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278 hundred men are in the room, but there is no hum of conversation, and even the smokers hardly place their cigars to their lips often enough to keep them lighted. At the tables are seated dealers, dressed in long black robes, which completely hide every article of every-day clothing which they have on, with wire masks which conceal their features, though partially transparent, and slouched hats, which hide every trace of hair, making subsequent identification absolutely impossible. This is done to prevent policemen—who will, in spite of every possible precaution, occasionally get in, disguised in such manner as to defy detection—from being able to identify the dealers and prosecute them. The assistants of the dealers are dressed in the same manner, and the players never see the faces, recognize the clothing, or hear the natural voices of the men with whom they are, by a stretch of the imagination, supposed to be playing. The silence is only broken by the chink of coin, and the monotonous voice of the dealer:

"All set; all made; roll! Black wins! All set; all made; roll! Red wins!" At one table Monte is dealt, at another Faro, at another Rouge-et-noir, at another Diana, at another "Chuck-a-luck," at another "Poker dice," and so on. You can be accommodated with almost any game you want, and it makes little difference in which you invest. "You pays your money, and you takes your choice!" You will notice that the players all appear to be of the classes before alluded to; there are none of the flashily-dressed clerks from the fancy dry-goods stores, no