public funds These are the distinguished
victims for whom the net is spread and
the softest word spoken, and it is through
their temptation and fall, and the desper-
ate dishonesty Of the man who takes the
money of another, that the gambler makes
his bulkiest and easiest gains.


1t is remarkable that the Government
should permit itself to be notoriously rob
bed, and its Treasury to be fleeeed in this
way by the gamblers of Richmond Itis
yet more remarkable that some of the
Confederate authorities should show a
tenderness for vicious and dangerous
class, and disinclination to run counter
to them in every incident of public duty.
Some days ago room for certain necess-
ary public officers was required in large
and convenient public building on Main
street, the upper apartment of which was
a gambling saloon. The necessity having
been presented to the Secretary Of War,
tnat officer very properly and promptly
ordered the room to be seized for the
public use, on the ground that it had no
just projection in law as private domicil
or as place of legitimate business. We
learn that this order was suspended by
the subordinate officer charged to execute
it, on the first intimation that the party
who was to be disgruntled was one Of the
gambling princes of Richmond. This
AoNbf We bplANfNf NoA bI AloNiuNlll pAONNu1
else we should not have referred to it,


The people of this city must look for
relief from the reign of the gamblers to
Government of better morals than that of
the Confederaey In a few days the
Legislature of Virginia meets, and no more
urgent task of reform claims its attention
at this time than purging its Capital of a
vice that has poisoned the vitals of this
community and made Richmond the rem
devious of every harpy in the Uonfedera-
cy. The only difficult part of the ques-
ton is the mode OF the remedy for gamb- .
ling is vice so closely embraced, when
it once makes its insidious Introduction,
and so powerful and ingenious in its de-
fences, that it is almost impossible to con-
quer it easily or expeditiously.