It was the disease that bound the underworld . . .

"It was the disease that bound the underworld to decent society--the card players in a thieve's to the gamblers at Monte Carlo; the pimp from Buenos Aires to the drawing-room Don Juan, the cutthroat to the revolutionary terrorist. As Yasha shuffled the cards, he marked them with the edge of his fingernail."

. . . Isaac Bashevis Singer . . . The Magician of Lublin . . . 1958 . . . page 140