The entire art of the game consists in making
fifteen; below that number the party loses.
2. THE COCOA-TREE CLUB.
This club was remarkable for high if not for foul play. Walpole,
writing to Horace Mann in 1780, says:--'Within this week there
has been a cast at Hazard at the Cocoa-tree (in St James's
Street) the difference of which amounted to one hundred and
fourscore thousand pounds! Mr O'Birne, an Irish gamester, had
won one hundred thousand pounds of a young Mr Harvey of Chigwell,
just started into an estate by his elder brother's death.
O'Birne said,--"You can never pay me." "I can," said the youth,
"my estate will sell for the debt." "No," said O'Birne, "I will
win ten thousand,--you shall throw for the odd ninety." They
did, and Harvey won!'
3. GRAHAM'S CLUB.
This gaming club is remarkable for a scandal which made some
noise at the time of its occurrence, and one version of which a
writer in the Times has been at some pains to rectify. In Mr
Duncombe's 'Life' of his father occurs the following account of
this curious transaction.
'In Graham's Club there was also a good deal of play, and large
sums were lost and won among the noblemen and gentlemen who were
its members.
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