ssessed a great advantage over his companions by avoiding those
indulgences at the table which used to muddle other men's brains. He
confined himself to dining off something like a boiled chicken, with
toast and water; by such a regimen he came to the Whist table with a
clear head; and possessing as he did a remarkable memory, with great
coolness of judgment, he was able honestly to win the enormous sum of
L200,000.

RICHARD BENNET.

Richard Bennet had gone through every walk of a blackleg, from being a
billiard sharper at a table in Bell Alley until he became a keeper or
partner in all the 'hells' in St James's. In each stage of his journey
he had contrived to have so much the better of his competitors, that
he was enabled to live well, to bring up and educate a large legitimate
family, and to gratify all his passions and sensuality. But besides all
this, he accumulated an ample fortune, which this inveterate gamester
did actually possess when the terriers of justice overtook and hunted
him into the custody of the Marshal of the Court of Queen's Bench.
Here he was sentenced to be imprisoned a certain time, on distinct
indictments, for keeping different gaming houses, and was ordered to be
kept in custody until he had also paid fines to the amount, we believe,
of L4000. Bennet, however, after undergoing the imprisonment, managed to
get himself discharged without paying the fines.

DENNIS O'KELLY.

Dennis O'Kelly was the Napoleon of the turf and the gaming table. Ascot
was his elysium. His horses occupied him by day and the Hazard table
by night. At the latter one night he was seen repeatedly turning over
a _QUIRE OF BANK NOTES_, and a gentleman asked him what he was looking
for, when he replied, 'I am looking for a _LITTLE ONE_.' The inquirer
said he could accommodate him, and desired to know for what sum. Dennis
O'Kelly answered, 'I want a FIFTY, or something of _THAT SORT_, just to
set the _CASTER_. At this moment it was supposed he had seven or eight
_THOUSAND_ pounds in notes in his hand, but not one for less than a
_HUNDRED!_

Dennis O'Kelly always threw with great success; and when he held the box
he was seldom known to refuse throwing for _ANY SUM_ that the company
chose to set him. He was always liberal in _SETTING THE CASTER_, and
preventing a stagnation of trade at the _TABLE_, which, from the great
property always about him, it was his good fortune very frequently
to deprive of its last floating g