Lucrative
Gambling

It is not surprising that a people so intensely speculative, excitable, and eager as the Americans, should be desperately addicted to gambling. Indeed, the spirit of gambling has incessantly pervaded all their operations, political, commercial, and social.[85] It is but one of the manifestations of that thorough license arrogated to itself by the nation, finding its true expression in the American maxim recorded by Mr Hepworth Dixon, so coarsely worded, but so significant,--`Every man has a right to do what he damned pleases.'[86]

[85] In the American correspondence of the Morning Advertiser, Feb. 6, 1868, the writer says:--`It was only yesterday (Jan. 24) that an eminent American merchant of this city (New York) said, in referring to the state of affairs--"we are socially, politically, and commercially demoralized." '

[86] `Spiritual Wives.'--A work the extraordinary disclosures of which tend to show that a similar spirit, destined, perhaps, to bring about the greatest social changes, is gaining ground elsewhere than in America.

Although laws similar to those of England are enacted in America against gambling, it may be said to exist everywhere, but, of course, to the greatest extent in the vicinity of the fashionable quarters of the large cities. In New York there is scarcely a street without its gambling house--`private,' of course, but well known to those who indulge in the vice. The ordinary public game is Faro.

High and low, rich and poor, are perfectly suited in their requirements; whilst at some places the stakes are unlimited, at others they must not exceed one dollar, and a player may wager as low as five cents, or twopence-halfpenny. These are for the accommodation of the very poorest workmen, discharged soldiers, broken-down gamblers, and street-boys.

`I think,' says a recent writer,[87] `of all the street-boys in the world, those of New York are the most precocious. I have seen a shoe-black, about three feet high, walk up to the table or `Bank,' as it is generally called, and stake his money (five cents) with the air of a young spendthrift to whom "money is no object." '

[87] `St James's Magazine,' Sept., 1867.

The chief gambling houses of New York were established by men who are American celebrities, and among these the most prominent have been Pat Hern and John Morrissey.

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