s sent periodically to the subscribers to the
society, that they may know who are the persons wasting their money, or
perhaps the money of their employers, in gambling. Many large houses of
business subscribe.

In the month of August the society's agents detected among the gamblers
68 clerks of mercantile houses, and in the previous six months reported
623 cases. It is stated that there are in New York and Brooklyn 1017
policy and lottery offices, and 163 Faro banks, and that their net
annual gains are not less than 36,000,000 dollars.

AMERICAN GAMBLERS.

At American gambling houses 'it is very easy,' says the same writer, 'to
distinguish the professional from the ordinary gambler. The latter has a
nervous expression about the mouth, and an intense gaze upon the cards,
and altogether a very serious nervous appearance; while the professional
plays in a very quiet manner, and seems to care but little how the game
goes; and his desire to appear as if the game was new to him is almost
certain to expose him to those who know the manoeuvre.

'Previous to the struggle for independence in the South, there were
many hundreds of gamblers scattered through the Southern towns, and
the Mississippi steam-boats used to abound with them. In the South, a
gambler was regarded as outside the pale of society, and classed with
the slave-trader, who was looked upon with loathing by the very same men
who traded with him; such was the inconsistency of public opinion.

'The American gambler differs from his European brethren in many
respects. He is very frequently, in education, appearance, and manner, a
gentleman, and if his private history were known, it would be found
that he was of good birth, and was at one time possessed of considerable
fortune; but having lost all at the gambling table, he gradually came
down to the level of those who proved his ruin, and having no profession
nor means of livelihood left to him, he adopted their mode of life.

'On one occasion I met a brother of a Southern General (very famous in
the late war and still a wealthy man) who, at one time, was one of the
richest planters in the State of Louisiana, and is now acting as
an agent for a set of gamblers to their gaming houses. After losing
everything he had, he became a croupier to a gambling house in New
Orleans, and afterwards plied his trade on the Mississippi for some
years; then he went into Mexico, and finally to New York, where he
opened a house