Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men: Nineteenth-Century Mississippi River Gambling Stories

by Thomas Ruys Smith

In 1836 Benjamin Drake, a midwestern writer of popular sketches for newspapers of the day, introduced his readers to a new and distinctly American rascal who rode the steamboats up and down the Mississippi and other western waterways -- the riverboat gambler. These men, he recorded, dress with taste and elegance; carry gold chronometers in their pockets; and swear with the most genteel precision.... Every where throughout the valley, these mistletoe...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807136360
• ISBN13: 9780807136362
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.1"