in
the winter season for 14 to 16 hours in succession; so that from 100 to
150 persons might be calculated to visit one gaming table in the course
of a night; and it not unfrequently happened that ultimately all the
money brought to the table got into the hands of one or two of the
most fortunate adventurers, save that which was paid to the table for
'box-hands'--that is, when a player won three times in succession. At
these establishments the price of a box varied from one shilling to
half-a-crown. Every man thus engaged was destined to become either a
more finished and mischievous gambler, or to appear at the bar of the
Old Bailey. The successful players by degrees improved their external
appearance, and obtained admittance into houses of higher play, where
two shillings and sixpence or three shillings and fourpence was
demanded for the box-hand. If success attended them in the first step of
advancement, they next got initiated into better houses, and associated
with gamblers of a higher grade.

PLAY IN 1838.

About the year 1838 the gaming houses were kept open all day, the dice
were scarcely ever idle, day or night. From Sunday to Sunday, all the
year round, persons were to be found in these places, losing their
money, and wasting away their very bodies by the consuming anxiety
consequent on their position at the Hazard or Roulette table.

STATISTICS OF GAMBLING IN 1844.

The following facts came out in evidence before the committee of the
House of Commons, in 1844.

Down to that year there were no less than 12 gaming houses in St James's
and St George's. The play was higher in old times, but not so GENERAL.

'The increase of gambling houses was entirely the offspring of
Crockford's.' Such was the opinion of the Honourable Frederick Byng,
before the committee, who added, 'that the facility to everybody to
gamble at Crockford's led to the establishment of other gambling houses
fitted up in a superior style, and attractive to gentlemen who never
would have thought of going into them formerly.'

Previously, in the clubs, the gambling was confined to a very high rate
and to a very few people. The above-named witness said he 'could have
named all the gamblers in his early days at the clubs. No person coming
into a room where Hazard was carried on would have been permitted to
play for a SMALL SUM, and therefore he left it.'

The same gentleman remembered the time when gambling tables were kept in
private houses