COPPER

A card can be played to win or lose, at the option of the player. If he wishes to play any particular card to lose, he places a penny on top of the money he stakes. This signifies that he plays it to lose; hence it is called coppering. CRAPS or PROPS. A game peculiar to Boston. Sometimes it is played with shells, and sometimes with coffee-beans, but more generally the former, as they can be loaded. If four shells are not at hand, four coffee-beans answer the same purpose. It is a substitute for the dice. You sands of dollars have been lost on this game, but as it has not received the same condemnation from the moral portion of the community that dice has, Boston i ans patronize it. There is no other reason why that city alone should patronize it. The game is so childish, that it is ten times more dangerous than any other, and gamblers have no trouble in "roping in" men to play at it, who would faint with horror at the sight of a pack of cards.