liquor, giving freely, but
taking cautiously. 3. He must always deprecate play in
public, and pretend an entire ignorance of his game. 4. He
must be subtle as the fox, and vary as the well-trained
hawk; never showing chase too soon, or losing his pigeon by
an over eager desire to pluck him. 5. He must be content to
lose a little at first, that he may thereby make a final hit
decisive. 6. He must practise like a conjuror in private,
that his slippery tricks in public may escape observation.
Palming the _digits_ requires no ordinary degree of agility.
7. He must secure a confederate, who having been pigeoned,
has since been enlightened, and will consent to decoy others
to the net. 8. He should have once held the rank of captain,
as an introduction to good society, and a privilege to bully
any one who may question his conduct. 9. He must always put
on the show of generosity with those he has plucked--that
is, while their bill, bond, post obit, or other legal
security is worth having.
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10. He should be a prince of good fellows at his own table,
have the choicest wines for particular companies, and when a
grand hit cannot be made, refuse to permit play in his own
house; or on a decisive occasion, let his decoy or partner
pluck the pigeon, while he appears to lose to some
confederate a much larger sum.
11. He must not be afraid to fight a duel, mill & rumbustical
green one, or bully a brother sharper who attempts to poach
upon his preserves.
12. He must concert certain signals with confederates for
_working the broads_ (i.e. cards), such as fingers at whist:
toe to toe for an ace, or the left hand to the eye for a
king, and so on, until he can make the fate of a rubber
certain. On this point he must be well instructed in the
arts of _marked cards, briefs, broads, corner bends, middle
ditto, curves, or Kingston Bridge_, and other arch tricks of
_slipping, palming, forcing_, or even _substituting_,
whatever card may be necessary to win the game. Such are a
few of the elements of modern Greeking, contained in the
twelve golden rules recorded above, early attention to which
may save the inexperienced from ruin.
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7 ELEMENTS OF DUELLING.
"The British Code of Duel," a little work profess
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