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[Illustration: _John Philip Quinn_]

                            FOOLS OF FORTUNE

                                   OR
                         GAMBLING AND GAMBLERS,

                             COMPREHENDING

     A HISTORY OF THE VICE IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES, AND IN BOTH
       HEMISPHERES; AN EXPOSITION OF ITS ALARMING PREVALENCE AND
         DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS; WITH AN UNRESERVED AND EXHAUSTIVE
             DISCLOSURE OF SUCH FRAUDS, TRICKS AND DEVICES
                   AS ARE PRACTICED BY “PROFESSIONAL”
                       GAMBLERS, “CONFIDENCE MEN”
                         AND “BUNKO STEERERS.”

                                   BY

                           JOHN PHILIP QUINN,

      WHO MODESTLY, YET WITH SINCERITY, TENDERS TO THE WORLD WHAT
         HE HOPES MAY EXTENUATE HIS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF GAMING
              AND SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION OF HIS FELLOW-MEN.

                         ---------------------

 WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY HON. CHARLES P. JOHNSON, EX-GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI,
   AND REV. JOHN SNYDER, D. D., OF ST. LOUIS, AND CHAPTERS CONTRIBUTED
                    BY REVS. PROFESSOR DAVID SWING AND
                       ROBERT MCINTYRE, OF CHICAGO.

                                 CHICAGO:
                             G. L. HOWE & CO.
                                  1890.








                           COPYRIGHTED, 1890,
                           BY JOHN P. QUINN,
                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.








          W. B. CONKEY,                        ELECTROTYPED BY
          BOOK MANUFACTURER,                   G. M. D. LIBBY,
            CHICAGO.                               CHICAGO.




                                   TO
                        HON. CHARLES P. JOHNSON,

        EX-GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI, AND AUTHOR OF THE ANTI-GAMBLING
                          LAWS OF THAT STATE;

                              THE CITIZEN,

     WHO RECOGNIZES, AS A BOUNDEN DUTY, LOYALTY TO THE INTERESTS OF
                         SOCIETY AND THE STATE;

                             THE STATESMAN,

         WHOSE EXPOSITION OF THE EVILS OF GAMBLING RESULTED IN
              A LAW WHICH BRANDS THAT VICE AS A FELONY AND
                     ITS “PROFESSOR” AS A CRIMINAL.

                              THE LAWYER,

             WHOSE FAME IS GROUNDED EQUALLY IN ABILITY AND
                INTEGRITY, ARE THESE PAGES RESPECTFULLY
                              INSCRIBED BY

                                                         THE AUTHOR.

[Illustration: WHICH WAY?]




                                PREFACE.


Of all the vices which have enslaved mankind, none can reckon among its
victims so many as gambling. Not even the baneful habit of drink has
blighted so many lives or desolated so many homes. Its fascination is
insidious and terrible, and its power is all the more to be dreaded in
that it appeals to a latent instinct in nearly every human breast. In
view of these considerations it appears strange that English literature
contains no authentic work specially devoted to this subject; while
there exists literally no exposition of its allurements and its dangers
written from the standpoint of one on the inside.

It is to fill this vacant place in literature that the author offers
this volume to the public. For a quarter of a century he has witnessed
and practiced every variety of gambling known to the professional. From
the shores of the Atlantic to the canons of Colorado, from the frozen
lake of the North, drained by the mighty Mississippi