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Gaming
by
“Frontless and satire-proof, he scours the streets,
And runs an Indian muck at all he meets.”
Thus also Pope–
“Satire’s my weapon, but =I’m= too discreet
To run a muck, and tilt at all I meet.”
Johnson could not discover the derivation of the word muck. To “run a muck” is an old phrase for attacking madly and indiscriminately; and has since been ascertained to be a Malay word.
To discharge their gambling debts, the Siamese sell their possessions, their families, and at length themselves. The Chinese play night and day, till they have lost all they are worth; and then they usually go and hang themselves. Such is the propensity of the Javanese for high play, that they were compelled to make a law, that “Whoever ventures his money at play shall be put to death.” In the newly-discovered islands of the Pacific Ocean, they venture even their hatchets, which they hold as invaluable acquisitions, on running-matches.–“We saw a man,” says Cook, “beating his breast and tearing his hair in the violence of rage, for having lost three hatchets at one of these races, and which he had purchased with nearly half his property.”
The ancient nations were not less addicted to gaming: Persians, Grecians, and Romans; the Goths, and Germans. To notice the modern ones were a melancholy task: there is hardly a family in Europe which cannot record, from their own domestic annals, the dreadful prevalence of this passion.
Gamester and cheater were synonymous terms in the time of Shakspeare and Jonson: they have hardly lost much of their double signification in the present day.
The following is a curious picture of a gambling-house, from a contemporary account, and appears to be an establishment more systematic even than the “Hells” of the present day.
“A list of the officers established in the most notorious gaming-houses,” from the DAILY JOURNAL, Jan. 9th, 1731.
1st. A COMMISSIONER, always a proprietor, who looks in of a night; and the week’s account is audited by him and two other proprietors.
2nd. A DIRECTOR, who superintends the room.
3rd. An OPERATOR, who deals the cards at a cheating game, called Faro.
4th. Two CROWPEES, who watch the cards, and gather the money for the hank.
5th. Two PUFFS, who have money given them to decoy others to play.
6th. A CLERK, who is a check upon the PUFFS, to see that they sink none of the money given them to play with.
7th. A SQUIB is a puff of lower rank, who serves at half-pay salary while he is learning to deal.
8th. A FLASHER, to swear how often the bank has been stript.
9th. A DUNNER, who goes about to recover money lost at play.
10th. A WAITER, to fill out wine, snuff candles, and attend the gaming-room.
11th. An ATTORNEY, a Newgate solicitor.
12th. A CAPTAIN, who is to fight any gentleman who is peevish for losing his money.
13th. An USHER, who lights gentlemen up and down stairs, and gives the word to the porter.
14th. A PORTER, who is generally a soldier of the Foot Guards.
15th. An ORDERLY MAN, who walks up and down the outside of the door, to give notice to the porter, and alarm the house at the approach of the constable.
16th. A RUNNER, who is to get intelligence of the justices’ meeting.
17th. LINK-BOYS, COACHMEN, CHAIRMEN, or others who bring intelligence of the justices’ meetings, or of the constables being out, at half-a-guinea reward.
18th. COMMON-BAIL, AFFIDAVIT-MEN, RUFFIANS, BRAVOES, ASSASSINS, cum multis aliis.
The “Memoirs of the most famous Gamesters from the reign of Charles II. to Queen Anne, by T. Lucas, Esq., 1714,” appears to be a bookseller’s job; but probably a few traditional stories are preserved.[1]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: This curious little volume deserves more attention than the slight mention above would occasion. It is diffuse in style, and hence looks a little like a “bookseller’s job,” of which the most was to be made; but the same fault has characterised many works whose authors possess a bad style. Many of the tales narrated of well-known London characters of the “merry days” of Charles the Second are very characteristic, and are not to be met with elsewhere.]