half-pay officers their canes, and dandies their silk
umbrellas. The banker's cards are, as throughout all the Rhenish
gaming-places, of French design; the same that were invented, or, at
least, first used in Europe, for crazy Charles the Simple. These cards
are placed on an inclined plane of marble, called a _talon_.

'The dealer first takes six packs of cards, shuffles them, and
distributes them in various parcels to the various punters or players
round the table, to shuffle and mix. He then finally shuffles them, and
takes and places the end cards into various parts of the three hundred
and twelve cards, until he meets with a _court card_, which he must
place upright at the end. This done, he presents the pack to one of
the players to cut, who places the pictured card where the _dealer_
separates the pack, and that part of the pack beyond the pictured card
he places at the end nearest him, leaving the pictured card at the
bottom of the pack.

'The dealer then takes a certain number of cards, about as many as would
form a pack, and, looking at the first card, to know its colour, puts it
on the table with its face downwards. He then takes two cards, one red
and the other black, and sets them back to back. These cards are turned,
and displayed conspicuously, as often as the colour varies, for the
information of the company.

'The gamblers having staked their money on either of the colours, the
dealer asks, "_Votre jeu est-il fait?_" "Is your game made?" or,
"_Votre jeu est-il piet?_" "Is your game ready?" or, "_Le jeu est pret,
Messieurs_," "The game is ready, gentlemen." He then deals the first
card with its face upwards, saying "_Noir;_" and continues dealing until
the cards turned exceed thirty points or pips in number, which number
he must mention, as "_Trente-et-un_," or "_Trente-six_," as the case may
be.

'As the aces reckon but for one, no card after thirty can make up forty;
the dealer, therefore, does not declare the _tens_ after _thirty-one_,
or upwards, but merely the units, as one, two, three; if the number of
points dealt for _Noir_ are thirty-five he says "_Cinq_."

'Another parcel is then dealt for _rouge_, or _red_, and with equal
deliberation and solemnity; and if the players stake beyond the colour
that comes to _thirty-one_ or nearest to it, he wins, which happy
eventuality is announced by the dealer crying--"_Rouge gagne_," "Red
wins," or "_Rouge perd_," "Red loses." These two parcels, one for