Gambling Memorabilia

[Trumble, Alfred]. Faro Exposed; or The Gambler and his Prey. Being a Complete Explanation of the Famous Game, its Origin and Development, and how its Skins are Worked. New York: Richard K. Fox, (1882). Publisher’s pictorial wrappers retained in full green leather, banded and blind-stamped spine, gilt-stamped morocco spine label. 72pp + ads. 16 wood-engraved plates. Tall 8vo. Page-edges and wraps archivally reinforced; all pages archivally de-acidified. A few short tears and chips to page edges, scattered scuffs and wear; good overall. The rarest of all books dealing with the subject of advantage play. A candid explanation of the origin, nature, rules, and history of faro, arguably the most popular card game of the Old West. The author sums up faro’s utterly crooked nature on page 47: “There is not in the United States to-day one single faro-banker who is willing and content to confine himself to the strict percentage of an honest game. They practice every trick, cheat, fraud, device, contrivance, skin and scheme known to the “trade,” save and except that which they themselves do not know. Nothing but the fear of detection will prevent them from taking every possible advantage of their customers.” The text describes methods (both mechanical and sleight-of-hand) by which unsuspecting “suckers” and their money could be parted. Among the techniques described are rough, sanded, rounded, and stripped cards; gaffed faro boxes; dodges with alluring names like “The Coffee Mill,” “Squared Sights and Tie Ups,” “Horse Hair,” and sundry card-sharping techniques. Despite the fact that Faro Exposed was published by the proprietor of The Police Gazette (who also published other widely circulated pulps and street literature), the work is a genuine rarity. The copy deposited in the Library of Congress was destroyed in the process of converting the text to microfilm, and in the intervening years, only two other examples of the text have been located in institutions, one of which is incomplete. This example, well-preserved to prevent degradation of the cheap paper it was printed on, is the only copy known to be in private hands.