They get the poison from low shops, called
Bucket Houses.
BUCKET HOUSES.
These shops sell the vilest and most poisonous liquors, and derive
their name from the fact that their customers usually bring buckets,
bowls, or pitchers for the stuff, instead of bottles or jugs. They are
confined to the worst quarters of the city, and are foul and wretched
beyond description. The proprietors are brutal wretches, who are
capable of any crime. They do all in their power to encourage
drunkenness, in order to increase their gains. They knowingly sell
actual poisons for drink--liquors which nothing would induce them to
use. On Saturday nights the rush to these places is very great. Liquor
cannot be procured the next day, and so the poor victims of the rum-
seller lay in a double quantity, and spend the Sabbath in a state of
beastly intoxication.
CHAPTER XLIII.
GAMBLING HOUSES
Games of chance of all kinds are forbidden in all the States by laws
which prescribe various severe penalties for the offence; but in spite
of this prohibition, there is no country in the world where gambling is
more common than in our own, and no city in the whole Union where it is
carried on, to such an extent, as in New York.
There are several classes of gambling houses in the city, which we
shall endeavor to describe in their order.
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