yers, bankers,
merchants, great operators in Wall street, famous actors and authors,
journalists, artists--in short, all grades of men who have attained
eminence or won wealth in their callings. Consequently, the company is
brilliant, and the conversations are such as are seldom heard in the most
aristocratic private mansions of the city. The early part of the evening
is almost exclusively devoted to social enjoyment, and there is very
little gambling until after supper, which is served about half-past
eleven, after the theatres have closed.

Then the back parlor is the centre of attraction. There is a roulette
table on the eastern side of this apartment, said to be the handsomest
piece of furniture in the Union. At the opposite side is a large
side-board bountifully provided with liquor and cigars. The faro table
stands across the room at the southern end, and is the most popular
resort of the guests, though some of the other games find their votaries
in other parts of the room.

"The table upon which faro is played is not unlike an ordinary
dining-table with rounded corners. At the middle of one side, the place
generally occupied by the head of a family, the dealer sits in a space of
about three square feet, which has been fashioned in from the table. The
surface is covered with tightly drawn green ladies' cloth. The thirteen
suit cards of a whist pack are inlaid upon the surface in two rows, with
the odd card placed as at the round of the letter U. The dealer has a
full pack, which he shuffles, then inserts in a silver box with an open
face. This box is laid upon the table directly to his front.

"The cards are confined within it by a stiff spring, and the top card is
visible to all, save a narrow strip running about its edge, which is
necessarily covered by the rim of the box to hold it securely in
position.

"The game now begins. The dealer pushes out the top card, and the second
card acted upon by the spring rises and fills its place. The second card
is pushed off likewise laterally through the narrow slit constructed for
the exit of all the cards. This pair thus drawn out constitutes a
'turn,' the first one being the winning and the second the losing card;
so that the first, third, fifth, and in the same progression throughout
the fifty-two are winning cards, and the second, fourth and sixth, etc.,
are the losing cards. The betting is done this way: The player buys
ivory checks and never uses mo