Gaming table

“ The antechamber leads to the several gaming rooms, furnished with tables, round which are seated the individuals playing, called pontes (punters) , each of whom is furnished with a card and a pin to mark the rouge and noir, or the number, in order to regulate his game. At each end of the table is a man called bout de table, who pushes up to the bank the money lost. In the middle of the table is the man who draws the cards. ”

“ Yet the fascination of remaining at the gaming-table for a long stretch of time frequently takes possession of those addicted to play. As a rule it is not by any means caused solely by the consideration of the stakes played for; it would rather seem that the players become mere automatic gaming machines, the mechanism of which runs steadily on. Several years ago a noticeable instance of this occurred in a London Club, where, on a certain evening, a small party had been playing écarté for fairly moderate stakes. The game began about eleven o'clock ”

“ Seated round the same table might be seen well-dressed, respectable-looking men, and, alongside of them, rough miners fresh from the diggings, with well-filled buckskin purses, dirty old flannel shirts, and shapeless hats; jolly tars half-seas over, not understanding anything about the game, nor apparently taking any interest in it, but having their spree out at the gaming-table because it was the fashion, and good{67}humoredly losing their pile of five or six hundred or a thousand dollars ”

“ In former times there was no such thing as gaming at a private house, although there was more deep play at the clubs at that time than ever was before, or has been since. It is lamentable to see lovely woman destroying her health and beauty at six o’clock in the morning at a gaming-table. ”

“ You know nothing about the game; make room for better players!” Two paintings were discovered, in Nov. 1876, in a tavern at Pompeii, in one of which are seen two players seated on stools opposite each other, and holding on their knees the gaming table, upon which are arranged, in various lines, several latrunculi [4] of various colours, yellow, black and white. The man on the left shakes a yellow dice box, and exclaims, “Exsi” (I am out) . ”

“ This proposal decided every one to remain. The company returned to the large dining-room, which, in the mean time, had been again transformed into a gaming-hall, with the usual accessories: a frame for the tally- sheet, a metal bowl to hold rejected playing-cards set in one end of the table, and, placed at intervals around it, were tablets on which the punter registered the amount of the stakes. ”

“ Here and there shine out brilliant points, from the decoy-lamps of the gaming-houses; and through the indistinct murmur of the streets comes by fits the sound of music from their hot and crowded precincts.
The only objects left for us to visit are the gaming-tables, whose day has just fairly dawned. We need not wander far in search of one. ”

“ Whoever takes the box and dice places in the centre of the table as much money as he wishes to risk, which is at once covered with an equal amount either by some individual speculator, or by the contributions of several. The player (technically called the "caster") then proceeds to call a "main." There are five mains on the dice, namely, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9; of these he mentally selects that one which either chance or superstition may suggest, calls it aloud, shakes the box, and delivers the dice. If he throws the exact number he called, he "nicks" it and wins ”

“ The performer might conceal in the hollow of his hand a small table exactly like the figure, to facilitate his questions. As for the medium, he, or she, must rely entirely on memory. Of course the spectators may be allowed to see that the medium is completely blindfolded. This modern trick has always puzzled the keenest spectators
15. The mystery of double sight.
All the cards of a pack, or indeed any common object touched by a spectator, may be named by an assistant in the following way—whilst in another apartment, or blindfolded. ”

“ We first entered a small room, in which was a roulette-table surrounded by players, and well staked: this communicated by folding-doors with a spacious saloon with a double table for Trente-et-un, or Rouge et Noir, round which were seated the players, behind whom stood a few lookers-on, and still fewer young men, whose stakes were "few and far between,"—probably those of cautious adventurers, or novices pecking at the first-fruits of play. Nothing is better described in books than the folly of gaming, and the sufferings of its victims ”

“ The roulette table pays nobody except him that keeps it. Nevertheless a passion for gaming is common, though a passion for keeping roulette tables is unknown. ”

“ If his hand has not improved at all or very little since the beginning of the game and he has small chance of completing his hand in any way before some other player does, his only plan is to hold the tiles which he thinks would help the other players and discard only those which he is sure they will not pung. These tiles can be ascertained by carefully searching the discards in the center of the table and the sets already exposed by the other players. By playing this way he may be able to cause the game to be a draw. ”

“ I have had many interesting old console-tables of wrought iron support and marble tops copied, and I have designed others that were mere semi-circles of white painted wood supported by four slender legs, but whether they be marble or pine the effect is always simple. There are charming consoles that have come to us from the Eighteenth Century, consoles made in pairs, so that they may stand against the wall as serving-tables, or be placed together to form one round table. ”

“ They can therefore see for themselves that you never move from the chair for a single instant, even if it were possible to do so. Handkerchiefs around the ankles will be better seen than cords or ropes. The screen must stand well out in the room, so that there may be no suspicion of a confederate ‘lending you a hand’ from any door. On a small table, concealed by the screen, but quite out of your reach, even if your hands were free, are placed a bell, a tambourine, an umbrella, and a slate or sheet of blank paper. ”

“ If cards were invented for a lunatic king, squails must have surely originated in an idiot asylum, or possibly some of the Lord Dundrearys of society may have invented the game when engaged in the study of that most wearisome occupation—doing nothing. Fancy a dozen people seated round a table, alternate ladies and gentlemen, engaged in jerking from its edge coloured circles of wood, something like an oyster-shell in size, at a button placed in the centre. ”

“ Have five small tables in the room and place a puzzle on each. If the company is small, assign five persons to a table, if larger, use your own judgment.
Each one at the table takes his turn, trying to put the valentine together in its proper shape. Each player is timed, and the one who succeeds in putting it together in the shortest time is the winner.
If desired, the players can go from one table to the other; the one who succeeds in putting the most puzzles together out of the five, is the winner. ”

“ A figure is seen habited as a Turk, and seated, with its legs crossed, at a large box apparently of maple wood, which serves it as a table. The exhibiter will, if requested, roll the machine to any portion of the room, suffer it to remain altogether on any designated spot, or even shift its location repeatedly during the progress of a game. The bottom of the box is elevated considerably above the floor by means of the castors or brazen rollers on which it moves, a clear view of the surface immediately beneath the Automaton being thus afforded to the spectators. ”

“ Arrange some chairs, back to back, in the center of the room, allowing one chair less than the number of players. Some one begins to play a tune, and at once the players start to walk or run round the chairs, to the sound of the music.
When the music stops, each player must try to find a seat, and as there is one chair short, some one will fail to do so, and is called "put." He must carry a chair away with him, and the game goes on again until there is only one person left in, with no chair to sit upon. This person has won the game. ”

“ If his name is guessed by the player in the center they change places and circle again—if not, they circle until the player in the center succeeds in naming the owner of the laugh. [Pg 152]
THE MUSEUM
The guests are invited to inspect your collection of curios and souvenirs which are displayed in numerous paste board boxes, collectively on a large table, or distributed in convenient places about the room on mantels, tables, piano, book shelves, etc.
Each box bears a large placard or label of its contents. "An Ancient Instrument of Punishment," a worn slipper; "An Irish Bat," a brick bat ”

“ The game may also be played with ten counters, or ten pieces of paper, on a table or board, and without any pins. Indeed, children are frequently seen playing the game out of doors with ten common stones. ”

“ Supposing the game to be played into the right hand table, two are placed upon the ace point in the adversary’s table, five upon the six point in the opposite table, three upon the cinque point in the hithermost table, and five on the sixth point in the right hand table. The grand object in this game is for each player to bring the men round into his right hand table, by throwing with a pair of dice those throws that contribute towards it, and at the same time prevent the adversary doing the like. ”

“ There are many games played publicly at restaurants and in the retiring-rooms of mercantile establishments. Not only are cards, dice and dominoes common, but sticks, straws, brass rings, etc., are thrown in heaps upon the table, and the fate of the gamester hangs literally upon a breath. ”

“ You allow the drawer to replace his card in any part of the pack he pleases, and you thoroughly shuffle the cards, finally inviting him to “cut.” Then dealing out six rows of six cards each, face downwards on the table, you offer the drawer a dice-box and a pair of dice, and after he has thrown any number of times to satisfy himself that the dice are fair and unprepared, you invite him to throw each singly, the first to ascertain the row in which his card is, and the second to discover at what number it stands in the row. ”

“ Tripod reading-desks, urn-stands, beautiful tea-trays, caddies and tea-chests are richly inlaid or painted. We find him not only making very ornate and richly inlaid card-tables, but "Pembroke tables" as well, with either round or square tops. Such tables have leaves, but, instead of the legs moving out to support the leaves, small arms come out from the table-frame.
His writing-tables and desks have tambour tops, that is strips of wood pasted on cloth, so that they roll back into receptacles provided for them, and are filled with secret drawers and flat cupboards for deeds or papers. ”

“ Plurals are not considered new words. If one cannot use the letter to draw from his opponent's, or in his own list, it is thrown back, and the turn passes to the next. If, however, the letter is used, the player has another turn. When either couple at the head table have made ten words, the bell is rung and the guests score and progress as in any other game.
When supper is served, have the table decorated with a plant standing in the centre, and from this to each corner of the table have a row of Noah's Ark trees, which can be purchased at any toy shop. ”

“ That is a poorly-furnished parlor, think some people, which has not a chess-table in one corner, a whist-table in the middle, and a little solitaire-table at the other end near the fire, for grandma. People who are fond of games stock their table drawers with cribbage boards and backgammon, cards of every variety, bézique counters and packs, and the red and white champions of the hard-fought battlefield of chess. ”

“ JENKINS Any number of players may play this game, which is common to almost every nation, and is very interesting. Sides being formed, the players seat themselves at a table, facing each other. It having been decided who shall first hold the silver piece, the player who receives it holds it in his closed hand under the table, as do all the players on his side, when they receive it, and the piece is passed from hand to hand, the object being to deceive the opposite players as to its whereabouts. ”

“ Virtually all of the eighteenth-century furniture-makers constructed console tables. Gilded furniture in all its gorgeousness found favor in England shortly before 1720, and the consoles and console tables were unusually well adapted to finish and decoration of the sort that suggested the magnificence of Louis XIV and, later on, the elegance and richness of Louis XV. During the Empire period some were elaborately decorated in white and gold. With the advent of the Napoleonic era, the console and the console table still held sway. ”

“ The game proceeds by moving the men round towards home, or by hitting blots and sending them back, until one of the players gets all his men into his inner table or home. As soon as this stage is reached, the player who has accomplished it begins to take his men off the board or to bear them. Thus, suppose he has several men on every point of his table, and throws six, quatre ; he bears one man from his six point, and one from his quatre point. ”

“ The company sit in a circle, and a player stands in the center. There is one spare chair, and the game is for this player to get possession of a vacant seat. When the game begins, every one moves as quickly as possible to the chair next beside him or her, and as this is done all the time, it is difficult for the person who is looking for "lodgings" to find a place by slipping in among them, and his attempts will cause much amusement. ”