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Philadelphia:
T. B. Peterson and Brothers,
306 Chestnut Street.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858,
by T. B. PETERSON,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.





PREFACE.


The vice of gambling is peculiarly destructive. It spares neither age
nor sex. It visits the domestic hearth with a pestilence more quiet and
stealthy, but not less deadly, than intemperance. It is at once the vice
of the gentleman, and the passion of the blackguard. With deep shame we
are forced to admit that the halls of legislation have not been free
from its influence, nor the judicial bench unstained by its pollution.