FITZ-BOODLE'S CONFESSIONS.*




PREFACE.

GEORGE FITZ-BOODLE, ESQUIRE, TO OLIVER YORKE, ESQUIRE.


OMNIUM CLUB, May 20, 1842.


DEAR SIR,--I have always been considered the third-best whist-player in
Europe, and (though never betting more than five pounds) have for many
years past added considerably to my yearly income by my skill in the
game, until the commencement of the present season, when a French
gentleman, Monsieur Lalouette, was admitted to the club where I usually
play. His skill and reputation were so great, that no men of the club
were inclined to play against us two of a side; and the consequence has
been, that we have been in a manner pitted against one another. By a
strange turn of luck (for I cannot admit the idea of his superiority),
Fortune, since the Frenchman's arrival, has been almost constantly
against me, and I have lost two-and-thirty nights in the course of a
couple of score of nights' play.

* The "Fitz-Boodle Papers" first appeared in Fraser's
Magazine for the year 1842.