Fools of Fortune; or, Gambling and Gamblers

Like all kindred vices, gambling flourishes best in large cities. Centres of commerce are also centres of speculation, and the man whose brain has been busy all day in the consi...

Under the second Henry, when the courtiers grew weary of the minstrels and jugleurs, or when they were not occupied in making love, they beguiled the lagging moments by gaming i...

“Did you ever see the autograph of the President?” said Warden B., of the I. State Penitentiary. He had been a member of my congregation for years, and at his request I had visi...

Early education, family training, and circumstances often apparently accidental are potent influences in the formation and moulding of character. Yet not infrequently an event o...

The game of poker is undoubtedly one of the “peculiar institutions” of the United States and, like base-ball, may be called a “National game.” It finds an abiding place alike am...

The origin of the commercial exchange is coeval with the beginning of commerce. According to that eminent Oriental scholar and historian, Rawlinson, the city of Babylon containe...

The devices of confidence operators for fleecing their victims are more numerous and ingenious than the minds of unsophisticated, honest men can readily conceive. These gentry k...

Of all the evils connected or associated with games of chance in this country, perhaps the most vicious are those which surround the race- courses of the land—not only those ext...

There is scarcely a person who has visited a county fair, or patronized a circus, whose attention has not been attracted by the presence upon the grounds of an immense number of...

Histories, accessible to the author present but few glimpses here and there of the gambling vice as it has prevailed in modern Italy. He found but few allusions to the subject b...

The general belief that cards were invented in the fourteenth century to amuse the imbecile Charles VI. of France is one of those popular errors which, despite the proofs arraye...

As illustrating the inherent uncertainty of betting, the following story of the adventure of an old negro slave in Alabama during the days before the war may serve at once to “p...

Of all the devices which the fertile brain of the confidence operator has originated, it may be questioned whether any is more ingenious in conception or has reaped a richer har...

The game, sometimes called Old Sledge and Seven-Up, is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which take rank as at Whist—the Ace being the highest and the Deuce the lowest.

“The Huns,” says St. Ambrose, “a fierce and warlike race, are always subject to a set of usurers, who lend them what they want for the purpose of gaming. They live without laws...

The Hebrews, in resorting to the casting of lots, believed it was an appeal to the Lord. It was not thought to be gambling. It is useful that the reader should understand this....

The name “short” games is applied among gamblers to those which require comparatively little time in which to determine the issue of the hazard. In the present chapter, those be...

AGE, THE, 216, 217, 218. AMERICANS, why predisposed to gaming, 185. AMES, MAYOR, his policy toward Minneapolis gamblers, 534. “ANTE,” 217. AUGUSTUS, as a gamester, 88. AUSTIN, T...

The origin of dice is shrouded in obscurity, but it is certain that their use has come down to modern days from a period of remote antiquity. Dice throwing has always been one o...

Fannie May Harvey was the daughter of Dr. W. C. Harvey, of Roanoke, Howard county, Mo., a physician who, in addition to the social prominence which his profession conferred, had...

It is probable that the fall of Greece was due to the license that prevailed as to gaming, and consequently to all other and lesser forms of dissipation and corruption. Philip o...

Only gamblers defend gambling. Those who play faro, roulette, hazard; those who buy mutual pools or “puts and calls;” and even those whose instinct for gaming is satisfied with...

It may be questioned whether any other country on the globe affords a more striking illustration of the prevalence and the power of the gambling mania than does the great Republ...

Gambling holds a high place among the vices of society. It proposes to the young that they secure money without earning it honestly. It thus asks thousands of persons to disrega...

Gambling at the time of the Crusades—The Reigns of Richard I and John—Dice Throwing among the Barons—Restrictions placed upon the Limit of Stakes among the Crusaders—Gambling Du...

Gaming in Italy—At Naples, Under the Spaniards—Cardinal Zapata’s Prohibition—High Stakes and Heavy Losses—Monte Carlo—The Famous Casino—The Handiwork of Blanc—A Palace Built at...

Celebrated Gamesters and Gaming Houses—Gambling in the “Hell” and the Policy Shop, on the Race-Track and the Exchange—Incidents—Biographical Reminiscences—Historical Facts—When,...

Gambling among the Ancient Huns—Ancient German Warriors as Gamesters—Playing For One’s Liberty—Selling the Loser as a Slave—Modern Germany—Famous Gambling Resorts—The Gaming Sea...

Origin of Cards—Origin of Faro—Its Antiquity and Popularity—A Fruitful Source of Misery—Faro Compared to the Tiger—The Principles of the Game—Playing on a “System”—The Dealer an...

Gaming a Factor in the Fall of Greece—Dicing at Athens—Gaming an Aid to Despotism—Encouraged by Alexander—Cocking Mains Among the Greeks—Origin of Dice—Roman Dice—Value of Throw...

Antiquity of Dice Throwing—The Sport Declining in Popularity—Hieronymus—The Game Explained—The “Bowl” and Dice—A Heavy Percentage Against Players—Deception and Trickery—Substitu...

How Licenses are Obtained—The Directors’ Disgrace—Personal Experience—Collusion With the Authorities—Officers of the Law as Blackmailers—The Author’s Aim—The Needle Wheel—Its Co...

Why Called “Short”—Rouge et Noir—The Lay-Out—Method of Play—The Enormous Preponderance of Chances in the Bank’s Favor—Schemes of Fraud—Barefaced Robbery—Doubles or Quits—Turning...

Evils of the Race-Course—Antiquity of Horse- Racing—Ancient and Modern Times Compared—Racing in England—Blacklegs on the Track—A “National Sport”—The American Turf—Colonial Days...

Ingenuity of the Gold Brick Swindlers—Inadequacy of Newspaper Explanations—The Victim’s Taciturnity—Three Confederates Necessary—A Small Capital Required—Selection of a Victim—S...

The “Lot” Among the Hebrews—The Putative Sacred Origin of Gaming—Egyptian Legends—Mercury Gambling With the Sun—Artaxerxes and Paracletus—An Assassin’s Life at Stake—Gambling Pr...

Gambling Spirit in the United States—The Features Which Characterize It—The Green Cloth and the Stock Exchange—Greed for Gain and a Spirit of Recklessness—“Margins” and Stakes—“...

Ruined by a Funeral—“Fly-Loo”—The “Top Stock” Beaten—A Woodsman Known by His Chips—The “Morning” Principle—A Friend’s Bad Faith—Influence of Money on Parental Disapprobation—Tim...

Essentially an American Game—Its Great and Growing Popularity—Dangers of Its Insidious Fascination—Method of Play—Relative Value of the Hands—Definition of Technical Terms Emplo...

Gaming Indefensible—A False Idea of Happiness—Oriental Knowledge of Ethics—Origin of the Gaming Instinct—Blackstone’s Definition of Gaming—Gambling and Commerce Contrasted—The G...

Seven-Up, or Old Sledge—Principles of the Game—Fraudulent Methods—Strippers—Briefs—Half Stock—The Whole Stock—Crimping—Marking the Edges—The High Hand—The Long Hand—The Short Ha...

The Exchange of the Ancients—Royal Exchange—New York Chamber of Commerce—American Boards of Trade—Scope of the Exchange—“Speculating” and Gambling—“Corners”—The Operator and the...

Depravity of Confidence Men—Why they Succeed—Their Dupes—Misplaced Sympathy—Three Card Monte—Bogus Checks—Over Issue—“Dropping the Pigeon”—The Tobacco Box—Knife—“Padlock” and “S...

Her Family—Parental Opposition to Our Marriage—Our Elopement—Our Marriage—Her Parents’ Anger—A Pitiful Appeal to Maternal Love—Our Married Life—Poverty and Affliction—A Dress fo...