1828.] Life in the West. 39 



Those expenses are taken at 150. ; but, whether more or less, it amounts to 

 the same thing the players pay them. 



The houses are well fortified with strong iron plated doors, to make an 

 ingress into them a difficult and tardy matter. There is one at the bottom of 

 the stairs, one near the top, and a third at the entrance into the room of play. 

 These are opened and closed one after the other, as a person ascends or 

 descends. In each of the doors there is a little round glass peep-hole, for the 

 porters to take a bird's-eye view of all persons desirous of admittance, in order 

 to keep out or let in whom they choose. The appearance of the houses, the 

 attentions of the waiters, the civility of the dealers, the condescension of the 

 bankers, the refreshments and wine, all combined, have an intoxicating and 

 deceptive influence upon the inexperienced and unreflecting mind. 



The enormous fortunes realized by the keepers of these infamous esta- 

 blishments are too well known to require notice. In spite of the expenses 

 of occasional prosecution, and the still more constant charge of bribing to 

 avoid it, these miscreants, who spring invariably from the very dregs 

 of the community, live at a rate which noblemen can scarcely surpass. 

 Dwelling in splendid mansions ; maintaining carriages, and suites of ser- 

 vants ; and visiting, on their excursions of business or pleasure, all the 

 most fashionable resorts in the kingdom. The wealth of Crockford has 

 almost become a proverb : he intends shortly, it is said, to buy a borough, 

 and go into parliament. Holdsworth (now dead) had a house in Clarges- 

 street, fitted up in more than oriental splendour. His profits have been 

 known (from only one-fourth share of the " bank" in which he was a 

 partner) to exceed a thousand pounds a week. Taylor was a man of 

 rather a magnificent spirit: he collected pictures, and paid the artists whom 

 he employed with great liberality. Oldfield, who was the son of a char- 

 woman, kept six or eight horses, and servants in proportion, and was 

 taken out of his own curricle, to be carried to prison, on his last convic-. 

 tion. Bankrupt tradesmen, footmen, and waiters from coffee-houses, 

 low attornies, horse-dealers, brothel-keepers, and worn-out gamblers, 

 are the part-owners and overt agents at these houses. In some cases, the 

 capital is supplied by persons who keep in the back ground, and occupy 

 a more reputable station in society. 



If this state of things should appear surprising, a very short explana- 

 tion of the advantage which the " bankers" at a gaming-table enjoy over 

 the players, will be sufficient to account for it. Our limits prevent us 

 from entering into the author's calculations as to hazard, ecarte, un-deux- 

 cinque, c. ; but we shall endeavour (in our own way) to give a notion 

 of what are the fair odds in favour of the dealer apart from fraud at 

 the game of rouge et noir which is one of the most equal games that are 

 played at public tables. 



The manner of playing rouge et noir is so well known, that it need 

 hardly be described in detail. It is played upon a common flat table 

 (usually oblong), covered with green cloth ; upon one side of which the 

 banker, or his agent the dealer, is placed, and on the other three, the 

 players. The point in the game is, whether A or B rouge ^et noir* 

 red or black upon a certain arrangement of the cards, will be the 

 winning colour ; and the players, who use no cards themselves, stake 

 their money which is in fact making their bets upon the success of 

 whichever they please some upon one, some on the other. When the 

 game is " made," or declared that is to say, when the stakes are all 

 down, the course of decision begins, and the manner is this. The 

 dealer takes a handful of cards, from a box, containing several packs, 



