The scene that opened upon us was, to me, a painfully interesting

one. It was a mere hell, without any of those attractive adjuncts

which, in a diseased state of popular refinement, such as exists in

the fashionable atmospheres of London and Paris, provides it with

decorations, and conceals its more discouraging and offensive

externals. The charms of music, lovely women, gay lights, and superb

drapery and furniture, were here entirely wanting. No other arts

beyond the single passion for hazard, which exists, I am inclined

to think, in a greater or less degree in every human breast, were

here employed to beguile the young and unsuspecting mind into

indulgence. The establishment into which I had fallen, seemed to

presuppose an acquaintance, already formed, of the gamester with his

fascinating vice. It was evidently no place to seduce the uninitiate.

The passion must have been already awakened--the guardianship

of the good angel lulled into indifference or slumber--before the

young mind could be soon reconciled to the moral atmosphere of such

a scene.

The apartment was low and dimly lighted. Groups of small tables

intended for two persons were all around. In the centre of the floor

were tables of larger size, which were surrounded by the followers

of Pharo. Unoccupied tables, here and there, were sprinkled with

cards and domino; while, as if to render the characteristics of

the place complete, a vapor of smoke and a smell of beer assailed

our senses as we entered.

There were not many persons present--I conjectured, at a glance,

that there might be fifteen; but we heard occasional voices from

an inner room, and a small door opening in the rear discovered a

retreat like that we occupied, in the dim light of which I perceived

moving faces and shadows, and Kingsley informed me that there were

several rooms all similarly occupied with ours.

An examination of the persons around me, increased the unpleasant

feelings which the place had inspired. With the exception of a few,

the greater number were evidently superior to their employments.

Several of them were young men like my companion--men not yet lost

to sensibility, who looked up with some annoyance as they beheld

Kingsley accompanied by a stranger. Two or three of the inmates

were veteran gamesters. You could see THAT in their business-like

nonchalance--their rigid muscles--the manner at once demure and

familiar. They were evidently "habitues del l'enfer"--men to whom

cards and dice were as absolutely necessary now, as brandy and

tobacco to the drunkard. These men were always at play. Even the

smallest interval found them still shuffling the cards, and looking

up at every opening of the door, as if in hungering anticipation

of the prey. At such periods alone might you behold any expression

of anxiety in their faces. This disappeared entirely the moment

that they were in possession of the victim. That imperturbable

composure which distinguished them was singularly contrasted with

the fidgety eagerness and nervous rapidity by which you could

discover the latter; and I glanced over the operations of the two

parties, as they were fairly shown in several sets about the room,

with a renewed feeling of wonder how a man so truly clever and

strong, in some things, as Kingsley, should allow himself to be

drawn so deeply into such low snares; the tricks of which seemed

so apparent, and the attractions of which, in the present instance,

were obviously so inferior and low. I little knew by what inoffensive

and gradual changes the human mind, having once commenced its

downward progress, can hurry to the base; nor did I sufficiently

allow for that love of hazard itself, in games of chance, which I

have already expressed the opinion, is natural to the proper heart

of man, belongs to a rational curiosity, and arises, most probably,

from that highest property of his intellect, namely, the love of

art and intellectual ingenuity. It would be very important to know

this fact, since then, instead of the blind hostility which is

entertained for sports of this description, by certain classes of

moralists among us, we might so employ their ministry as to deprive

them of their hurtfulness and make them permanently beneficial in

the cause of good education.




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