Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Volume II (of II)

Andrew Steinmetz

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. 'The sharp, the blackleg, and the knowing one,

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• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819927549
• Langue: English

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THE GAMING TABLE:
ITS VOTARIES AND VICTIMS,
In all Times and Countries, especially inEngland and in France.
IN TWO VOLUMES. — VOL. II.
By Andrew Steinmetz, Esq.,
Of The Middle Temple, Barrister-At-Law;First-Class Extra Certificate School Of Musketry, Hythe; LateOfficer Instructor Musketry, The Queens Own Light InfantryMilitia.
Author Of 'The History Of The Jesuits, ' 'JapanAnd Her People, ' 'The Romance Of Duelling, ' and c. , and c.
'The sharp, the blackleg, and the knowing one,
Livery or lace, the self-same circle, run;
The same the passion, end and means the same—
Dick and his Lordship differ but in name. '
TO HIS GRACE The Duke of Wellington, K. G. THISWORK IS DEDICATED, WITH PERMISSION, BY HIS GRACE'S MOST DEVOTEDSERVANT
THE AUTHOR.
THE GAMING TABLE.
CHAPTER I. CHEVALIERS D'INDUSTRIE, OR POLITESHARPERS.
Chevaliers d'industrie, or polite and accomplishedsharpers, have always existed in every city, from the earliesttimes to the present. The ordinary progress of these interestinggentlemen is as follows. Their debut is often difficult, and manyof them are stopped short in their career. They only succeed bymeans of great exertion and severe trials; but they endureeverything in order to be tolerated or permitted to exercise theircalling. To secure credit they ally themselves with men ofrespectability, or those who pass for such. When they have notitles they fabricate them; and few persons dispute their claims.They are found useful for the pleasures of society, the expenses ofwhich they often pay— at the cost of the dupes they make in theworld. The income of chevaliers d'industrie is at first derivedfrom those inexperienced persons whom they get in their clutches bymeans of every kind of enticement, in order to ruin them some day—if they have any 'expectations' or are likely to be rich; or inorder to make accomplices of them if they have only aptitudes forthe purpose. After having led them from error to error, aftersuggesting to them all sorts of wants and vices, they make themgamble, if they are of age; they hold up play to them as aninexhaustible source of wealth.
The 'protector' next hands over his 'young friends'to 'executioners, ' who fleece them for the common benefit of theconfederates. They do not always wait for the coming of age oftheir young dupes in order to strike the grand 'stroke. ' When theyfind that the father of a family shudders at the idea of a publicscandal, they immolate their victim at once— for fear lest heshould escape from their hands. Of course they are always open to'capitulate'— to come to terms; and if the aid of the law isinvoked they give in discreetly.
About a century ago there flourished at Paris one ofthese adventurers, who made a great noise and did a vast amount ofevil. This man of a thousand faces, this Proteus, as great acorrupter as he was corrupted, changed his name, his quarters, andfield of operations, according to the exigences of business.Although a man of ardent temperament and inconceivable activity,his cold-blooded rascality was never in a hurry. He could wait; hecould bide his time. Taking in, at a glance, all the requirementsof a case, and seeing through all its difficulties, he worked outhis scheme with the utmost patience and consummated his crime withabsolute security.
Sometimes he gave a concert for amateurs, elegantsuppers for gay ladies, and special soirees for the learned and thewitty. He was not particular as to the means of doing business;thus he trafficked in everything, — for the sale of a living, orthe procuration of a mistress— for he had associates in all ranks,among all professions of men.
He had twenty Faro tables in operation every night,whilst his emissaries were on the watch for new arrivals, and forthose who had recently come into property.
In general, rogues soon betray themselves by somestupid bungle; but such was not the case with this man; he defendedhimself, as it were, on all sides, and always kept himself inposition so as to oppose to each of his vices the proof positive ofthe contrary virtues. Thus, if accused of usury, he could provethat he had lent, without interest, considerable sums of money.Cowardly and base in a tete-a-tete, he was bold and redoubtable inpublic; those who had made him tremble in secret were thencompelled to acknowledge him a man of courage. Even his more thansuspected probity was defended by such as believed themselves hisdepositaries, whereas they were, in point of fact, only receiversof stolen property.
Affable, insinuating to a degree, he might becompared to those brigands of Egypt who embraced their victims inorder to strangle them. (1) He never showed more devotedness thanwhen he meditated some perfidy, nor more assurance than whenconvicted of the rascality. Playing fast and loose with honour andthe laws, he was sure to find, when threatened by the arm ofjustice, the female relatives of the judges themselves taking hispart and doing their best to 'get him off. ' Such was thisextraordinary chevalier d'industrie, who might have gone on withhis diabolical perpetrations had he not, at last, attempted toomuch, failing in the grandest stroke he had ever meditated— and yeta vulgar fraud— when he was convicted, branded, and sent to thegalleys. (2)
(1) Senec. , Epist. Ii. (2) Dusaulx, De la Passiondu Jeu.
The following narrative elucidates a still moremodern phase of this elegant 'industry. ' My authority is M.Robert-Houdin.
CAUGHT IN A TRAP. M. Olivier de — — was a dissipatedyoung gentleman. His family was one of the oldest and mostrespectable of the country, and deservedly enjoyed the highestconsideration. M. Olivier de — — , his father, was not rich, andtherefore could not do much for his son; the consequence was thatowing to his outrageous prodigality the son was sorely pinched formeans to keep up his position; he exhausted his credit, and wassoon overwhelmed with debt. Among the companions of his dissipationwas a young man whose abundant means filled him with admiration andenvy; he lived like a prince and had not a single creditor. One dayhe asked his friend to explain the mystery of the fact that,without possessing any fortune, he could gratify all his tastes andfancies, whilst he himself, with certain resources, was compelledto submit to privations, still getting into debt.
Chauvignac— such was the name of the friend thusaddressed— was a card-sharper, and he instantly seized theopportunity to make something out of the happy disposition of thismodern prodigal son, this scion of gentility. With the utmostfrankness he explained to the young man his wonderful method ofkeeping his pockets full of money, and showed that nothing could beeasier than for Olivier to go and do likewise in his terriblecondition; — in short, on one hand there were within his grasp,riches, pleasure, all manner of enjoyment; on the other, pitilesscreditors, ruin, misery, and contempt. The tempter, moreover,offered to initiate his listener in his infallible method ofgetting rich. In his frame of mind Olivier yielded to thetemptation, with the full determination, if not to get money bycheating at cards, at any rate to learn the method which mightserve as a means of self-defence should he not think proper to useit for attack— such was the final argument suggested by the humanMephistopheles to his pupil.
Taking Olivier to his house, he showed him a pack ofcards. 'Now here is a pack of cards, ' he said; 'there seems to benothing remarkable about it, does there? ' Olivier examined thepack and declared that the cards did not appear to differ in theleast from all others. 'Well, ' said Chauvignac, 'nevertheless theyhave been subjected to a preparation called biseautage, or havingone end of the cards made narrower than the other. This dispositionenables us to remove from the pack such and such cards and then toclass them in the necessary order so that they may get into thehand of the operator. ' Chauvignac then proceeded to apply hisprecepts by an example, and although the young man had noparticular qualification for the art of legerdemain, he succeededat once to admiration in a game at Ecarte, for he had alreadymastered the first process of cheating. Having thus, as he thought,sufficiently compromised his victim, Chauvignac left him to histemptations, and took leave of him.
Two days afterwards the professor returned to hispupil and invited him to accompany him on a pleasure trip. Olivierexcused himself on account of his desperate condition— one of hiscreditors being in pursuit of him for a debt of one thousandfrancs. 'Is that all? ' said Chauvignac; and pulling out hispocket-book he added, — 'Here's a bank-note; you can repay meto-morrow. ' 'Why, man, you are mad! ' exclaimed Olivier. 'Be itso, ' said Chauvignac; 'and in my madness I give you credit foranother thousand-franc bank-note to go and get thirty thousandfrancs which are waiting for you. ' 'Now, do explain yourself, foryou are driving ME mad. ' 'Nothing more easy. Here is the fact, 'said Chauvignac. 'M. le Comte de Vandermool, a wealthy Belgiancapitalist, a desperate gamester if ever there was one, and who canlose a hundred thousand francs without much inconvenience, is nowat Boulogne, where he will remain a week. This millionnaire must bethinned a little. Nothing is easier. One of my friends andconfreres, named Chaffard, is already with the count to prepare theway. We have only now to set to work. You are one of us— that'sagreed— and in a few days you will return, to satisfy yourcreditors and buy your mistress a shawl. '
'Stop a bit. You are going too fast. Wait a little.I haven't as yet said Yes, ' replied Olivier. 'I don't want yourYes now; you will say it at Boulogne. For the present go and payyour bill. We set out in two hours; the post-horses are alreadyordered; we shall start from my house: be punctual. '
The party reached Boulogne and put up at the Hotelde l'Univers. On their arrival they were informed that no time wasto be lost, as the