Dialogue between a Gambler and a Travelling Agent. Agent. On my first visit to the race-course at Nashville, I saw you, braced back, dealing faro, with a large regalia cigar and a ruffled shirt, and that ruffle so large you could scarce see over it. I believe you have the same shirt on now, but the ruffle is turned in; is it not? The next place on the track I saw you, you were playing at roulette. On the same track, the next day, you had on an old slouched hat, and were playing chucker-luck; and the next time I saw you, it was at the entrance of the track on the outside, with your foot up on a stump, playing the thimbles and these are the different attitudes I saw you in, on the Nashville track. Gambler. Ah! I just know now whom you have reference to it is a brother of mine. Poor, unfortunate fellow! He was misled by some of the class you speak of; and I have heard of his smart tricks many times, and I tell you, colonel, he is hard to beat! From what I have heard myself, if he gets broke dealing faro, he flies to roulette; if he cannot make money sufficient at that, he, like all the sporting gentry, plays the three little. thimbles, or the grandmother's trick of the three cards, or most any thing else, until he gets sufficient money to promote him. But for my part, I never have been addicted to card-playing. I, as I said before, run fine horses, and win a purse; and that is the amount of my gambling. Agent. Look here! you need not put on any airs with me. You are the man I have reference to, and no brother about it. Gambler. Me, sir! Agent. Yes, no other but you, sir! Gambler. Do you pretend to say that I never run for a purse? Dialogue between a Gambler and a Travelling Agent. Agent. O no, certainly not; I had no reference to your running yourself for a purse. But I had reference to your never entering of horses to run for any. Gambler. Look here, young man; you will get my dander up, the first thing you know. You see, gentlemen, he is trying to quiz me. Now, sir, come out and explain yourself. Agent. Well, now, sir, that is quite easy. You know, gentlemen, there are various kinds of purses that are run for; and there is one kind entirely different from all the rest. This purse is generally run for by a class of men that call themselves sportsmen, but are nothing more nor less than gamblers or blacklegs. This purse that I speak of is what is generally called the landlord's purse, or bill; and that is the kind that this gentleman ran for, I believe. At the end of every race week, he ran off without paying his bill; whether he had money or not, I cannot say. And the way they do this is, one of the clan, or perhaps two, will claim all the baggage when they go to leave, and, paying their own bills, take the baggage that they bring, or at least they have in their own room; and the landlord has no right to take their trunks for the other man's bill. True, when they come to the tavern, you will think they are all brothers; but when they leave, they are all strangers to one another, with the exception of one or two who carry the rest! This number they select for baggage carriers at the beginning of the races, and the caravan travels from one part to another in this way; but the baggage men always are bound to pay their own bills. And thus they have their baggage carried from one place to another, swindling honest people of their honest dues. Then, you see, the purse or bill I Dialogue between a Gambler and a Travelling Agent. speak of is very interesting for this class to run for on the last day! Gambler. Look here, my good sir; do you say that I run off every time that I attend the races ? Agent. Yes; to my knowledge you ran off without paying your bills five different times at different tracks, and attempted it at the sixth; but, the landlord having heard what a villain you were, the last night of the races at Memphis, he locked your door, and put a watch at your room, to prevent your leaving without your paying your bill; and that night, about eleven o'clock, you were found trying to get out, which you effected, and the landlord caught you, and made you tell where you carried your baggage and that was in your hat! You had, as your wardrobe, one shirt, one pair of socks, one chucker-luck box, two or three sorts of dice, one deck of cards, and about half a dozen thimbles! The landlord, with an officer, led you off to jail; and when I left, the next day, they told me about thirteen out of twenty of your apparently most intimate friends had left between two days, without paying their bills, or even bidding the landlord farewell. And when I left, you were still in jail, and that was the reason of my surprise when I saw you here! You can tell any thing slicker, and make the tell it with a better face than Gambler. Well, I give it up. the smoothest, and get over it fattest joke out of it, and any other man I ever saw. stand such talk about me. will not be trifled with by But look ye here; I will not I will let you know that I such a man as you. Agent. Mind! I will tell something more, if you don't hush; and you know it is the truth. Gambler. Well, sir, I have one request to make of you Ingenuity of professional Gamblers. —that is, for you to leave me, and never speak to me again! Agent. Now you are talking sensibly! - That I will certainly do, as I feel ashamed of myself for having been caught talking so long to you in public; and had it been in private, sir, I would not have been seen by an honest man for any consideration whatever. But now, after this, take my advice, and never put on airs without knowing whom it is with. - So I leave you. INGENUITY OF GAMBLERS. I have had frequent occasion to speak of the ingenuity which the gambler displays, in different forms, in order to deceive those who are so unfortunate as to be thrown into his power. I have met with men of this stamp often, who, if you were travelling in their company, would so manage, that, without the slightest suspicion, on your part, of any sinister design, they would soon ascertain what was your business, where you were going, how long you expected to remain, how much money you had, and whether you play cards; and if you do, what your favorite game is, and whether you bet high; and, in short, every thing relating to your history and movements that can, in any way, be made to subserve his swindling designs, will he manage to possess himself of. And, in order more effectually to ingratiate himself into your regard, he will find out what is your hobby, (for almost every man has a hobby of some kind,) and while, with seeming admiration, he is listening to you on your fa Ingenuity of professional Gamblers. vorite themes, he will be studying your character, and learning at what points you may be assailed with the greatest probability of success. He will have you surrounded with hearers, apparently very much interested in your conversation; you, in the mean time, but little suspecting that this seemingly respectable and edified company is made up of sharpers of all the various grades from number 1 to number 4, inclusive. And if it should be found that you are not a fit subject for number 1, he will let number 2 take you and deal with you; and if he does not succeed, he will hand you over to number 3; and if he, in his turn, is not successful, he passes you on to number 4, who stands ready to have every thing put in operation, as soon as a convenient opportunity presents itself; keeping his eye upon you with the vigilance and rapacity of a hawk, until a favorable place and moment arrives for putting his nefarious purposes into execution. This may appear to be strange, and quite incredible, to many inexperienced people, who are in the habit of giving all whom they meet credit for actually being what they seem to be; but still, this is a true character of those different classes of men. I do not wish the reader to understand me to say, that every person they meet with, and attempt to practise upon, falls a victim to these base classes of men; but let me assure you, that many an unsuspecting youth has been entrapped and ruined in the same way I have just described. True, they often find that those whom they endeavor to entrap, are as much experienced, and as cunning, as themselves; and it generally requires but a few minutes' conversation to make this discovery; but even those who have much experience in the rascality of mankind, cannot always successfully protect themselves against the complicated villanies of these |