DECEPTIONS USED IN THE GAME OF ALL-FOURS.

The reader will see what changes the sporting gentry have made in this game, in order to render it more suitable for their purpose. It is usually played by two persons, but can be played by four; but more than six cannot play, for, if there should be a beg, the cards would not go round. When played by four persons they may, if they choose, play in partnership, as at whist. Any other number than four cannot play in partnership; consequently, each is for himself, and scores his own game. The points to be made before the game is concluded are ten.

The game of all-fours has, perhaps, as many advantages for gamblers as any other game that is played by them, and, consequently, as many inducements for them to master it. There is no game so generally known by all classes of persons, and very often it is learned in the parlour at a very early age. Children of both sexes under twelve years of age often play well at this game. Hence the professional gentleman will find victims at this game when he might in vain seek for one to engage in any other. The nobleman, gentleman of ease, the merchant, the clerk, and some of almost all classes of persons will engage in this game. Perhaps, at first, merely to while away a few leisure hours that pass heavily by, and in order to divert the mind, they will make the game interesting by making small bets, which generally have the effect of engaging the man's whole mind in what he is then about; and thus is the desire for amusement and diversion, coupled with a probability of gain, so fed and strengthened, that it ere long grown into a passion for the card-table, as strong and as difficult of restraint as any passion that actuates the human bosom.

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