nt, and the latter
as an excellent exercise. Cards and dice are the real weapons of the
"sportsman," but particularly the former. Besides the English games of
whist and cribbage, and the French games of "vingt-un", "rouge-et-noir,"
etcetera, the American gambler plays "poker", "euchre", "seven-up," and
a variety of others. In New Orleans there is a favourite of the Creoles
called "craps," a dice game, and "keno," and "loto," and "roulette,"
played with balls and a revolving wheel. Farther to the South, among
the Spano-Mexicans, you meet the game of "monte,"--a card game, distinct
from all the others. Monte is the national game of Mexico.

To all other modes of getting at your money, the South-Western sportsman
prefers "faro." It is a game of Spanish origin, as its name imports;
indeed, it differs but little from monte, and was no doubt obtained from
the Spaniards of New Orleans. Whether native or exotic to the towns of
the Mississippi Valley, in all of them it has become perfectly
naturalised; and there is no sportsman of the West who does not
understand and practise it.

The game of faro is simple enough. The following are its leading
features:--

A green cloth or baize covers the table. Upon this the thirteen cards
of a suite are laid out in two rows, with their faces turned up. They
are usually attached to the cloth by gum, to prevent them from getting
out of place.

A square box, like an overgrown snuff-box, is next produced. It is of
the exact size and shape to hold two packs of cards. It is of solid
silver. Any other metal would serve as well; but a professed "faro
dealer" would scorn to carry a mean implement of his calling. The
object of this box is to hold the cards to be dealt, and to assist in
dealing them. I cannot explain the internal mechanism of this
mysterious box; but I can say that it is without a lid, open at one
edge--where the cards are pressed in--and contains an interior spring,
which, touched by the finger of the dealer, pushes out the cards one by
one as they lie in the pack. This contrivance is not at all essential
to the game, which may be played without the box. Its object is to
insure a fair deal, as no card can be recognised by any mark on its
back, since up to the moment of drawing they are all invisible within
the box. A stylish "faro box" is the ambition of every "faro dealer"--
the specific title of all "sportsmen" whose game is faro.

Two packs of cards, well sh