Life — December 5, 1896 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE: produced a new box of chips, with— “You play with the special chips, of course, sir?” I took the chips without asking what they were. They were blue, and handsomely incrusted with silver. The wheel spun once and again. I lost a chip on the red, then gained one on the black. Then I threwa couple at random on the centre of the board. They landed together upon number eleven. The wheel turned, and that provoking ball hopped round the other way. Trusting reader, you know, do you not, that in playing a number at roulette the chances are thirty-five to one against you, but if you win it is thirty-five times what you bet? So, though I really did not know what I was risking, I confess that I watched the ball with a certain interest. It was going slower now. I could ‘ see the numbers on the wheel. The : ball feebly skipped from fifteen to thir- BEANE OEMS ‘ { teen, almost in twelve, and landed safe 5 | in eleven! é NOT SQUARE: . VA | The banker solemnly pushed me DON'T believe in over seventy of the special chips. I Santa Claus. fingered one carelessly. ‘By the He's a fraud. - - "said I, “how much is one of “Doesn't he visit you every Christmas?” “Yes'm, but after- wards the men always call to collect the bills for what he has left.” was the re- ply. Reader, did you ever win seventy thousand dollars? If so, 1 trust you chips and retire. A MILLION. 7 m=—“K oT know it's not “THE door of \ sportsmanlike, but the house it is so sensible was opened by a F that I trust you most respectable | did so, old chap in livery. it Idid not. Why He knew me = I did not I can- at once, for as = ~ ~ not tell you; in- he helped me off f = deed, I cannot with my coat -2~ —~. give a very coher- he murmured, ~— ent account of “You're early, - what happened sir.” I scarcely in the next half glanced into ‘the BITE, BY GOSH, AND A BIG ONE. hour. The wheel bs front rooms. They were handsomely fur- nished, but empty, and hardly knowing wh) strolled back to what in most houses would have been the dining-room. Here was a dining-table, sure enough, but upon it was a board cut up into odd figures, and fitted at one end with a roulette wheel, I think a little smaller than is usual. Evidently theewhole affair could be suddenly removed on occasion, The banker was turning the whcecl listlessly, and a couple of young fellows, mere boys, were making small bets. I had wandered in, I assure you, without an idea of playing. Really, I have not played since my college days, and then only as a boy experiments, but my entrance made such a stir that it seemed natural to sitdown. Everyone looked at me, there was a nod or two, and the banker straightened up and