U. S. COVE. A soldier; a man in the employ of the United States.
U. S. PLATE. Fetters; handcuffs.
UNCLE. A pawnbroker.
UNDER-DUBBER. A turnkey.
UNICORN. Two men and one woman, or two women and one man banded together to steal.
UNTRUSS. To let down the shutters of a store.
UP HILLS. False dice.
UP THE SPOUT. Pawned.
UP TO. Knowing.
UP TO SLUM. Humbug; gammon.
UP TO SNUFF. Cunning; shrewd.
UPISH. Testy; quarrelsome.
UPPER-BENJAMIN. An overcoat.
UPRIGHT MAN. King of the gipsies; the head of a gang of thieves; the chief of banditti.
UPRIGHTS. Liquor measures.
USED UP. Killed; murdered.
VAG. Vagrant. "Done on the vag," committed for vagrancy.
VAMOSE. Run away; be off quick.
VAMP. To pledge.
VAMPERS. Stockings.
VAMPIRE. A man who lives by extorting money from men and women whom they have seen coming out of or going into houses of assignation.
VARDY. Opinion.
VELVET. The tongue.
VENITE. Come.
VENUS' CURSE. Venereal disease.
VERGE. A gold watch.
VICTUALLING OFFICE. The stomach.
VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards.
VINEGAR. A cloak or gown.
VIRTUE ATER. A prostitute.
VIXEN. A she-fox.
VOWEL. Give your note; I. O. U.
WAITS. Strolling musicians; organ-players, etc.
WALL-FLOWERS. Second-hand clothing exposed for sale.
WAME. The stomach.
WARE HAWK. Lookout; beware.
WARM. Rich; plenty of money; dangerous.
WASTE. A tavern.
WATERED. Longed for. "The cove's chops watered for it," the fellow longed for it.
WATTLES. The cars.
WEDGE. Silver-ware.
WEDGE-BOX. A silver snuff-box.
WEEDING. Taking a part and leaving the balancein such a manner as not to excite suspicion. When a thief abstracts a portion from the plunder without the knowledge of his pals, and then receives an equal proportion of the remainder, it is called "Weeding the swag."
WELCH COMB. The thumb and finger.
WELL. Not to divide fair; to conceal a part.
WESAND. The throat.
WET-SNOW. Wet linen.
WETTING. Drinking.
WHACK. Share of the plunder.
WHEEDLE. To decoy a person by fawning or insinuation.
WHET. To drink.
WHIDDLE. To tell or discover. "He whiddles," he peaches. "He whiddles the whole scrap," he tells all he knows. "The cull whiddled because they would not tip him his regulars," the fellow informed because they would not share with him. "The joskin whiddles beef, and we must pad the hoof," the countryman cries "thief," and we must be off.
WHIDDLER. An informer; one who tells the secrets of another.
WHIDS. Words. "Tip me your wattles, my pal, and touch my whids, or I'll make you whindle like a kinchin," give me your ears and take my words, or I'll make you snivel like a child.
WHIFFLER. A fellow that yelps or cries out with pain.
WHINDLE. A low cry; a painful suppressed cry.
WHIP-JACKS. Men who pretend to be shipwrecked sailors.
WHIPE. A blow.
WHIPER. A kerchief.
WHIPPED. Cheated out of a share, or equal part of the plunder.
WHIPSTER. A sharper; a cunning fellow.
WHISKER. An enormous lie.
WHISKIN. A drinking-vessel.
WHISTLER. The throat.
WHIT. A prison. "Five gonnoffs were rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit and piked like bulls into grassville," five thieves broke out of prison in the night, and ran like locomotives into the country.
WHITE TAPE. Gin.
WHITE VELVET. Gin.
WHITE WOOL. Silver.
WIBBLE. Bad drink.
WIFE. A fetter fixed to one leg.
WIFFLER. A relaxation.
WILD. A village.
WILLOW. Poor.
WIN. A cent.
WIN. To steal; to cheat. "The sneak tracked the dancers and win a twittock of witcher glimsticks," the thief went up-stairs and stole a pair of candlesticks.
WIND. Money. "Raise the wind," get money.
WINDER. To sentence for life. "The cove has napped a winder for settling a tony," the fellow has been sentenced for life for killing a fool.
WINGS. Oars.
WINNINGS. Plunder; money or goods.
WIRE. A pickpocket; the fellow who picks the pocket.
WIREHOOK. A pickpocket.
WISH. Be off; away with you.
WITCHER. Silver.
WITCHER BUBBER. A silver bowl.
WOBALL. A milkman.
WOBBLE. To boil; to reel; to stagger.
WOOD. In a quandary.
WOODBIRD. A sheep.
WOODEN COAT. A coffin.
WOODEN HABEAS. A man who dies in prison is said to go out on a wooden habeas; that is, in his coffin.
WORD-PECKER. A wit; a punster.
WORM. To obtain knowledge by craft and cunning.
YACK. A watch.
YAM. To eat.
YAVUM. Bread and milk.
YELLOW. Jealousy.
YELPER. A fellow who cries before he is hurt.
YIDISHER. A Jew.
YOKED. Married.
YOKLE. A countryman.
ZANY. A jester.
ZNEES. Ice; snow; frost.
ZOUCHER. A slovenly fellow.
ZUCKE. A dilapidated prostitute.
"Ho! there, my rum-bluffer; send me a nipperkin of white velvet."
"Make it two," said a woman, seating herself on a skinner's knee; "and if Jim don't post the cole, I will."
"Why, Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort. May I dance at my death, and grin in a glass-case, if I didn't think you had been put to bed with a shovel—you've been so long away from the cock and hen club."
"No, Jim, I only piked into Deuceaville with a dimber-damber, who couldn't pad the hoof for a single darkman's without his bloss to keep him from getting pogy."
"Oh! I'm fly. You mean Jumping Jack, who was done last week, for heaving a peter from a drag. But you talked of padding the hoof. Why, sure, Jack had a rattler and a prad?"
"Yes, but they were spotted by the harmans, and so we walked Spanish."
"Was he nabbed on the scent?"
"No, his pal grew leaky and cackled."
"Well, Bell, here's the bingo—sluice your gob! But who was the cull that peached?"
"A slubber de gullion named Harry Long, who wanted to pass for an out-and-out cracksman, though he was merely a diver."
"Whew! I know the kiddy like a copper, andsaved him once from lumping the lighter by putting in buck. Why, he scarcely knows a jimmy from a round robin, and Jack deserved the tippet for making a lay with him, as all coves of his kidney blow the gab. But how did you hare it to Romeville, Bell, for I suppose the jets cleaned you out?"
"I kidded a swell in a snoozing-ken, and shook him of his dummy and thimble."
"Ah! Bell! you were always the blowen for a rum bing."
"It was no great quids, Jim—only six flimseys and three beans. But I'm flush of the balsam now, for I dance balum-rancum for the bens."
Bell here produced a rum bing, which at once made her popular, and the nucleus of a host of admirers; for, as it respects money, it is with rogues and their doxeys as with all the rest of the world. Bell truly justified the adage, that "What's got over the devil's back, goes under the devil's belly;" for she gave a general order to the rum-bluffer, to supply all the lush that was called for by the company, at her expense; and thereon there was a demand for max, oil of barby, red tape, blue ruin, white velvet, and so forth, that kept all the tapsters in the establishment in a state of restless activity for the next half-hour.
"Bell, you're benish to-night," exclaimed Knapp, who probably had a design on the purse, which the course of events somewhat interfered with.
"Stubble your red rag," answered a good-looking young fellow. "Bell had better flash her dibs than let you bubble her out of them."
"Why, you joskin," retorted Jim; "if you don't stow your whids I'll put your bowsprit in parenthesis. Ogle the cove, Bell—he wants to pass for a snafler in his belcher tye, though he never bid higher than a wipe in an upper benjamin."
"I may bid as high as your pintle, and make you squint like a bag of nails," replied the intruder, "though you rub us to whit for it."
"Oh! it's all plummy," said Knapp, "so you may cly your daddles. But come, Bell, let us track the dancers and rumble the flats, for I'm tired of pattering flash and lushing jackey."
"Bar that toss, Jim," said Bell, "for you're as fly at the pictures, as the devil at lying, and I would rather be a knight of Alsatia than a plucked pigeon."
This resolution produced a round of applause, which was followed by another round of liquor—promptly paid for by the lady of the rum bing, whose generosity now so far extended itself, that she withdrew from Mr. Knapp's protection, and, even without waiting to be asked, deposited herself in the lap of him of the belcher tye. She had scarcely asserted her title to the premises, before it was disputed by another fair damsel, who emphatically declared, that if the tenant in possession did not immediately leave that, she would astonish her mazzard with the contents of a "nipperkin of thunder and lightning."
"If you do," returned Bell, "I will fix my diggers in your dial-plate, and turn it up with red."
"Mizzle, you punk."
"Well said," Madame Rhan, "but the bishop might as soon call the parson pig-stealer."
"You lie, you bat. I couple with no cove but my own. But say, Harry, will you suffer yourself to be made a two-legged stool of by a flag-about?"
"Oh! button your bone-box, Peg," replied Harry. "Bell's a rum blowen, and you only patter because your ogle's as green as the Emerald Isle."
"It's not half so green as yourself, halter-mad Harry," retorted Peg; "for you know if I wished to nose I could have you twisted—not to mention any thing about the cull that was hushed for his reader."
On a bench, close by the last speaker, was seated Hitch, a police officer, who appeared to be quite at home with the company, and to occasion no alarm or misgivings; but the moment Peg mentioned the circumstance of "the cull that was hushed for his reader,"he rose from the table, drew forth a pair of handcuffs, and tapping Knapp's rival on the shoulder, playfully whispered:
"Harry, my lad, the game's up; hold out your wrists for the ruffles."
"There they are, Mr. Hitch, though I suppose you'll be asking me in a week or so to hold out my gorge for a Tyburn tippet."
These proceedings naturally drew a crowd around the parties concerned; but though all sympathized with the prisoner, and the minion of the law was without any assistant, yet there was not the slightest attempt at a rescue, or even the least disposition manifested by the captive of a desire to escape.
"Only nine months on the pad, and to be up for scragging! What a pity!"
"He's too young—he hasn't had his lark half out; and it's like making a man pay a debt he don't owe, to twist him before he has gone the rounds."
"He'll die game for all that! Poor fellow! he takes it like a glass of egg-nog."
"Ah! Mr. Hitch! isn't it out of order, and he so green? You ought to give a chap a year to ripen for the hemp."
"Do, Hitch, give him a little longer rope, and take him in his regular turn. You're sure to have him, you know, when his time's up."
"O! stubble it, George. Hitch can't, or he would; for he never hurries a cove when it's left to himself."
"That's a fact, my kiddies," exclaimed the officer, who seemed pleased at the compliment; "but the commissioner wants Harry, and so, of course, I must pull him."
"I'm satisfied, whatever comes of it," added the prisoner.
Bell whispered in the officer's ear: "Couldn't you let him pike if I come down with a thimble and ten beans?"
"A watch and ten guineas?"
"Of course."
"I might if you paid on delivery."
"Ready's the word."
"Warehawk, then, and follow."
Hitch departed with his prisoner, followed by Bell; but in a few minutes the latter returned and whispered to Knapp:
"Your client has slipped the darbys, and his name's Walker. Here's a flimsy, to lay low and bottle your gab."
The flash-panny was now in the full tide of successful operation—two thirds of its patrons being about three sheets in the wind, and none of them perfectly sober. In one corner there was a mill, wherein the combatants hit the wall more frequently than they hit each other. In another, two blowens were clapper-clawing each other for a bob-cull, who was seconding both parties, and declaring that the winner should have him. Here a snafler lay snoring on a bench, while a buzman, just half a degree less intoxicated, was endeavoring to pick his pocket. There, three cracksmen were engaged in a remarkably animated dispute on the state of the country. Under almost every table might be seen a son or daughter of Adam, luxuriating in the realms of Nod. But the bulk of the company were amusing themselves in a dance; for one of the fixtures of the establishment was an Irish piper, who, by the way, was a little fortune to it, for every one treated Pat.
The dance was yet in its fullest vigor, when Hitch returned and called Bell to one of the tables.
"Bell", said he, "I have been looking for you more eagerly than any of your lovers for several months past—though I found you at length by an accident. What have you done with the bloke?"
"Me, Hitch? Why, I have neither seen or heard of him."
"Come, Bell, it's no use our wasting time in small talk. You were with him the last night he was heard of."
"Not I, faith, Hitch. Bring me the book, and I'll swear No to that."
"How then came you by his super?"
"Blast the super! for I fear it has got me into a muss."
"If I take you to Newgate for it, Bell, it will be apt to get you into a halter."
"Well, then it will save me from the Bay fever, or dying in the gutter; for all such as I am must draw one of the three chances."
"Make me your confessor, Bell, without any equivocation or drawback, and I may stand between you and Jack Ketch."
"But what about the stone-jug?"
"That depends upon circumstances. Is the bloke living or dead?"
"Living, for all I know to the contrary."
"You know all about him, Bell."
"If I do, may I cly the jerk at a drag; be trussed in a Kilmainham garter, and fall to the surgeons."
"Well, it may be so," said Hitch, musing; "for if you knew all, half the world would have known it before this time. However, Bell, you can supply a link or two in the chain of evidence, so give me the particulars; and remember, if you tell me a lie I will smell it as it comes out of your mouth."
Just then the guests of the Crooked Billet were interrupted by an uproar in the street.
"Some swells on a lark," exclaimed lawyer Knapp; "dub the jigger and let them in."
And Jim was right; for on the jigger being dubbed, in staggered four bloods, who were sufficiently top-heavy to be ready for any thing. Two of the newcomers, who prided themselves on "knowing the ropes," while their companions were green from the fens. Immediately on their entrance, this hopeful addition to the convivial party already assembled, began to exhibit their "tip-top education" by squaring off for a fight, pattering flash, and ordering in lush. Infact, they out-heroded Herod, for they proved themselves to be yet greater blackguards than the poor rogues whom they were so emulous to imitate. And yet they were "gentlemen," who would have been shocked at the touch of a mechanic, though they gloried in doing things up nutty, like pickpockets and highwaymen. But they were not such knowing kiddies after all, though they considered themselves bang up to the mark; for suddenly one of them cried out that he had lost his purse; and then they all discovered that they had lost every thing they had which was fairly removable. Thereupon there was a devil of a muss, generally, with vociferous calling for the police. The four fellows who had the four worst hats, exchanged themsans ceremoniewith the strangers, while a couple of fogle-hunters tore off the skirts of their coats to mend their breeches. To finish their spree, by and by in rushed the police, and, on the charge of an elderly, responsible-looking cracksman, hurried the bloods off to the nearest station-house. What rascally things are policemen! Alas! and alack! just about as rascally as all the rest of the world.
1. Eno.2. Owt.3. Eehrt.4. Ruof.5. Evif.6. Xis.7. Neves.8. Thgie.9. Enin.10. Net.1. On.2. Duo.3. Tray.4. Quartre.5. Cink or Finniff.6. Double Tray.7. A Round.8. Double Quarter.9. A Floorer.10. Double Finniff.
1. Eno.2. Owt.3. Eehrt.4. Ruof.5. Evif.6. Xis.7. Neves.8. Thgie.9. Enin.10. Net.1. On.2. Duo.3. Tray.4. Quartre.5. Cink or Finniff.6. Double Tray.7. A Round.8. Double Quarter.9. A Floorer.10. Double Finniff.
Tim Sullivan buzzed a bloke and a shakester of a reader. His jomer stalled. Johnny Miller, who was to have his regulars, called out, "cop-bung," for as you see a fly-cop was marking. Jack speeled to the crib, when he found Johnny Doyle had been pulling down sawney for grub. He cracked a casa last night, and fenced the swag. He told Jack as how Bill had flimped a yack, and pinched a swell of a spark-fawney, and had sent the yack to church, and got half a century and a finnif for the fawney.
TRANSLATION.
Tim Sullivan picked the pockets of a gentleman and lady of a pocket-book and purse. Tim's fancy-girl stood near him and screened him from observation. Johnny Miller, who was to have a share of the plunder, called out to him: "Hand over the stolen property—a detective is observing your manœuvres." Sullivan ran immediately to his house, when he found Johnny Doyle had provided something to eat, by stealing some bacon from a store-door. Doyle committed a burglary last night, and disposed of the property plundered. He told Sullivan that Bill had hustled a person, and obtained a watch, and also robbed a well-dressed gentleman of a diamond ring. The watch he sent to have the works taken out and put into another case, or the maker's name erased and another inserted; the ring realized him fifty-five dollars.
Raed Mot: Ecnis uoy evah neeb ot eht tiw, semit evah neeb llud. Mij dna em evah enod gnihton fo yna tnuocca. Tsal thgin I dezzub a ekolb dna a retsekahs fo a redaer dna a niks. Ym remoj dellats. A evoc-ssorc, ohw dah sih sraluger, dellac tuo, "poc gnub," os sa a gip saw gnikram. I deleeps ot eht birc, erehw I dnuof Mij dah neeb gnillup nwod yenwas rof burg. Eh dekcarc a asac tsal thgin, dna decnef eht gaws. Eh dlot em sa Llib dah depmilf a kcay, dna dehcnip a llews of a yenwaf; eh tnes eht kcay ot hcruhc, dna tog eerht sffinnif dna a retooc rof eht yenwaf.
Ruoy dlo Llom derauqs flesreh rof a elpuoc fo snoom, retfa uoy tnew ot tiw; tub uoy ees a detsalb reppoc deye-yttuc reh, dna derrettap ylneib htiw reh, dna desimorp reh ytnelp fo eloc fi d'ehs eson rof mih, dna ni esruoc, Llom ekil, ehs saw demmab yb mih, dna os, uoy ees, ehs tup pu roop kcalb Llib, dna eh saw deppoc ot sthgir; rof nehw yeht deksirf mih, yeht dnuof a tol fo egdew-sredeef ni eht ekop fo sih skcik. Eht henuats-nu sevoc, sa uoy swonk, Mot, si reven drakcab nev yeht dluohs emoc drarof. Nev I detnahc roop S'llib senutrofsim lla no me dias sa woh eh sav a eneb hcnuats evoc sa reve dellap htiw a eneb ekolb dna t'ndluohs tnav a wef seirutnec ot esaerg htiv. Yeht deppit em, rof Llib, evif seirutnec dna a flah. Won, uoy ees, taht si tav I sllac nieb a dneirf, deedni, nev uoy si ni deen. Nov rehto nosaer yv I t'nsah detfarg yletal, si taht eht detsalb yeuh evag ym tnahc dna gum; dna ni esruoc, uoy swonk I ma oot yreel ot evig eht spoc eht egatnavdah revo em. On erom ta tneserp.
Nhoj Yellek.
WORDS FREQUENTLY USED BY GAMBLERS AMONG THEMSELVES, SOMETIMES IN GENERAL CONVERSATION, AND SOMETIMES WHILE AT PLAY.
A GOSS. The card that has won three times in one deal.
ANTI-GOSS. The card that has lost three times in one deal. It is sometimes called a "hotel." For instance, a gambler who has been playing, finally gets "broke;" but the love of play which from habit has become a second nature in him, causes him to linger behind to see the luck of others at the table. Being "dead broke," he borrows from a brother gambler money enough to pay his hotel or boarding-house bill. While looking on at the game an anti-goss occurs, and thinking that the fourth time is sure to win, he stakes the money he has borrowed to pay the hotel, boarding-house, or washerwoman's bill, whichever it may be, and he loses. The exclamation among gamblers would then be, "There goes his hotel."
ARTIST. One who excels as a gamester.
BANK. Without a party to play against, there can be no faro-playing. The player must play against some body, and that some body is a party of one or more, who hire rooms, and own gambling instruments. The gambling concern is owned by them, and the servants, from the negro at the door who answers to the touch of the bell, to the gentlemanly "picker-up," are in their pay, and act entirely in accordance with their instructions. The capital which the owners invest in this gambling co-partnership is called the "bank," but the amount varies greatly. Some banking concerns are not worth over $100, while others are worth $100,000. It is sometimes easy to break a bank of limited capital, but to make bankrupt the other is almost an impossibility. The necessity of a large capital is apparent. If four or six parties seated at the table should have $50 each on the table, and four of the six should win and the other two lose, then the bank in five minutes would be $1000 the loser. The bank must be always prepared to lose a thousand or two of an evening, they knowing well enough that it will all come back to them before the game closes.
BANKER. The man who puts the money up to be played for. The owner of the bank.
BETTER. A party who enters a gambling-saloon, takes his seat at the table, and commences to play, is a better.
BETTING ON TIME. This frequently occurs when the character of a party is such that he can be trusted to pay the money he borrows or the debts he incurs. If his character is good in this respect, then he will be permitted to play after he is "broke," if it occurs that he should be the loser when he rises from the table. This is betting on time. The same thing is done in Wall street everyday by speculating brokers. In Wall street gambling there are the "bulls" and the "bears," the object of the one being to raise stock above its actual value and then dispose of it, while the other party depresses it below its value and then purchases it. Nothing of this sort, however, occurs among the professional gamblers, who locate in Broadway and some of the down-town streets running from it.
CALLING THE TURN. When there is one turn, say 4, 6, and 8, and the player calls 4, 8, the caller loses; but if on the other hand it should be the cards he calls, then he wins, and is paid four to one. When a man calls both, he wins and loses on the same turn. In the last turn the player can win three ways. He can copper, call, and play the winning card. He can double the limit of the game, which is the privilege of the player on the last turn.
CAPPER. A man who sets at the table and plays, but neither wins nor loses. He is there only for the purpose of swelling the number of players, so that the game won't hurry through too quickly, thus giving the actual player proper time to consider the game and study the moves he should make.
CAPPER. A man in the employ of the bank, who pretends to be playing against it, and winning large amounts. Some gambling-houses in New-York keep two sets of cappers all the time; one set goes on at ten in the morning and retires at six in the evening, when the night-set comes on. Thus the game is continually going on; no matter when a man entered, he finds the game in full blast, and there never is any necessity to start it because of a fresh arrival. Professional gamblers drop to cappers very quickly. Cappers usually want to make too big bets—that is, make too heavy bets. As a generalthing they want to bet with the red checks, which represent $5, putting down ten or twenty at a time.
CASHING. This is getting the money from the bank for the checks or chips, if the player has any left on hand when he stops playing.
CAT HOPP. Is when there is one turn left in the box of the same denomination. For instance, two jacks and a five; or three cards in the box, and two of a similar count.
CHANGING IN. Handing in your money for the chips.
CHIPS or CHECKS. The chips or checks are round fancy pieces of ivory of the size of a half dollar, and a trifle thicker. These represent money, and are received from the dealer to play with in exchange for money. They are much easier to handle, and the dealer can see at a glance how much money is bet on a card. The color of the chips indicate the value they represent. There are three colors, namely, white, red and blue. White chips represent twenty-five cents, or one dollar, according to the house. Red chips represent five times the value of the white chips. Blue chips represent $25, $50, and $100. A hundred dollar chip is the highest "fish", as the gambler calls it.
CHOPPING. A card which commences to win and lose alternately, is called chopping, and to commence to lose and win alternately, is anti-chopping.
COLD DECK. This is generally done in short cards, or short games. A pack of cards is shuffled, and just as they are about to be dealt out, another pack is substituted. This is sometimes done by faro-players. The dealer having shuffled the cards, or having got another party to do it, drops the cards at his feet, and lifts the packed cards from a handkerchief on his lap. He calls on Sambo, the darkey waiter, to lift a check at his feet, and thus the evidence of his guilt is carried off unobserved. When cleverly done, the trick can not be discovered. One gambleroften plays this trick on another, and hence it derives the expressive name of "cold deck."
COPPER. A card can be played to win or lose, at the option of the player. If he wishes to play any particular card to lose, he places a penny on top of the money he stakes. This signifies that he plays it to lose; hence it is called coppering.
CRAPS or PROPS. A game peculiar to Boston. Sometimes it is played with shells, and sometimes with coffee-beans, but more generally the former, as they can be loaded. If four shells are not at hand, four coffee-beans answer the same purpose. It is a substitute for the dice. Thousands of dollars have been lost on this game, but as it has not received the same condemnation from the moral portion of the community that dice has, Bostonians patronize it. There is no other reason why that city alone should patronize it. The game is so childish, that it is ten times more dangerous than any other, and gamblers have no trouble in "roping in" men to play at it, who would faint with horror at the sight of a pack of cards.
CUE. Is a calculation which confirmed gamblers are guided altogether by in playing. They know that after three cards of one denomination have gone out, they can not be split.
CUE-BOX. The cue-box is an exact representation of the lay-out of the cards on the table. The player, by looking at the cue-box, can instantly see what cards have been drawn from the box, thus relieving him of the trouble of keeping the run of the cards in his head. For instance if four jacks had been drawn from the box, and a player should place his money on the jack, they being all drawn, he could not win or lose.
CUE-KEEPER. The man who keeps the cues or marks, so that a player knows by looking at it, which card is in and which is out.
DEALER. The party who deals out the cards, receiving generally for his services from ten to twenty per cent of the profits of the game from the banker.
DOUBLE CARD. Two cards of the same denomination.
EVEN. The player who trys to make up what he has lost. Having lost $50, he stakes another $50, perhaps his last, for the purpose of getting back what he had lost, to be even with the bank, or get broke in the attempt.
FLAT. One who has no knowledge, or an imperfect knowledge, of gambling. No matter how much a man may know of all the sciences in the world, if he is ignorant of gambling, and should enter a gambling-room, the players would smile and say, "There's a flat," a man who did not know any thing.
GAFF. The gaff is a ring worn on the fore-finger of the dealer. It has a sharp point on the inner side, and the gambler, when dealing from a two-card box, can deal out the card he chooses; some, however, are smart enough to do this trick without the gaff. It is now out of date, and the only city in which it is now in use, is Baltimore. The gaff has been the initiative idea of tricks of this character, and many improvements, of which it is the foundation, have been discovered by sharpers.
HOCK. The last card in the box. Among thieves a man is in hock when he is in prison; but when one gambler is caught by another, smarter than himself, and is beat, then he is in hock. Men are only caught, or put in hock, on the race-tracks, or on the steamboats down South. In a hock-game, if a man hits a card, he is obliged to let his money lie until it either wins or loses. Of course there are nine hundred and ninety-nine chances against the player, and the oldest man living never yet saw him win, and thus he is caught in hock.
ITEMS. Items derives his name from looking at a party's hand, and conveying to the opposition player what it contains by signs. This is Item's occupation. A looking-glass is sometimes used, sometimes signs which mutes would only understand, and sometimes the signs are agreed upon and known only to the parties interested.
LAMAS. High chips or checks representing $25, $50, and $100. There are no $1000 lamas, for the simple reason that with $100 chips any amount of money can be laid on the table.
LAY-OUT. The "lay-out" is composed of all the cards in a suit, commencing at the ace and ending at the king. These cards are posted upon a piece of velvet, which can be spread upon the table whenever the dealer chooses to open the game. When play has commenced, each player places his stake upon any card he may choose, and as the cards are drawn from the box, his bet is determined.
LEAVING OUT. When a dispute arises, a referee of outsiders or lookers-on, is appointed, to whom the difficulty is referred, and whose decision among professional men is decisive.
LITTLE FIGURE. Ace, deuce, and tray.
LOOK-OUT. The look-out is the man who is supposed to keep every thing straight, and see that no mistake is made, and that the dealer does not neglect to lift any money that he has won.
MARKER. Marking is frequently done in playing the game of faro. It is something put down on the card, a pencil, a knife, or any thing, to represent any amount of money the player pleases. He says: I bet $5, $10, $50, or $100, as it suits him and his finances. This saves him from delaying the game by going through his pockets for the exact money he wants. When the deal is out, he settles.
NUDGE. This is not often practised at the game of faro; it is applicable, as its name implies, to cribbage and similar games. The office of a nudger is to touch an associate with his feet. These touchings are signs, which are denominated nudging.
PALMING. Concealing cards in the palm of the hands.
PARLIEU. Is to allow one's money to lie on the table and double. For instance, the player puts $5 on the table, and it wins; instead of lifting it, he lets the original sum lie—that is called a parlieu.
PICKER-UP. We frequently read of country-men being "roped" into gambling-houses, but this occurs from the ignorance of the reporters, who know nothing of the language used by gamblers and sportsmen. Gamblers of the higher grade in New-York, never use the word "roper-in." It is usually confidence-men, ball-players, pocket book droppers, and others attached to that fraternity. The roper-in takes a man over to Brooklyn or New-Jersey, and is an actor in the swindle; the picker-up takes his man to a gambling-saloon, and there leaves him to be enchanted, enchained, and allured by what he sees. Sometimes he only gives the man he has picked up his card, which will admit him to a gaming-house, where he can play a card of another description. The roper-in and the picker-up therefore should not be confounded.
The picker-up is always a gentleman, in manners, taste, dress, and appearance, and sometimes has the superficial knowledge of a scholar. He is thoroughly informed on all the topics of the day. He has seen New-Orleans, knows all about it, and can talk of the gallant defense made there from behind the cotton-bales. He knows all about the evil results arising out of the agitation of the slavery question. He loves Boston and New-England, for it was there he was born and spent his earliest and his happiest days; it was the cradle and the birth-place of liberty, and the world looked with unreserved delight upon the efforts which the men of the East put forth in the cause of freedom; he has spent many happy years in the far West, its vast prairies, its wide-spread, majestic forests, and mighty rivers, and he can not help warming up when he reverts to these themes, which moved the hearts of philosophers, poets, and statesmen.
This is the picker-up. He first sees the man's name on the hotel-register, and where he is from.He then sees him out, studies his character, and ascertains his means and the object of his visit to the city; and the picker-up, if smart, reads his victim phrenologically without touching his head. Every man has some weak point which can be played upon, and the duty of the picker-up is to discover it. It does not take him long generally to get a stranger to visit a gambling-hell. Very many of the servants of hotels are in the pay of pickers-up—the duty of the servant being to get information concerning guests, which his employer can use.
PIKER. Is a man who plays very small amounts. Plays a quarter, wins, pockets the winnings, and keeps at quarters; and never, if he can help it, bets on his winnings.
PLAYING ON VELVET. Playing on the money that has been won from the bank.
PRESS. When a man wins a bet, and instead of lifting and pocketing the winnings, he adds to the original stake and winnings, it becomes a press.
PRIVATE GAME. So called because the flat is led to suppose that no professional gamblers are admitted, and thus he is the more easily duped.
PUBLIC GAME. A game where any body can be admitted.
REPEATER. For instance, when a card wins or loses at one deal, and the same thing occurs the next deal, it is a repeater.
ROUNDER. One who hangs around faro-banks, but does not play. In other words, a loafer, a man who travels on his shape, and is supported by a woman, but does not receive enough money to enable him to play faro. Gamblers call such men rounders, outsiders, loafers.
RUSSER. A big player.
SHOE-STRING. When a man bets a small amount and runs it up to a large amount, it is called a shoe-string.
SHORT CARDS. By some called short game. A game of seven-up or cribbage. For instance, "Have you been playing faro to-night?" "No." "What then?" "I have been playing short cards."
SKINNING. A sure game, where all who play are sure to lose, except the gamesters.
SLEEPER. A bet won by the bank or a better, which has been overlooked and lies on the table without a claimant.
SPLIT. When two cards come alike. For instance, if two jacks should come out, the banker takes one half of the money.
SQUARE GAME. When cards are dealt fairly, and there is no cheating.
STRIPPERS. Cards cut at the sides for the purpose of carrying on a skinning game.
STUCK. When a man has lost all his money, and is trying on the last throw to retrieve his loss and he is beat, then he is stuck.
SUCKER. A flat; one who can play cards, but does not know all the tricks and traps in gambling.
SUMMER GAME. Playing merely for amusement.
SUMMER GAME. Playing a game for the benefit of another person with his money.
SUPPER CUSTOMERS. Some of the fashionable gambling-houses have free suppers for their customers; this is done to induce the better class of gambling merchants to patronize the house. But there are some men who frequent these houses and take supper, but never play. When such a one is asked if he is going to take a hand in, his usual answer is, "Thank you, sir, I'm a supper customer to night."
TELL-BOX. The tell-box is an improvement on thegaff, and has a fine spring attached to it. The object is to cheat the dealer. The dealer plays with a pack of cards which the player has had a chance to handle, and he rubs the backs of certain of them with sand-paper. The rough card adheres to the smooth one, and the fact that it does not move a hair's breadth in the box enables him to know the card that is covered, and he plays accordingly. He can also play in the same manner with a new pack of cards without sanding them, as certain cards require a greater amount of ink than others.
THE POT. The six, seven, and eight.
TRICKS. When a player takes the cards from his opponent that counts. If the queen is put down and king follows, which is higher, then the queen is taken. That is a trick.
TRICK GAMES. Such games as whist, where tricks count.
ZODIAC. This word has degenerated into Soda. It means the top card in the box.
ATTITUDE. The position in which the player stands while at the billiard-table, when about to strike the ball. The acquisition of a good attitude is a matter of first importance to the new beginner. It is almost impossible to lay down fixed rules in this particular, as the peculiarities of height and figure would render the rules that would be excellent in one case, totally inapplicable in the other. Perfect ease is the granddesideratum; and this is to be acquired by practice, and a close observation of the best players.
BANK. When the player makes his own ball hit any of the cushions before striking the object-ball.
BILLIARD-SHARP. A class of character not tolerated in respectable saloons. As a general thing, the billiard-sharp is a retired marker, who fancies it is no longer respectable to work for an honest living, but that he is smart enough, and has learned tricks enough at his former business, to enable him to win as much money as he wants from the less experienced amateurs of the game, who figure in his vocabulary as "the flats." He generally frequents those establishments where one or two billiard-tables are made the stall behind which some dishonest occupation is carried on; and here he is at home, and in his glory. He makes himself particularly friendly with any one who will ask him to"take a drink," and in his assumed duties he fills the offices of lounger, runner, talker, player, sponge, shoulder-hitter, and referee.
He is also a runner, and sort of travelling blower to second-rate manufacturers of billiard-tables. These men supply him with clothes, to enable him to mingle in respectable society, and allow him an enormous per centage for every billiard-table sold to a stranger through his agency. In addition to this, it is his business to pull down the reputation of such manufacturers as despise and scorn the means by which he earns his dishonest livelihood. As soon as he has made "a hit" in one saloon, he is off to another, and in this way goes the rounds of the city until all the places which harbor him, are, in his own phrase, "played out."
Such a man is to be avoided as one of the worst species of sharpers. He has a thousand pretenses under which to borrow money, and will act as if quite offended if refused. The stranger should avoid all such men, and especially any one with whom he is not well acquainted, who should ask him to play for any given sum, "just to give an interest to the game."
BOWERY SHOT. When the balls played with and at, are jarred together—a pushing shot.
BREAK. The position the balls are left in after the shot.
BURST. A term chiefly used at pin-pool, when a player has exceeded the number which is placed as the common limit to the game, and must, therefore, either retire from the game, or take a privilege of another life.
CAROM. (French,Carombolage.) To hit more than one of the balls on the table with your own. In England this word has been corrupted to "cannon."
COUNT. Is the reckoning of the game. Making a count, is to make a stroke which will add some figures to the player's reckoning.
DISCOUNT. When one player is so much the superior of another, that he allows all the counts made by his opponent to be deducted from his own reckoning, he is said to "discount" his adversary's gains. In "double" and "treble discounts," twice and thrice the amount of his opponent's gains are deducted from the player's score. In no other game but billiards are such immense odds possible. A man of close observation, temperate habits, steady nerves, and large experience, may give almost any odds to an inferior player, and still have a fair chance of success.
DOUBLET or CROSS. When the ball to be pocketed is first made to rebound from the opposite cushion.
FOLLOW. When a player's ball rolls on after another ball which it has impelled forward.
FORCE. When the player's ball retrogrades after coming in contact with another.
FOUL STROKE or SHOT. Any stroke made in violation of the known rules of the game.
FULL BALL, QUARTER BALL, HALF BALL, FINE or CUT BALL, OWN or CUE BALL, and OBJECT BALL. The "object ball" is the ball aimed at; the "own or cue ball" is the ball directed toward the "object ball;" the other terms relate to the position in which the object ball is struck.
GERMANTOWNER.See Bowery Shot.
HAZARD. To drive any of the balls into any of the pockets.
HAZARD, DOUBLE. When two balls are pocketed with the same stroke.
HAZARD, LOSING. When the player's ball is pocketed by his own act.
HAZARD, TAKING A. A term used to express that a player is so confident of making a certain hazard, that he will undertake to do it, under penalty of losing, in case he does not succeed, as many lives ashe would have gained if successful. The phrase is most frequently employed in two-ball pool.
HAZARD, WINNING. When the player pockets either of the red balls, or his adversary's ball.
HUG. When any of the balls run close alongside of a particular cushion, they are said to hug it.
JAW. When a ball is prevented from dropping into a pocket by the cushions, which extend like jaws on either side.
JUMP. When the player forces his ball by a downward stroke to leap up from the table.
KILLED or DEAD BALL. When a ball in pool has lost its lives, and its chances are not renewed by privileges, it is said to be killed.
KISS. When the ball played with strikes another ball more than once, they are said to kiss; or when two balls, not played with, come in contact.
LONE GAME. A game in which one of the parties is an experienced player, and the other a novice—the former having the game in his own hands.
MISS. To fail striking any of the balls upon the table.
MISS-CUE. When the cue, from any cause, slips off the ball without accomplishing the intended stroke.
PLAYING FOR SAFETY. When the player foregoes a possible advantage, in order to leave the balls in such a position that his opponent can make nothing out of them.
PLAYING SPOT-BALL. When the player is not limited to the number of times he may pocket the red ball from the spot.
PRIVILEGE. When a player loses the lives, or chances, which were given to his ball on its entry into the game, and desires to purchase another chance from the other players, he asks a "privilege."
SCRATCH. When a player wins a stroke or count by accident, without deserving it, he is said to have made a scratch.
STRINGING FOR THE LEAD. A preliminary arrangement, by which it is determined who shall have the choice of lead and balls.
TIMBER LICK.See Bowery Shot.
A BULL is one who buys stocks on speculation, thinking they will rise, so that he can sell at a profit.
A BEAR is one who sells stocks on speculation, thinking they will fall, so that he can buy in for less money to fill his contracts.
A CORNER is when the bears can not buy or borrow the stock to deliver in fulfillment of their contracts.
A DEPOSIT is earnest-money, lodged in the hands of a third party, as a guaranty; "5 up," "10 up," etc., is the language expressive of a deposit.
OVERLOADED is when the bulls can not pay for the stocks they have purchased.
SHORT is when a person or party sells stocks when they have none, and expect to buy or borrow them in time to deliver.
LONG is when a person or party has a plentiful supply of stocks.
A FLYER is to buy some stock with a view to selling it in a few days, and either make or lose, as luck will have it.
A WASH is a pretended sale, by special agreement between the seller and buyer, for the purpose of getting a quotation reported.