TIVOLI OR BAGATELLE.
This game is at once one of the most seductive and the most deceptive in the outfit of the peripatetic gambler. In some minor respects it resembles the children’s game of the same name, inasmuch as both are played upon a board containing a number of pins and having numbered compartments at the lower end. At this point, however, the resemblance ceases.
The gambling device known by this name is shown in the accompanying illustrations, figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 represents the table and figure 2 the cloth which always hangs behind it, and forms an indispensable feature of the game. In explaining the diagrams, the construction of the table will be first described. It is made of wood usually about 3½ to 4 feet in length and 2 feet broad, and when in use the upper end rests upon a wooden framework, giving the board an inclination of some 30 degrees. Running lengthwise through the centre of the table is a wooden partition, dividing it into two equal parts. At the lower end of each division are ten compartments, open at the top, each set being numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. At the upper end of each division is a gate, lettered on the diagram c.c. Between the gates and the numbered compartments are placed metal pins or pegs, arranged substantially as shown by the dots on the diagram. Directly below the lower row of pins and extending over the upper ends of the compartments is a board, which runs entirely across the table, but only one-half of which is shown in the illustration. Before describing the mode of play, an explanation of the cloth (as shown in fig. 2[fig. 2]) is necessary. This cloth is generally three feet in length by two in breadth, and is divided into 100 squares, arranged and divided as shown in the cut. The figures—$1.00, $5.00, etc.—in the squares indicate the prizes which may be won by the players. The abbreviation “bl’k.” stands for “blank,” and indicates the losing numbers, on which no prize is paid. The letters “rep.” are an abbreviation for “represent,” and show that the player who happens to make the number in that square must, if he does not wish to lose his stake, double it and play again.
Tivoli or Bagatelle.
| Jewelry. | $5.00 | $2.00 | $10.00 | $1.00 | $10.00 | Jewelry. | Blank. |
| 20 | 47 | 79 | 11 | 71 | 25 | 6 | 16 |
| Rep. | Jewelry. | $10.00 | $10.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | $10.00 | Jewelry. |
| 96 | 26 | 97 | 29 | 83 | 39 | 59 | 32 |
| Blank. | $5.00 | Jewelry. | Rep. | $2.00 | $5.00 | Rep. | $1.00 |
| 00 | 85 | 34 | 58 | 41 | 21 | 68 | 55 |
| $1.00 | Blank. | $5.00 | $1.00 | Jewelry. | $5.00 | Blank. | Rep. |
| 91 | 40 | 5 | 75 | 62 | 93 | 72 | 14 |
| Rep. | Jewelry. | Rep. | Jewelry. | Rep. | $2.00 | Jewelry. | Rep. |
| 22 | 80 | 54 | 28 | 84 | 57 | 64 | 42 |
| Jewelry. | Jewelry. | $10.00 | $2.00 | $10.00 | Jewelry. | $5.00 | $2.00 |
| 66 | 30 | 45 | 2 | 35 | 78 | 7 | 27 |
| Blank. | Rep. | Rep. | Blank. | Jewelry. | $5.00 | $20.00 | Jewelry. |
| 18 | 88 | 38 | 10 | 92 | 53 | 17 | 48 |
| Jewelry. | Rep. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | $25.00 | $2.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| 50 | 74 | 94 | 24 | 33 | 99 | 81 | 23 |
| $1.00 | Jewelry. | $2.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | Jewelry. | $5.00 | $2.00 |
| 65 | 86 | 61 | 49 | 63 | 76 | 69 | 37 |
| Blank. | Rep. | Jewelry. | $1.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | Jewelry. | Rep. |
| 46 | 56 | 36 | 77 | 43 | 19 | 60 | 12 |
| $2.00 | $5.00 | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Rep. | $5.00 | $5.00 | Rep. |
| 95 | 1 | 52 | 82 | 70 | 31 | 13 | 90 |
| Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | $2.00 | Rep. | $5.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| 8 | 4 | 98 | 73 | 44 | 9 | 51 | 87 |
| $2.00 | $5.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 | ||||
| 15 | 67 | 89 | 3 |
Those who wish to play, pay the proprietor a certain sum for the privilege of dropping two marbles down the board, one rolling through each of the gates C.C. The little spheres (d.d.) roll down the inclined plane, their course being deflected from point to point, by the metal pins until they finally come to rest in the compartments at the lower end, one on each side of the centre board. The operator then looks to see the numbers into which they have fallen. If the left hand marble has rolled into “0,” the number of the right hand one only is taken. If the latter rolls into “0,” and the left hand one, into some compartment bearing a significant number, the entire amount is read as 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. If both numbers roll into the numbered compartments, both figures are read, as e. g. 56, 79, 84, etc.
The number made by the player having been thus learned, the cloth is inspected with a view to ascertaining the result of his play. If the number which he has made calls for a prize, the same is handed to him. If he has “drawn a blank,” he has to content himself with his loss. If his number corresponds to a square containing the abbreviation “rep.,” he may either lose the sum paid or double his stake and try again.
To show how utterly impossible it is for a chance player to win, it is only necessary to explain the very simple secret mechanism which enables the operator to send the marble into a losing compartment at his own will. If the reader will look at the diagram, I, he will see a slender line running from the right hand set of numbered compartments along the entire length of the board, on its right hand side, and terminating near the gate (c.), its course being indicated by the line (b.b.). This line represents a stiff wire lever, placed below the board and entirely under the control of the manipulator. By working this lever he can raise a row of ten triangular metal points, marked a,a,a, all of which are covered by the board at the lower end of the table, and which are so arranged that one shall stand in front of each alternate compartment. When the marble strikes one of these points, as a matter of course, it inevitably glances off into one of the adjacent divisions. The peculiar beauty of the contrivance, as viewed from a gambler’s standpoint, is the fact that the compartments in front of which the points are placed are inscribed with the winning numbers. The divisions into which the marbles are forced to roll invariably correspond to those numbers on the cloth which contain those words (so ominous to the greenhorn) “blank” or “represent.”