THE SPIELER.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 125, 23 November 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SPIELER.

Queensland Figaro seems to nave got this vil« creature down to rights. Much more could wo add, but that nothing is to be gained by embezzling a good yarn. This is Figaro's Buruming up: — "Tho spieler is an animal, certainly, but genei'ally a beast. He is about half a man, and that is the physical half, but his montal qualities are not half good enough for an intelligent dog. The spieler is at home anywhere outside decent Bociety, from the racecourse to the gaol; but ho has the preference for tho former as the work is easier, and thus extremes somewhat strangely meet, that is tho meanest type of humanity —tho spieler, and the high est and noblest of the bruto creation, the thoroughbred —are in close contiguity. " Birds of prey, they live on the weakness and folly of honest men, and their ranks are recruited continually from the gaols, and the ranks of the brothel and Chinese gambling den-loafers of Australian cities. Human coyotes are they, and the description of that American prairie wolf suits them well: — The wolf, grim acamp, and tbo prairie tramp, Why mado I never could Bee. Beneath brute level -half dog, half dovil, A useless animal he. •' Bret Harte found redeeming traits in a Yankee gambler, but no one ever saw a good point in an Australian spioler. His appearance is varied; sometimes he is a slim young chap, who can, if he chooses, talk well on most subjects, and then again ho is a low-browed skulking-looking villain. "He can generally fight a bit as rows are natural to his profession, but he'd sooner not; rather would he combine with one or two mates to kick his enemy to death on the quiet, and if it comes to a choice between a fight and a footrace, he'll pick the latter. He dreads nothing outside hell so much as a spell of hard work, and is in his glory if he can get some ' unfortunate' to keep him, or can blackmail someone through knowing something to their detriment. "Of course, the usual sharping tricks are his stock-in-trade, especially the purse biz., the old 'three card,' and the ' back-up-or-forfeit' is a fortune to him on the racecourse when the police allow it. " He plays, usually, a pretty game of billiards; but burglary is out of his line as a rule, as it requires a bid of nerve to burgle successfully. " Altogether he is an abortion, a mixture embodying all the vices of mankind, with not a solitary virtue, and he only does a good action once in his life, and that is when he clears out of it to another." j