GAMBLING MADE EASY.
_The Last Ingenious Scheme to Fool the Police--Flat-Houses Turned into
Gambling Houses--"Stud-Horse Poker," and "Hide the Heart."_
The following timely article on the newest racket in gambling in the
City of New York is from the _Sunday Mercury_ of June 20, 1886:
"Since the gambling houses in the upper part of the city, where night
games flourished, have been closed and their business almost entirely
suspended, a new method of operations has been introduced. A _Mercury_
reporter a few days ago was hurrying down Broadway, near Wall street,
when he was tapped on the shoulder by a young man not yet of age, whom
he recognized as a clerk in a prominent banking house, and whose father
is also well known in financial circles. After interchanging the usual
courtesies the young clerk pulled a card-case from his pocket, and,
asking if the _Mercury_ man liked to play poker, presented a neat little
piece of white Bristol board which read:
HARRY R . . . . N,
_First Flat, No. -- Sixth Avenue._
"'If you want to play a nice quiet game,' remarked the promising clerk,
'you can take that card and go up there any evening, or come with me
to-night and see how the whole thing is done, but whatever you do don't
lose that card, for you can't get in without it.'
"Suspecting the nature of this 'quiet little game,' the reporter agreed
to meet the banking clerk that evening.
"'You will find a very nice set of fellows in this party,' remarked the
clerk. 'There's none of those toughs or men you see in regular gambling
houses there, but young men like myself and some of the best business
men in this town. Why, I have seen young fellows there whose fathers
have got loads of rocks. They lose a good pile once in a while, but
don't mind that, because a fellow's no blood who cries just because he
drops from ten to fifty dollars of a night.'
"The house was one of a row of French flat buildings, the ground floor
of which is occupied by stores. The clerk, on entering the vestibule,
gave an electric button a familiar push with the index finger and almost
immediately the hall door swung itself open. As soon as the head of the
first flight of stairs was reached, a colored man, wearing a white tie,
was met standing near a door. To him the clerk gave a card, and the
reporter following the example, both were ushered into what happened to
be a reception-room. Two heavy and rich Turkish curtains at one end of
this room were quickly pushed aside and the front or card parlor was
then entered. There were five round and oblong baize-covered tables in
different parts of the elegantly furnished apartment. A number of costly
oil paintings hung on the frescoed walls and a well-stocked buffet at
one side completed the furniture. The adjoining rooms consisted of two
sleeping apartments and a rear connecting kitchen, in which a colored
cook seemed quite busy.
"At the center table, where a game of draw poker was in full blast, was
noticed two celebrated professionals, a couple of race-horse owners
and two clerks in a public department office down-town. At a side table
were the sons of a prominent Hebrew merchant and property owner, two
college students and several young men whose appearance would indicate
they were employed in mercantile houses. Another side table was
surrounded by a gathering of Broadway statues and gambling house
hangers-on, who were engaged in a game called 'hide the heart,' and the
last table had a circle of big, heavy-bodied and solid-looking men about
it who were putting up on a game known as 'stud-horse poker.' The
reporter and the clerk were quickly accommodated with seats at the
center table, where 'draw poker' was in operation. The colored attendant
with the white tie was at hand, and pulling out a ten-dollar bill the
clerk gave it to the negro with the request to get him that amount of
chips in return. The reporter followed suit with a crisp five-dollar
bill. The colored man went away with the money to the further end of the
room, where he passed it over to a clean-shaven and well-dressed young
man with a big diamond in his shirt front. This, the clerk informed him,
was the proprietor of the place, who sat at a separate table, and, after
receiving the cash, handed out to the waiter several stacks of white and
red ivory chips, which were then brought back for the money. The play or
'ante' to the game was fifty cents, with no limit. The white chips
represented half a dollar each and the red ones just double that sum. In
the first two hands of cards the clerk lost his ten dollars, while the
reporter made a profit. A short time convinced the reporter the two
professionals were hard to beat.
"While an extremely close game was carried on, the house was certainly
sure never to lose, as it put up no money and as 'banker' reaped a
steady percentage deducted from the chips of all winners who cashed in.
"The clerk was broke in two hours' sitting and confessed he had lost
sixty dollars, more than three weeks' salary, and while he wore a gold
chain over his vest, he had left his watch in pledge with the game-owner
for twenty dollars' worth of chips besides. As the reporter and his
guide reached the sidewalk, one of the young men who had been in the
place was asked what he thought of the place. Not suspecting the
reporter's motive, the player answered glibly: 'Oh, that racket in
French flats is getting to be all the go now, and I tell you it's
immense. The police can't get on to it, and now as all the faro games
are closed or not making expenses, and afraid to open, it is doing well.
Then there is such a better class of people that go to these places,
people who would not care to be seen or caught in a regular concern. Now
up in Harry's you see how nice it is. There's your parlor to play in.
Then if it's an all-night play you can sleep in turns or lay off during
the day, and get anything you want to eat right there. 'Get pulled?'
Why, there ain't the ghost of a show for that in those flats. In the
first place, no one is let in without he is known or has a card; then a
'copper' can 't go in without forcing an entrance or a warrant, and if
he does, what evidence can be produced to show the place is a gambling
house? Why, gambling in the Fifth Avenue clubs is no better protected.
No one in the house up-stairs suspects what's going on. The halls are
all carpeted and so are the stairs, and you never can hear any one pass
up and down. Then if any raid is made, can't a man swear he was only
having a game of cards in his own house with a party of friends?' In
society, next to progressive euchre, poker comes the highest.
"'Are there many of these private flat games?' asked the reporter. 'Oh,
yes; there's at least half a dozen I know of. There's one on Fifty-ninth
street, one on Forty-fifth street, and several more on Sixth Avenue and
Broadway, and any quantity now in other private houses run as social
club rooms. You see, no games but poker--draw, stud-horse and straight,
and hide the heart--are allowed to be run. Now if you never was in
Harry's before, and you were seen to be all right, you would be given
some cards to pass around to your friends confidentially, which would
tell them where to go for play and would get them in without bother."