The position of monte-dealer is a most trying one. Surrounded by the clamor of the crowd ; his eyes, while apparently intent on his cards, closely scrutinizing the faces and fingers of the bettors before him; his mind meanwhile occupied by the progress of the game, which involves intricate and continuous calculation; then, should he wish to indulge in- feats of skill or cheating, he must perform them at the peril of his life, under scores of eyes riveted with vigilant scrutiny upon his fingers, and be ready at any moment to resent, if deemed best, with knife or pistol, the merest suspicion of dishonesty, should any one of the players imprudently intimate it. Faro was considered the more dignified and respectable of all the games, and was played mostly by Englishmen and Americans, while monte was a favorite with the French and Spanish. Besides these were roulette, rouge-et-noir, rondo, vingt-un, chuck-a-luck, with dice, and many other games.
The usual stake was from a dollar to five dollars, though it was not uncommon in the flush times to see hundreds or even thousands ventured on the turning of a card. A bet of $20,000 was once made at a faro game and won by the customer. The dealer counted out the money with as much nonchalance as if it had been twenty dollars he had lost instead of twenty thousand. There is something fascinating in standing by and watching the game, as the painted cards turn up their leering faces and read the players the melodrame of their folly. It seems like sporting with destiny, and telling out the tale of life by worshipful spots and figures.
It is a fine thing to get a peck or a bushel of gold just by betting for it, and the tremulous rapture of mingled hope and fear is almost compensation enough even if one loses. And after all "buckingr" at a faro bank was no more uncertain and much less troublesome than stakino; time and sinews agjainst the Sierra's secret pockets and auriferous banks. There are men,
