on call.

All are on an equality here; no class distinction in the saloon "El
Dorado;" for all are on the same errand--to get rich by gambling. The
gold gleaming over the table is reflected in their faces. Not in
smiles, or cheerfully; but by an expression of hungry cupidity--fixed,
as if stamped into their features. No sign of hilarity, or joyfulness;
not a word of badinage passing about, or between; scarce a syllable
spoken, save the call-words of the dealer, or an occasional remark by
the croupier, explanatory of some disputed point about the placing, or
payment, of stakes.

And if there be little light humour, neither is there much of
ill-manners. Strangely assorted as is the motley crowd--in part
composed of the roughest specimens of humanity--noisy speech is
exceptional, and rude or boisterous behaviour rare. Either shown would
be resented, and soon silenced; though, perhaps, not till after some
noises of still louder nature--the excited, angry clamour of a quarrel,
succeeded by the cracking of pistols; then a man borne off wounded, in
all likelihood to die, or already dead, and stretched along the sanded
floor, to be taken unconcernedly up, and carried feet-foremost out of
the room.

And yet, in an instant, it will all be over. The gamesters, temporarily
attracted from the tables, will return to them; the dealing of the cards
will be resumed; and, amidst the chinking of coin, and the rattling of
cheques, the sanguinary drama will not only cease to be talked about,
but thought of. Bowie-knives and pistols are the police that preserve
order in the gambling-saloons of San Francisco.

Although the "El Dorado" is owned by a single individual, this is only
as regards the house itself, with the drinking-bar and its
appurtenances. The gaming-tables are under separate and distinct
proprietorship; each belonging to a "banker," who supplies the cash
capital, and other necessaries for the game--in short, "runs" the table,
to use a Californian phrase. As a general rule, the owner of a table is
himself the dealer, and usually, indeed almost universally, a
distinguished "sportsman"--this being the appellation of the Western
States' professional gambler, occasionally abbreviated to "sport." He
is a man of peculiar characteristics, though not confined to California.
His "species" may be met with all over the United States, but more
frequently in those of the south and south-west; the Mississippi valley
being his co