Now if you intend to be a Gamster, what ever your success be, you must bear it æquo animo, neither raised or depressed; but I will assure you that it is a difficult matter so to do, for this course of life will try your patience. Would it not mad you to have so strange a fortune, as with a very small Sum to run up to Eighteen hundred pounds, and loose it again with his small stock in less than three days? I knew one with Fifty Shillings, win Five hundred pounds of his own at one time in his life, and thereupon putting himself into a Garb not mis-becoming an Earl, played again, the Dice ran against him, lost every penny he had, or could borrow; hereupon he grew stark mad, and hang’d himself in his own Bed-cord. There are as many examples of this nature as would stuff a Quire of Paper, and as many as would fill a Ream of such who having had fair Estates, in few years have lost them at Play, and dyed in want and Penury. I have heard it credibly reported, that a Gentleman belonging to the Six Clerks Office, who was only well cliented[who was only well cliented], but had a good Estate of his own, and by him always a considerable sum of Money; this Gentleman was invited to play by some young Gallants that had a great desire to be fingring his Jacobus’s with whom he engaged, and by extraordinary fortune won two thousand pieces of Gold, was not content with that round sum, but plaid on, lost all, with his own Estate, sold his place in the Office; and lost that too; at last, through excessive grief, he transported himself to a Forreign Plantation, where, if his discontent dispatch him not, he must be forced to Hoe for a livelihood. This commonly is the destiny of a decayed Gamester, if not this, he is seldom preferr’d higher than to the dignity of a Box keeper.
Lastly, before you take the Dice in your hand, think of drawing your Sword before you leave off Playing; for should you play upon the Square, you will be suspected by those that loose, you have knapt, or put the change of the Dice upon them; then right or wrong they will quarrel with you, more for the vexation of the loss, than for any just cause they had for so doing: If you do not fall together by the ears then in the very heat, you will have affronts enough to engage you in the Field next morning, upon some trifling insignificant occasion, deem’d as a punctilio of Honour, or else timely put up those abuses which will occasion you to be scorn’d and slighted, and at last pist on as you walk the streets by every Party Coat coloured Skip-kennel.
CHAP. XVI.
An account of Play, with several remarkable Occurrences.
Thus I have told you what you must expect, and now I shall inform you what to do; but if e’re you think to be complete in this occult Art, you must by frequent trials reduce my Theory into your Practice.
In the first place, take this as a Maxim, never Play, but when you are sure to win and that you might not fail thereof, have you Dice about you continually of all sorts, which you may buy in London at several places ready made to your hand, but very dear: It may be when you are in the Countrey, you cannot be supplied from thence so speedily as your urgent affairs require, and therefore I would have you make them your self.
There are Fullams of two sorts, which you may make run high or low, that is, 6, 5, 4, or 3, 2, 1. either by drilling holes in the black spots, and load them with Quick-Silver, stopping up again the said holes with Pitch, or filling the Corners of the Dice. You may procure also, (which you must have Implements as necessary in your intended Profession, as Tools are for any working occupation) I say, there are Dice which you may get, which will run nothing but a Sise, another a Cinque, another a Quatre, &c. which are very useful at Tables: for if you want a Cinque, or so to enter at Back gammon or Irish, hitting that Blot at an after-game, you recover again, and ten to one but you win the Game; besides, it is useful for a single Hit at Ticktack, or for taking points, by joyning two together of a different sort.
In case of necessity if you have none of these artificial helps about you, then your hand must supply your wants, by Palming the Die; that is, having your Box in your hand, you take up both the Dice as they are thrown nimbly within the hollow of your hand, and put but one into the Box, reserving the other in your Palm, observing with a quick eye what side was upward, and so accordingly conform the next throw to your purpose, by delivering that in the Box, and the other in your hand smoothly together. You must sometimes use Topping; that is, by pretending to put both Dice into the Box, whereas you have dropt but one, holding the other between your fore-fingers, which you turn to your advantage. Knapping, is when you strike one Die dead, either at Tables or Hazzard let the other run a Milstone, as we use to say. Slurring, is when you throw your Dice so smoothly on the Table that they turn not, for which purpose you must endeavour to choose your Table or the smoothest part thereof. There are very few that can secure more than one Die, but I have known some so excellent at it, that they would slurr a Sise without turning above a yard in length; others I have known, who could secure two Dice in three at Passage, but that is seldom seen. I have heard of some so dextrous in casting the Dice, that they would throw when they pleased less than Ames Ace, through the handle of a Quart Pot.
Hazzard, In and In, and Passage are the principal Games in an Ordinary, you may find Professors enough thereof every where else, wherefore it is requisite to pass through these several Clashes for fear of being Cross-bitten or bubbled by some other dexterity, of which they have variety unimaginable. Hazzard, is a Game that maketh a quick riddance on one side or other, and therefore it hath not its name given improperly: for it ruinateth speedily, in Setting or Buttring (a term of art is used among us,) one or other is blown up immediately.