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Volume I Volume II

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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THE UNIVERSAL PASSION OF GAMING OR, GAMING ALL THE WORLD OVER

CHAPTER I. page 9

`Betwixt twelve and one of the clock a good dinner is prepared by
way of ordinary, and some gentlemen of civility and condition
oftentimes eat there, and play a while for recreation after
dinner, both moderately and most commonly without deserving
reproof. Towards night, when ravenous beasts usually seek their
prey, there come in shoals of hectors, trepanners, gilts, pads,
biters, prigs, divers, lifters, kidnappers, vouchers, mill kens,
piemen, decoys, shop-lifters, foilers, bulkers, droppers,
gamblers, donnakers, crossbiters, &c., under the general
appellation of "rooks;" and in this particular it serves as a
nursery for Tyburn, for every year some of this gang march
thither.

`Would you imagine it to be true--that a grave gentleman, well
stricken in years, insomuch as he cannot see the pips of the
dice, is so infatuated with this witchery as to play here with
others' eyes,--of whom this quibble was raised, "Mr Such a one
plays at dice by the ear." Another gentleman, stark blind, I
have seen play at Hazard, and surely that must be by the ear too.

`Late at night, when the company grows thin, and your eyes dim
with watching, false dice are often put upon the ignorant, or
they are otherwise cozened, with topping or slurring, &;c.; and,
if you be not vigilant, the box-keeper shall score you up double
or treble boxes, and, though you have lost your money, dun you as
severely for it as if it were the justest debt in the world.

`There are yet some genteeler and more subtle rooks, whom you
shall not distinguish by their outward demeanour from persons of
condition; and who will sit by a whole evening, and observe who
wins; and then, if the winner be "bubbleable," they will
insinuate themselves into his acquaintance, and civilly invite
him to drink a glass of wine,--wheedle him into play, and win all
his money, either by false dice, as high fulhams,[11] low
fulhams, or by palming, topping, &c. Note by the way, that
when they have you at the tavern and think you a sure "bubble,"
they will many times purposely lose some small sum to you the
first time, to engage you more freely to _BLEED_ (as they call
it) at the second meeting, to which they will be sure to invite
you.

[11] It appears that false dice were originally made at
_Fulham;_ hence so called, high and low fulhams; the high ones
were the numbers 4, 5, 6.

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