A new Character introduced to the Reader.

in company with Mr. T. and Miss Amelia, embarked on a steamer for New Orleans. Mr. C. was highly delighted at meeting with so many fine ladies and gentlemen, some of whom, he soon found, were very expert at his favorite game of whist, and having been instructed by Miss Amelia in the games of poker, brag, and boston, he promised himself that he would figure to much advantage among his newly-acquired acquaintance. In the course of the voyage, Mr. T. frequently played, and would sometimes bet; but this, he said, was only for amusement. Miss Amelia and other ladies and gentlemen would also frequently play for money, but professedly for amusement only. Mr. C. often had invitations to join them, but Mr. T. would not let him, telling him that he could not play well enough to play for money. Mr. C., however, was almost constantly engaged in some game, and began to think himself sufficiently skilled in several to venture to bet. He noticed that Mr. T. came off winner almost every day, and he considered himself as good a player as he was; indeed, Miss Amelia told him that he was a better player than her uncle.

On their passage down the Ohio, the boat landed at a small place near the mouth of the Kanhawa River for a passenger. This passenger was quite a starchy, gentlemanly-looking man, wearing a large diamond pin, diamond ring, and his apparel in all other respects corresponding. As soon as Mr. T. met him, he gave him a hearty shake of the hand, and said, "Doctor, I am very happy to see you; which way are you travelling?" "I have just started for the south," said the Doctor, "to spend the winter." Mr. T. expressed himself as being very happy that they had chanced to get on the same boat. This all happened in the hearing of Mr. C., but

they did not seem as if they noticed him. At length Mr. T. turned his head, and gave him an introduction to the gentleman by the name of Doctor S., observing that he was just starting on a visit to the south also, and that he and his father were intimate acquaintances and friends of his. On the Doctor's turning away to look after his servant and baggage, Mr. C. asked Mr. T. if he understood him to say that the Doctor visited the south to practise his profession. "O no," said Mr. T.," he is a gentleman of great wealth, being worth some five hundred thousand dollars, and all in cash, sir, and is one of those gentlemen who do not stand on their money the least; the very jewelry he has on is probably worth not less than two thousand dollars; and why need he care? for his income is perhaps as much as that in a single month, and he tells me that he is determined to live out the interest of his capital; and, sir, he thinks nothing of sitting down at a card party and losing five hundred dollars at once, and besides, he never allows any person to be at any expense when he is about." "I suppose he is a very good player," said Mr. C. "O, he is about such a player as you or I; he plays brag, poker, twentyone, and whist, very much as we do; the game, however, that he is most partial to, is the game of faro." "That," said the young man, " is a strange game to me." "Yes," said Mr. T., "it is only played by rich men, and, therefore, it is not common. The man that plays this game, has to go to great expense; he has to purchase, sir, a fine silver box, worth, perhaps, one hundred dollars; and then he has to supply himself with a number of ivory pieces, turned round like a dollar; some of them colored red, with various figures on them, and some of them white, without any coloring, except, perhaps, around the

Price of a Faro Apparatus.

edge: and these checks, as they are called, will cost, probably, two hundred dollars. And then the case that holds them is usually worth some fifty dollars; and there are very few, sir, who will pay such a sum merely for amusement; and when you come to understand it, I think you will like it so much better than any other game, I should not wonder if you should purchase a set of faro implements for your own amusement." "Indeed," said Mr. C., "from your account I have a great curiosity to learn to play this game." Mr. T. replied that the Doctor would no doubt take pleasure in giving him a knowledge of it.

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The day passed away, and there was no game introduced except poker and brag. The Doctor was invited to play several times, but always objected. Mr. T. inquired of him why he did not play. "O, to tell you the truth," said the Doctor, "I am in the habit of playing so high at those games I bet so high on such small hands, that those young players would never win a pot or anty." 'Well," said T., "sit down and play, and we will run the risk of your running us off." The Doctor complied with the invitation, and had not been seated long before Mr. T. bet twenty dollars; the Doctor observed it was hard, but he was bound to bet him about four hundred better. 66 Well," said T., "take it." C. was standing and looking on, and thought that if it had been himself in place of T., he would have taken the other up. T. then showed three aces. "O," said the Doctor, "that was very good." And upon the Doctor's showing his hand, it appeared that he had only one pair of kings, and this satisfied C., that he himself was a better player than T., for if he had had his hand he would have called the Doctor. They continued to play

for some time, the Doctor winning of his opponent quite frequently; and when he had won some two or three hundred dollars, T. asked C. to play his hand a few minutes, when, in a very short time, C. made a bet, and the Doctor staked three hundred better. C. called and beat him. The Doctor asked him to let him see his

hand, when C. laid down three aces. "Good!" exclaimed the Doctor, and C., pocketing the money, seemed very much elated at the success he had met with. The game soon closed, and T. was loud in his praises of the young man's success, and said that he would soon make a first-rate player.

That night T. asked the Doctor to play faro for them; this he agreed to do after supper, and for this purpose took them into his state-room, where, for the first time in his life, the young man witnessed that fascinating mode of gaming. He was very much delighted with the game, the box, the instrument itself, the beautiful checks, &c. T. took some of the dollar checks and bet, and occasionally some of the five dollar checks, and played all the evening; and when the Doctor closed the game, T. was two or three hundred dollars winner. "Well," said the Doctor, "friend T., you have been too much for me this evening," and paying him the amount of his winnings, he added, "Never mind, I will make you pay for this shortly." When they left the stateroom, C. was talking to T., and congratulating him upon his good fortune. "O yes," he replied, "but we m may play to-morrow, and perhaps he will win the whole of it back," charging C., at the same time, not to say any thing about their playing in the state-room, lest some should think that they were gamblers. "Never fear," said C., "that I am going to speak of any thing that

A patent Gambler described.

would make people think unfavorably of us." And at his request, Mr. T. proceeded to give him a description of a gambler, that he might be on his guard against

such persons.

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"They will sometimes," said he, "when they are in groups by themselves, try to assume the character of gentlemanly sportsmen. These men cheat in every possible way, when they play at cards, and if they cannot by this means get your money from you, they will not hesitate, if an opportunity occurs, to pick your pockets; and if your money is in such a situation that it is not convenient to get hold of it, (that is, if you have it tied round you,) the greater part of them will not stick to knock you down and take it from you; so you see that you ought never to form any acquaintance without an introduction by some particular friend." Well," said C., "indeed I had no idea that there was such a bad race of beings upon earth; it is true, father told me that I should always be on my guard against that class of men, but he never told me in what way I might be able to designate them; pray tell me, Mr. T., what causes these men to be so bad - is it necessity? "O no," said he; "many of them have been well raised, had pious parents; some of them, perhaps, married against their parents' will; others would be set up by their parents in business, and by some bad management would fail, and to elude the grasp of their creditors, would leave their native place, and attach themselves to this desperate class of sportsmen, or gamblers. But the most of them, perhaps, are misled through vanity. You may see some twenty of these young men in company together, all of them fine-looking, and of sprightly minds, and good sense; and if you inquire more particularly, you will find their history to be some