University of Virginia Library

GAFFING.

Gaffing is or was one of the ten thousand modes of swindling practised in London. Formerly it was a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregated nightly at the `flash houses.' One of these is described as follows: — This gaffer laughed a great deal and whistled Moore's melodies, and extracted music from a deal table with his elbow and wrist. When he hid a half-penny, and a flat cried `head' for £10, a `tail' was sure to turn up. One of his modes of commanding the turn-up was this: he had a half-penny with two heads, and a half-penny with two tails. When he gaffed, he contrived to have both half-pence under his hand, and long practice enabled him to catch up in the wrinkles or muscles of it the half-penny which it was his interest to conceal. If `tail' was called a `head' appeared, and the `tail' half-penny ran down his wrist with astonishing fidelity. This ingenious fellow often won 200 or 300 sovereigns a night by gaffing; but the landlord and other men, who were privy to the robbery, and `pitched the

baby card' (that is, encouraged the loser by sham betting), always came in for the `regulars,' that is, their share of the plunder.

This gaffer contrived to `bilk' all the turnpikes in the kingdom. In going to a fight or to a race-course, when he reached a turnpike he held a shilling between his fingers, and said to the gatekeeper — `Here, catch,' and made a movement of the hand towards the man, who endeavoured to catch what he saw. The shilling, however, by a backward jerk, ran down the sleeve of the coat, as if it had life in it, and the gate-keeper turned round to look in the dust, when the tall gaffer drove on, saying — `Keep the change.'

A young fellow, who previously was a marker at a billiard-table, and who had the appearance of a soft, inexperienced country-lad, was another great hand at gaffing. There was a strong adhesive power in his hand, and such exquisite sensibility about it, that he could ascertain by dropping his palm, even upon a worn-out half-penny or shilling, what side was turned up. Indeed, so perfect a master was he of the science that Breslaw could never have done more upon cards than he could do with a pair of `grays' (gaffing-coins).

A well-known macer, who was celebrated for slipping an `old gentleman' (a long card) into the pack, and was the inheritor by birth of all the propensities of this description, although the inheritance was equally divided between his brother and himself, got hold of a young fellow who had £170 in his pocket, and introduced him to one of the `cock-and-hen' houses near Drury Lane Theatre, well-primed with wine. Gaffing began, and the billiard-marker before described was pitched upon to `do' the stranger. The macer `pitched the baby card,' and of course lost, as well as the unfortunate victim. He had borrowed £10 of the landlord, who was to come in for the `regulars;' but when all was over, the billiard-marker refused to make any division of the spoil, or even to return the £10 which had been lost to him in `bearing up' the cull. The landlord pressed his demand upon the macer, who, in fact, was privately reimbursed by the marker; but he was coolly told that he ought not to allow such improper practices in his house, and that the sum was not recoverable, the transaction being illegal.

How these spurious coins are procured is a question; but I am assured that they are still in

use and often made to do service at public-houses and other places.