The Gaming Table(Volume 2): Its Votaries and Victims

by Andrew Steinmetz
In all Times and Countries, especially in England and in France.

BY ANDREW STEINMETZ, ESQ.,
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW; FIRST-CLASS EXTRA

CERTIFICATE SCHOOL OF MUSKETRY, HYTHE; late OFFICER INSTRUCTOR
MUSKETRY, THE QUEENS OWN LIGHT INFANTRY MILITIA. AUTHOR OF 'THE

HISTORY OF THE JESUITS,' 'JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE,' 'THE ROMANCE OF
DUELLING,' &c., &c.

'The sharp, the blackleg, and the knowing one,
Livery or lace, the self-same circle, run;

The same the passion, end and means the same--
Dick and his Lordship differ but in name.'

IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. II.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

I. CHEVALIERS D'INDUSTRIE, OR POLITE SHARPERS
II. PROFESSIONAL GAMESTERS AND THEIR FRAUDS

III. ANECDOTES OF THE PASSIONS AND VICISSITUDES OF GAMESTERS
IV. ACTROCITIES, DUELS. SUICIDES, AND EXECUTION OF GAMBLERS

V. ODDITIES AND WITTICISMS OF GAMBLERS
VI. THE GAMING CLUBS

VII. DOINGS IN GAMING HOUSES
VIII. THE DOCTRINE OF PROBABILITIES APPLIED TO GAMBLING

IX. THE HISTORY OF DICE AND CARDS
X. PIQUET, BASSET, FARO, HAZARD, PASSE-DIX, PUT,

CROSS AND PILE, THIMBLE-RIG
XI. COCK-FIGHTING

XII. THE TURF, HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, MORAL
XIII. FORTUNE-TELLING BY CARDS (FOR LADIES)

XIV. AMUSING CARD TRICKS
THE GAMING TABLE.

CHAPTER I.
CHEVALIERS D'INDUSTRIE, OR POLITE SHARPERS.

Chevaliers d'industrie, or polite and accomplished sharpers, have
always existed in every city, from the earliest times to the

present. The ordinary progress of these interesting gentlemen is
as follows. Their debut is often difficult, and many of them are

stopped short in their career. They only succeed by means of
great exertion and severe trials; but they endure everything in

order to be tolerated or permitted to exercise their calling. To
secure credit they ally themselves with men of respectability, or

those who pass for such. When they have no titles they fabricate
them; and few persons dispute their claims. They are found

useful for the pleasures of society, the expenses of which they
often pay--at the cost of the dupes they make in the world. The

income of chevaliers d'industrie is at first derived from those
inexperienced persons whom they get in their clutches by means of

every kind of enticement, in order to ruin them some day--if they
have any 'expectations' or are likely to be rich; or in order to

make accomplices of them if they have only aptitudes for the
purpose. After having led them from error to error, after

suggesting to them all sorts of wants and vices, they make them
gamble, if they are of age; they hold up play to them as an

inexhaustible source of wealth.
The 'protector' next hands over his 'young friends' to

'executioners,' who fleece them for the common benefit of the
confederates. They do not always wait for the coming of age of

their young dupes in order to strike the grand 'stroke.' When
they find that the father of a family shudders at the idea of a

public scandal, they immolate their victim at once--for fear lest
he should escape from their hands. Of course they are always

open to 'capitulate'--to come to terms; and if the aid of the law
is invoked they give in discreetly.

About a century ago there flourished at Paris one of these
adventurers, who made a great noise and did a vast amount of

evil. This man of a thousand faces, this Proteus, as great a
corrupter as he was corrupted, changed his name, his quarters,

and field of operations, according to the exigences of business.
Although a man of ardenttemperament and inconceivable activity,

his cold-blooded rascality was never in a hurry. He could wait;
he could bide his time. Taking in, at a glance, all the

requirements of a case, and seeing through all its difficulties,
he worked out his scheme with the utmostpatience and consummated

his crime with absolute security.
Sometimes he gave a concert for amateurs, elegant suppers for gay

ladies, and special soirees for the learned and the witty. He
was not particular as to the means of doing business; thus he

trafficked in everything,--for the sale of a living, or the
procuration of a mistress--for he had associates in all ranks,

among all professions of men.
He had twenty Faro tables in operation every night, whilst his

emissaries were on the watch for new arrivals, and for those who
had recently come into property.

In general, rogues soon betray themselves by some stupid bungle;
but such was not the case with this man; he defended himself, as

it were, on all sides, and always kept himself in position so as
to oppose to each of his vices the proof positive of the contrary

virtues. Thus, if accused of usury, he could prove that he had
lent, without interest, considerable sums of money. Cowardly and

base in a tete-a-tete, he was bold and redoubtable in public;
those who had made him tremble in secret were then compelled to

acknowledge him a man of courage. Even his more than suspected
probity was defended by such as believed themselves his

depositaries, whereas they were, in point of fact, only receivers
of stolen property.

Affable, insinuating to a degree, he might be compared to those
brigands of Egypt who embraced their victims in order to strangle

them.[1] He never showed more devotedness than when he meditated
some perfidy, nor more assurance than when convicted of the

rascality. Playing fast and loose with honour and the laws, he
was sure to find, when threatened by the arm of justice, the

female relatives of the judges themselves taking his part and
doing their best to 'get him off.' Such was this extraordinary

chevalier d'industrie, who might have gone on with his diabolical
perpetrations had he not, at last, attempted too much, failing in

the grandest stroke he had ever meditated--and yet a vulgar
fraud--when he was convicted, branded, and sent to the

galleys.[2]
[1] Senec., Epist. Ii.

[2] Dusaulx, De la Passion du Jeu.
The following narrative elucidates a still more modern phase of

this elegant 'industry.' My authority is M. Robert-Houdin.
CAUGHT IN A TRAP.

M. Olivier de ---- was a dissipated young gentleman. His family
was one of the oldest and most respectable of the country, and

deservedly enjoyed the highest consideration. M. Olivier de
----, his father, was not rich, and therefore could not do much

for his son; the consequence was that owing to his outrageous
prodigality the son was sorely pinched for means to keep up his

position; he exhausted his credit, and was soon overwhelmed with
debt. Among the companions of his dissipation was a young man

whose abundant means filled him with admiration and envy; he
lived like a prince and had not a single creditor. One day he

asked his friend to explain the mystery of the fact that, without
possessing any fortune, he could gratify all his tastes and

fancies, whilst he himself, with certain resources, was compelled
to submit to privations, still getting into debt.

Chauvignac--such was the name of the friend thus addressed--was a
card-sharper, and he instantly seized the opportunity to make

something out of the happy disposition of this modern prodigal
son, this scion of gentility. With the utmostfrankness he

explained to the young man his wonderful method of keeping his