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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz, Volume II

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Doings In Gaming Houses

CARDS THAT WOULD BEAT THE D--L HIMSELF!

A number of sharpers were detected in a trick by which they had
won enormous sums. An Ecarte party, consisting of a nobleman, a
captain in the army, an Armenian gentleman, and an Irish
gentleman, sat down in one of the private chambers attached to
one of the large wine and shell-fish rooms. The Armenian and the
Irishman were partners, and were wonderfully successful; indeed,
so extraordinary was their luck in turning up cards, that the
captain, who had been in the town for some time, suspected the
integrity of his competitors, and, accordingly, handled the cards
very minutely. He soon discovered that there was an 'old
gentleman' (a card somewhat larger and thicker than the rest of
the pack, and in considerable use among the LEGS) in the midst of
them. The captain and his partner exclaimed that they were
robbed, and the cards were sealed up, and referred to a card-
maker for his opinion.

'The old saying,' said the referee, 'that THE CARDS WOULD BEAT
THE CARD-MAKER, was never more true than it is in this instance,
for this pack would beat not only me, but the very d--l himself;
there is not only an OLD GENTLEMAN, but an OLD LADY (a card
broader than the rest) amongst them.'

The two 'gentlemen' were immediately accused of the imposition,
but they feigned ignorance of the fraud, refused to return a
farthing of the 'swag,' and, in their turn, charged the losers
with having got up the story in order to recover what they had
fairly lost.

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