46 Life in the West. [JAN. 



next " coup," he put down one of the fabricated one hundred-pound notes ; 

 the colour lost on which he pu it. The croupier drew the note, with others, 

 and placed it upon the other notes of one hundred pounds. Rougier was over- 

 looking the table, and observed the stake of one hundred pounds which Mr. 



C played, and thought that there must be something wrong, as it was a 



heavier stake than he supposed Mr. C could afford to play, though the 



time had been when Mr. C had lost a thousand pounds of a morning. 



Mr. Rougier took ten ten-pound notes from his pocket-book, and asked the 

 croupier to give a hundred pound-note for them, well knowing that he would 



give him the first, the identical one Mr. C had lost. He took the note on 



one side, examined it, and immediately detected the forgery. He called Mr. 



C into the front room, and challenged him with it. Mr. C fell upon 



his knees, craved the return of the note, and implored secrecy. Secrecy was 

 promised ; but the transaction was known at all the houses the same evening. 



This result in fact was inevitable. 



Another mode has been practised with success. A piece of very fine horse- 

 hair, was attached to a note of value. The person would sit at the end of 

 the table, as far from the croupier as possible. The large note with horse 

 hair, would be staked with notes for small amounts, and placed upon the top 

 of them. If the colour won on which it was, it was allowed to remain to be 

 paid to, but if it lost, it was pulled under the table by the horse hair, and 

 would thus disappear in a moment. The busy scene of a rouge table, pre- 

 vented the cheat being early noticed. 



Our limits compel us to break off at this point ; but the whole course 

 of the sketches in the book, relative to the business of play, evinces that 

 the author is writing upon a subject with which he is perfectly familiar. In 

 fact, we ought to have observed, that Mr. Deal is (as well as of the present 

 work) the author of several letters, signed " Expositor," which have ap- 

 peared at different periods in the Times newspaper, on the condition and 

 conduct of the gaming-houses of the higher order. The " Land at Blind 

 Hookey," the three "Night Scenes at Crockford's," the story of the "Race 

 Robberies," of the " Billiard Match," and particularly a scene at that 

 infamous tiaunt of pickpockets and prostitutes, the " Saloon," in Picca- 

 dilly, are all written with great truth, and occasionally with some 

 touches of liveliness. The author (we have already said) has no faculty 

 as a novelist : but his book will sell and it ought to sell ; for, besides the 

 gratification which it may afford to curiosity, some things that are worth 

 knowing, may be learned from it. A variety of curious anecdotes and 

 documents relative to parties notoriously connected with gambling specu- 

 lations and establishments about town, are given. Among others, an 

 original bill of Mr. Crockford's, for soles and whitings, when he was in the 

 the fish trade; and a catalogue of the person swbo have destroyed themselves, 

 or been conducted to a still more unhappy end, within the last fifteen 

 years, by indulgence in the detestable habit against which the book is 

 levelled. Some fair stories are added against certain of the noodles who 

 have merely been eased of three fourths of their superfluous wealth ; the 

 names of the parties in these cases are not given at length ; but the 

 facts described (which may be relied upon) are too notorious to be 

 mistaken. 



