Title: The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume I (of II)
Author: Steinmetz, Andrew, 1816-1877
Language: English
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THE GAMING TABLE:

ITS VOTARIES AND VICTIMS,


In all Times and Countries, especially in England and in France.


IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I.


By Andrew Steinmetz, Esq.,


Of The Middle Temple, Barrister-At-Law; First-Class Extra Certificate
School Of Musketry, Hythe; Late Officer Instructor Musketry, The Queens
Own Light Infantry Militia.


Author Of 'The History Of The Jesuits,' 'Japan And Her People,' 'The
Romance Of Duelling,' &C., &C.



'The sharp, the blackleg, and the knowing one, Livery or lace,
the self-same circle, run; The same the passion, end and means the
same--Dick and his Lordship differ but in name.'


TO HIS GRACE

The Duke of Wellington, K.G. THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, WITH PERMISSION, BY
HIS GRACE'S MOST DEVOTED SERVANT

THE AUTHOR.



PREFACE.


To the readers of the present generation much of this book will,
doubtless, seem incredible. Still it is a book of facts--a section of
our social history, which is, I think, worth writing, and deserving of
meditation.

Forty or fifty years ago--that is, within the memory of many a living
man--gambling was 'the rage' in England, especially in the metropolis.
Streets now meaningless and dull--such as Osendon Street, and streets
and squares now inhabited by the most respectable in the land--for
instance, St James's Square, THEN opened doors to countless votaries of
the fickle and capricious goddess of Fortune; in the rooms of which
many a nobleman, many a gentleman, many an officer of the Army and
Navy, clergymen, tradesmen, clerks, and apprentices, were 'cleaned
out'--ruined, and driven to self-murder, or to crimes that led to the
gallows. 'I have myself,' says a writer of the time, 'seen hanging in
chains a man whom a short time before I saw at a Hazard table!'

History, as it is commonly written, does not sufficiently take
cognizance of the social pursuits and practices that sap the vitality
of a nation; and yet these are the leading influences in its
destiny--making it what it is and will be, at least through many
generations, by example and the inexorable laws that preside over what
is called 'hereditary transmission.'

Have not the gambling propensities of our forefathers influenced the
present generation?....

No doubt gambling, in the sense treated of in this book, has ceased in
England. If there be here and there a Roulette or Rouge et Noir table in
operation, its existence is now known only to a few 'sworn-brethren;'
if gambling at cards 'prevails' in certain quarters, it is 'kept quiet.'
The vice is not barefaced. It slinks and skulks away into corners and
holes, like a poisoned rat. Therefore, public morality has triumphed,
or, to use the card-phrase, 'trumped' over this dreadful abuse; and the
law has done its duty, or has reason to expect congratulation for its
success, in 'putting down' gaming houses.

But we gamble still. The gambling on the Turf (now the most uncertain
of all 'games of chance') was, lately, something that rang through and
startled the entire nation. We gamble in the funds. We gamble in endless
companies (limited)--all resulting from the same passion of our nature,
which led to the gambling of former times with cards, with dice, at
Piquet, Basset, Faro, Hazard, E O, _Roulette_, and _Rouge et Noir_. At
a recent memorable trial, the Lord Chief Justice of England
exclaimed--'There can be no doubt--any one who looks around him cannot
fail to perceive--that a spirit of speculation and gambling has taken
hold of the minds of large classes of the population. Men who were wont
to be satisfied with moderate gain and safe investments seem now to
be animated by a spirit of greed after gain, which makes them ready
to embark their fortunes, however hardly gained, in the vain hope of
realizing immense returns by premiums upon shares, and of making more
than safe and reasonable gains. We see that continually.' In fact, we
may not be a jot better morally than our forefathers. But that is no
reason why we should not frown over the story of their horrid sins,
and, 'having a good conscience,' think what sad dogs they were in their
generation--knowing, as we do, that none of us at the present day lose
_FIFTY OR A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS_ at play, at a sitting, in one
single night--as was certainly no very uncommon 'event' in those palmy
days of gaming; and that we could not--as was done in 1820--produce a
list of _FIVE HUNDRED_ names (in London alone) of noblemen, gentlemen,
officers of the Army and Navy, and clergymen, who were veteran or
indefatigable gamesters, besides 'clerks, grocers, horse-dealers,
linen-drapers, silk-mercers, masons, builders, timber-merchants,
booksellers, &c., &c., and men of the very lowest walks of life,' who
frequented the numerous gaming houses throughout the metropolis--to
their ruin and that of their families more or less (as deploringly
lamented by Captain Gronow), and not a few of them, no doubt, finding
themselves in that position in which they could exclaim, at _OUR_
remonstrance, as feelingly as did King Richard--

'Slave! I have set my life upon a _CAST_, And I will stand the _HAZARD
OF THE DIE!_'


Nor is gaming as yet extinct among us. Every now and then a batch
of youngsters is brought before the magistrates charged with vulgar
'tossing' in the streets; and every now and then we hear of some victim
of genteel gambling, as recently--in the month of February, 1868--when
'a young member of the aristocracy lost L10,000 at Whist.'

Nay, at the commencement of the present year there appeared in a daily
paper the following startling announcement to the editor:--


'Sir,--Allow me, through the columns of your paper, to call the
attention of the parents and friends of the young officers in the
Channel-fleet to the great extent gambling is carried on at Lisbon.
Since the fleet has been there another gambling house has been opened,
and is filled every evening with young officers, many of whom are under
18 years of age. On the 1st of January it is computed that upwards of
L800 was lost by officers of the fleet in the gambling houses, and
if the fleet is to stay there three months there will soon be a great
number of the officers involved in debt. I will relate one incident that
came under my personal notice. A young midshipman, who had lately joined
the Channel fleet from the Bristol, drew a half-year's pay in December,
besides his quarterly allowance, and I met him on shore the next evening
without money enough to pay a boat to go off to his ship, having lost
all at a gambling house.

Hoping that this may be of some use in stopping the gambling among the
younger officers, I remain, yours respectfully, AN OFFICER.'(1)


(1) Standard, Jan. 12, 1870.


In conclusion, I have contemplated the passion of gaming in all its
bearings, as will be evident from the range of subjects indicated by the
table of contents and index. I have ransacked (and sacked) hundreds of
volumes for entertaining, amusing, curious, or instructive matter.

Without deprecating criticism on my labours, perhaps I may state that
these researches have probably terminated my career as an author.
Immediately after the completion of this work I was afflicted with a
degree of blindness rendering it impossible for me to read any print
whatever, and compelling me to write only by dictation.

ANDREW STEINMETZ.



CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


CHAP.

I THE UNIVERSAL PASSION OF GAMING; OR, GAMING ALL THE WORLD OVER

II GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT HINDOOS--A HINDOO LEGEND AND ITS MODERN
PARALLEL

III GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS AND GREEKS

IV GAMING AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPERORS

V GAMBLING IN FRANCE IN ALL TIMES

VI THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN GAMING IN ENGLAND

VII GAMBLING IN BRIGHTON IN 1817

VIII GAMBLING AT THE GERMAN BATHING-PLACES

IX GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES

X LADY GAMESTRESSES

XI GAMBLING POETS, SAVANTS, PHILOSOPHERS, WITS, AND STATESMEN

XII REMARKABLE GAMESTERS

XIII THE LOTTERIES AND THEIR BEWILDERMENTS

XIV THE LAWS AGAINST GAMING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES



THE GAMING TABLE.



CHAPTER I. THE UNIVERSAL PASSION OF GAMING; OR, GAMING ALL THE WORLD OVER.

A very apt allegory has been imagined as the origin of Gaming. It is
said that the Goddess of Fortune, once sporting near the shady pool of
Olympus, was met by the gay and captivating God of War, who soon allured
her to his arms. They were united; but the matrimony was not holy, and
the result of the union was a misfeatured child named Gaming. From the
moment of her birth this wayward thing could only be pleased by cards,
dice, or counters.

She was not without fascinations, and many were her admirers. As she
grew up she was courted by all the gay and extravagant of both sexes,
for she was of neither sex, and yet combining the attractions of each.
At length, however, being mostly beset by men of the sword, she formed
an unnatural union with one of them, and gave birth to twins--one called
DUELLING, and the other a grim and hideous monster named SUICIDE. These
became their mother's darlings, nursed by her with constant care and
tenderness, and her perpetual companions.

The Goddess Fortune ever had an eye on her promising daughter--Gaming;
and endowed her with splendid residences, in the most conspicuous
streets, near the palaces of kings. They were magnificently designed and
elegantly furnished. Lamps, always burning at the portals, were a sign
and a perpetual invitation unto all to enter; and, like the gates of the
Inferno, they were ever open to daily and nightly visitants; but, unlike
the latter, they permitted _EXIT_ to all who entered--some exulting with
golden spoil,--others with their hands in empty pockets,--some led by
her half-witted son Duelling,--others escorted by her malignant monster
Suicide, and his mate, the demon Despair.

'Religion, morals, virtue, all give way, And conscience dies, the
prostitute of play. Eternity ne'er steals one thought between, Till
suicide completes the fatal scene.'


Such is the _ALLEGORY_;(2) and it may serve well enough to represent
the thing in accordance with the usages of civilized or modern life; but
Gaming is a _UNIVERSAL_ thing--the characteristic of the human biped all
the world over.


(2) It appeared originally, I think, in the Harleian Miscellany. I
have taken the liberty to re-touch it here and there, with the view to
improvement.


The determination of events by 'lot' was a practice frequently resorted
to by the Israelites; as, by lot it was determined which of the goats
should be offered by Aaron; by lot the land of Canaan was divided;
by lot Saul was marked out for the Hebrew kingdom; by lot Jonah was
discovered to be the cause of the storm. It was considered an appeal to
Heaven to determine the points, and was thought not to depend on blind
chance, or that imaginary being called Fortune, who,

     '----With malicious joy,
     Promotes, degrades, delights in strife,
     And makes a _LOTTERY_ of life.'


The Hindoo Code--a promulgation of very high antiquity--denounces
gambling, which proves that there were desperate gamesters among the
Hindoos in the earliest times. Men gamed, too, it would appear, after
the example set them by the gods, who had gamesters among them. The
priests of Egypt assured Herodotus that one of their kings visited alive
the lower regions called infernal, and that he there joined a gaming
party, at which he both lost and won.(3) Plutarch tells a pretty
Egyptian story to the effect, that Mercury having fallen in love with
Rhea, or the Earth, and wishing to do her a favour, gambled with the
Moon, and won from her every seventieth part of the time she illumined
the horizon--all which parts he united together, making up _FIVE DAYS_,
and added them to the Earth's year, which had previously consisted of
only 360 days.(4)


(3) Herod. 1. ii.

(4) Plutarch, _De Isid. et Osirid._


But not only did the gods play among themselves on Olympus, but they
gambled with mortals. According to Plutarch, the priest of the temple of
Hercules amused himself with playing at dice with the god, the stake or
conditions being that if he won he should obtain some signal favour, but
if he lost he would procure a beautiful courtesan for Hercules.(5)


(5) _In Vita Romuli_.


By the numerous nations of the East dice, and that pugnacious little
bird the cock, have been and are the chief instruments employed to
produce a sensation--to agitate their minds and to ruin their fortunes.
The Chinese have in all times, we suppose, had cards--hence the
absurdity of the notion that they were 'invented' for the amusement
of Charles VI. of France, in his 'lucid intervals,' as is constantly
asserted in every collection of historic facts. The Chinese invented
cards, as they invented almost everything else that administers to our
social and domestic comfort.(6)


(6) Observations on Cards, by Mr Gough, in Archaeologia, vol. viii.
1787.


The Asiatic gambler is desperate. When all other property is played
away, he scruples not to stake his wife, his child, on the cast of a
die or on the courage of the martial bird before mentioned. Nay more, if
still unsuccessful, the last venture he makes is that of his limbs--his
personal liberty--his life--which he hazards on the caprice of chance,
and agrees to be at the mercy, or to become the slave, of his fortunate
antagonist.

The Malayan, however, does not always tamely submit to this last stroke
of fortune. When reduced to a state of desperation by repeated ill-luck,
he loosens a certain lock of hair on his head, which, when flowing down,
is a sign of war and destruction. He swallows opium or some intoxicating
liquor, till he works himself up into a fit of frenzy, and begins
to bite and kill everything that comes in his way; whereupon, as the
aforesaid lock of hair is seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at and
destroy him as quickly as possible--he being considered no better than a
mad dog. A very rational conclusion.

Of course the Chinese are most eager gamesters, or they would not have
been capable of inventing those dear, precious killers of time--cards,
the EVENING solace of so many a household in the most respectable and
'proper' walks of life. Indeed, they play night and day--until they have
lost all they are worth, and then they usually go--and hang themselves.

If we turn our course northward, and penetrate the regions of ice
perpetual, we find that the driven snow cannot effectually quench the
flames of gambling. They glow amid the regions of the frozen pole. The
Greenlanders gamble with a board, which has a finger-piece upon it,
turning round on an axle; and the person to whom the finger points on
the stopping of the board, which is whirled round, 'sweeps' all the
'stakes' that have been deposited.

If we descend thence into the Western hemisphere, we find that the
passion for gambling forms a distinguishing feature in the character
of all the rude natives of the American continent. Just as in the East,
these savages will lose their aims (on which subsistence depends), their
apparel, and at length their personal liberty, on games of chance. There
is one thing, however, which must be recorded to their credit--and
to our shame. When they have lost their 'all,' they do not follow the
example of our refined gamesters. They neither murmur nor repine. Not
a fretful word escapes them. They bear the frowns of fortune with a
philosophic composure.(7)


(7) Carver, _Travels_.


If we cross the Atlantic and land on the African shore, we find that the
'everlasting Negro' is a gambler--using shells as dice--and following
the practice of his 'betters' in every way. He stakes not only his
'fortune,' but also his children and liberty, which he cares very little
about, everywhere, until we incite him to do so--as, of course, we ought
to do, for every motive 'human and divine.'

There is no doubt, then, that this propensity is part and parcel of 'the
unsophisticated savage.' Let us turn to the eminently civilized races of
antiquity--the men whose example we have more or less followed in every
possible matter, sociality, politics, religion--they were all gamblers,
more or less. Take the grand prototypes of Britons, the Romans of old.
That gamesters they were! And how gambling recruited the ranks of the
desperadoes who gave them insurrectionary trouble! Catiline's 'army of
scoundrels,' for instance. 'Every man dishonoured by dissipation,' says
Sallust, 'who by his follies or losses at the gaming table had consumed
the inheritance of his fathers, and all those who were sufferers by
such misery, were the friends of this perverse man.' Horace, Juvenal,
Persius, Cicero, and other writers, attest the fact of Roman gambling
most eloquently, most indignantly.

The Romans had 'lotteries,' or games of chance, and some of their prizes
were of great value, as a good estate and slaves, or rich vases; others
of little value, as vases of common earth, but of this more in the
sequel.

Among the Gothic kings who, in the fulness of time and accomplishments,
'succeeded' to that empire, we read of a Theodoric, 'a wise and valiant
prince,' who was 'great lover of dice;' his solicitude in play was only
for victory; and his companions knew how to seize the moment of his
success, as consummate courtiers, to put forward their petitions and
to make their requests. 'When I have a petition to prefer,' says one of
them, 'I am easily beaten in the game that I may win my cause.'(8) What
a clever contrivance! But scarcely equal to that of the _GREAT_ (in
politeness) Lord Chesterfield, who, to gain a vote for a parliamentary
friend, actually submitted to be _BLED!_ It appears that the voter was
deemed very difficult, but Chesterfield found out that the man was a
doctor, who was a perfect Sangrado, recommending bleeding for every
ailment. He went to him, as in consultation, agreed with the man's
arguments, and at once bared his arm for the operation. On the point of
departure his lordship 'edged' in the question about the vote for his
friend, which was, of course, gushingly promised and given.


(8) Sed ego aliquid obsecraturus facile vincor; et mihi tabula perit ut
causa salvetur.--Sidonius Apollinaris, _Epist_.



Although there may not be much Gothic blood among us, it is quite
certain that there is plenty of German mixture in our nation--taking
the term in its very wide and comprehensive ethnology. Now, Tacitus
describes the ancient stout and valiant Germans as 'making gaming with
a die a very serious occupation of their sober hours.' Like the
'everlasting Negro,' they, too, made their last throw for personal
liberty, the loser going into voluntary slavery, and the winner selling
such slaves as soon as possible to strangers, in order not to have
to blush for such a victory! If the 'nigger' could blush, he might
certainly do so for the white man in such a conjuncture.

At Naples and other places in Italy, at least in former times, the
boatmen used thus to stake their liberty for a certain number of years.
According to Hyde,(9) the Indians stake their fingers and cut them off
themselves to pay the debt of honour. Englishmen have cut off their
ears, both as a 'security' for a gambling loan, and as a stake; others
have staked their lives by hanging, in like manner! Instances will be
given in the sequel.


(9) De Ludis Orient.


But leaving these savages and the semi-savages of the very olden time,
let us turn to those nearer to our times, with just as much religious
truth and principle among them as among ourselves.

The warmth with which 'dice-playing' is condemned in the writings of
the _Fathers_, the venerable expounders of Christianity, as well as
by 'edicts' and 'canons' of the Church, is unquestionably a sufficient
proof of its general and excessive prevalence throughout the nations of
Europe. When cards were introduced, in the fourteenth century, they
only added fuel to the infernal flame of gambling; and it soon became
as necessary to restrain their use as it had been that of dice. The two
held a joint empire of ruin and desolation over their devoted victims.
A king of France set the ruinous example--Henry IV., the roue, the
libertine, the duellist, the gambler,--and yet (historically) the
_Bon Henri_, the 'good king,' who wished to order things so that every
Frenchman might have a _pot-au-feu_, or dish of flesh savoury, every
Sunday for dinner. The money that Henry IV. lost at play would have
covered great public expenses.

There can be no doubt that the spirit of gaming went on acquiring new
strength and development throughout every subsequent reign in France;
and we shall see that under the Empire the thing was a great national
institution, and made to put a great deal of money as 'revenue' into the
hands of Fouche.

But the Spaniards have always been, of all nations, the most addicted
to gambling. A traveller says:--'I have wandered through all parts of
Spain, and though in many places I have scarcely been able to procure
a glass of wine, or a bit of bread, or any of the first conveniences of
life, yet I never went through a village so mean and out of the way,
in which I could not have purchased a pack of cards.' This was in the
middle of the seventeenth century, but I have no doubt it is true at the
present moment.

If we can believe Voltaire, the Spaniards were formerly very generous
in their gaming. 'The grandees of Spain,' he says, 'had a generous
ostentation; this was to divide the money won at play among all the
bystanders, of whatever condition.

Montrefor relates that when the Duke of Lerma, the Spanish minister,
entertained Gaston, brother of Louis XIII., with all his retinue in the
Netherlands, he displayed a magnificence of an extraordinary kind. The
prime minister, with whom Gaston spent several days, used to put two
thousand louis d'ors on a large gaming-table after dinner. With this
money Gaston's attendants and even the prince himself sat down to play.
It is probable, however, that Voltaire extended a single instance or
two into a general habit or custom. That writer always preferred to deal
with the splendid and the marvellous rather than with plain matter of
fact.

There can be little doubt that the Spaniards pursued gaming in the
vulgar fashion, just as other people. At any rate the following anecdote
gives us no very favourable idea of Spanish generosity to strangers
in the matter of gambling in modern times; and the worst of it is the
suitableness of its application to more capitals than one among the
kingdoms of Europe. 'After the bull-feast I was invited to pass the
evening at the hotel of a lady, who had a public card-assembly.... This
vile method of subsisting on the folly of mankind is confined in Spain
to the nobility. None but women of quality are permitted to hold banks,
and there are many whose faro-banks bring them in a clear income of a
thousand guineas a year. The lady to whom I was introduced is an old
countess, who has lived nearly thirty years on the profits of the
card-tables in her house. They are frequented every day, and though
both natives and foreigners are duped of large sums by her, and her
cabinet-junto, yet it is the greatest house of resort in all Madrid. She
goes to court, visits people of the first fashion, and is received
with as much respect and veneration as if she exercised the most
sacred functions of a divine profession. Many widows of great men keep
gaming-houses and live splendidly on the vices of mankind. If you be not
disposed to play, be either a sharper or a dupe, you cannot be admitted
a second time to their assemblies. I was no sooner presented to the lady
than she offered me cards; and on my excusing myself, because I really
could not play, she made a very wry face, turned from me, and said to
another lady in my hearing, that she wondered how any foreigner could
have the impertinence to come to her house for no other purpose than to
make an apology for not playing. My Spanish conductor, unfortunately
for himself, had not the same apology. He played and lost his money--two
circumstances which constantly follow in these houses. While my friend
was thus playing _THE FOOL_, I attentively watched the countenance and
motions of the lady of the house. Her anxiety, address, and assiduity
were equal to that of some skilful shopkeeper, who has a certain
attraction to engage all to buy, and diligence to take care that none
shall escape the net. I found out all her privy-counsellors, by her
arrangement of her parties at the different tables; and whenever she
showed an extraordinary eagerness to fix one particular person with a
stranger, the game was always decided the same way, and her good friend
was sure to win the money.

'In short, it is hardly possible to see good company at Madrid unless
you resolve to leave a purse of gold at the card-assemblies of their
nobility.'(10)


(10) 'Observations in a Tour through Spain.'


We are assured that this state of things is by no means 'obsolete' in
Spain, even at the present time. At the time in question, however, the
beginning of the present century, there was no European nation among
which gaming did not constitute one of its polite and fashionable
amusements--with the exception of the _Turks_, who, to the shame of
Christians, strictly obeyed the precepts of Mahomet, and scrupulously
avoided the 'gambling itch' of our nature.

In England gambling prevailed during the reign of Henry VIII.; indeed,
it seems that the king was himself a gamester of the most unscrupulous
sort; and there is ample evidence that the practice flourished during
the reign of Elizabeth, James I., and subsequently, especially in the
times of Charles II. Writing on the day when James II. was proclaimed
king, Evelyn says, 'I can never forget the inexpressible luxury
and profaneness, gaming and all dissoluteness, and as it were total
forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening) which this day se'nnight
I was witness of, the king sitting and toying with his concubines,
Portsmouth, Cleaveland, and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing
love-songs, in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great
courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large
table; a bank of at least L2000 in gold before them, upon which two
gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days
after all was in the dust!'

The following curious observations on the gaming in vogue during the
year 1668 are from the Harleian Miscellany:

'One propounded this question, "Whether men in ships at sea were to be
accounted amongst the living or the dead--because there were but
few inches betwixt them and drowning?" The same query may be made of
gamesters, though their estates be never so considerable--whether they
are to be esteemed rich or poor, since there are but a few casts at dice
betwixt a person of fortune (in that circumstance) and a beggar.

'Betwixt twelve and one of the clock a good dinner is prepared by way
of ordinary, and some gentlemen of civility and condition oftentimes eat
there, and play a while for recreation after dinner, both moderately and
most commonly without deserving reproof. Towards night, when ravenous
beasts usually seek their prey, there come in shoals of hectors,
trepanners, gilts, pads, biters, prigs, divers, lifters, kidnappers,
vouchers, mill kens, piemen, decoys, shop-lifters, foilers, bulkers,
droppers, gamblers, donnakers, crossbiters, &c., under the general
appellation of "rooks;" and in this particular it serves as a nursery
for Tyburn, for every year some of this gang march thither.

'Would you imagine it to be true--that a grave gentleman, well stricken
in years, insomuch as he cannot see the pips of the dice, is so
infatuated with this witchery as to play here with others' eyes,--of
whom this quibble was raised, "Mr Such a one plays at dice by the ear."
Another gentleman, stark blind, I have seen play at Hazard, and surely
that must be by the ear too.

'Late at night, when the company grows thin, and your eyes dim with
watching, false dice are often put upon the ignorant, or they are
otherwise cozened, with topping or slurring, &;c.; and, if you be not
vigilant, the box-keeper shall score you up double or treble boxes, and,
though you have lost your money, dun you as severely for it as if it
were the justest debt in the world.

'There are yet some genteeler and more subtle rooks, whom you shall not
distinguish by their outward demeanour from persons of condition; and
who will sit by a whole evening, and observe who wins; and then, if
the winner be "bubbleable," they will insinuate themselves into his
acquaintance, and civilly invite him to drink a glass of wine,--wheedle
him into play, and win all his money, either by false dice, as high
fulhams,(11) low fulhams, or by palming, topping, &c. Note by the way,
that when they have you at the tavern and think you a sure "bubble,"
they will many times purposely lose some small sum to you the first
time, to engage you more freely to _BLEED_ (as they call it) at the
second meeting, to which they will be sure to invite you.


(11) It appears that false dice were originally made at _Fulham;_ hence
so called, high and low fulhams; the high ones were the numbers 4, 5, 6.


'A gentleman whom ill-fortune had hurried into passion, took a box and
dice to a side-table, and then fell to throwing by himself; at length
he swears with an emphasis, "D--e, now I throw for nothin;, I can win a
thousand pounds; but when I lay for money I lose my all."

'If the house find you free to box, and a constant caster, you shall be
treated below with suppers at night, and caudle in the morning, and
have the honour to be styled, "a lover of the house," whilst your money
lasts, which certainly will not be long.

'Most gamesters begin at small games, and by degrees, if their money or
estates hold out, they rise to great sums; some have played first all
their money, then their rings, coach and horses, even their wearing
clothes and _perukes;_ and then, such a farm; and at last, perhaps a
lordship.

'You may read in our histories, how Sir Miles Partridge played at dice
with King Henry the Eighth, for Jesus Bells (so called), which were the
greatest in England, and hung in a tower of St Paul's church, and won
them; whereby he brought them to ring in his pocket; but the ropes
afterwards catched about his neck; for, in Edward the Sixth's days, he
was hanged for some criminal offences.(12)


(12) The clochier in Paul's Churchyard--a bell-house, four square,
builded of stone, with four bells; these were called _Jesus_ Bells. The
same had a great spire of timber, covered with lead, with the image of
St Paul on the top, but was pulled down by Sir Miles Partridge, Kt, in
the reign of Henry VIII. The common speech then was that he did set L100
upon a cast at dice against it, and so won the said clochier and bells
of the king. And then causing the bells to be broken as they hung, the
rest was pulled down, and broken also. This man was afterwards executed
on Tower Hill, for matters concerning the Duke of Somerset, in the year
1551, the 5th of Edward VI.--Stowe, B. iii. 148.


'Sir Arthur Smithhouse is yet fresh in memory. He had a fair estate,
which in a few years he so lost at play, that he died in great want and
penury. Since that Mr Ba--, who was a clerk in the Six-Clerks Office,
and well cliented, fell to play, and won by extraordinary fortune two
thousand pieces in ready gold; was not content with that, played on,
lost all he had won, and almost all his own estate; sold his place in
the office, and at last marched off to a foreign plantation, to begin a
new world with the sweat of his brow; for that is commonly the destiny
of a decayed gamester--either to go to some foreign plantation, or to be
preferred to the dignity of a _box-keeper_.

'It is not denied but most gamesters have, at one time or other, a
considerable run of winning, but such is the infatuation of play, I
could never hear of a man that gave over a winner--I mean, to give over
so as never to play again. I am sure it is _rara avis_, for if you once
"break bulk," as they phrase it, you are in again for all. Sir Humphry
Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then playing, as
it is said, _FOR A DEAD HORSE_, did, by happy fortune, recover it again;
then gave over, and wisely too.'(13)


(13) Harleian Misc. ii. 108.

The sequel will show the increase of gambling in our country during the
subsequent reigns, up to a recent period.

Thus, then, the passion of gaming is, and has ever been, universal.
It is said that two Frenchmen could not exist even in a desert without
_QUARRELLING;_ and it is quite certain that no two human beings can be
anywhere without ere long offering to 'bet' upon something. Indolence
and want of employment--'vacuity,' as Dr Johnson would call it--is the
cause of the passion. It arises from a want of habitual employment
in some material and regular line of conduct. Your very innocent
card-parties at home--merely to kill _TIME_ (what a murder!) explains
all the apparent mystery! Something must be substituted to call forth
the natural activity of the mind; and this is in no way more effectually
accomplished, in all indolent pursuits, than by those _EMOTIONS AND
AGITATIONS_ which gambling produces.

Such is the source of the thing in our _NATURE;_ but then comes the
furious hankering after wealth--the desire to have it without _WORKING_
for it--which is the wish of so many of us; and _THIS_ is the source of
that hideous gambling which has produced the contemptible characters and
criminal acts which are the burthen of this volume.

We love play because it satisfies our avarice,--that is to say, our
desire of having more; it flatters our vanity by the idea of preference
that fortune gives us, and of the attention that others pay to our
success; it satisfies our curiosity, giving us a spectacle; in short, it
gives us the different pleasures of surprise.

Certain it is that the passion for gambling easily gets deeply rooted,
and that it cannot be easily eradicated. The most exquisite melody, if
compared with the music of dice, is then but discord; and the finest
prospect in nature only a miserable blank when put in competition with
the attractions of the 'honours' at a rubber of Whist.

Wealth is the general centre of inclination. Whatever is the ultimate
design, the immediate care is to be rich. No desire can be formed
which riches do not assist to gratify. They may be considered as the
elementary principles of pleasure, which may be combined with endless
diversity. There are nearer ways to profit than up the steeps of labour.
The prospect of gaining speedily what is ardently desired, has so
far prevailed upon the passions of mankind, that the peace of life is
destroyed by a general and incessant struggle for riches. It is observed
of gold by an old epigrammatist, that to have is to be in fear; and
to want it is to be in sorrow. There is no condition which is not
disquieted either with the care of gaining or keeping money.

No nation has exceeded ours in the pursuit of gaming. In former
times--and yet not more than 30 or 40 years ago--the passion for play
was predominant among the highest classes.

Genius and abilities of the highest order became its votaries; and the
very framers of the laws against gambling were the first to fall under
the temptation of their breach! The spirit of gambling pervaded every
inferior order of society. The gentleman was a slave to its indulgence;
the merchant and the mechanic were the dupes of its imaginary prospects;
it engrossed the citizen and occupied the rustic. Town and country
became a prey to its despotism. There was scarcely an obscure village to
be found wherein this bewitching basilisk did not exercise its powers of
fascination and destruction.

Gaming in England became rather a science than an amusement of social
intercourse. The 'doctrine of chances' was studied with an assiduity
that would have done honour to better subjects; and calculations were
made on arithmetical and geometrical principles, to determine the
degrees of probability attendant on games of mixed skill and chance,
or even on the fortuitous throws of dice. Of course, in spite of all
calculations, there were miserable failures--frightful losses. The
polite gamester, like the savage, did not scruple to hazard the dearest
interests of his family, or to bring his wife and children to poverty,
misery, and ruin. He could not give these over in liquidation of a
gambling debt; indeed, nobody would, probably, have them at a gift; and
yet there were instances in which the honour of a wife was the stake of
the infernal game!.... Well might the Emperor Justinian exclaim,--'Can
we call _PLAY_ that which causes crime?'(14)


(14) Quis enim ludos appellet eos, ex quibus crimina oriuntur?--_De
Concept. Digest_. II. lib. iv. Sec. 9.



CHAPTER II. GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT HINDOOS.--A HINDOO LEGEND AND ITS MODERN
PARALLEL.

The recent great contribution to the history of India, published by Mr
Wheeler,(15) gives a complete insight into this interesting topic;
and this passage of the ancient Sanskrit epic forms one of the most
wonderful and thrilling scenes in that most acceptable publication.


(15) The History of India from the Earliest Ages. By J. Talboys Wheeler.
Vol. I.--The Vedic Period and the Maha Bharata.


As Mr Wheeler observes, the specialties of Hindoo gambling are worthy
of some attention. The passion for play, which has ever been the vice of
warriors in times of peace, becomes a madness amidst the lassitude of a
tropical climate; and more than one Hindoo legend has been preserved
of Rajas playing together for days, until the wretched loser has been
deprived of everything he possessed and reduced to the condition of an
exile or a slave.

But gambling amongst the Hindoos does not appear to have been altogether
dependent upon chance. The ancient Hindoo dice, known by the name of
coupun, are almost precisely similar to the modern dice, being thrown
out of a box; but the practice of loading is plainly alluded to, and
some skill seems to have been occasionally exercised in the rattling of
the dice-box. In the more modern game, known by the name of pasha, the
dice are not cubic, but oblong; and they are thrown from the hand either
direct upon the ground, or against a post or board, which will break the
fall, and render the result more a matter of chance.

The great gambling match of the Hindoo epic was the result of
a conspiracy to ruin Yudhishthira, a successful warrior, the
representative of a mighty family--the Pandavas, who were incessantly
pursued by the envy of the Kauravas, their rivals. The fortunes of the
Pandavas were at the height of human prosperity; and at this point the
universal conception of an avenging Nemesis that humbles the proud and
casts down the mighty, finds full expression in the Hindoo epic. The
grandeur of the Pandavas excited the jealousy of Duryodhana, and revived
the old feud between the Kauravas and the former. Duryodhana plotted
with his brother Duhsasana and his uncle Sakuni, how they might
dispossess the Pandavas of their newly-acquired territory; and at length
they determined to invite their kinsmen to a gambling match, and seek by
underhand means to deprive Yudhishthira of his Raj, or kingdom.(16)


(16) The old Sanskrit words _Raj_, 'kingdom,' and Raja, 'king,' are
evidently the origin of the Latin _reg-num, reg-o, rex, regula_, 'rule,'
&c, reproduced in the words of that ancient language, and continued in
the derivative vernaculars of modern names--_re, rey, roy, roi, regal,
royal, rule_, &c. &c.


It appears from the poem that Yudhishthira was invited to a game at
coupun; and the legend of the great gambling match, which took place at
Hastinapur, is related as follows:

'And it came to pass that Duryodhana was very jealous of the _Rajasuya_
or triumph that his cousin Yudhishthira had performed, and he desired in
his heart to destroy the Pandavas, and gain possession of their Raj. Now
Sakuni was the brother of Gandhari, who was the mother of the Kauravas;
and he was very skilful in throwing dice, and in playing with dice that
were loaded; insomuch that whenever he played he always won the game. So
Duryodhana plotted with his uncle, that Yudhishthira should be invited
to a match at gambling, and that Sakuni should challenge him to a game,
and win all his wealth and lands.

'After this the wicked Duryodhana proposed to his father the Maharaja,
that they should have a great gambling match at Hastinapur, and that
Yudhishthira and his brethren should be invited to the festival. And the
Maharaja was glad in his heart that his sons should be friendly with the
sons of his deceased brother, Pandu; and he sent his younger brother,
Vidura, to the city of Indra-prastha to invite the Pandavas to the game.
And Vidura went his way to the city of the Pandavas, and was received by
them with every sign of attention and respect. And Yudhishthira inquired
whether his kinsfolk and friends at Hastinapur were all well in health,
and Vidura replied, "They are all well." Then Vidura said to the
Pandavas:--"Your uncle, the Maharaja, is about to give a great feast,
and he has sent me to invite you and your mother, and your joint wife,
to come to his city, and there will be a great match at dice-playing."
When Yudhishthira heard these words he was troubled in mind, for he knew
that gaming was a frequent cause of strife, and that he was in no way
skilful in throwing the dice; and he likewise knew that Sakuni
was dwelling at Hastinapur, and that he was a famous gambler. But
Yudhishthira remembered that the invitation of the Maharaja was equal
to the command of a father, and that no true Kshatriya could refuse
a challenge either to war or play. So Yudhishthira accepted the
invitation, and gave commandment that on the appointed day his brethren,
and their mother, and their joint wife should accompany him to the city
of Hastinapur.

'When the day arrived for the departure of the Pandavas they took
their mother Kunti, and their joint wife Draupadi, and journeyed from
Indra-prastha to the city of Hastinapur. And when they entered the city
they first paid a visit of respect to the Maharaja, and they found
him sitting amongst his Chieftains; and the ancient Bhishma, and the
preceptor Drona, and Karna, who was the friend of Duryodhana, and many
others, were sitting there also.

'And when the Pandavas had done reverence to the Maharaja, and
respectfully saluted all present, they paid a visit to their aunt
Gandhari, and did her reverence likewise.

'And after they had done this, their mother and joint wife entered the
presence of Gandhari, and respectfully saluted her; and the wives of
the Kauravas came in and were made known to Kunti and Draupadi. And the
wives of the Kauravas were much surprised when they beheld the beauty
and fine raiment of Draupadi; and they were very jealous of their
kinswoman. And when all their visits had been paid, the Pandavas retired
with their wife and mother to the quarters which had been prepared for
them, and when it was evening they received the visits of all their
friends who were dwelling at Hastinapur.

'Now, on the morrow the gambling match was to be played; so when the
morning had come, the Pandavas bathed and dressed, and left Draupadi in
the lodging which had been prepared for her, and went their way to the
palace. And the Pandavas again paid their respects to their uncle the
Maharaja, and were then conducted to the pavilion where the play was to
be; and Duryodhana went with them, together with all his brethren, and
all the chieftains of the royal house. And when the assembly had all
taken their seats, Sakuni said to Yudhishthira:--"The ground here has
all been prepared, and the dice are all ready: Come now, I pray you, and
play a game." But Yudhishthira was disinclined, and replied:--"I will
not play excepting upon fair terms; but if you will pledge yourself to
throw without artifice or deceit, I will accept your challenge." Sakuni
said,--"If you are so fearful of losing, you had better not play at
all." At these words Yudhishthira was wroth, and replied:--"I have no
fear either in play or war; but let me know with whom I am to play, and
who is to pay me if I win." So Duryodhana came forward and said:--"I am
the man with whom you are to play, and I shall lay any stakes against
your stakes; but my uncle Sakuni will throw the dice for me." Then
Yudhishthira said,--"What manner of game is this, where one man throws
and another lays the stakes?" Nevertheless he accepted the challenge,
and he and Sakuni began to play.

'At this point in the narrative it may be desirable to pause, and
endeavour to obtain a picture of the scene. The so-called pavilion was
probably a temporary booth constructed of bamboos and interlaced with
basket-work; and very likely it was decorated with flowers and leaves
after the Hindoo fashion, and hung with fruits, such as cocoa-nuts,
mangoes, plantains, and maize. The Chieftains present seem to have sat
upon the ground, and watched the game. The stakes may have been pieces
of gold or silver, or cattle, or lands; although, according to the
legendary account which follows, they included articles of a far more
extravagant and imaginative character. With these passing remarks, the
tradition of the memorable game may be resumed as follows:--

'So Yudhishthira and Sakuni sat down to play, and whatever Yudhishthira
laid as stakes, Duryodhana laid something of equal value; but
Yudhishthira lost every game. He first lost a very beautiful pearl; next
a thousand bags, each containing a thousand pieces of gold; next a piece
of gold so pure that it was as soft as wax; next a chariot set with
jewels and hung all round with golden bells; next a thousand war
elephants with golden howdahs set with diamonds; next a lakh of slaves
all dressed in good garments; next a lakh of beautiful slave girls,
adorned from head to foot with golden ornaments; next all the remainder
of his goods; next all his cattle; and then the whole of his Raj,
excepting only the lands which had been granted to the Brahmans.(17)


(17)'A lakh is a hundred thousand, and a crore is a hundred lakhs, or
ten millions. The Hindoo term might therefore have been converted into
English numerals, only that it does not seem certain that the bards
meant precisely a hundred thousand slaves, but only a very large number.
The exceptional clause in favour of the Brahmans is very significant.
When the little settlement at Indra-prastha had been swelled by the
imagination of the later bards into an extensive Raj, the thought may
have entered the minds of the Brahmanical compilers that in losing the
Raj, the Brahmans might have lost those free lands, known as inams
or jagheers, which are frequently granted by pious Rajas for the
subsistence of Brahmans. Hence the insertion of the clause.'


'Now when Yudhishthira had lost his Raj, the Chieftains present in the
pavilion were of opinion that he should cease to play, but he would not
listen to their words, but persisted in the game. And he staked all the
jewels belonging to his brothers, and he lost them; and he staked his
two younger brothers, one after the other, and he lost them; and he then
staked Arjuna, and Bhima, and finally himself; and he lost every game.
Then Sakuni said to him:--"You have done a bad act, Yudhishthira, in
gaming away yourself and becoming a slave. But now, stake your
wife, Draupadi, and if you win the game you will again be free." And
Yudhishthira answered and said:--"I will stake Draupadi!" And all
assembled were greatly troubled and thought evil of Yudhishthira; and
his uncle Vidura put his hand to his head and fainted away, whilst
Bhishma and Drona turned deadly pale, and many of the company were very
sorrowful; but Duryodhana and his brother Duhsasana, and some others of
the Kauravas, were glad in their hearts, and plainly manifested their
joy. Then Sakuni threw the dice, and won Draupadi for Duryodhana.

'Then all in that assembly were in great consternation, and the
Chieftains gazed upon one another without speaking a word. And
Duryodhana said to his uncle Vidura:--"Go now and bring Draupadi hither,
and bid her sweep the rooms." But Vidura cried out against him with a
loud voice, and said:--"What wickedness is this? Will you order a woman
who is of noble birth, and the wife of your own kinsman, to become a
household slave? How can you vex your brethren thus? But Draupadi has
not become your slave; for Yudhishthira lost himself before he staked
his wife, and having first become a slave, he could no longer have power
to stake Draupadi." Vidura then turned to the assembly and said:--"Take
no heed to the words of Duryodhana, for he has lost his senses this
day." Duryodhana then said:--"A curse be upon this Vidura, who will do
nothing that I desire him."

'After this Duryodhana called one of his servants, and desired him to go
to the lodgings of the Pandavas, and bring Draupadi into the pavilion.
And the man departed out, and went to the lodgings of the Pandavas, and
entered the presence of Draupadi, and said to her:--"Raja Yudhishthira
has played you away, and you have become the slave of Raja Duryodhana:
So come now and do your duty like his other slave girls." And
Draupadi was astonished at these words, and exceedingly wroth, and she
replied:--"Whose slave was I that I could be gambled away? And who
is such a senseless fool as to gamble away his own wife?" The servant
said:--"Raja Yudhishthira has lost himself, and his four brothers, and
you also, to Raja Duryodhana, and you cannot make any objection: Arise,
therefore, and go to the house of the Raja!"

'Then Draupadi cried out:--"Go you now and inquire whether Raja
Yudhishthira lost me first or himself first; for if he played away
himself first, he could not stake me." So the man returned to the
assembly, and put the question to Yudhishthira; but Yudhishthira hung
down his head with shame, and answered not a word.

'Then Duryodhana was filled with wrath, and he cried out to his
servant:--"What waste of words is this? Go you and bring Draupadi
hither, that if she has aught to say, she may say it in the presence
of us all." And the man essayed to go, but he beheld the wrathful
countenance of Bhima and he was sore afraid, and he refused to go, and
remained where he was. Then Duryodhana sent his brother Duhsasana; and
Duhsasana went his way to the lodgings of Draupadi and said:--"Raja
Yudhishthira has lost you in play to Raja Duryodhana, and he has sent
for you: So arise now, and wait upon him according to his commands;
and if you have anything to say, you can say it in the presence of the
assembly." Draupadi replied:--"The death of the Kauravas is not far
distant, since they can do such deeds as these." And she rose up in
great trepidation and set out, but when she came near to the palace of
the Maharaja, she turned aside from the pavilion where the Chieftains
were assembled, and ran away with all speed towards the apartments of
the women. And Duhsasana hastened after her, and seized her by her hair,
which was very dark and long, and dragged her by main force into the
pavilion before all the Chieftains.

'And she cried out:--"Take your hands from off me!" But Duhsasana heeded
not her words, and said:--"You are now a slave girl, and slave girls
cannot complain of being touched by the hands of men."

'When the Chieftains thus beheld Draupadi, they hung down their heads
from shame; and Draupadi called upon the elders amongst them, such as
Bhishma and Drona, to acquaint her whether or no Raja Yudhishthira had
gamed away himself before he had staked her; but they likewise held down
their heads and answered not a word.

'Then she cast her eye upon the Pandavas, and her glance was like the
stabbing of a thousand daggers, but they moved not hand or foot to help
her; for when Bhima would have stepped forward to deliver her from the
hands of Duhsasana, Yudhishthira commanded him to forbear, and both he
and the younger Pandavas were obliged to obey the command of their elder
brother.

'And when Duhsasana saw that Draupadi looked towards the Pandavas, he
took her by the hand, and drew her another way, saying:--"Why, O slave,
are you turning your eyes about you?" And when Karna and Sakuni heard
Duhsasana calling her a slave, they cried out:--"Well said! well said!"

'Then Draupadi wept very bitterly, and appealed to all the assembly,
saying:--"All of you have wives and children of your own, and will you
permit me to be treated thus? I ask you one question, and I pray you to
answer it." Duhsasana then broke in and spoke foul language to her, and
used her rudely, so that her veil came off in his hands. And Bhima could
restrain his wrath no longer, and spoke vehemently to Yudhishthira; and
Arjuna reproved him for his anger against his elder brother, but Bhima
answered:--"I will thrust my hands into the fire before these wretches
shall treat my wife in this manner before my eyes."

'Then Duryodhana said to Draupadi:--"Come now, I pray you, and sit
upon my thigh!" And Bhima gnashed his teeth, and cried out with a loud
voice:--"Hear my vow this day! If for this deed I do not break the thigh
of Duryodhana, and drink the blood of Duhsasana, I am not the son of
Kunti!"

'Meanwhile the Chieftain Vidura had left the assembly, and told the
blind Maharaja Dhritarashtra all that had taken place that day; and the
Maharaja ordered his servants to lead him into the pavilion where all
the Chieftains were gathered together. And all present were silent when
they saw the Maharaja, and the Maharaja said to Draupadi:--"O daughter,
my sons have done evil to you this day: But go now, you and your
husbands, to your own Raj, and remember not what has occurred, and let
the memory of this day be blotted out for ever." So the Pandavas
made haste with their wife Draupadi, and departed out of the city of
Hastinapur.

'Then Duryodhana was exceedingly wroth, and he said to his father, "O
Maharaja, is it not a saying that when your enemy hath fallen down,
he should be annihilated without a war? And now that we had thrown the
Pandavas to the earth, and had taken possession of all their wealth, you
have restored them all their strength, and permitted them to depart with
anger in their hearts; and now they will prepare to make war that they
may revenge themselves upon us for all that has been done, and they will
return within a short while and slay us all: Give us leave then, I pray
you, to play another game with these Pandavas, and let the side which
loses go into exile for twelve years; for thus and thus only can a
war be prevented between ourselves and the Pandavas." And the Maharaja
granted the request of his son, and messengers were sent to bring back
the brethren; and the Pandavas obeyed the commands of their uncle,
and returned to his presence; and it was agreed upon that Yudhishthira
should play one game more with Sakuni, and that if Yudhishthira won the
Kauravas were to go into exile, and that if Sakuni won, the Pandavas
were to go into exile; and the exile was to be for twelve years, and one
year more; and during that thirteenth year those who were in exile were
to dwell in any city they pleased, but to keep themselves so concealed
that the others should never discover them; and if the others did
discover them before the thirteenth year was over, then those who were
in exile were to continue so for another thirteen years. So they sat
down again to play, and Sakuni had a set of cheating dice as before, and
with them he won the game.

'When Duhsasana saw that Sakuni had won the game, he danced about for
joy; and he cried out:--"Now is established the Raj of Duryodhana." But
Bhima said, "Be not elated with joy, but remember my words: The day will
come when I will drink your blood, or I am not the son of Kunti." And
the Pandavas, seeing that they had lost, threw off their garments and
put on deer-skins, and prepared to depart into the forest with
their wife and mother, and their priest Dhaumya; but Vidura said to
Yudhishthira:--"Your mother is old and unfitted to travel, so leave her
under my care;" and the Pandavas did so. And the brethren went out from
the assembly hanging down their heads with shame, and covering their
faces with their garments; but Bhima threw out his long arms and looked
at the Kauravas furiously, and Draupadi spread her long black hair over
her face and wept bitterly. And Draupadi vowed a vow, saying:--

'"My hair shall remain dishevelled from this day, until Bhima shall
have slain Duhsasana and drank his blood; and then he shall tie up my
hair again whilst his hands are dripping with the blood of Duhsasana."'

Such was the great gambling match at Hastinapur in the heroic age
of India. It appears there can be little doubt of the truth of the
incident, although the verisimilitude would have been more complete
without the perpetual winning of the cheat Sakuni--which would be
calculated to arouse the suspicion of Yudhishthira, and which could
scarcely be indulged in by a professional cheat, mindful of the
suspicion it would excite.

Throughout the narrative, however, there is a truthfulness to human
nature, and a truthfulness to that particular phase of human nature
which is pre-eminently manifested by a high-minded race in its primitive
stage of civilization.

To our modern minds the main interest of the story begins from the
moment that Draupadi was lost; but it must be remembered that among that
ancient people, where women were chiefly prized on sensual grounds, such
stakes were evidently recognized.

The conduct of Draupadi herself on the occasion shows that she was by
no means unfamiliar with the idea: she protested--not on the ground of
sentiment or matrimonial obligation--but solely on what may be called a
technical point of law, namely, 'Had Yudhishthira become a slave before
he staked his wife upon the last game?' For, of course, having ceased to
be a freeman, he had no right to stake her liberty.

The concluding scene of the drama forms an impressive figure in the mind
of the Hindoo. The terrible figure of Draupadi, as she dishevels her
long black hair, is the very impersonation of revenge; and a Hindoo
audience never fails to shudder at her fearful vow--that the straggling
tresses shall never again be tied up until the day when Bhima shall have
fulfilled his vow, and shall then bind them up whilst his fingers are
still dripping with the blood of Duhsasana.

The avenging battle subsequently ensued. Bhima struck down Duhsasana
with a terrible blow of his mace, saying,--'This day I fulfil my vow
against the man who insulted Draupadi!' Then setting his foot on the
breast of Duhsasana, he drew his sword, and cut off the head of his
enemy; and holding his two hands to catch the blood, he drank it off,
crying out, 'Ho! ho! Never did I taste anything in this world so sweet
as this blood.'

This staking of wives by gamblers is a curious subject. The practice may
be said to have been universal, having furnished cases among civilized
as well as barbarous nations. Of course the Negroes of Africa stake
their wives and children; according to Schouten, a Chinese staked
his wife and children, and lost them; Paschasius Justus states that a
Venetian staked his wife; and not a hundred years ago certain debauchees
at Paris played at dice for the possession of a celebrated courtesan.
But this is an old thing. Hegesilochus, and other rulers of Rhodes,
were accustomed to play at dice for the honour of the most distinguished
ladies of that island--the agreement being that the party who lost had
to bring to the arms of the winner the lady designated by lot to that
indignity.(18)


(18) Athen. lib. XI. cap. xii.


There are traditions of such stakes having been laid and lost by
husbands in _England;_ and a remarkable case of the kind will be found
related in Ainsworth's 'Old Saint Paul's,' as having occurred during the
Plague of London, in the year 1665. There can be little doubt that it is
founded on fact; and the conduct of the English wife, curiously
enough, bears a striking resemblance to that of Draupadi in the Indian
narrative.

A Captain Disbrowe of the king's body-guard lost a large sum of money to
a notorious debauchee, a gambler and bully, named Sir Paul Parravicin.
The latter had made an offensive allusion to the wife of Captain
Disbrowe, after winning his money; and then, picking up the dice-box,
and spreading a large heap of gold on the table, he said to the officer
who anxiously watched his movements:--'I mentioned your wife, Captain
Disbrowe, not with any intention of giving you offence, but to show you
that, although you have lost your money, you have still a valuable stake
left.'

'I do not understand you, Sir Paul,' returned Disbrowe, with a look of
indignant surprise.

'To be plain, then,' replied Parravicin, 'I have won from you two
hundred pounds--all you possess. You are a ruined man, and as such, will
run any hazard to retrieve your losses. I give you a last chance. I will
stake all my winnings--nay, double the amount--against your wife. You
have a key of the house you inhabit, by which you admit yourself at all
hours; so at least I am informed. If I win, that key shall be mine. I
will take my chance of the rest. Do you understand me now?'

'I do,' replied the young man, with concentrated fury. 'I understand
that you are a villain. You have robbed me of my money, and would rob me
of my honour.'

'These are harsh words, sir,' replied the knight calmly; 'but let
them pass. We will play first, and fight afterwards. But you refuse my
challenge?'

'It is false!' replied Disbrowe, fiercely, 'I accept it.' And producing
a key, he threw it on the table. 'My life is, in truth, set on the die,'
he added, with a desperate look; 'for if I lose, I will not survive my
shame.'

'You will not forget our terms,' observed Parravicin. 'I am to be your
representative to-night. You can return home to-morrow.'

'Throw, sir,--throw,' cried the young man, fiercely.

'Pardon me,' replied the knight; 'the first cast is with you. A single
main decides it.'

'Be it so,' returned Disbrowe, seizing the bow. And as he shook the dice
with a frenzied air, the bystanders drew near the table to watch the
result.

'Twelve!' cried Disbrowe, as he removed the box. 'My honour is saved! My
fortune retrieved--Huzza!'

'Not so fast,' returned Parravicin, shaking the box in his turn. 'You
were a little hasty,' he added, uncovering the dice. 'I am twelve too.
We must throw again.'

'This is to decide,' cried the young officer, rattling the dice,--'Six!'

Parravicin smiled, took the box, and threw _TEN_.

'Perdition!' ejaculated Disbrowe, striking his brow with his clenched
hand. 'What devil tempted me to my undoing?... My wife trusted to this
profligate!... Horror! It must not be!'

'It is too late to retract,' replied Parravicin, taking up the key, and
turning with a triumphant look to his friends.

Disbrowe noticed the smile, and, stung beyond endurance, drew his sword,
and called to the knight to defend himself. In an instant passes were
exchanged. But the conflict was brief. Fortune, as before, declared
herself in favour of Parravicin. He disarmed his assailant, who rushed
out of the room, uttering the wildest ejaculations of rage and despair.


* * * * * * The winner of the key proceeded at once to use. He gained
admittance to the captain's house, and found his way to the chamber
of his wife, who was then in bed. At first mistaken for her husband
Parravicin heard words of tender reproach for his lateness; and then,
declaring himself, he belied her husband, stating that he was false to
her, and had surrendered her to him.

At this announcement Mrs Disbrowe uttered a loud scream, and fell back
in the bed. Parravicin waited for a moment; but not hearing her move,
brought the lamp to see what was the matter. She had fainted, and was
lying across the pillow, with her night-dress partly open, so as to
expose her neck and shoulders. The knight was at first ravished with her
beauty; but his countenance suddenly fell, and an expression of horror
and alarm took possession of it. He appeared rooted to the spot, and
instead of attempting to render her any assistance, remained with his
gaze fixed upon her neck. Rousing himself at length, he rushed out of
the room, hurried down-stairs, and without pausing for a moment, threw
open the street door. As he issued from it his throat was forcibly
griped, and the point of a sword was placed at his breast.

It was the desperate husband, who was waiting to avenge his wife's
honour.

'You are in my power, villain,' cried Disbrowe, 'and shall not escape my
vengeance.'

'You are already avenged,' replied Parravicin, shaking off his
assailant--'_YOUR WIFE HAS THE PLAGUE_.'

The profligate had been scared away by the sight of the 'plague spot' on
the neck of the unfortunate lady.

The husband entered and found his way to his wife's chamber.
Instantaneous explanations ensued. 'He told me you were false--that you
loved another--and had abandoned me,' exclaimed the frantic wife.

'He lied!' shouted Disbrowe, in a voice of uncontrollable fury. 'It is
true that, in a moment of frenzy, I was tempted to set you--yes, _YOU_,
Margaret--against all I had lost at play, and was compelled to yield up
the key of my house to the winner. But I have never been faithless to
you--never.'

'Faithless or not,' replied his wife bitterly, 'it is plain you value me
less than play, or you would not have acted thus.'

'Reproach me not, Margaret,' replied Disbrowe. 'I would give worlds to
undo what I have done.'

'Who shall guard me against the recurrence of such conduct?' said Mrs
Disbrowe, coldly. 'But you have not yet informed me how I was saved!'

Disbrowe averted his head.

'What mean you?' she cried, seizing his arm. 'What has happened? Do not
keep me in suspense? Were you my preserver?'

'Your preserver was the plague,' rejoined Disbrowe, mournfully.

The unfortunate lady then, for the first time, perceived that she was
attacked by the pestilence, and a long and dreadful pause ensued, broken
only by exclamations of anguish from both.

'Disbrowe!' cried Margaret at length, raising herself in bed, 'you have
deeply, irrecoverably injured me. But promise me one thing.'

'I swear to do whatever you may desire,' he replied.

'I know not, after what I have heard, whether you have courage for the
deed,' she continued. 'But I would have you kill this man.'

'I will do it,' replied Disbrowe.

'Nothing but his blood can wipe out the wrong he has done me,' she
rejoined. 'Challenge him to a duel--a mortal duel. If he survives, by my
soul, I will give myself to him.'

'Margaret!' exclaimed Disbrowe.

'I swear it,' she rejoined,' and you know my passionate nature too well
to doubt I will keep my word.'

'But you have the plague!'

'What does that matter? I may recover.'

'Not so,' muttered Disbrowe. 'If I fall, I will take care you do not
recover.... I will fight him to-morrow,' he added aloud.

About noon on the following day Disbrowe proceeded to the Smyrna
Coffee-house, where, as he expected, he found Parravicin and his
companions. The knight instantly advanced towards him, and laying aside
for the moment his reckless air, inquired, with a look of commiseration,
after his wife.

'She is better,' replied Disbrowe, fiercely. 'I am come to settle
accounts with you.'

'I thought they were settled long ago,' returned Parravicin, instantly
resuming his wonted manner. 'But I am glad to find you consider the debt
unpaid.'

Disbrowe lifted the cane he held in his hand, and struck the knight with
it forcibly on the shoulder. 'Be that my answer,' he said.

'I will have your life first, and your wife afterwards,' replied
Parravicin fiercely.

'You shall have her if you slay me, but not otherwise,' retorted
Disbrowe. 'It must be a mortal duel.'

'It must,' replied Parravicin. 'I will not spare you this time. I shall
instantly proceed to the west side of Hyde Park, beneath the trees. I
shall expect you there. On my return I shall call on your wife.'

'I pray you do so, sir,' replied Disbrowe, disdainfully.

Both then quitted the Coffee-house, Parravicin attended by his
companions, and Disbrowe accompanied by a military friend, whom he
accidentally encountered. Each party taking a coach, they soon reached
the ground, a retired spot completely screened from observation by
trees. The preliminaries were soon arranged, for neither would admit of
delay. The conflict then commenced with great fury on both sides; but
Parravicin, in spite of his passion, observed far more caution than his
antagonist; and taking advantage of an unguarded movement, occasioned
by the other's impetuosity, passed his sword through his body. Disbrowe
fell.

'You are again successful,' he groaned, 'but save my wife--save her!'

'What mean you?' cried Parravicin, leaning over him, as he wiped his
sword.

But Disbrowe could make no answer. His utterance was choked by a sudden
effusion of blood on the lungs, and he instantly expired.

Leaving the body in care of the second, Parravicin and his friends
returned to the coach, his friends congratulating him on the issue of
the conflict; but the knight looked grave, and pondered upon the words
of the dying man. After a time, however, he recovered his spirits, and
dined with his friends at the Smyrna; but they observed that he drank
more deeply than usual. His excesses did not, however, prevent him from
playing with his usual skill, and he won a large sum from one of his
companions at Hazard.

Flushed with success, and heated with wine, he walked up to Disbrowe's
residence about an hour after midnight. As he approached the house, he
observed a strangely-shaped cart at the door, and, halting for a moment,
saw a body, wrapped in a shroud, brought out. Could it be Mrs Disbrowe?
Rushing forward to one of the assistants in black cloaks, he asked whom
he was about to inter.

'It is a Mrs Disbrowe,' replied the coffin-maker. 'She died of grief,
because her husband was killed this morning in a duel; but as she had
the plague, it must be put down to that. We are not particular in such
matters, and shall bury her and her husband together; and as there is no
money left to pay for coffins, they must go to the grave without them.'

And as the body of his victim also was brought forth, Parravicin fell
against the wall in a state of stupefaction. At this moment, Solomon
Eagle, the weird plague-prophet, with his burning brazier on his head,
suddenly turned the corner of the street, and, stationing himself before
the dead-cart, cried in a voice of thunder--'Woe to the libertine! Woe
to the homicide! for he shall perish in everlasting fire! Woe! woe!'

Such is this English legend, as related by Ainsworth, but which I have
condensed into its main elements. I think it bids fair to equal in
interest that of the Hindoo epic; and if it be not true in every
particular, so much the better for the sake of human nature.



CHAPTER III. GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS, AND GREEKS.

Concerning the ancient Egyptians we have no particular facts to detail
in the matter of gambling; but it is sufficient to determine the
existence of any special vice in a nation to find that there are severe
laws prohibiting and punishing its practice. Now, this testimony not
only exists, but the penalty is of the utmost severity, from which may
be inferred both the horror conceived of the practice by the rulers of
the Egyptians, and the strong propensity which required that severity to
suppress or hold it in check. In Egypt, 'every man was easily admitted
to the accusation of a gamester or dice-player; and if the person was
convicted, he was sent to work in the quarries.'(19) Gambling was,
therefore, prevalent in Egypt in the earliest times.


(19) Taylor, _Ductor Dubitantium_, B. iv. c. 1.


That gaming with dice was a usual and fashionable species of diversion
at the Persian court in the times of the younger Cyrus (about 400 years
before the Christian era), to go no higher, is evident from the anecdote
related by some historians of those days concerning Queen Parysatis, the
mother of Cyrus, who used all her art and skill in gambling to satiate
her revenge, and to accomplish her bloodthirsty projects against the
murderers of her favourite son. She played for the life or death of an
unfortunate slave, who had only executed the commands of his master.
The anecdote is as follows, as related by Plutarch, in the Life of
Artaxerxes.

'There only remained for the final execution of Queen Parysatis's
projects, and fully to satiate her vengeance, the punishment of the
king's slave Mesabetes, who by his master's order had cut off the head
and hand of the young Cyrus, who was beloved by Parysatis (their common
mother) above Artaxerses, his elder brother and the reigning monarch.
But as there was nothing to take hold of in his conduct, the queen laid
this snare for him. She was a woman of good address, had abundance of
wit, and _EXCELLED AT PLAYING A CERTAIN GAME WITH DICE_. She had been
apparently reconciled to the king after the death of Cyrus, and was
present at all his parties of pleasure and gambling. One day, seeing the
king totally unemployed, she proposed playing with him for a thousand
_darics_ (about L500), to which he readily consented. She suffered him
to win, and paid down the money. But, affecting regret and vexation,
she pressed him to begin again, and to play with her--_FOR A SLAVE_. The
king, who suspected nothing, complied, and the stipulation was that the
winner was to choose the slave.

'The queen was now all attention to the game, and made use of her utmost
skill and address, which as easily procured her victory, as her studied
neglect before had caused her defeat. She won--and chose Mesabetes--the
slayer of her son--who, being delivered into her hands, was put to the
most cruel tortures and to death by her command.

'When the king would have interfered, she only replied with a smile of
contempt--"Surely you must be a great loser, to be so much out of temper
for giving up a decrepit old slave, when I, who lost a thousand good
_darics_, and paid them down on the spot, do not say a word, and am
satisfied."'

Thus early were dice made subservient to the purposes of cruelty and
murder. The modern Persians, being Mohammedans, are restrained from the
open practice of gambling. Yet evasions are contrived in favour of games
in the tables, which, as they are only liable to chance on the 'throw
of the dice,' but totally dependent on the 'skill' in 'the management
of the game,' cannot (they argue) be meant to be prohibited by their
prophet any more than chess, which is universally allowed to his
followers; and, moreover, to evade the difficulty of being forbidden to
play for money, they make an alms of their winnings, distributing them
to the poor. This may be done by the more scrupulous; but no doubt
there are numbers whose consciences do not prevent the disposal of
their gambling profits nearer home. All excess of gaming, however,
is absolutely prohibited in Persia; and any place wherein it is much
exercised is called 'a habitation of corrupted carcases or carrion
house.'(20)


(20) Hyde, _De Ludis Oriental_.


In ancient Greece gambling prevailed to a vast extent. Of this there
can be no doubt whatever; and it is equally certain that it had an
influence, together with other modes of dissipation and corruption,
towards subjugating its civil liberties to the power of Macedon.

So shamelessly were the Athenians addicted to this vice, that they
forgot all public spirit in their continued habits of gaming, and
entered into convivial associations, or formed 'clubs,' for the purposes
of dicing, at the very time when Philip of Macedon was making one grand
'throw' for their liberties at the Battle of Chaeronea.

This politic monarch well knew the power of depravity in enervating
and enslaving the human mind; he therefore encouraged profusion,
dissipation, and gambling, as being sure of meeting with little
opposition from those who possessed such characters, in his projects of
ambition--as Demosthenes declared in one of his orations.(21) Indeed,
gambling had arrived at such a height in Greece, that Aristotle scruples
not to rank gamblers 'with thieves and plunderers, who for the sake of
gain do not scruple to despoil their best friends;'(22) and his pupil
Alexander set a fine upon some of his courtiers because he did not
perceive they made a sport or pastime of dice, but seemed to be employed
as in a most serious business.(23)


(21) First Olynthia. See also Athenaeus, lib. vi. 260.

(22) Ethic. Ad Nicomachum, lib. iv.

(23) Plutarch, _in Reg. et Imp. Apothegm_


The Greeks gambled not only with dice, and at their equivalent for
_Cross and Pile_, but also at cock-fighting, as will appear in the
sequel.

From a remark made by the Athenian orator Callistratus, it is evident
that desperate gambling was in vogue; he says that the games in which
the losers go on doubling their stakes resemble ever-recurring wars,
which terminate only with the extinction of the combatants.(24)


(24) Xenophon, _Hist. Graec_. lib. VI. c. iii.



CHAPTER IV. GAMING AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPERORS.

In spite of the laws enacted against gaming, the court of the Emperor
Augustus was greatly addicted to that vice, and gave it additional
stimulus among the nation. Although, however, he was passionately fond
of gambling, and made light of the imputation on his character,(25)
it appears that in frequenting the gambling table he had other motives
besides mere cupidity. Writing to his daughter he said, 'I send you a
sum with which I should have gratified my companions, if they had wished
to play at dice or _odds and evens_.' On another occasion he wrote to
Tiberius:--'If I had exacted my winnings during the festival of Minerva;
if I had not lavished my money on all sides; instead of losing twenty
thousand sestercii (about L1000), I should have gained one hundred and
fifty thousand (L7500). I prefer it thus, however; for my bounty should
win me immense glory.'(26)


(25) Aleae rumorem nullo modo expavit. Suet. in Vita Augusti.

(26) Sed hoc malo: benignitas enim mea me ad coelestem gloriam efferet.
_Ubi supra_.


This gambling propensity subjected Augustus to the lash of popular
epigrams; among the rest, the following:

Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit, Aliquando ut vincat, ludit
assidud aleam.

'He lost at sea; was beaten twice, And tries to win at least with dice.'


But although a satirist by profession, the sleek courtier Horace spared
the emperor's vice, contenting himself with only declaring that play was
forbidden.(27) The two following verses of his, usually applied to the
effects of gaming, really refer only to _RAILLERY._


(27) Carm. lib. III. Od. xxiv.


Ludus enim genuit trepidum certamen et iram; Ira truces inimicitias et
funebre bellum.(28)


(28) Epist. lib. I. xix.


He, however, has recorded the curious fact of an old Roman gambler, who
was always attended by a slave, to pick up his dice for him and put them
in the box.(29) Doubtless, Horace would have lashed the vice of gambling
had it not been the 'habitual sin' of his courtly patrons.


(29) Lib. II. Sat. vii. v. 15.


It seems that Augustus not only gambled to excess, but that he gloried
in the character of a gamester. Of himself he says, 'Between meals we
played like old crones both yesterday and today.'(30)


(30) Inter coenam lusimus (gr gerontikws) et heri et hodie.


When he had no regular players near him, he would play with children at
dice, at nuts, or bones. It has been suggested that this emperor gave
in to the indulgence of gambling in order to stifle his remorse. If
his object in encouraging this vice was to make people forget his
proscriptions and to create a diversion in his favour, the artifice may
be considered equal to any of the political ruses of this astute ruler,
whose false virtues were for a long time vaunted only through ignorance,
or in order to flatter his imitators.

The passion of gambling was transmitted, with the empire, to the family
of the Caesars. At the gaming table Caligula stooped even to falsehood
and perjury. It was whilst gambling that he conceived his most
diabolical projects; when the game was against him he would quit the
table abruptly, and then, monster as he was, satiated with rapine, would
roam about his palace venting his displeasure.

One day, in such a humour, he caught a glimpse of two Roman knights; he
had them arrested and confiscated their property. Then returning to the
gaming table, he exultingly exclaimed that he had never made a better
throw!(31) On another occasion, after having condemned to death several
Gauls of great opulence, he immediately went back to his gambling
companions and said:--'I pity you when I see you lose a few sestertii,
whilst, with a stroke of the pen, I have just won six hundred
millions.'(32)


(31) Exultans rediit, gloriansque se nunquam prosperiore alea usum.
Suet. in _Vita Calig_.

(32) Thirty millions of pounds sterling. The sestertius was worth 1_s_.
3 3/4_d_.


The Emperor Claudius played like an imbecile, and Nero like a madman.
The former would send for the persons whom he had executed the day
before, to play with him; and the latter, lavishing the treasures of the
public exchequer, would stake four hundred thousand sestertii (L20,000)
on a single throw of the dice.

Claudius played at dice on his journeys, having the interior of his
carriage so arranged as to prevent the motion from interfering with the
game.

From that period the title of courtier and gambler became synonymous.
Gaming was the means of securing preferment; it was by gambling
that Vitellius opened to himself so grand a career; gaming made him
indispensable to Claudius.(33)


(33) Claudio per aleae studium familiaris. Suet.in Vita Vitelli.


Seneca, in his Play on the death of Claudius, represents him as in the
lower regions condemned to pick up dice for ever, putting them into a
box without a bottom!(34)


(34) Nam quotiens missurus erat resonante fritillo, Utraque subducto
fugiebat tessera fundo. _Lusus de Morte Claud. Caesar_.


Caligula was reproached for having played at dice on the day of his
sister's funeral; and Domitian was blamed for gaming from morning to
night, and without excepting the festivals of the Roman calendar; but
it seems ridiculous to note such improprieties in comparison with their
habitual and atrocious crimes.

The terrible and inexorable satirist Juvenal was the contemporary of
Domitian and ten other emperors; and the following is his description of
the vice in the gaming days of Rome:

'When was the madness of games of chance more furious? Now-a-days,
not content with carrying his purse to the gaming table, the gamester
conveys his iron chest to the play-room. It is there that, as soon as
the gaming instruments are distributed, you witness the most terrible
contests. Is it not mere madness to lose one hundred thousand sestertii
and refuse a garment to a slave perishing with cold?'(35)


(35) Sat. I. 87.


It seems that the Romans played for ready money, and had not invented
that multitude of signs by the aid of which, without being retarded
by the weight of gold and silver, modern gamblers can ruin themselves
secretly and without display.

The rage for gambling spread over the Roman provinces, and among
barbarous nations who had never been so much addicted to the vice as
after they had the misfortune to mingle with the Romans.

The evil continued to increase, stimulated by imperial example. The day
on which Didius Julianus was proclaimed Emperor, he walked over the
dead and bloody body of Pertinax, and began to play at dice in the next
room.(36)


(36) Dion Cass. _Hist. Rom_. l. lxxiii.


At the end of the fourth century, the following state of things at Rome
is described by Gibbon, quoting from Ammianus Marcellinus:

'Another method of introduction into the houses and society of the
"great," is derived from the profession of gaming; or, as it is more
politely styled, of play. The confederates are united by a strict and
indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a superior
degree of skill in the "tessarian" art, is a sure road to wealth
and reputation. A master of that sublime science who, in a supper or
assembly, is placed below a magistrate, displays in his countenance the
surprise and indignation which Cato might be supposed to feel when he
was refused the praetorship by the votes of a capricious people.'(37)


(37) Amm. Marcellin. lib. XIV. c. vi.


Finally, at the epoch when Constantine abandoned Rome never to return,
every inhabitant of that city, down to the populace, was addicted to
gambling.



CHAPTER V. GAMBLING IN FRANCE IN ALL TIMES.

CHARLES VI. and CHARLES VII.--The early French annals record the deeds
of haughty and idle lords, whose chief occupations were tormenting their
vassals, drinking, fighting, and gaming; for most of them were desperate
gamblers, setting at defiance all the laws enacted against the practice,
and outraging all the decencies of society. The brother of Saint Louis
played at dice in spite of the repeated prohibitions of that virtuous
prince. Even the great Duguesclin gamed away all his property in
prison.(38) The Duc de Touraine, brother of Charles VI., 'set to work
eagerly to win the king's money,' says Froissart; and transported
with joy one day at having won five thousand livres, his first cry
was--_Monseigneur, faites-moi payer_, 'Please to pay, Sire.'


(38) Hist. de Dugueselin, par Menard.


Gaming went on in the camp, and even in the presence of the enemy.
Generals, after having ruined their own fortunes, compromised the safety
of the country. Among the rest, Philibert de Chalon, Prince d'Orange,
who was in command at the siege of Florence, under the Emperor Charles
the Fifth, gambled away the money which had been confided to him for
the pay of the soldiers, and was compelled, after a struggle of
eleven months, to capitulate with those whom he might have forced to
surrender.(39)


(39) Paul. Jov. _Hist_. lib. xxix.


In the reign of Charles VI. we read of an Hotel de Nesle which
was famous for terrible gaming catastrophes. More than one of its
frequenters lost their lives there, and some their honour, dearer than
life. This hotel was not accessible to everybody, like more modern
gaming _salons_, called _Gesvres_ and _Soissons;_ its gate was open only
to the nobility, or the most opulent gentlemen of the day.

There exists an old poem which describes the doings at this celebrated
Hotel de Nesle.(40) The author, after describing the convulsions of the
players and recording their blasphemies, says:--


(40) The title of this curious old poem is as follows:--'C'est le dit du
Gieu des Dez fait par Eustace, et la maniere et contenance des Joueurs
qui etoient a Neele, ou etoient Messeigneurs de Berry, de Bourgogne, et
plusieurs autres.'

Que maints Gentils-hommes tres haulx Y ont perdu armes et chevaux,
Argent, honour, et Seignourie, Dont c'etoit horrible folie.


'How many very eminent gentlemen have there lost their arms and horses,
their money and lordship--a horrible folly.'

In another part of the poem he says:--

Li jeune enfant deviennent Rufien, Joueurs de Dez, gourmands et plains
d'yvresse, Hautains de cuer, et ne leur chant en rien D'onneur, &c.


'There young men become ruffians, dice-players, gluttons, and drunkards,
haughty of heart, and bereft of honour.'

Still it seems that gaming had not then confounded all conditions, as
at a later period. It is evident, from the history and memoirs of the
times, that the people were more given to games of skill and exercise
than games of chance. Before the introduction of the arquebus and
gunpowder, they applied themselves to the practice of archery, and in
all times they played at quoits, ninepins, bowls, and other similar
games of skill.(41)


(41) Sauval, _Antiquites de Paris_, ii.


The invention of cards brought about some change in the mode of
amusement. The various games of this kind, however, cost more time than
money; but still the thing attracted the attention of the magistrates
and the clergy. An Augustinian friar, in the reign of Charles VII.,
effected a wonderful reformation in the matter by his preaching. At his
voice the people lit fires in several quarters of the city, and eagerly
flung into them their cards and billiard-balls.(42)


(42) Pasquier, _Recherche des Recherches_.


With the exception of a few transient follies, nothing like a rage for
gambling can be detected at that period among the lower ranks and
the middle classes. The vice, however, continued to prevail without
abatement in the palaces of kings and the mansions of the great.

It is impossible not to remark, in the history of nations, that delicacy
and good faith decline in proportion to the spread of gambling. However
select may be the society of gamesters, it is seldom that it is exempt
from all baseness. We have seen a proof of the practice of cheating
among the Hindoos. It existed also among the Romans, as proved by the
'cogged' or loaded dice dug up at Herculaneum. The fact is that cheating
is a natural, if not a necessary, incident of gambling. It may be
inferred from a passage in the old French poet before quoted,
that cheats, during the reign of Charles VI., were punished with
'bonnetting,'(43) but no instance of the kind is on record; on the
contrary, it is certain that many of the French kings patronized and
applauded well-known cheats at the gaming table.


(43) Se votre ami qui bien vous sert En jouant vous changeoit les Dez,
Auroit-il pas _Chapeau de vert_.


LOUIS XI.--Brantome says that Louis XI., who seems not to have had a
special secretary, being one day desirous of getting something written,
perceived an ecclesiastic who had an inkstand hanging at his side; and
the latter having opened it at the king's request, a set of dice fell
out. 'What kind of _SUGAR-PLUMS_ are these?' asked his Majesty. 'Sire,'
replied the priest, 'they are a remedy for the Plague.' 'Well said,'
exclaimed the king, 'you are a fine _Paillard_ (a word he often used);
'_YOU ARE THE MAN FOR ME_,' and took him into his service; for this king
was fond of bon-mots and sharp wits, and did not even object to thieves,
provided they were original and provocative of humour, as the following
very funny anecdote will show. 'A certain French baron who had lost
everything at play, even to his clothes, happening to be in the king's
chamber, quietly laid hands on a small clock, ornamented with massive
gold, and concealed it in his sleeve. Very soon after, whilst he was
among the troop of lords and gentlemen, the clock began to strike
the hour. We can well imagine the consternation of the baron at this
contretemps. Of course he blushed red-hot, and tightened his arm to try
and stifle the implacable sound of detection manifest--the _flagrans
delictum_--still the clock went on striking the long hour, so that at
each stroke the bystanders looked at each other from head to foot in
utter bewilderment.

'The king, who, as it chanced, had detected the theft, burst out
laughing, not only at the astonishment of the gentlemen present, who
were at a loss to account for the sound, but also at the originality
of the stunning event. At length Monsieur le Baron, by his own blushes
half-convicted of larceny, fell on his knees before the king, humbly
saying:--"Sire, the pricks of gaming are so powerful that they have
driven me to commit a dishonest action, for which I beg your mercy."
And as he was going on in this strain, the king cut short his words,
exclaiming:--"The _PASTIME_ which you have contrived for us so far
surpasses the injury you have done me that the clock is yours: I give it
you with all my heart."'(44)


(44) Duverdier, _Diverses Lecons_.


HENRY III.--In the latter part of the sixteenth century Paris was
inundated with brigands of every description. A band of Italian
gamesters, having been informed by their correspondents that Henry III.
had established card-rooms and dice-rooms in the Louvre, got admission
at court, and won thirty thousand crowns from the king.(45)


(45) Journal de Henri III.


If all the kings of France had imitated the disinterestedness of Henry
III., the vice of gaming would not have made such progress as became
everywhere evident.

Brantome gives a very high idea of this king's generosity, whilst he
lashes his contemporaries. Henry III. played at tennis and was very
fond of the game--not, however, through cupidity or avarice, for he
distributed all his winnings among his companions. When he lost he paid
the wager, nay, he even paid the losses of all engaged in the game. The
bets were not higher than two, three, or four hundred crowns--never,
as subsequently, four thousand, six thousand, or twelve thousand--when,
however, payment was not as readily made, but rather frequently
compounded for.(46)


(46) Henry III. was also passionately fond of the childish toy
_Bilboquet_, or 'Cup and Ball,' which he used to play even whilst
walking in the street. Journal de Henri III., i.


There was, indeed, at that time a French captain named La Roue, who
played high stakes, up to six thousand crowns, which was then deemed
exorbitant. This intrepid gamester proposed a bet of twenty thousand
crowns against one of Andrew Doria's war-galleys.

Doria took the bet, but he immediately declared it off, in apprehension
of the ridiculous position in which he would be placed if he lost,
saying,--'I don't wish that this young adventurer, who has nothing worth
naming to lose, should win my galley to go and triumph in France over my
fortune and my honour.'

Soon, however, high stakes became in vogue, and to such an extent that
the natural son of the Duc de Bellegarde was enabled to pay, out of
his winnings, the large sum of fifty thousand crowns to get himself
legitimated. Curiously enough, it is said that the greater part of this
sum had been won in England.(47)


(47) Amelot de la Houss. _Mem. Hist_. iii.


HENRY IV.--Henry IV. early evinced his passion for gaming. When very
young and stinted in fortune, he contrived the means of satisfying this
growing propensity. When in want of money he used to send a promissory
note, written and signed by himself, to his friends, requesting them to
return the note or cash it--an expedient which could not but succeed, as
every man was only too glad to have the prince's note of hand.(48)


(48) Mem. de Nevers. ii.


There can be no doubt that the example of Henry IV. was, in the matter
of gaming, as in other vices, most pernicious. 'Henry IV.,' says
Perefixe, 'was not a skilful player, but greedy of gain, timid in high
stakes, and ill-tempered when he lost.' He adds rather naively, 'This
great king was not without spots any more than the sun.'(49)


(49) Hist. de Henri le Grand.


Under him gambling became the rage. Many distinguished families were
utterly ruined by it. The Duc de Biron lost in a single year more than
five hundred thousand crowns (about L250,000). 'My son Constant,' says
D'Aubigne, 'lost twenty times more than he was worth; so that, finding
himself without resources, he abjured his religion.'

It was at the court of Henry IV. that was invented the method of speedy
ruin by means of written vouchers for loss and gain--which simplified
the thing in all subsequent times. It was then also that certain Italian
masters of the gaming art displayed their talents, their suppleness, and
dexterity. One of them, named Pimentello, having, in the presence of the
Duc de Sully, appealed to the honour which he enjoyed in having often
played with Henry IV., the duke exclaimed,--'By heavens! So you are the
Italian blood-sucker who is every day winning the king's money! You have
fallen into the wrong box, for I neither like nor wish to have anything
to do with such fellows.' Pimentello got warm. 'Go about your business,'
said Sully, giving him a shove; 'your infernal gibberish will not alter
my resolve. Go!'(50)


(50) Mem. de Sully.


The French nation, for a long time agitated by civil war, settled down
at last in peace and abundance--the fruits of which prosperity are
often poisoned. They were so by the gambling propensity of the people at
large, now first manifested. The warrior, the lawyer, the artisan, in a
word, almost all professions and trades, were carried away by the fury
of gaming. Magistrates sold for a price the permission to gamble--in the
face of the enacted laws against the practice.

We can scarcely form an idea of the extent of the gaming at this period.
Bassompierre declares, in his Memoirs, that he won more than five
hundred thousand livres (L25,000) in the course of a year. 'I won them,'
he says, 'although I was led away by a thousand follies of youth; and my
friend Pimentello won more than two hundred thousand crowns (L100,000).
Evidently this Pimentello might well be called a _blood-sucker_ by
Sully.(51) He is even said to have got all the dice-sellers in Paris
to substitute loaded dice instead of fair ones, in order to aid his
operations.


(51) In the original, however, the word is piffre, (vulgo)
'greedy-guts.'


Nothing more forcibly shows the danger of consorting with such bad
characters than the calumny circulated respecting the connection between
Henry IV. and this infamous Italian:--it was said that Henry was well
aware of Pimentello's manoeuvres, and that he encouraged them with the
view of impoverishing his courtiers, hoping thereby to render them
more submissive! Nero himself would have blushed at such a connivance.
Doubtless the calumny was as false as it was stupid.

The winnings of the courtier Bassompierre were enormous. He won at the
Duc d'Epernon's sufficient to pay his debts, to dress magnificently,
to purchase all sorts of extravagant finery, a sword ornamented with
diamonds--'and after all these expenses,' he says, 'I had still five or
six thousand crowns (two to three thousand pounds) left, _TO KILL TIME
WITH_, pour tuer le temps.'

On another occasion, and at a more advanced age, he won one hundred
thousand crowns (L50,000) at a single sitting, from M. De Guise,
Joinville, and the Marechal d'Ancre.

In reading his Memoirs we are apt to get indignant at the fellow's
successes; but at last we are tempted to laugh at his misery. He died
so poor that he did not leave enough to pay the twentieth part of his
debts! Such, doubtless, is the end of most gamblers.

But to return to Henry IV., the great gambling exemplar of the nation.
The account given of him at the gaming table is most afflicting, when we
remember his royal greatness, his sublime qualities. His only object
was to _WIN_, and those who played with him were thus always placed in
a dreadful dilemma--either to lose their money or offend the king by
beating him! The Duke of Savoy once played with him, and in order to
suit his humour, dissimulated his game--thus sacrificing or giving up
forty thousand pistoles (about L28,000).

When the king lost he was most exacting for his 'revanche,' or revenge,
as it is termed at play. After winning considerably from the king,
on one occasion, Bassompierre, under the pretext of his official
engagements, furtively decamped: the king immediately sent after him; he
was stopped, brought back, and allowed to depart only after giving the
'revanche' to his Majesty. This 'good Henri,' who was incapable of the
least dissimulation either in good or in evil, often betrayed a degree
of cupidity which made his minister, Sully, ashamed of him;--in order
to pay his gaming debts, the king one day deducted seventy-two thousand
livres from the proceeds of a confiscation on which he had no claim
whatever.

On another occasion he was wonderfully struck with some gold-pieces
which Bassompierre brought to Fontainebleau, called _Portugalloises_. He
could not rest without having them. Play was necessary to win them,
but the king was also anxious to be in time for a hunt. In order to
conciliate the two passions, he ordered a gaming party at the Palace,
left a representative of his game during his absence, and returned
sooner than usual, to try and win the so much coveted _Portugalloises_.

Even love--if that name can be applied to the grovelling passion of
Henry IV., intensely violent as it was--could not, with its sensuous
enticements, drag the king from the gaming table or stifle his
despicable covetousness. On one occasion, whilst at play, it was
whispered to him that a certain princess whom he loved was likely to
fall into other arms:--'Take care of my money,' said he to Bassompierre,
'and keep up the game whilst I am absent on particular business.'

During this reign gamesters were in high favour, as may well be
imagined. One of them received an honour never conceded even to princes
and dukes. 'The latter,' says Amelot de la Houssaie, 'did not enter the
court-yard of the royal mansions in a carriage before the year 1607,
and they are indebted for the privilege to the first Duc d'Epernon, the
favourite of the late king, Henry III., who being wont to go every day
to play with the queen, Marie de Medicis, took it into his head to have
his carriage driven into the court-yard of the Louvre, and had himself
carried bodily by his footmen into the very chamber of the queen--under
the pretext of being dreadfully tormented with the gout, so as not to be
able to stand on his legs.'(52)


(52) Mem. Hist. iii.


It is said, however, that Henry IV. was finally cured of gambling.
_Credat Judaeus!_ But the anecdote is as follows. The king lost an
immense sum at play, and requested Sully to let him have the money to
pay it. The latter demurred, so that the king had to send to him several
times. At last, however, Sully took him the money, and spread it out
before him on the table, exclaiming--'There's the sum.' Henry fixed
his eyes on the vast amount. It is said to have been enough to purchase
Amiens from the Spaniards, who then held it. The king thereupon
exclaimed:--'I am corrected. I will never again lose my money at
gaming.'

During this reign Paris swarmed with gamesters. Then for the first time
were established _Academies de Jeu_, 'Gaming Academies,' for thus were
termed the gaming houses to which all classes of society beneath
the nobility and gentility, down to the lowest, rushed in crowds and
incessantly. Not a day passed without the ruin of somebody. The son of a
merchant, who possessed twenty thousand crowns, lost sixty thousand. It
seemed, says a contemporary, that a thousand pistoles at that time were
valued less than a _sou_ in the time of Francis I.

The result of this state of things was incalculable social affliction.
Usury and law-suits completed the ruin of gamblers.

The profits of the keepers of gaming houses must have been enormous, to
judge from the rents they paid. A house in the Faubourg Saint-Germain
was secured at the rental of about L70 for a fortnight, for the purpose
of gambling during the time of the fair. Small rooms and even closets
were hired at the rate of many pistoles or half-sovereigns per hour; to
get paid, however, generally entailed a fight or a law-suit.

All this took place in the very teeth of the most stringent laws enacted
against gaming and gamesters. The fact was, that among the magistrates
some closed their eyes, and others held out their hands to receive the
bribe of their connivance.

LOUIS XIII.--At the commencement of the reign of Louis XIII. the
laws against gaming were revived, and severer penalties were enacted.
Forty-seven gaming houses at Paris, which had been licensed, and from
which several magistrates drew a perquisite of a pistole or half a
sovereign a day, were shut up and suppressed.

These stringent measures checked the gambling of the 'people,' but not
that of 'the great,' who went on merrily as before.

Of course they 'kept the thing quiet'--gambled in secret--but more
desperately than ever. The Marechal d'Ancre commonly staked twenty
thousand pistoles (L10,000).

Louis XIII. was not a gambler, and so, during this reign, the court did
not set so bad an example. The king was averse to all games of chance.
He only liked chess, but perhaps rather too much, to judge from the fact
that, in order to enable him to play chess on his journeys, a chessboard
was fitted in his carriage, the pieces being furnished with pins at
the bottom so as not to be deranged or knocked down by the motion.
The reader will remember that, as already stated, a similar gaming
accommodation was provided for the Roman Emperor Claudius.

The cup and ball of Henry III. and the chessboard of Louis XIII. are
merely ridiculous. We must excuse well-intentioned monarchs when they
only indulge themselves with frivolous and childish trifles. It is
something to be thankful for if we have not to apply to them the
adage--Quic-quid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi--'When kings go mad
their people get their blows.'

LOUIS XIV.--The reign of Louis XIV. was a great development in every
point of view, gaming included.

The revolutions effected in the government and in public morals by
Cardinal Richelieu, who played a game still more serious than those we
are considering, had very considerably checked the latter; but these
resumed their vigour, with interest, under another Cardinal, profoundly
imbued with the Italian spirit--the celebrated Mazarin. This minister,
independently of his particular taste that way, knew how to ally gaming
with his political designs. By means of gaming he contrived to protract
the minority of the king under whom he governed the nation.

'Mazarin,' says St Pierre, 'introduced gaming at the court of Louis XIV.
in the year 1648. He induced the king and the queen regent to play; and
preference was given to games of chance. The year 1648 was the era of
card-playing at court. Cardinal Mazarin played deep and with finesse,
and easily drew in the king and queen to countenance this new
entertainment, so that every one who had any expectation at court
learned to play at cards. Soon after the humour changed, and games of
chance came into vogue--to the ruin of many considerable families: this
was likewise very destructive to health, for besides the various
violent passions it excited, whole nights were spent at this execrable
amusement. The worst of all was that card-playing, which the court had
taken from the army, soon spread from the court into the city, and from
the city pervaded the country towns.

'Before this there was something done for improving conversation; every
one was ambitious of qualifying himself for it by reading ancient and
modern books; memory and reflection were much more exercised. But on the
introduction of gaming men likewise left of tennis, billiards, and other
games of skill, and consequently became weaker and more sickly, more
ignorant, less polished, and more dissipated.

'The women, who till then had commanded respect, accustomed men to treat
them familiarly, by spending the whole night with them at play. They
were often under the necessity of borrowing either to play, or to pay
their losings; and how very ductile and complying they were to those of
whom they had to borrow was well known.'

From that time gamesters swarmed all over France; they multiplied
rapidly in every profession, even among the magistracy. The Cardinal de
Retz tells us, in his Memoirs, that in 1650 the oldest magistrate in
the parliament of Bordeaus, and one who passed for the wisest, was not
ashamed to stake all his property one night at play, and that too,
he adds, without risking his reputation--so general was the fury
of gambling. It became very soon mixed up with the most momentous
circumstances of life and affairs of the gravest importance. The
States-general, or parliamentary assemblies, consisted altogether
of gamblers. 'It is a game,' says Madame de Sevigne, 'it is an
entertainment, a liberty-hall day and night, attracting all the world.
I never before beheld the States-general of Bretagne. The States-general
are decidedly a very fine thing.'

The same delightful correspondent relates that one of her amusements
when she went to the court was to admire Dangeau at the card-table;
and the following is the account of a gaming party at which she was
present:--

'29th July, 1676.

'I went on Saturday with Villars to Versailles. I need not tell you
of the queen's toilette, the mass, the dinner--you know it all; but at
three o'clock the king rose from table, and he, the queen, Monsieur,
Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and princesses, Madame de
Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers, all the ladies, in short,
what we call the court of France, were assembled in that beautiful
apartment which you know. It is divinely furnished, everything is
magnificent; one does not know what it is to be too hot; we walk about
here and there, and are not incommoded anywhere:--at last a table of
reversi(53) gives a form to the crowd, and a place to every one. _THE
KING IS NEXT TO MADAME DE MONTESPAN_, who deals; the Duke of Orleans,
the queen, and Madame de Soubise; Dangeau and Co.; Langee and Co.; a
thousand louis are poured out on the cloth--there are no other counters.
I saw Dangeau play!--what fools we all are compared to him--he minds
nothing but his business, and wins when every one else loses: he
neglects nothing, takes advantage of everything, is never absent; in a
word, his skill defies fortune, and accordingly 200,000 francs in ten
days, 100,000 crowns in a fortnight, all go to his receipt book.


(53) A kind of game long since out of fashion, and now almost forgotten;
it seems to have been a compound of Loo and Commerce--the _Quinola_ or
_Pam_ was the knave of hearts.

'He was so good as to say I was a partner in his play, by which I got a
very convenient and agreeable place. I saluted the king in the way you
taught me, which he returned as if I had been young and handsome--I
received a thousand compliments--you know what it is to have a word from
everybody! This agreeable confusion without confusion lasts from three
o'clock till six. If a courtier arrives, the king retires for a moment
to read his letters, and returns immediately. There is always some music
going on, which has a very good effect; the king listens to the music
and chats to the ladies about him. At last, at six o'clock, they stop
playing--they have no trouble in settling their reckonings--there are no
counters--the lowest pools are five, six, seven hundred louis, the great
ones a thousand, or twelve hundred; they put in five each at first, that
makes one hundred, and the dealer puts in ten more--then they give four
louis each to whoever has Quinola--some pass, others play, but when you
play without winning the pool, you must put in sixteen to teach you how
to play rashly: they talk all together, and for ever, and of everything.
"How many hearts?" "Two!" "I have three!" "I have one!" "I have four!"
"He has only three!" and Dangeau, delighted with all this prattle, turns
up the trump, makes his calculations, sees whom he has against him, in
short--in short, I was glad to see such an excess of skill. He it is who
really knows "le dessous des cartes."

'At ten o'clock they get into their carriages: _THE KING, MADAME DE
MONTESPAN_, the Duke of Orleans, and Madame de Thianges, and the good
Hendicourt on the dickey, that is as if one were in the upper gallery.
You know how these calashes are made.

'The queen was in another with the princesses; and then everybody else,
grouped as they liked. Then they go on the water in gondolas, with
music; they return at ten; the play is ready, it is over; twelve
strikes, supper is brought in, and so passes Saturday.'

This lively picture of such frightful gambling, of the adulterous
triumph of Madame de Montespan, and of the humiliating part to which the
queen was condemned, will induce our readers to concur with Madame de
Sevigne, who, amused as she had been by the scene she has described,
calls it nevertheless, with her usual pure taste and good judgment,
_l'iniqua corte_, 'the iniquitous court.'

Indeed, Madame de Sevigne had ample reason to denounce this source of
her domestic misery. Writing to her son and daughter, she says:--'You
lose all you play for. You have paid five or six thousand francs for
your amusement, and to be abused by fortune.'

If she had at first been fascinated by the spectacle which she so
glowingly describes, the interest of her children soon opened her eyes
to the yawning gulf at the brink of the flowery surface.

Sometimes she explains herself plainly:--'You believe that everybody
plays as honestly as yourself? Call to mind what took place lately at
the Hotel de la Vieuville. Do you remember that _ROBBERY?_'

The favour of that court, so much coveted, seemed to her to be purchased
at too high a price if it was to be gained by ruinous complaisances. She
trembled every time her son left her to go to Versailles. She says:--'He
tells me he is going to play with his young master;(54) I shudder at the
thought. Four hundred pistoles are very easily lost: _ce n'est rien pour
Admete et c'est beaucoup pour lui_.(55) If Dangeau is in the game he
will win all the pools: he is an eagle. Then will come to pass, my
daughter, all that God may vouchsafe--_il en arivera, ma fille, tout ce
qu'il plaira a Dieu_.'


(54) The Dauphin.

(55) 'It is nothing for Admetus, but 'tis much for him.'


And again, 'The game of _Hoca_ is prohibited at Paris _UNDER THE PENALTY
OF DEATH_, and yet it is played at court. Five thousand pistoles before
dinner is nothing. That game is a regular cut-throat.'

Hoca was prodigiously unfavourable to the players; the latter had only
twenty-eight chances against thirty. In the seventeenth century this
game caused such disorder at Rome that the Pope prohibited it and
expelled the bankers.

The Italians whom Mazarin brought into France obtained from the king
permission to set up _Hoca_ tables in Paris. The parliament launched two
edicts against them, and threatened to punish them severely. The king's
edicts were equally severe. Every of offender was to be fined 1000
livres, and the person in whose house Faro, Basset, or any such game
was suffered, incurred the penalty of 6000 livres for each offence.
The persons who played were to be imprisoned. Gaming was forbidden the
French cavalry under the penalty of death, and every commanding officer
who should presume to set up a Hazard table was to be cashiered, and all
concerned to be rigorously imprisoned. These penalties might show great
horror of gaming, but they were too severe to be steadily inflicted, and
therefore failed to repress the crime against which they were directed.
The severer the law the less the likelihood of its application, and
consequently its power of repression.

Madame de Sevigne had beheld the gamesters only in the presence of their
master the king, or in the circles which were regulated with inviolable
propriety; but what would she have said if she could have seen the
gamblers at the secret suppers and in the country-houses of the
Superintendent Fouquet, where twenty 'qualified' players, such as the
Marshals de Richelieu, de Clairembaut, &c., assembled together, with
a dash of bad company, to play for lands, houses, jewels, even for
point-lace and neckties? There she would have seen something more
than gold staked, since the players debased themselves so low as to
circumvent certain opulent dupes, who were the first invited. To leave
one hundred pistoles, ostensibly for 'the cards,' but really as the
perquisite of the master of the lordly house; to recoup him when he
lost; and, when they had to deal with some unimportant but wealthy
individual, to undo him completely, compelling him to sign his ruin on
the gaming table--such was the conduct which rendered a man _recherche_,
and secured the title of a fine player!

It was precisely thus that the famous (or infamous) Gourville,
successively valet-de-chambre to the Duc de la Rochefoucault, hanged
in effigy at Paris, king's envoy in Germany, and afterwards proposed to
replace Colbert--it was thus precisely, I say, that Gourville secured
favour, 'consideration,' fortune; for he declares, in his Memoirs, that
his gains in a few years amounted to more than a million. And fortune
seems to have cherished and blessed him throughout his detestable
career. After having made his fortune, he retired to write the
scandalous Memoirs from which I have been quoting, and died out of
debt!(56)


(56) Mem. de Gourville, i.


France became too narrow a theatre for the chevaliers d'industrie and
all who were a prey to the fury of gambling. The Count de Grammont, a
very suspicious player, turned his talents to account in England, Italy,
and Spain.

This same Count de Grammont figured well at court on one occasion when
Louis XIV. seemed inclined to cheat or otherwise play unfairly. Playing
at backgammon, and having a doubtful throw, a dispute arose, and the
surrounding courtiers remained silent. The Count de Grammont
happening to come in, the king desired him to decide it. He instantly
answered--'Sire, your Majesty is in the wrong.' 'How,' said the king,
'can you decide before you know the question?' 'Because,' replied the
count, 'had there been any doubt, all these gentlemen would have given
it in favour of your Majesty.' The plain inference is that this (at
the time) great world's idol and Voltaire's god, was 'up to a little
cheating.' It was, however, as much to the king's credit that he
submitted to the decision, as it was to that of the courtier who gave
him such a lesson.

The magnanimity of Louis XIV. was still more strikingly shown on another
gambling occasion. Very high play was going on at the cardinal's, and
the Chevalier de Rohan lost a vast sum to the king. The agreement was to
pay only in _louis d'ors;_ and the chevalier, after counting out seven
or eight hundred, proposed to continue the payment in Spanish pistoles.
'You promised me _louis d'ors_, and not pistoles,' said the king. 'Since
your Majesty refuses them,' replied the chevalier, 'I don't want them
either;' and thereupon he flung them out of the window. The king got
angry, and complained to Mazarin, who replied:--'The Chevalier de
Rohan has played the king, and you the Chevalier de Rohan.' The king
acquiesced.(57)


(57) Mem. et Reflex., &e., par M. L. M. L. F. (the Marquis de la Fare).


As before stated, the court of the Roman Emperor Augustus, in spite
of the many laws enacted against gambling, diffused the frenzy through
Rome; in like manner the court of Louis XIV., almost in the same
circumstances, infected Paris and the entire kingdom with the vice.

There is this difference between the French monarch and the Roman
emperor, that the latter did not teach his successors to play against
the people, whereas Louis, after having denounced gaming, and become
almost disgusted with it, finished with established lotteries. High play
was always the etiquette at court, but the sittings became less frequent
and were abridged. 'The king,' says Madame de Sevigne, 'has not given
over playing, but the sittings are not so long.'

LOUIS XV.--At the death of Louis XIV. three-fourths of the nation
thought of nothing but gambling. Gambling, indeed, became itself
an object of speculation, in consequence of the establishment and
development of lotteries--the first having been designed to celebrate
the restoration of peace and the marriage of Louis XIV.

The nation seemed all mad with the excitement of play. During the
minority of Louis XV. a foreign gamester, the celebrated Scotchman, John
Law, having become Controller-General of France, undertook to restore
the finances of the nation by making every man a player or gamester.
He propounded a _SYSTEM;_ he established a bank, which nearly upset the
state; and seduced even those who had escaped the epidemic of games of
chance. He was finally expelled like a foul fog; but they ought to have
hanged him as a deliberate corrupter. And yet this is the man of whom
Voltaire wrote as follows: 'We are far from evincing the gratitude which
is due to John Law.(58) Voltaire's praise was always as suspicious as
his blame. Just let us consider the tendency of John Law's 'system.'
However general may be the fury of gambling, _EVERYBODY_ does not
gamble; certain professions impose a certain restraint, and their
members would blush to resort to games the turpitude of which would
subject them to unanimous condemnation. But only change the _NAMES_ of
these games--only change their _FORM_, and let the bait be presented
under the sanction of the legislature: then, although the _THING_ be not
less vicious, nor less repugnant to true principle, then we witness the
gambling ardour of savages, such as we have described it, manifesting
itself with more risk, and communicated to the entire nation--the
ministers of the altar, the magistracy, the members of every profession,
fathers, mothers of families, without distinction of rank, means, or
duties.... Let this short generalization be well pondered, and the
conclusion must be reached that this Scotch adventurer, John Law, was
guilty of the crime of treason against humanity.


(57) Nous sommes loin de la reconnoissance qui est due a Jean Law. Mel.
de Litt., d'Hist., &c. ii.


John Law, whom the French called _Jean Lass_, opened a gulf into which
half the nation eagerly poured its money. Fortunes were made in a few
days--in a few _HOURS_. Many were enriched by merely lending their
signatures. A sudden and horrible revolution amazed the entire
people--like the bursting of a bomb-shell or an incendiary explosion.
Six hundred thousand of the best families, who had taken _PAPER_ on
the faith of the government, lost, together with their fortunes, their
offices and appointments, and were almost annihilated. Some of
the stock-jobbers escaped; others were compelled to disgorge their
gains--although they stoutly and, it must be admitted, consistently
appealed to the sanction of the court.

Oddly enough, whilst the government made all France play at this John
Law game--the most seductive and voracious that ever existed--some
thirty or forty persons were imprisoned for having broken the laws
enacted against games of chance!

It may be somewhat consolatory to know that the author of so much
calamity did not long enjoy his share of the infernal success--the
partition of a people's ruin. After extorting so many millions, this
famous gambler was reduced to the necessity of selling his last diamond
in order to raise money to gamble on.

This great catastrophe, the commotion of which was felt even in Holland
and in England, was the last sigh of true honour among the French.
Probity received a blow. Public morality was abashed. More gaming houses
than ever were opened, and then it was that they received the name of
_Enfers_, or 'Hells,' by which they were designated in England. 'The
greater number of those who go to the watering-places,' writes a
contemporary, 'under the pretext of health, only go after gamesters.
In the States-general it is less the interest of the people than the
attraction of terrible gambling, that brings together a portion of the
nobility. The nature of the play may be inferred from the name of the
place at which it takes place in one of the provinces--namely, _Enfer_.
This salon, so appropriately called, was in the Hotel of the king's
commissioners in Bretagne. I have been told that a gentleman, to the
great disgust of the noblemen present, and even of the bankers, actually
offered to stake his sword.

'This name of _Enfers_ has been given to several gaming houses, some
them situated in the interior of Paris, others in the environs.

'People no longer blush, as did Caligula, at gambling on their return
from the funeral of their relatives or friends. A gamester, returning
from the burial of his brother, where he had exhibited the signs of
profound grief, played and won a considerable sum of money. "How do you
feel now?" he was asked. "A little better," he replied, "this consoles
me."

'All is excitement whilst I write. Without mentioning the base deeds
that have been committed, I have counted four suicides and a great
crime.

'Besides the licensed gaming houses, new ones are furtively established
in the privileged mansions of the ambassadors and representatives of
foreign courts. Certain chevaliers d'industrie recently proposed to a
gentleman of quality, who had just been appointed plenipotentiary, to
hire an hotel for him, and to pay the expenses, on condition that
he would give up to them an apartment and permit them to have valets
wearing his livery! This base proposal was rejected with contempt,
because the Baron de ---- is one of the most honourable and enlightened
men of the age.

'The most difficult bargains are often amicably settled by a game. I
have seen persons gaming whilst taking a walk and whilst travelling in
their carriages. People game at the doors of the theatres; of course
they gamble for the price of the ticket. In every possible manner, and
in every situation, the true gamester strives to turn every instant to
profit.

'If I relate what I have seen in the matter of play during sleep, it
will be difficult to understand me. A gamester, exhausted by fatigue,
could not give up playing because he was a loser; so he requested his
adversary to play for him with his left hand, whilst he dozed off and
slept! Strange to say, the left hand of his adversary incessantly won,
whilst he snored to the sound of the dice!

'I have just read in a newspaper,(59) that two Englishmen, who left
their country to fight a duel in a foreign land, nevertheless played at
the highest stakes on the voyage; and having arrived on the field, one
of them laid a wager that he would kill his adversary. It is stated that
the spectators of the affair looked upon it as a gaming transaction.


(59) Journal de Politique, Dec. 15, 1776.


'In speaking of this affair I was told of a German, who, being compelled
to fight a duel on account of a quarrel at the gaming table, allowed his
adversary to fire at him. He was missed.

He said to his opponent, "I never miss. I bet you a hundred ducats that
I break your right or left arm, just as you please." The bet was taken,
and he won.

'I have found cards and dice in many places where people were in want
of bread. I have seen the merchant and the artisan staking gold by
handfuls. A small farmer has just gamed away his harvest, valued at 3000
francs.'(60)


(60) Dusaulx, _De la Passion du Jeu_, 1779.


Gaming houses in Paris were first licensed in 1775, by the lieutenant
of police, Sartines, who, to diminish the odium of such establishments,
decreed that the profit resulting from them should be applied to the
foundation of hospitals. Their number soon amounted to twelve; and
women were allowed to resort to them two days in the week. Besides
the licensed establishments, several illegal ones were tolerated, and
especially styled _enfers_, or 'hells.'

Gaming having been found prolific in misfortunes and crimes, was
prohibited in 1778; but it was still practised at the court and in the
hotels of ambassadors, where police-officers could not enter. By degrees
the public establishments resumed their wonted activity, and extended
their pernicious effects. The numerous suicides and bankruptcies which
they occasioned attracted the attention of the _Parlement_, who drew up
regulations for their observance, and threatened those who violated them
with the pillory and whipping. The licensed houses, as well as those
recognized, however, still continued their former practices, and
breaches of the regulations were merely visited with trivial punishment.

At length, the passion for play prevailing in the societies established
in the Palais Royal, under the title of _clubs_ or _salons_, a police
ordinance was issued in 1785, prohibiting them from gaming. In
1786, fresh disorder having arisen in the unlicensed establishments,
additional prohibiting measures were enforced. During the Revolution
the gaming-houses were frequently prosecuted, and licenses withheld; but
notwithstanding the rigour of the laws and the vigilance of the police,
they still contrived to exist.

LOUIS XVI. TILL THE PRESENT TIME.--In the general corruption of morals,
which rose to its height during the reign of Louis XVI., gambling kept
pace with, if it did not outstrip, every other licentiousness of
that dismal epoch.(61) Indeed, the universal excitement of the nation
naturally tended to develope every desperate passion of our nature; and
that the revolutionary troubles and agitation of the empire helped to
increase the gambling propensity of the French, is evident from the
magnitude of the results on record.


(61) It will be seen in the sequel that gambling was vastly increased
in England by the French 'emigres' who sought refuge among us, bringing
with them all their vices, unchastened by misfortune.


Fouche, the minister of police, derived an income of L128,000 a year for
licensing or 'privileging' gaming houses, to which cards of address were
regularly furnished.

Besides what the 'farmers' of the gaming houses paid to Fouche, they
were compelled to hire and pay 120,000 persons, employed in those houses
as _croupiers_ or attendants at the gaming table, from half-a-crown
to half-a-guinea a day; and all these 120,000 persons were _SPIES OF
FOUCHE!_ A very clever idea no doubt it was, thus to draw a revenue
from the proceeds of a vice, and use the institution for the purposes of
government; but, perhaps, as Rousseau remarks, 'it is a great error in
domestic as well as civil economy to wish to combat one vice by another,
or to form between them a sort of equilibrium, as if that which saps the
foundations of order can ever serve to establish it.'(62) A minister of
the Emperor Theodosius II., in the year 431, the virtuous Florentius, in
order to teach his master that it was wrong to make the vices contribute
to the State, because such a procedure authorizes them, gave to the
public treasury one of his lands the revenue of which equalled the
product of the annual tax levied on prostitution.(63)


(62) Nouv. Heloise, t. iv.

(63) Novel. Theodos. 18.


After the restoration of the Bourbons, it became quite evident that play
in the Empire had been quite as Napoleonic in its vigour and dimensions
as any other 'idea' of the epoch.

The following detail of the public gaming tables of Paris was published
in a number of the _Bibliotheque Historique_, 1818, under the title of
'Budget of Public Games.'


STATE OF THE ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE GAMES OF PARIS.


  These 20 Tables are divided into nine houses, four of which are
  situated in the Palais Royal.


  To serve the seven tables of _Trente-et-un_, there are:--francs
  28 Dealers,    at 550 fr. a month, making . . . . 15,400
  28 Croupiers,  at 380. . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10,640
  42 Assistants, at 200. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,400

  SERVICE FOR THE NINE ROULETTES AND ONE PASSE-DIX.

  80 Dealers,    at 275 fr. a month . . . . . . . . 22,000
  60 Assistants, at 150. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000

  SERVICE OF THE CRAPS, BIRIBI, AND HAZARD,
  12 Dealers,    at 300 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . 3,600
  12 Inspectors, at 120 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,440
  10 Aids,      at 100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,000
  6 Chefs de Partie at the principal houses, at
  700 fr. a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,200

  3 Chefs de Partie for the Roulettes, at
  500 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,500
  20 Secret Inspectors, at 200 fr. a month. . . . . .4,000
  1 Inspector-General, at . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,000
  130 Waiters, at 75 fr. a month. . . . . . . . . . .9,750
  Cards a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,500
  Beer and refreshments, a month. . . . . . . . . . .3,000
  Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5,500
  Refreshment for the grand saloon, including two
  dinners every week, per month . . . . . . . . . 12,000
  Total expense of each month . . . .113,930
  ---------
  Multiplied by twelve, is. . . . . . . . . . . .1,367,160
  Rent of 10 Houses, per annum. . . . . . . . . . .130,000
  Expense of Offices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000
  ---------
  Total per annum. . . . . . . . . 1,547,160
  If the `privilege' or license is . . . . . . . 6,000,000
  If a bonus of a million is given for six years, the
  sixth part, or one year, will be . . . . . . . 166,666

  ---------
  Total expenditure . . . . . . . .7,713,826
  The profits are estimated at, per month,. . . . .800,000
  ---------
  Which yield, per annum, . . . . . . . . . . . .9,600,000
  Deducting the expenditure . . . . . . . . . . .7,713,826
  ---------
  The annual profits are. . . . . . . . . . . fr.1,886,174
  ---------
  Thus giving the annual profit at L7860 sterling.

  We omit the profits resulting from the watering-places,
  amounting to fr. 200,000.


One of the new conditions imposed on the Paris gaming houses is the
exclusion of females.

Thus, at Paris, the Palais Royal, Frascati, and numerous other places,
presented gaming houses, whither millions of wretches crowded in search
of fortune, but, for the most part, to find only ruin or even death
by suicide or duelling, so often resulting from quarrels at the gaming
table.

This state of things was, however, altered in the year 1836, at the
proposition of M. B. Delessert, and all the gaming houses were ordered
to be closed from the 1st of January, 1838, so that the present gambling
in France is on the same footing as gambling in England,--utterly
prohibited, but carried on in secret.



CHAPTER VI. THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN GAMING IN ENGLAND.

It seems that the rise of modern gaming in England may be dated from the
year 1777 or 1778.

Before this time gaming appears never to have assumed an alarming
aspect. The methodical system of partnership, enabling men to embark
large capital in gambling establishments, was unknown; though from that
period this system became the special characteristic of the pursuit
among all classes of the community.

The development of the evil was a subject of great concern to thoughtful
men, and one of these, in the year 1784, put forth a pamphlet,
which seems to give 'the very age and body of the time, his form and
pressure.'(64)


(64) The pamphlet (in the Library of the British Museum) is
entitled:--'Hints for a Reform, particularly of the Gaming Clubs. By a
Member of Parliament. 1784.'

'About thirty years ago,' says this writer, 'there was but one club in
the metropolis. It was regulated and respectable. There were few of the
members who betted high. Such stakes at present would be reckoned very
low indeed. There were then assemblies once a week in most of the great
houses. An agreeable society met at seven o'clock; they played for
crowns or half-crowns; and reached their own houses about eleven.

'There was but one lady who gamed deeply, and she was viewed in the
light of a phenomenon. Were she now to be asked her real opinion of
those friends who were her former _PLAY_-fellows, there can be no doubt
but that they rank very low in her esteem.

'In the present era of vice and dissipation, how many females attend the
card-tables! What is the consequence? The effects are too clearly to
be traced to the frequent _DIVORCES_ which have lately disgraced our
country, and they are too visible in the shameful conduct of many ladies
of fashion, since gambling became their chief amusement.

'There is now no society. The routs begin at midnight. They are
painful and troublesome to the lady who receives company, and they
are absolutely a nuisance to those who are honoured with a card of
invitation. It is in vain to attempt conversation. The social pleasures
are entirely banished, and those who have any relish for them, or
who are fond of early hours, are necessarily excluded. Such are the
companies of modern times, and modern people of fashion. Those who are
not invited fly to the _Gaming Clubs_--

"To kill their idle hours and cure _ennui!_"

'To give an account of the present encumbered situation of many
families, whose property was once large and ample, would fill a volume.
Whence spring the difficulties which every succeeding day increases?
From the _GAMBLING CLUBS_. Why are they continually hunted by their
creditors? The reply is--the _GAMBLING CLUBS_. Why are they obliged
continually to rack their invention in order to save appearances? The
answer still is--the _GAMBLING CLUBS!_

'The father frequently ruins his children; and sons, and even grandsons,
long before the succession opens to them, are involved so deeply that
during their future lives their circumstances are rendered narrow; and
they have rank or family honours, without being able to support them.

'How many infamous villains have amassed immense estates, by taking
advantage of unfortunate young men, who have been first seduced and then
ruined by the Gambling Clubs!

'It is well known that the old members of those gambling societies exert
every nerve to enlist young men of fortune; and if we take a view of
the principal estates on this island, we shall find many infamous
_CHRISTIAN_ brokers who are now living luxuriously and in splendour on
the wrecks of such unhappy victims.

'At present, when a boy has learned a little from his father's example,
he is sent to school, to be _INITIATED_. In the course of a few years he
acquires a profound knowledge of the science of gambling, and before he
leaves the University he is perfectly fitted for a member of the _GAMING
CLUBS_, into which he is elected before he takes his seat in either
House of Parliament. There is no necessity for his being of age, as the
sooner he is ballotted for, the more advantageous his admission will
prove to the _OLD_ members.

'Scarcely is the hopeful youth enrolled among these _HONOURABLE_
associates, than he is introduced to Jews, to annuity-brokers, and to
the long train of money-lenders. They take care to answer his pecuniary
calls, and the greater part of the night and morning is consumed at the
_CLUB_. To his creditors and tradesmen, instead of paying his bills,
he offers a _BOND_ or _ANNUITY_. He rises just time enough to ride to
Kensington Gardens; returns to dress; dines late; and then attends the
party of gamblers, as he had done the night before, unless he allows
himself to be detained for a few moments by the newspaper, or some
political publication.

'Such do we find the present fashionable style of life, from "his Grace"
to the "Ensign" in the Guards. Will this mode of education rear up
heroes, to lead forth our armies, or to conduct our fleets to victory?
Review the conduct of your generals abroad, and of your statesmen
at home, during the late unfortunate war, and these questions are
answered.(65)


(65) Of course this is an allusion to the American War of Independence
and the political events at home, from 1774 to 1784.


'At present, tradesmen must themselves be gamblers before they give
credit to a member of these clubs; but if a reform succeeds they will
be placed in a state of security. At present they must make _REGULAR_
families pay an enormous price for their goods, to enable them to
run the risk of never receiving a single shilling from their gambling
customers.'

Such is the picture of the times in question, drawn by a contemporary;
and it may be said that private reckless and unscrupulous political
machinations were the springs and fountains of all the calamities that
subsequently overflowed, as it were, the 'opening of the seals' of doom
upon the nation.

Notwithstanding the purity of morals enjoined by the court of George
III., the early part of his reign presents a picture of dissolute
manners as well as of furious party spirit. The most fashionable of our
ladies of rank were immersed in play, or devoted to politics: the same
spirit carried them into both. The Sabbath was disregarded, spent often
in cards, or desecrated by the meetings of partisans of both factions;
moral duties were neglected and decorum outraged. The fact was, that
a minor court had become the centre of all the bad passions and
reprehensible pursuits in vogue. Carlton House, in Pall Mall, which even
the oldest of us can barely remember, with its elegant open screen,
the pillars in front, its low exterior, its many small rooms, its
decorations in vulgar taste, and, to crown the whole, its associations
of a corrupting revelry,--Carlton House was, in the days of good King
George, almost as great a scandal to the country as Whitehall in the
time of improper King Charles II.(66) The influence which the example
of a young prince, of manners eminently popular, produced upon the young
nobility of the realm was most disastrous in every way and ruinous to
public morality.


(66) Wharton, 'The Queens of Society.' Mem. of _Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire._


After that period, the vast license given to those abominable engines of
fraud, the E.O. tables,(67) and the great length of time which elapsed
before they met with any check from the police, afforded a number of
dissolute and abandoned characters an opportunity of acquiring property.
This they afterwards increased in the low gaming houses, and by
following up the same system at Newmarket and the other fashionable
places of resort, and finally by means of the lottery, that mode of
insensate gambling; till at length they acquired a sum of money nothing
short of _ONE MILLION STERLING_.

(67) So called from the letters E and O, the turning up of which decided
the bet. They were otherwise called _Roulette_ and _Roly Poly_, from the
balls used in them. They seem to have been introduced in England about
the year 1739. The first was set up at Tunbridge and proved extremely
profitable to the proprietors.


This enormous wealth was then used as an efficient capital in carrying
on various illegal establishments, particularly gaming houses, the
expenses of a first-rate house being L7000 per annum, which were again
employed as the means of increasing these ill-gotten riches.

The system was progressive but steady in its development. Several of
these conspicuous members of the world of fashion, rolling in their
gaudy carriages and associating with men of high rank and influence,
might be found on the registers of the Old Bailey, or had been formerly
occupied in turning, with their own hands, E.O. tables in the public
streets.

The following _Queries_, which are extracted from the _Morning Post_ of
July the 5th, 1797, throw considerable light upon this curious subject,
and show how seriously the matter was regarded when so public a
denunciation was deemed necessary and ventured upon:--

'Is Mr Ogden (now the Newmarket oracle) the same person who,
five-and-twenty years since, was an annual pedestrian to Ascot, covered
with dust, amusing himself with "_PRICKING in the_ belt," "_HUSTLING_ in
the hat," &c., among the lowest class of rustics, at the inferior booths
of the fair?

'Is D-k-y B--n who now has his snug farm, the same person who, some
years since, _DROVE A POST CHAISE_ for T--y, of Bagshot, could
neither read nor write, and was introduced to _THE FAMILY_ only by his
pre-eminence at cribbage?

'Is Mr Twycross (with his phaeton) the same person who some years since
became a bankrupt in Tavistock Street, immediately commenced the Man of
Fashion at Bath, kept running horses, &c., _secundum artem?_

'Is Mr Phillips (who has now his town and country house, in the most
fashionable style) the same who was originally a linen-draper and
bankrupt at Salisbury, and who made his first _family entre_ in the
metropolis, by his superiority at _Billiards_ (with Captain Wallace,
Orrell, &c.) at Cropley's, in Bow Street?

'Was poor carbuncled P--e (so many years the favourite decoy duck
of _THE FAMILY_) the very barber of Oxford, who, in the midst of the
operation upon a gentleman's face, laid down his razor, swearing that
he would never shave another man so long as he lived, and immediately
became the hero of the card table, the _bones_, the _box_, and the
_Cockpit?_'

Capital was not the only qualification for admission into the
Confederacy of Gambling. Some of the members were taken into partnership
on account of their dexterity in 'securing' dice or 'dealing' cards. One
is said to have been actually a sharer in every 'Hell' at the West-End
of the Town, because he was feared as much as he was detested by the
firms, who had reason to know that he would 'peach' if not kept quiet.
Informers against the illegal and iniquitous associations were arrested
and imprisoned upon writs, obtained by perjury--to deter others from
similar attacks; witnesses were suborned; officers of justice bribed;
ruffians and bludgeon-men employed, where gratuities failed; personal
violence and even assassination threatened to all who dared to expose
the crying evil--among others, to Stockdale, the well-known publisher of
the day, in Piccadilly.

Then came upon the nation the muddy flood of French emigrants, poured
forth by the Great Revolution--a set of men, speaking generally, whose
vices contaminated the very atmosphere.

Before the advent of these worthies the number of gambling houses in the
metropolis, exclusive of those so long established by subscription, was
not more than half-a-dozen; but by the year 1820 they had increased to
nearly fifty. Besides _Faro_ and _Hazard_, the foreign games of
_Macao, Roulette, Rouge et Noir_, &c., were introduced, and there was a
graduated accommodation for all ranks, from the Peer of the Realm to the
Highwayman, the Burglar, and the Pick et.

At one of the watering-places, in 1803, a baronet lost L20,000 at play,
and a bond for L7000. This will scarcely surprise us when we consider
that at the time above five hundred notorious characters supported
themselves in the metropolis by this species of robbery, and in
the summer spread themselves through the watering-places for their
professional operations. Some of them kept bankers, and were possessed
of considerable property in the funds and in land, and went their
_circuits_ as regularly as the judges. Most excellent judges they were,
too, of the condition of a 'pigeon.'

In a great commercial city where, from the extent of its trade,
manufacture, and revenue, there must be an immense circulation of
property, the danger is not to be conceived of the allurements which
were thus held out to young men in business having the command of money,
as well as the clerks of merchants, bankers, and others. In fact, too
many of this class proved, at the bar of justice, the consequence
of their resort to these complicated scenes of vice, idleness,
extravagance, misfortune, and crime. Among innumerable instances are the
following:--In 1796, a shopman to a grocer in the city was seduced into
a gaming party, where he first lost all his own money, and ultimately
what his master had intrusted him with. He hanged himself in his
bed-room a few hours afterwards.

In the same year, Lord Kenyon in summing up a case of the kind
said:--'It was extremely to be lamented that the vice of gambling had
descended to the very lowest orders of the people. It was prevalent
among the highest ranks of society, who had set the example to their
inferiors, and who, it seemed, were too great for the law. I wish they
could be punished. If any prosecutions are fairly brought before me, and
the parties are justly convicted, whatever may be their rank or station
in the country--though they should be the first ladies in the land--they
shall certainly exhibit themselves in the pillory.'

In 1820, James Lloyd, one of the harpies who practised on the credulity
of the lower orders by keeping a _Little Go_, or illegal lottery, was
brought up for the twentieth time, to answer for that offence. This man
was a methodist preacher, and assembled his neighbours together at his
dwelling on a Saturday to preach the gospel to them, and the remainder
of the week he was to be found, with an equally numerous party,
instructing them in the ruinous vice of gambling. The charge was clearly
proved, and the prisoner was sentenced to three months' imprisonment
with hard labour.

In the same year numbers of young persons robbed their masters to play
at a certain establishment called Morley's Gambling House, in the City,
and were ruined there. Some were brought to justice at the Old Bailey;
others, in the madness caused by their losses, destroyed themselves; and
some escaped to other countries, by their own activity, or through the
influence of their friends.

A traveller of the coachmakers, Messrs Houlditch of Long Acre, embezzled
or applied to his own use considerable sums of money belonging to them.
It appeared in evidence that the prisoner was sent by his employers to
the Continent to take orders for carriages; he was allowed a handsome
salary, and was furnished with carriages for sale. The money he received
for them he was to send to his employers, after deducting his expenses;
but instead of so doing, he gambled nearly the whole of it away. The
following letter to his master was put in by way of explanation of his
career:--'Sir,--The errors into which I have fallen have made me so hate
myself that I have adopted the horrible resolution of destroying myself.
I am sensible of the crime I commit against God, my family, and society,
but have not courage to live dishonoured. The generous confidence you
placed in me I have basely violated; I have robbed you, and though
not to enrich myself, the consciousness of it destroys me. Bankruptcy,
poverty, beggary, and want I could bear--conscious integrity would
support me: but the ill-fated acquaintance I formed led me to those
earthly hells--gambling houses; and then commenced my villainies and
deceptions to you. My losses were not large at first; and the stories
that were told me of gain made me hope they would soon be recovered. At
this period I received the order to go to Vienna, and on settling at the
hotel I found my debts treble what I had expected. I was in consequence
compelled to leave the two carriages as a guarantee for part of the
debt, which I had not in my power to discharge. I had hoped such success
at Vienna as would enable me to state all to you; but disappointment
blasted every hope, and despair, on my return to Paris, began to
generate the fatal resolution which, at the moment you read this,
will have matured itself to consummation. I feel that my reputation is
blasted; no way left of re-imbursing the money wasted, your confidence
in me totally destroyed, and nothing left to me but to see my wife and
children, and die. Affection for them holds me in existence a little
longer. The gaming table again presented itself to my imagination as the
only possible means of extricating myself. Count Montoni's 3000 francs,
which I received before you came to Paris, furnished me with the
means--my death speaks the result! After robbery so base as mine, I fear
it will be of no use for me to solicit your kindness for my wretched
wife and forlorn family. Oh, Sir, if you have pity on them and treat
them kindly, and do not leave them to perish in a foreign land, the
consciousness of the act will cheer you in your last moments, and God
will reward you and yours for it tenfold. Their sensibilities will not
cause them to need human aid. Thus I shall be threefold the murderer.
I thank you for the kindness you have rendered me; and I assure your
brother that he has, in this dreadful moment, my ardent wishes for his
welfare here and hereafter. I have so contrived it that you will see
a person at the Prince's tomorrow, who will interpret for you. In
mentioning my fate to him, you will not much serve your own interest
by blackening my character and memory. I subjoin the reward of my
villainies and the correct balance of the account. Count Edmond's
regular bills I have not received; his valet will give you them; the
others are in a pocket-book, which will be found on my corpse somewhere
in the wood of Boulogne.

'Signed, W. KINSBY.'


It appears, however, that the gentleman changed his mind and did not
commit suicide, but surrendered at the Insolvent Debtor's Court to be
dealt with according to law, which was a much wiser resolution.

To the games of Faro, Hazard, Macao, Doodle-do, and Rouge et Noir, more
even than to horse-racing, many tradesmen, once possessing good fortunes
and great business, owed their destruction. Thousands upon thousands
have been ruined in the vicinity of St James's. It was not confined to
youths of fortune only, but the decent and respectable tradesman, as
well as the dashing clerk of the merchant and banker, was ingulfed in
its vortes.

The proprietors of gaming houses were also concerned in fraudulent
insurances, and employed a number of clerks while the lotteries were
drawing, who conducted the business without risk, in counting-houses,
where no insurances were taken, but to which books were carried, as well
as from the different offices in every part of the town, as from the
_Morocco-men_, who went from door to door taking insurances and enticing
the poor and middling ranks to adventure.

It was gambling, and not the burdens of the long war, nor the revulsion
from war to peace, that made so many bankruptcies in the few years
succeeding the Battle of Waterloo. It was the plunderers at gaming
tables that filled the gazettes and made the gaols overflow with so many
victims.

A foreigner has advanced an opinion as to the source of the gambling
propensity of Englishmen. 'The English,' says M. Dunne,(68) 'the most
speculative nation on earth, calculate even upon future contingences.
Nowhere else is the adventurous rage for stock-jobbing carried on to
so great an extent. The fury of gambling, so common in England, is
undoubtedly a daughter of this speculative genius. The _Greeks_ of Great
Britain are, however, much inferior to those of France in cunning
and industry. A certain Frenchman who assumed in London the title and
manners of a baron, has been known to surpass all the most dexterous
rogues of the three kingdoms in the art of robbing. His aide-de-camp was
a kind of German captain, or rather _chevalier d'industrie_, a person
who had acted the double character of a French spy and an English
officer at the same time. Their tactics being at length discovered, the
baron was obliged to quit the country; and he is said to have afterwards
entered the monastery of La Trappe,' where doubtless, in the severe and
gloomy religious practices of that terrible penitentiary, he atoned for
his past enormities.


(68) 'Refexions sur l'Homme.'


'Till near the commencement of the present century the favourite game
was Faro, and as it was a decided advantage to hold the Bank, masters
and mistresses, less scrupulous than Wilberforce, frequently volunteered
to fleece and amuse the company. But scandal having made busy with the
names of some of them, it became usual to hire a professed gamester at
five or ten guineas a night, to set up a table for the evening, just as
any operatic professional might now-a-days be hired for a concert, or a
band-master for a ball.

'Faro gradually dropped out of fashion; Macao took its place; Hazard was
never wanting; and Whist began to be played for stakes which would have
satisfied Fox himself, who, though it was calculated that he might have
netted four or five thousand a year by games of skill, complained that
they afforded no excitement.

'Wattier's Club, in Piccadilly, was the resort of the Macao players. It
was kept by an old _maitre d'hotel_ of George IV., a character in
his way, who took a just pride in the cookery and wines of his
establishment.

'All the brilliant stars of fashion (and fashion was power then)
frequented Wattier's, with Beau Brummell for their sun. 'Poor Brummell,
dead, in misery and idiotcy, at Caen! and I remember him in all his
glory, cutting his jokes after the opera, at White's, in a black velvet
great-coat, and a cocked hat on his well-powdered head.

'Nearly the same turn of reflection is suggested as we run over the
names of his associates. Almost all of them were ruined--three out
of four irretrievably. Indeed, it was the forced expatriation of its
supporters that caused the club to be broken up.

'During the same period (from 1810 to 1815 or thereabouts) there was a
great deal of high play at White's and Brookes', particularly at Whist.
At Brookes' figured some remarkable characters--as Tippoo Smith, by
common consent the best Whist-player of his day; and an old gentleman
nicknamed Neptune, from his having once flung himself into the sea in
a fit of despair at being, as he thought, ruined. He was fished out in
time, found he was not ruined, and played on during the remainder of his
life.

'The most distinguished player at White's was the nobleman who was
presented at the Salons in Paris as Le Wellington des Joueurs (Lord
Rivers); and he richly merited the name, if skill, temper, and the most
daring courage are titles to it. The greatest genius, however, is not
infallible. He once lost three thousand four hundred pounds at Whist by
not remembering that the seven of hearts was in! He played at Hazard for
the highest stakes that any one could be got to play for with him, and
at one time was supposed to have won nearly a hundred thousand pounds;
but _IT ALL WENT_, along with a great deal more, at Crockford's.

'There was also a great deal of play at Graham's, the Union, the Cocoa
Tree, and other clubs of the second order in point of fashion. Here
large sums were hazarded with equal rashness, and remarkable characters
started up. Among the most conspicuous was the late Colonel Aubrey, who
literally passed his life at play. He did nothing else, morning, noon,
and night; and it was computed that he had paid more than sixty thousand
pounds for card-money. He was a very fine player at all games, and a
shrewd, clever man. He had been twice to India and made two fortunes.
It was said that he lost the first on his way home, transferred himself
from one ship to another without landing, went back, and made the
second. His life was a continual alternation between poverty and
wealth; and he used to say, the greatest pleasure in life is winning at
cards--the next greatest, losing!

'For several years deep play went on at all these clubs, fluctuating
both as to amount and locality, till by degrees it began to flag. It had
got to a low ebb when Mr Crockford came to London and established the
celebrated club which bore his name.

'Some good was certainly produced by the system. In the first place,
private gambling (between gentleman and gentleman), with its degrading
incidents, is at an end. In the second place, this very circumstance
brings the worst part of the practice within the reach of the law.
Public gambling, which only existed by and through what were popularly
termed _hells_, might be easily suppressed. There were, in 1844, more
than twenty of these establishments in Pall Mall, Piccadilly, and St
James's, called into existence by Crockford's success.'(69)


(69) Private MS. (Edinburgh Review, vol. LXXX).


Whilst such was the state of things among the aristocracy and those
who were able to consort with them, it seems that the lower orders were
pursuing 'private gambling,' in their 'ungenteel' fashion, to a very sad
extent. In 1834 a writer in the 'Quarterly' speaks as follows:--

'Doncaster, Epsom, Ascot, and Warwick, and most of our numerous
race-grounds and race-towns, are scenes of destructive and universal
gambling among the lower orders, which our absurdly lax police never
attempt to suppress; and yet, without the slightest approach to an
improperly harsh interference with the pleasures of the people, the
Roulette and E.O. tables, which plunder the peasantry at these places
for the benefit of travelling sharpers (certainly equally respectable
with some bipeds of prey who drive coroneted cabs near St James's),
might be put down by any watchful magistrate.'(70)


(70) Quarterly Review, vol. LII.


I fear that something similar may be suggested at the present day, as to
the same notorious localities.

Mr Sala, writing some years ago on gambling in England, said:--

'The passion for gambling is, I believe, innate; but there is, happily,
a very small percentage of the population who are born with a propensity
for high play. We are speculative and eagerly commercial; but it is rare
to discover among us that inveterate love for gambling, as gambling,
which you may find among the Italians, the South American Spaniards, the
Russians, and the Poles. Moro, Baccara, Tchuka--these are games at which
continental peasants will wager and lose their little fields, their
standing crops, their harvest in embryo, their very wives even. The
Americans surpass us in the ardour of their propitiation of the gambling
goddess, and on board the Mississippi steamboats, an enchanting game,
called _Poker_, is played with a delirium of excitement, whose intensity
can only be imagined by realizing that famous bout at "catch him who
can," which took place at the horticultural _fete_ immortalized by Mr
Samuel Foote, comedian, at which was present the great _Panjandrum_
himself, with the little round button at top, the festivities continuing
till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of the company's boots.

'When I was a boy, not so very long--say twenty years--since, the
West-end of London swarmed with illicit gambling houses, known by a name
I will not offend your ears by repeating.

On every race-course there was a public gambling booth and an abundance
of thimble-riggers' stalls. These, I am happy to state, exist no longer;
and the fools who are always ready to be plucked, can only, in gambling,
fall victims to the commonest and coarsest of swindlers; skittle sharps,
beer-house rogues and sharpers, and knaves who travel to entrap the
unwary in railway carriages with loaded dice, marked cards, and little
squares of green baize for tables, and against whom the authorities of
the railway companies very properly warn their passengers. A notorious
gambling house in St James's Street--Crockford's,--where it may be said,
without exaggeration, that millions of pounds sterling have been diced
away by the fools of fashion, is now one of the most sumptuous and
best conducted dining establishments in London--the "Wellington." The
semipatrician Hades that were to be found in the purlieus of St James's,
such as the "Cocoa Tree," the "Berkeley," and the "stick-shop," at
the corner of Albemarle Street--a whole Pandemonium of rosewood
and plate-glass dens--never recovered from a razzia made on them
simultaneously one night by the police, who were organized on a plan of
military tactics, and under the command of Inspector Beresford; and at
a concerted signal assailed the portals of the infamous places with
sledge-hammers. At the time to which I refer, in Paris, the Palais
Royal, and the environs of the Boulevards des Italiens, abounded with
magnificent gambling rooms similar to those still in existence in
Hombourg, which were regularly licensed by the police, and farmed under
the municipality of the Ville de Paris; a handsome per-centage of the
iniquitous profits being paid towards the charitable institutions of
the French metropolis. There are very many notabilities of the French
Imperial Court, who were then _fermiers des jeux_, or gambling house
contractors; and only a year or two since Doctor Louis Veron, ex-dealer
in quack medicines, ex-manager of the Grand Opera, and ex-proprietor
of the "Constitutionnel" newspaper, offered an enormous royalty to
Government for the privilege of establishing a gambling house in
Paris. But the Emperor Napoleon--all ex-member of Crockford's as he
is--sensibly declined the tempting bait. A similarly "generous" offer
was made last year to the Belgian Government by a joint-stock company
who wanted to establish public gaming tables at the watering-places of
Ostend, and who offered to establish an hospital from their profits; but
King Leopold, the astute proprietor of Claremont, was as prudent as his
Imperial cousin of France, and refused to soil his hands with cogged
dice.

The lease of the Paris authorized gaming houses expired in 1836-7;
and the municipality, albeit loath to lose the fat annual revenue, was
induced by governmental pressure not to renew it; and it is asserted
that from that moment the number of annual suicides in Paris very
sensibly decreased. "It is not generally known," as the penny-a-liners
say, "that the Rev. Caleb Colton, a clergyman of the Church of England,
and the author of "Lacon," a book replete with aphoristic wisdom, blew
his brains out in the forest of St Germains, after ruinous losses at
Frascati's, at the corner of the Rue Richelieu and the Boulevards, one
of the most noted of the _Maisons des Jeux_, and which was afterwards
turned into a _restaurant_, and is now a shawl-shop.(71) Just before the
revolution of 1848, nearly all the watering-places in the Prusso-Rhenane
provinces, and in Bavaria, and Hesse, Nassau, and Baden, contained
Kursaals, where gambling was openly carried on. These existed at
Aix-la-Chapelle, Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, Ems, Kissengen, and at Spa,
close to the Prussian frontier, in Belgium. It is due to the fierce
democrats who revolted against the monarchs of the defunct Holy
Alliance, to say that they utterly swept away the gambling-tables in
Rhenish-Prussia, and in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Herr Hecker, of
the red republican tendencies, and the astounding wide-awake hat,
particularly distinguished himself in the latter place by his
iconoclastic animosity to _Roulette_ and _Rouge et Noir_. When dynastic
"order" was restored the Rhine gaming tables were re-established. The
Prussian Government, much to its honour, has since shut up the
gambling houses at that resort for decayed nobility and ruined livers,
Aix-la-Chapelle. A motion was made in the Federal Diet, sitting at
Frankfort, to constrain the smaller governments, in the interest of
the Germanic good name generally, to close their _tripots_, and in some
measure the Federal authorities succeeded. The only existing continental
gaming houses authorized by government are now the two Badens, Spa (of
which the lease is nearly expired, and will not be renewed), Monaco
(capital of the ridiculous little Italian principality, of which the
suzerain is a scion of the house of "Grimaldi"), Malmoe, in Sweden,
too remote to do much harm, and HOMBOURG. This last still flourishes
greatly, and I am afraid is likely to flourish, though happily in
isolation; for, as I have before remarked, the "concession" or privilege
of the place has been guaranteed for a long period of years to come by
the expectant dynasty of Hesse-Darmstadt. "_C'est fait_," "It is all
settled," said the host of the Hotel de France to me, rubbing his hands
exultingly when I mentioned the matter. But, _Quis custodiet custodes?_
Hesse-Darmstadt has guaranteed the "administration of Hesse-Hombourg,
but who is to guarantee Hesse-Darmstadt? A battalion of French infantry
would, it seems to me, make short work of H. D., lease guarantees,
Federal contingent, and all. I must mention, in conclusion, that within
a very few years we had, if we have not still, a licensed gaming house
in our exquisitely moral British dominions. This was in that remarkably
"tight little island" at the mouth of the Elbe, Heligoland, which we so
queerly possess--Puffendorf, Grotius, and Vattel, or any other writers
on the _Jus gentium_, would be puzzled to tell why, or by what right. I
was at Hamburg in the autumn of 1856, crossed over to Heligoland one day
on a pleasure trip, and lost some money there, at a miniature _Roulette_
table, much frequented by joyous Israelites from the mainland, and
English "soldier officers" in mufti. I did not lose much of my temper,
however, for the odd, quaint little place pleased me. Not so another
Roman citizen, or English travelling gent., who losing, perhaps,
seven-and-sixpence, wrote a furious letter to the "Times," complaining
of such horrors existing under the British flag, desecration of the
English name, and so forth. Next week the lieutenant-governor,
by "order," put an end to _Roulette_ at Heligoland; but play on a
diminutive scale has since, I have been given to understand, recommenced
there without molestation.


(71) Mr Sala is here in error. Colton was a prosperous gambler
throughout, and committed suicide to avoid a surgical operation. A
notice of the Rev. C. Colton will be found in the sequel.


'We gamble in England at the Stock Exchange, we gamble on horse-races
all the year round; but there is something more than the mere
eventuality of a chance that prompts us to the _enjeu;_ there is
mixed up with our eagerness for the stakes the most varied elements
of business and pleasure; cash-books, ledgers, divident-warrants,
indignation meetings of Venezuelan bond-holders, coupons, cases of
champagne, satin-skinned horses with plaited manes, grand stands, pretty
faces, bright flags, lobster salads, cold lamb, fortune-telling gipsies,
barouches-and-four, and "our Aunt Sally." High play is still rife in
some aristocratic clubs; there are prosperous gentlemen who wear clean
linen every day, and whose names are still in the Army List, who make
their five or six hundred a year by Whist-playing, and have nothing else
to live upon; in East-end coffee-shops, sallow-faced Jew boys, itinerant
Sclavonic jewellers, and brawny German sugar-bakers, with sticky
hands, may be found glozing and wrangling over their beloved cards and
dominoes, and screaming with excitement at the loss of a few pence.
There are yet some occult nooks and corners, nestling in unsavoury
localities, on passing which the policeman, even in broad daylight,
cannot refrain from turning his head a little backwards--as though
some bedevilments must necessarily be taking place directly he has
passed--where, in musty back parlours, by furtive lamplight, with doors
barred, bolted, and sheeted with iron, some wretched, cheating gambling
goes on at unholy hours. Chicken-hazard is scotched, not killed; but a
poor, weazened, etiolated biped is that once game-bird now. And there
is Doncaster, every year--Doncaster, with its subscription-rooms under
authority, winked at by a pious corporation, patronized by nobles and
gentlemen supporters of the turf, and who are good enough, sometimes, to
make laws for us plebeians in the Houses of Lords and Commons. There
is Doncaster, with policemen to keep order, and admit none but
"respectable" people--subscribers, who fear Heaven and honour the Queen.
Are you aware, my Lord Chief-Justice, are you aware, Mr Attorney, Mr
Solicitor-General, have you the slightest notion, ye Inspectors of
Police, that in the teeth of the law, and under its very eyes, a
shameless gaming-house exists in moral Yorkshire, throughout every
Doncaster St Leger race-week? Of course you haven't; never dreamed of
such a thing--never could, never would. Hie you, then, and prosecute
this wretched gang of betting-touts, congregating at the corner of Bride
Lane, Fleet Street; quick, lodge informations against this publican who
has suffered card-playing to take place, raffles, or St Leger sweeps to
be held in his house. "You have seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar,
and the creature run from the cur. There thou might'st behold the great
image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office." You have--very well.
Take crazy King Lear's words as a text for a sermon against legislative
inconsistencies, and come back with me to Hombourg Kursaal.'



CHAPTER VII. GAMBLING IN BRIGHTON IN 1817.

The subject of English gambling may be illustrated by a series of events
which happened at Brighton in 1817, when an inquiry respecting the
gaming carried on at the libraries led to many important disclosures.

It appears that a warrant was granted on the oath of a Mr William
Clarke, against William Wright and James Ford, charged with feloniously
stealing L100. But the prosecutor did not appear in court to prove the
charge. It was quite evident, therefore, that the law had been abused
in the transaction, and the magistrate, Sergeant Runnington, directed
warrants to be issued for the immediate appearance of the prosecutor
and Timothy O'Mara, as an evidence; but they absconded, and the learned
Sergeant discharged the prisoners.

The matter then took a different turn. The same William Wright, before
charged with 'stealing' the L100, was now examined as a witness to
give evidence upon an examination against Charles Walker, of the Marine
Library, for keeping an unlawful Gaming House.

This witness stated that he was engaged, about five weeks before, to act
as _punter_ or player (that is, in this case, a sham player or decoy) to
a table called _Noir, rouge, tout le deux_ (evidently a name invented
to evade the statute, if possible), by William Clarke, the prosecutor,
before-mentioned; that the table was first carried to the back room of
Donaldson's Library, where it continued for three or four days, when
Donaldson discharged it from his premises.

He said he soon got into the confidence of Clarke, who put him up to the
secrets of playing. The firm consisted of O'Mara, Pollett, Morley, and
Clarke. There was not much playing at Donaldson's. Afterwards the table
was removed into Broad Street, but the landlady quickly sent it away. It
was then carried to a room over Walker's Library, where a rent was
paid of twelve guineas per week, showing plainly the profits of the
speculation.

Several gentlemen used to frequent the table, among whom was one who
lost L125.

Clarke asked the witness if he thought the person who lost his money was
rich? And being answered in the affirmative, it was proposed that he,
William Wright, should invite the gentleman to dinner, to let him have
what wine he liked, and to spare no expense to get him drunk.

The gentleman was induced to play again, and endeavour to recover his
money. As he had nothing but large bills, to a considerable amount, he
was prevailed on to go to London, in company with the witness, who
was to take care and bring him back. One of the firm, Pollett, wrote a
letter of recommendation to a Mr Young, to get the bills discounted at
his broker's. They returned to Brighton, and the witness apprized the
firm of his arrival. They wanted him to come that evening, but the
witness _TOLD THE GENTLEMAN OF HIS SUSPICIONS_--that during their
absence a _FALSE TABLE_ had been substituted.

The witness, however, returned to his employers that evening, when the
firm advanced him L100, and Ford, another punter of the sort, L100, to
back with the gentleman as a blind--so that when the signal was given to
put upon black or red, they were to put their stakes--by which means the
gentleman would follow; and they calculated upon fleecing him of five
or six thousand pounds in the course of an hour. According to his own
account, the witness told the gentleman of this trick; and the following
morning the latter went with him, to know if this nefarious dealing has
been truly represented.

On entering the library they met Walker, who wished them better success,
but trembled visibly. At the door leading into the room porters were
stationed; and, as soon as they entered, Walker ordered it to be bolted,
for the sake of privacy; but as soon as the gentleman ascended the dark
staircase, he became alarmed at the appearance of men in the room, and
returned to the porter, and, by a timely excuse, was allowed to pass.

At this table Clarke generally dealt, and O'Mara played. It was for
not restoring the L100 to the firm that the charge of felony was laid
against the witness--after the escape of the gentleman; but an offer of
L100 was made to him, after his imprisonment, if he would not give his
evidence of the above facts and transactions.

The evidence of the other witness, Ford, confirmed all the material
facts of the former, and the gentleman himself, the intended victim,
substantiated the evidence of Wright--as to putting him in possession of
their nefarious designs.

When the gentleman found that he had been cheated of the L125, he went
to Walker to demand back his money. Walker, in the utmost confusion,
went into the room, and returned with a proposal to allow L100. This
he declined to take, and immediately laid the information before Mr
Sergeant Runnington.

The learned Sergeant forcibly recapitulated the evidence, and declared
that in the whole course of his professional duties he had never heard
such a disclosure of profligacy and villainy, combined with every
species of wickedness. In a strain of pointed animadversion he declared
it to be an imperative duty,--however much his private feelings might
be wounded in seeing a reputable tradesman of the town convicted of such
nefarious pursuits,--to order warrants to be issued against all parties
concerned as rogues and vagrants.

At the next hearing of the case the court was crowded to excess; and the
mass of evidence deposed before the magistrates threw such a light on
the system of gambling, that they summarily put a stop to the Cobourg
and Loo tables at the various public establishments.

At the first examination, the 'gentleman' before mentioned, a Mr
Mackenzie, said he had played _Rouge et Noir_ at Walker's, and had lost
L125. He saw O'Mara there, but he appeared as a player, not a banker;
the only reason for considering him as one of the proprietors of the
table, arose from the information of the witnesses Wright and Ford.

On this evidence, Mr Sergeant Runnington called on O'Mara and Walker for
their defence, observing that, according to the statements before him,
there appeared sufficient ground for considering O'Mara as a rogue and
vagabond; and for subjecting Mr Walker to penalties for keeping a
house or room wherein he permitted unlawful games to be played. O'Mara
affirmed that the whole testimony of Wright and Ford with respect to
him was false; that he had been nine years a resident housekeeper in
Brighton, and was known by, and had rendered essential services to, many
respectable individuals who lived in the town, and to many noble
persons who were occasional visitors. He seemed deeply penetrated by the
intimation that he could be whipped, or otherwise treated as a vagabond;
and said, that if time were allowed him to collect evidence, and obtain
legal assistance, he could disprove the charge, or at least invalidate
the evidence of the two accusers.

In consequence of these representations, the case was adjourned to
another day, when, so much was the expectation excited by the rumour of
the affair, that at the opening of the court the hall was crowded almost
to suffocation, and all the avenues were completely beset.

O'Mara appeared, with his counsel, the celebrated Mr Adolphus--the
Ballantyne of his day--of Old Bailey renown and forensic prowess.

Mr Sergeant Runnington very obligingly stated to Mr Adolphus the
previous proceeding, directed the depositions to be laid before him,
and allowed him time to peruse them. Mr Adolphus having gone through the
document, requested that the witnesses might be brought into court, that
he might cross-question them separately; which being ordered, Wright was
first put forward--the man who had received the L100, enlightened the
Mr Mackenzie, and who was charged with feloniously stealing the above
amount.

After the usual questions, very immaterial in the present case, but
answered, the witness went on to say that, O'Mara called at his lodgings
and said, if he (Wright) could not persuade Mr Mackenzie to come from
London, he was not to leave him, but write to him (O'Mara), and he would
go to town, and win all his money. He had, on a former occasion,
told the witness, that he could win all Mackenzie's money at child's
play--that he could toss up and win ninety times out of one hundred; he
had told both him and Ford, that if they met with any gentleman who did
not like the game of _Rouge et Noir_, and would bring them to his house,
he was always provided with cards, dice, and backgammon tables, to win
their money from them.

The learned counsel then cross-questioned the witness as to various
matters, in the usual way, but tending, of course, to damage him by
the answers which the questions necessitated--a horrible, but, perhaps,
necessary ordeal perpetuated in our law-procedure. In these answers
there was something like prevarication; so that the magistrate, Mr
Sergeant Runnington, asked the witness at the close of the examination,
whether he had any previous acquaintance with the gentlemen who had
engaged him at half-a-crown a game, and then so candily communicated to
him all their schemes? He said, none whatever. 'But,' said the Sergeant,
'you were in the daily habit of playing at this public table for the
purpose of deceiving the persons who might come there?' The witness
answered--'I was.'

The witness Ford fared no better in the cross-examination, and Mr
Sergeant Runnington, at its close, asked him the same question that
he had addressed to Wright, respecting his playing at the table, and
received the same answer.

Mr Mackenzie did not appear, and there was no further evidence. Mr
Adolphus said that if he were called upon to make any defence for his
client upon a charge so supported, he was ready to do it; but, as he
must make many observations, not only on the facts, but on the _LAW_, he
was anxious if possible to avoid doing so, as he did not wish to say
too much about the law respecting gaming before so large and mixed an
audience.(72)


(72) See Chapter XI. for the views of Mr Adolphus here alluded to.


Two witnesses were called, who gave evidence which was damaging to the
character of Ford, stating that he told them he was in a conspiracy
against O'Mara and some other moneyed men, from whom they should get
three or four hundred pounds, and if witness would conceal from O'Mara
his (Ford's) real name, he should have his share of the money, and might
go with him and Wright to Brussels.

After hearing these witnesses, Mr Sergeant Runnington, without calling
on Mr Adolphus for any further defence of his client, pronounced the
judgment of the Bench.

He reviewed the transaction from its commencement, and stated the
impression, to the disadvantage of O'Mara, which the tale originally
told by the two witnesses was calculated to make. But, on hearing the
cross-examination of those witnesses, and seeing no evidence against
the defendant but from sources so impure and corrupt--recollecting the
severe penalties of the Vagrant Acts, and sitting there not merely as a
judge, but also exercising the functions of a jury, he could not bring
himself to convict on such evidence. The witnesses, impure as they were,
were _NOT SUPPORTED BY MR MACKENZIE IN ANY PARTICULAR_, except the
fact of his losing money, at a time when O'Mara did not appear as a
proprietor of the table, but as a player like himself. O'Mara must
therefore be discharged; but the two witnesses would not be so
fortunate. From their own mouths it appeared that they had been using
subtle craft to deceive and impose upon his Majesty's subjects, by
playing or betting at unlawful games, and had no legal or visible means
of gaining a livelihood; the court, therefore, adjudged them to be
rogues and vagabonds, and committed them, in execution, to the gaol at
Lewes, there to remain till the next Quarter Sessions, and then to be
further dealt with according to law. A short private conference followed
between the magistrates and Mr Adolphus, the result of which was that Mr
Walker was not proceeded against, but entered into a recognizance not to
permit any kind of gaming to be carried on in his house.



CHAPTER VIII. GAMBLING AT THE GERMAN BATHING-PLACES.----

BADEN AND ITS CONVERSATION HOUSE.

Baden-Baden in the season is full of the most exciting contrasts--gay
restaurants and brilliant saloons, gaming-tables, promenades, and
theatres crammed with beauty and rank, in the midst of lovely natural
scenery, and under the shade of the pine-clad heights of the Hercynian
or Black Forest--the scene of so many weird tales of old Germany--as for
instance of the charming _Undine_ of De la Mothe Fouque.

But among the seducing attractions of Baden-Baden, and of all German
bathing-places, the Rouge-et-noir and Roulette-table hold a melancholy
pre-eminence,--being at once a shameful source of revenue to the
prince,--a rallying point for the gay, the beautiful, the professional
blackleg, the incognito duke or king,--and a vortex in which the
student, the merchant, and the subaltern officer are, in the course of
the season, often hopelessly and irrevocably ingulfed. Remembering the
gaming excitement of the primitive Germans, we can scarcely be surprised
to find that the descendants of these northern races poison the pure
stream of pleasure by the introduction of this hateful occupation. It
is, however, rather remarkable that all foreign visitors, whether Dutch,
Flemish, Swede, Italian, or even English, of whatever age or disposition
or sex, 'catch the frenzy' during the (falsely so-called) _Kurzeit_,
that is, _Cure-season_, at Baden, Ems, and Ais.

Princes and their subjects, fathers and sons, and even, horrible to say,
mothers and daughters, are hanging, side by side, for half the night
over the green table; and, with trembling hands and anxious eyes,
watching their chance-cards, or thrusting francs and Napoleons with
their rakes to the red or the black cloth.

No spot in the whole world draws together a more distinguished society
than may be met at Baden; its attractions are felt and acknowledged by
every country in Europe. Many of the _elite_ of each nation may
yearly be found there during the months of summer, and, as a natural
consequence, many of the worst and vilest follow them, in the hope of
pillage.

Says Mrs Trollope:--'I doubt if anything less than the evidence of the
senses can enable any one fully to credit and comprehend the spectacle
that a gaming-table offers. I saw women distinguished by rank,
elegant in person, modest, and even reserved in manner, sitting at the
Rouge-et-noir table with their rateaux, or rakes, and marking-cards in
their hands;--the former to push forth their bets, and draw in their
winnings, the latter to prick down the events of the game. I saw such
at different hours through the whole of Sunday. To name these is
impossible; but I grieve to say that two English women were among them.'

The Conversationshaus, where the gambling takes place, is let out by
the Government of Baden to a company of speculators, who pay, for the
exclusive privilege of keeping the tables, L11,000 annually, and
agree to spend in addition 250,000 florins (L25,000) on the walks and
buildings, making altogether about L36,000. Some idea may be formed from
this of the vast sums of money which must be yearly lost by the dupes
who frequent it. The whole is under the direction of M. Benazet, who
formerly farmed the gambling houses of Paris.

      'On trouve ici le jeu, les livres, la musique,
     Les cigarres, l'amour, les orangers,
     Le monde tantot gai, tantot melancholique,
     Les glaces, la danse, et les cochers;
      De la biere, de bons diners,
     A cote d'arbre une boutique,
     Et la vue de hauts rochers.
         Ma foi!'


   'We find here gambling, books, and music,
   Cigars, love-making, orange-trees;
   People or gay or melancholic,
   Ices, dancing, and coachmen, if you please;
   Beer, and good dinners; besides these,
   Shops where they sell not _on tic;_
   And towering rocks one ever sees.'


'How shall I describe,' says Mr Whitelocke, 'to my readers in language
sufficiently graphic, one of the resorts the most celebrated in Europe;
a place, if not competing with Crockford's in gorgeous magnificence
and display, at least surpassing it in renown, and known over a wider
sphere? The metropolitan pump-room of Europe, conducted on the principle
of gratuitous admittance to all bearing the semblance of gentility and
conducting themselves with propriety, opens its Janus doors to all the
world with the most laudable hospitality and with a perfect indifference
to exclusiveness, requiring only the hat to be taken off upon entering,
and rejecting only short jackets, cigar, pipe, and meerschaum. A room
of this description, a temple dedicated to fashion, fortune, and
flirtation, requires a pen more current, a voice more eloquent,
than mine to trace, condense, vivify, and depict. Taking everything,
therefore, for granted, let us suppose a vast saloon of regular
proportions, rather longer than broad, at either end garnished by a
balcony; beneath, doors to the right and left, and opposite to the main
entrance, conduct to other apartments, dedicated to different purposes.
On entering the eye is at once dazzled by the blaze of lights from
chandeliers of magnificent dimensions, of lamps, lustres, and sconces.
The ceiling and borders set off into compartments, showered over with
arabesques, the gilded pillars, the moving mass of promenaders, the
endless labyrinth of human beings assembled from every region in Europe,
the costly dresses, repeated by a host of mirrors, all this combined,
which the eye conveys to the brain at a single glance, utterly fails in
description. As with the eye, so it is with the ear; at every step a new
language falls upon it, and every tongue with different intonation, for
the high and the low, the prince, peer, vassal, and tradesman, the proud
beauty, the decrepit crone, some fresh budding into the world, some
standing near the grave, the gentle and the stern, the sombre and the
gay, in short, every possible antithesis that the eye, ear, heart can
perceive, hear, or respond to, or that the mind itself can imagine, is
here to be met with in two minutes. And yet all this is no Babel; for
all, though concentrated, is admirably void of confusion; and evil
or strong passions, if they do exist, are religiously suppressed--a
necessary consequence, indeed, where there can be no sympathy, and where
contempt and ridicule would be the sole reciprocity. In case, however,
any such display should take place, a gendarme keeps constant watch
at the door, appointed by government, it is true, but resembling our
Bow-street officers in more respects than one.

'Now that we have taken a survey of the brilliant and moving throng, let
us approach the stationary crowd to the left hand, and see what it is
that so fascinates and rivets their attention. They are looking upon a
long table covered with green cloth, in the centre of which is a large
polished wooden basin with a moveable rim, and around it are small
compartments, numbered to a certain extent, namely 38, alternately red
and black in irregular order, numbered from one to 36, a nought or zero
in a red, and a double zero upon the black, making up the 38, and each
capable of holding a marble. The moveable rim is set in motion by the
hand, and as it revolves horizontally from east to west round its axis,
the marble is caused by a jerk of the finger and thumb to fly off in a
contrary movement. The public therefore conclude that no calculation
can foretell where the marble will fall, and I believe they are right,
inasmuch as the bank plays a certain and sure game, however deep, runs
no risk of loss, and consequently has no necessity for superfluously
cheating or deluding the public. It also plays double, that is, on both
sides of the wheel of fortune at once.

'When the whirling of both rim and marble cease, the latter falls,
either simultaneously or after some coy uncertainty, into one of
the compartments, and the number and colour, &c., are immediately
proclaimed, the stakes deposited are dexterously raked up by the
croupier, or increased by payment from the bank, according as the colour
wins or loses. Now, the two sides or tables are merely duplicates of one
another, and each of them is divided something like a chess-board
into three columns of squares, which amount to 36; the numbers advance
arithmetically from right to left, and consequently there are 12 lines
down, so as to complete the rectangle; as one, therefore, stands at the
head, four stands immediately under it, and so on. At the bottom lie
three squares, with the French marks 12 p--12 m--12 d, that is, first,
middle, third dozen. The three large meadows on either side are for red
and black, pair and odd, miss and pass--which last signify the division
of the numbers into the first and second half, from 1 to 18, and from
19 to 36, inclusive. If a number be staked upon and wins, the stake is
increased to six times its amount, and so on, always less as the stake
is placed in different positions, which may be effected in the following
ways--by placing the piece of gold or silver on the line (_a cheval_,
as it is called), partly on one and partly on its neighbour, two numbers
are represented, and should one win, the piece is augmented to eighteen
times the sum; three numbers are signified upon the stroke at the end or
beginning of the numbers that go across; six, by placing the coin on
the border of a perpendicular and a horizontal line between two strokes;
four, where the lines cross within; twelve numbers are signified in a
two-fold manner, either upon the column where the figures follow in the
order of one, four, seven, and so on, or on the side-fields mentioned
above; these receive the stake trebled; and those who stake solely upon
the colour, the two halves, or equal and odd, have their stake doubled
when they win. Now, the two zeros, that is, the simple and compound,
stand apart and may be separately staked upon; should either turn up,
the stake is increased in a far larger proportion.

'To render the game equal, without counting in the zeros and other
trifles, the winner ought to receive the square of 36, instead of 36.

'It is a melancholy amusement to any rational being not infatuated
by the blind rage of gold, to witness the incredible excitement so
repeatedly made to take the bank by storm, sometimes by surprise, anon
by stealth, and not rarely by digging a mine, laying intrenchments and
opening a fire of field-pieces, heavy ordnance, and flying artillery;
but the fortress, proud and conscious of its superior strength, built on
a rock of adamant, laughs at the fiery attacks of its foes, nay, itself
invites the storm.

'For those classes of mankind who possess a little more prudence, the
game called _Trente-et-un_, and _Quarante_, or _Rouge et Noir_ are
substituted.

'The lord of the temple or establishment pays, I believe, to government
a yearly sum of 35,000 florins (about L3000) for permission to keep
up the establishment. He has gone to immense expense in decorating
the building; he pays a crowd of croupiers at different salaries, and
officers of his own, who superintend and direct matters; he lights
up the building, and he presides over the festivities of the town--in
short, he is the patron of it all. With all this liberality he himself
derives an enormous revenue, an income as sure and determined as that of
my Lord Mayor himself.'(73)


(73) City of the Fountains, or Baden-Baden. By R. H. Whitelocke.
Carlsruhe, 1840.


The Baden season begins in May; the official opening takes place towards
the close of the spring quarter, and then the fashionable world begins
to arrive at the rendezvous.

It cannot be denied that everything is right well regulated, and apart
from the terrible dangers of gambling, the place does very great credit
to the authorities who thrive on the nefarious traffic. Perfect order
and decency of deportment, with all the necessary civilities of life,
are rigorously insisted on, and summary expulsion is the consequence
of any intolerable conduct. If it so happens that any person becomes
obnoxious in any way, whatever may be his or her rank, the first
intimation will be--'Sir, you are not in your place here;' or, 'Madame,
the air of Baden does not suit you.' If these words are disregarded,
there follows a summary order--'You must leave Baden this very day, and
cross the frontiers of the Grand Duchy within twenty-four hours.'

Mr Sala, in his novel 'Make your Game,'(74) has given a spirited
description of the gambling scenes at Baden.


(74) Originally published in the 'Welcome Guest.'


Whilst I write there is exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, London, Dore's
magnificent picture of the _Tapis Vert_, or Life in Baden-Baden, of
which the following is an accurate description:--

'The _Tapis Vert_ is a moral, and at the same time an exceedingly
clever, satire. It is illustrative of the life, manners, and
predilections and pursuits of a class of society left hereafter to enjoy
the manifold attractions of fashionable watering-places, without the
scourge that for so many years held its immoral and degrading sway in
their sumptuous halls.

'In one of these splendid salons the fashionable crowd is eagerly
pressing round an oblong table covered with green cloth (_le tapis
vert_), upon which piles of gold and bank-notes tell the tale of "_noir
perd et la couleur gagne_," and vice versa. The principal group, upon
which Dore has thrown one of his powerful effects of light, is lifelike,
and several of the actors are at once recognized. Both croupiers are
well-known characters. There is much life and movement in the silent
scene, in which thousands of pounds change hands in a few seconds. To
the left of the croupier (dealer), who turns up the winning card, sits
a finely-dressed woman, who cares for little else but gold. There is a
remarkable expression of eagerness and curiosity upon the countenance of
the lady who comes next, and who endeavours, with the assistance of her
eye-glass, to find out the state of affairs. The gentleman next to her
is an inveterate _blase_. The countenance of the old man reckoning up
needs no description. Near by stands a lady with a red feather in her
hat, and whose lace shawl alone is worth several hundred pounds--for
Dore made it. The two female figures to the left are splendidly painted.
The one who causes the other croupier to turn round seems somewhat
extravagantly dressed; but these costumes have been frequently worn
within the last two years both at Baden and Hombourg. The old lady at
the end of the table, to the left, is a well-known habituee at both
places. The bustling and shuffling eagerness of the figures in the
background is exceedingly well rendered.

'As a whole, the _Tapis Vert_ is a very fine illustration of real life,
as met with in most of the leading German watering-places.'(75)


(75) 'Illustrated Times.'


'At the present moment,' says another authority, writing more than a
year ago, 'there are three very bold female gamblers at Baden. One is
the Russian Princess ----, who plays several hours every day at _Rouge
et Noir_, and sometimes makes what in our money would be many hundreds,
and at others goes empty away. She wins calmly enough, but when luck
is against her looks anxious. The second is the wife of an Italian
ex-minister, who is well known both as an authoress and politician. She
patronizes _Roulette_, and at every turn of the wheel her money passes
on the board. She is a good gambler--smirking when she wins, and
smirking when she loses. She dresses as splendidly as any of the
dames of Paris. The other night she excited a flutter among the ladies
assembled in the salons of the "Conversation" by appearing in a robe
flaming red with an exaggerated train which dragged its slow length
along the floor. But the greatest of the feminine players is the Leonie
Leblanc. When she is at the _Rouge et Noir_ table a larger crowd than
usual is collected to witness her operation. The stake she generally
risks is 6000 francs (L240), which is the maximum allowed. Her chance is
changing: a few days back she won L4000 in one sitting; some days later
she lost about L2000, and was then reduced to the, for her, indignity of
playing for paltry sums--L20 or thereabouts.'

Among the more recent chronicles, the _Figaro_ gives the following
account of the close of the campaign of a gaming hero, M. Edgar de la
Charme, who, for a number of days together, never left the gaming-room
without carrying off the sum of 24,000 francs.

'The day before yesterday, M. de la Charme, reflecting that there must
be an end even to the greatest run of luck, locked his portmanteau, paid
his bill, and took the road to the railway station, accompanied by some
of his friends. On reaching the wicket he found it closed; there were
still three-quarters of an hour to pass before the departure of the
train. "I will go and play my parting game," he exclaimed, and, turning
to the coachman, bade him drive to the Kursaal. His friends surrounded
him, and held him back; he should not go, he would lose all his
winnings. But he was resolute, and soon reached the Casino, where his
travelling dress caused a stir of satisfaction among the croupiers. He
sat down at the _Trente-et-quarante_, broke the bank in 20 minutes, got
into his cab again, and seeing the inspector of the tables walking
to and fro under the arcades, he said to him, in a tone of exquisite
politeness, "I could not think of going away without leaving you my
P.P.C."'


SPA.


'The gambling houses of Spa are in the Redoute, where _Rouge et Noir_
and _Roulette_ are carried on nearly from morning to night.

The profits of these establishments exceed L40,000 a year. In former
times they belonged to the Bishop of Liege, who was a partner in the
concern, and derived a considerable revenue from his share of the
ill-gotten gains of the manager of the establishment, and no gambling
tables could be set up without his permission.'(76)


(76) Murray's Handbook for Travellers on the Continent.


'The gambling in Spa is in a lower style than elsewhere. The croupiers
seem to be always on the look-out for cheating. You never see here a
pile of gold or bank notes on the table, as at Hombourg or Wiesbaden,
with the player saying, "Cinquante louis aux billet," "Cent-vingt louis
a la masse," and the winnings scrupulously paid, or the losings raked
carefully away from the heap. They do not allow that at Spa; there is an
order against it on the wall. They could not trust the people that play,
I suppose, and it is doubtful if the people could trust the croupiers.
The ball spins more slowly at _Roulette_--the cards are dealt more
gingerly at _Trente-et-quarante_ here than elsewhere. Nothing must
be done quickly, lest somebody on one side or other should try to do
somebody else. Altogether Spa is not a pleasant place to play in, and
as, moreover, the odds are as great against you as at Ems, it is better
to stick to the promenade _de sept heures_ and the ball-room, and leave
the two tables alone. Outside it is cheery and full of life. The Queen
of the Belgians is here, the Duke of Aumale, and other nice people. The
breeze from the hills is always delicious; the Promenade Meyerbeer as
refreshing on a hot day as a draught of iced water. But the denizens,
male and female, of the _salons de jeu_ are often obnoxious, and one
wishes that the old Baden law could be enforced against some of the
gentler sex.

'By way of warning to any of your readers who propose to visit the
tables this summer, will you let me tell a little anecdote, from
personal experience, of one of these places--which one I had perhaps
better not say. I took a place at the Roulette table, and had not staked
more than once or twice, when two handsomely dressed ladies placed
themselves one on either side of me, and commenced playing with the
smallest coins allowed, wedging me in rather unpleasantly close between
them. At my third or fourth stake I won on both the colour and a number,
and my neighbour on the right quietly swept up my coins from the colour
the instant they were paid. I remonstrated, and she very politely argued
the point, ending by restoring my money. But during our discussion my
far larger stake, paid in the mean while, on the winning number, had
disappeared into the pocket of my neighbour on the left, who was not so
polite, and was very indignant at my suggestion that the stake was mine.
An appeal to the croupier only produced a shrug of the shoulders and
regret that he had not seen who staked the money, an offer to stop the
play, and a suggestion that I should find it very difficult to prove it
was my stake. The "plant" between the two women was evident. The whole
thing was a systematically-planned robbery, and very possibly the
croupier was a confederate. I detected the two women in communication,
and I told them that I should change my place to the other side of the
table where I would trouble them not to come. They took the hint very
mildly, and could afford to do so, for they had got my money. The
affair was very neatly managed, and would succeed in nearly every case,
especially if the croupier is, as is most probable, always on the side
of the ladies.'


HOMBOURG.


'In 1842 Hombourg was an obscure village, consisting of the castle of
the Landgraf, and of a few hundred houses which in the course of ages
had clustered around it. Few would have known of its existence except
from the fact of its being the capital of the smallest of European
countries. Its inhabitants lived poor and contented--the world
forgetting, by the world forgot. It boasted only of one inn--the
"Aigle"--which in summer was frequented by a few German families, who
came to live cheaply and to drink the waters of a neighbouring mineral
spring. That same year two French brothers of the name of Blanc arrived
at Frankfort. They were men of a speculative turn, and a recent and
somewhat daring speculation in France, connected with the old semaphore
telegraph, had rendered it necessary for them to withdraw for a time
from their native land. Their stock-in-trade consisted in a Roulette
wheel, a few thousand francs, and an old and skilful croupier of
Frascati, who knew a great deal about the properties of cards. The
authorities of the town of Frankfort, being dull traders, declined to
allow them to initiate their townsmen into the mysteries of cards and
Roulette, so hearing that there were some strangers living at Hombourg,
they put themselves into an old diligence, and the same evening
disembarked at the "Aigle." The next day the elder brother called upon
the prime minister, an ancient gentleman, who, with a couple of clerks,
for some L60 a year governed the Landgrafate of Hombourg to his own and
the general satisfaction. After a private interview with this statesman
the elder Blanc returned poorer in money, but with a permission in his
pocket to put up his Roulette wheel in one of the rooms of the inn. In
a few months the money of the innocent water-drinkers passed from their
pockets into those of the brothers Blanc. The ancient man of Frascati
turned the wheel, and no matter on what number the water-drinkers risked
their money, that number did not turn up. At the close of the summer
season a second visit was made to the prime minister, and the Blancs
returned to Frankfort with an exclusive concession to establish games
of hazard within the wide spreading dominions of the Landgraf. For this
they had agreed to build a kursaal, to lay out a public garden, and to
pay into the national exchequer 40,000 florins (a florin is worth one
shilling and eight-pence) per annum. Having obtained this concession,
the next step was to found a company. Frankfort abounds in Hebrew
speculators, who are not particular how they make money, and as the
speculation appeared a good one, the money was soon forthcoming. It was
decided that the nominal capital was to be 400,000 florins, divided into
shares of 100 florins each. Half the shares were subscribed for by the
Hebrew financialists, and the other half was credited to the Blancs as
the price of their concession. During the winter a small kursaal was
built and a small garden planted; the mineral well was deepened, and
flaming advertisements appeared in all the German newspapers announcing
to the world that the famous waters of Hombourg were able to cure every
disease to which flesh is heir, and that to enable visitors to while
away their evenings agreeably a salon had been opened, in which they
would have an opportunity to win fabulous sums by risking their money
either at the game of _Trente et Quarante_ or at _Roulette_. From these
small beginnings arose the "company" whose career has been so notorious.
It has enjoyed uninterrupted good fortune. During the twenty-six years
that have elapsed since its foundation, a vast palace dedicated to
gambling has been built, the village has become a town, well paved, and
lighted with gas; the neighbouring hills are covered with villas; about
eighty acres have been laid out in pleasure-grounds; roads have been
made in all directions through the surrounding woods; the visitors are
numbered by tens of thousands; there are above twenty hotels and many
hundred excellent lodging-houses.'(77)


(77) Correspondent of _Daily News._


'Let those who are disposed to risk their money inquire what is the
character of the managers, and be on their guard. The expenses of such
an enormous and splendid establishment amount to L10,000, and the shares
have for some years paid a handsome dividend--the whole of which must be
paid out of the pockets of travellers and visitors.'(78)


(78) Murray, _ubi supra_.


Mr Sala in his interesting work, already quoted, furnishes the
completest account of Hombourg, its Kursaal, and gambling, which I have
condensed as follows:--

'In Hombourg the Kursaal is everything, and the town nothing. The
extortionate hotel-keepers, the "snub-nosed rogues of counter and till,"
who overcharge you in the shops, make their egregious profits from the
Kursaal. The major part of the Landgrave's revenue is derived from the
Kursaal; he draws L5000 a year from it. He and his house are sold to
the Kursaal; and the Board of Directors of the Kursaal are the real
sovereigns and land-graves of Hesse Hombourg. They have metamorphosed a
miserable mid-German townlet into a city of palaces. Their stuccoed
and frescoed palace is five hundred times handsomer than the mouldy old
Schloss, built by William with the silver leg. They have planted the
gardens; they have imported the orange-trees; they have laid out the
park, and enclosed the hunting-grounds; they board, lodge, wash, and
tax the inhabitants; and I may say, without the slightest attempt at
punning, that the citizens are all _Kursed_.

'In the Kursaal is the ball or concert-room, at either end of which is
a gallery, supported by pillars of composition marble. The floors are
inlaid, and immense mirrors in sumptuous frames hang on the walls.
Vice can see her own image all over the establishment. The ceiling is
superbly decorated with bas-reliefs in _carton-pierre_, like those in
Mr Barry's new Covent Garden Theatre; and fresco paintings, executed by
Viotti, of Milan, and Conti, of Munich; whilst the whole is lighted
up by enormous and gorgeous chandeliers. The apartment to the right is
called the _Salle Japanese_, and is used as a dining-room for a monster
_table d'hote_, held twice a day, and served by the famous Chevet of
Paris.

'There is a huge Cafe Olympique, for smoking and imbibing purposes,
private cabinets for parties, the monster saloon, and two smaller ones,
where _FROM ELEVEN IN THE FORENOON TO ELEVEN AT NIGHT, SUNDAYS
NOT EXCEPTED, ALL THE YEAR ROUND_, and year after year--(the
"administration" have yet a "_jouissance_" of eighty-five years to run
out, guaranteed by the incoming dynasty of Hesse Darmstadt), knaves and
fools, from almost every corner of the world, gamble at the ingenious
and amusing games of _Roulette_, and _Rouge et Noir_, otherwise _Trente
et Quarante_.

'There is one table covered with green baize, tightly stretched as on a
billiard-field. In the midst of the table there is a circular pit,
coved inwards, but not bottomless, and containing the Roulette wheel, a
revolving disc, turning with an accurate momentum on a brass pillar,
and divided at its outer edge into thirty-seven narrow and shallow
pigeon-hole compartments, coloured alternately red and black, and
numbered--not consecutively--up to thirty-six. The last is a blank, and
stands for _Zero_, number _Nothing_. Round the upper edge, too, run a
series of little brass hoops, or bridges, to cause the ball to hop and
skip, and not at once into the nearest compartment. This is the regimen
of Roulette. The banker sits before the wheel,--a croupier, or payer-out
of winnings to and raker in of losses from the players, on either side.
Crying in a voice calmly sonorous, "_Faites le Jeu, Messieurs_,"--"Make
your game, gentlemen!" the banker gives the wheel a dexterous twirl, and
ere it has made one revolution, casts into its Maelstrom of black and
red an ivory ball. The interval between this and the ball finding a home
is one of breathless anxiety. Stakes are eagerly laid; but at a certain
period of the revolution the banker calls out--"_Le Jeu est fait. Rien
ne va plus_,"--and after that intimation it is useless to lay down
money. Then the banker, in the same calm and impassable voice, declares
the result. It may run thus:--"_Vingt-neuf, Noir, Impair, et Passe,"
"Twenty-nine, Black, Odd, and Pass the Rubicon_" (No. 18); or, "_Huit,
Rouge, Pair, et Manque_," "Eight, Red, Even, and _NOT_ Pass the
Rubicon."

'Now, on either side of the wheel, and extending to the extremity of the
table, run, in duplicate, the schedule of _mises_ or stakes. The green
baize first offers just thirty-six square compartments, marked out
by yellow threads woven in the fabric itself, and bearing thirty-six
consecutive numbers. If you place a florin (one and eight-pence)--and no
lower stake is permitted--or ten florins, or a Napoleon, or an English
five-pound note, or any sum of money not exceeding the maximum, whose
multiple is the highest stake which the bank, if it loses, can be made
to pay, in the midst of compartment 29, and if the banker, in that calm
voice of his, has declared that 29 has become the resting place of
the ball, the croupier will push towards you with his rake exactly
thirty-three times the amount of your stake, whatever it might have
been. You must bear in mind, however, that the bank's loss on a single
stake is limited to eight thousand francs. Moreover, if you have placed
another sum of money in the compartment inscribed, in legible yellow
colours, "_Impair_," or Odd, you will receive the equivalent to your
stake--twenty-nine being an odd number. If you have placed a coin on
_Passe_, you will also receive this additional equivalent to your
stake, twenty-nine being "Past the Rubicon," or middle of the table of
numbers--18. Again, if you have ventured your money in a compartment
bearing for device a lozenge in outline, which represents black, and
twenty-nine being a black number, you will again pocket a double stake,
that is, one in addition to your original venture. More, and more
still,--if you have risked money on the columns--that is, betted on the
number turning up corresponding with some number in one of the columns
of the tabular schedule, and have selected the right column--you have
your own stake and two others;--if you have betted on either of these
three eventualities, _douze premier, douze milieu_, or _douze dernier_,
otherwise "first dozen," "middle dozen," or "last dozen," as one
to twelve, thirteen to twenty-four, twenty-five to thirty-six, all
inclusive, and have chanced to select _douze dernier_, the division in
which No. 29 occurs, you also obtain a treble stake, namely, your own
and two more which the bank pays you, your florin or your five-pound
note--benign fact!--metamorphosed into three. But, woe to the wight
who should have ventured on the number "eight," on the red colour
(compartment with a crimson lozenge), on "even," and on "not past
the Rubicon;" for twenty-nine does not comply with any one of these
conditions. He loses, and his money is coolly swept away from him by the
croupier's rake. With reference to the last chances I enumerated in the
last paragraph, I should mention that the number _EIGHT_ would lie in
the second column--there being three columns,--and in the first dozen
numbers.

'There are more chances, or rather subdivisions of chances, to entice
the player to back the "numbers;" for these the stations of the ball are
as capricious as womankind; and it is, of course, extremely rare that a
player will fix upon the particular number that happens to turn up. But
he may place a piece of money _a cheval_, or astride, on the line which
divides two numbers, in which case (either of the numbers turning up)
he receives sixteen times his stake. He may place it on the cross lines
that divide four numbers, and, if either of the four wins, he will
receive eight times the amount of his stake. A word as to _Zero_. Zero
is designated by the compartment close to the wheel's diameter, and
zero, or blank, will turn up, on an average, about once in seventy
times. If you have placed money in zero, and the ball seeks that haven,
you will receive thirty-three times your stake.'

The twin or elder brother of _Roulette_, played at Hombourg, _Rouge et
Noir_, or _Trente et Quarante_, is thus described by Mr Sala:--

'There is the ordinary green-cloth covered table, with its brilliant
down-coming lights. In the centre sits the banker, gold and silver in
piles and _rouleaux_, and bank-notes before him. On either hand, the
croupier, as before, now wielding the rakes and plying them to bring
in the money, now balancing them, now shouldering them, as soldiers do
their muskets, half-pay officers their canes, and dandies their silk
umbrellas. The banker's cards are, as throughout all the Rhenish
gaming-places, of French design; the same that were invented, or, at
least, first used in Europe, for crazy Charles the Simple. These cards
are placed on an inclined plane of marble, called a _talon_.

'The dealer first takes six packs of cards, shuffles them, and
distributes them in various parcels to the various punters or players
round the table, to shuffle and mix. He then finally shuffles them, and
takes and places the end cards into various parts of the three hundred
and twelve cards, until he meets with a _court card_, which he must
place upright at the end. This done, he presents the pack to one of
the players to cut, who places the pictured card where the _dealer_
separates the pack, and that part of the pack beyond the pictured card
he places at the end nearest him, leaving the pictured card at the
bottom of the pack.

'The dealer then takes a certain number of cards, about as many as would
form a pack, and, looking at the first card, to know its colour, puts it
on the table with its face downwards. He then takes two cards, one red
and the other black, and sets them back to back. These cards are turned,
and displayed conspicuously, as often as the colour varies, for the
information of the company.

'The gamblers having staked their money on either of the colours, the
dealer asks, "_Votre jeu est-il fait?_" "Is your game made?" or,
"_Votre jeu est-il piet?_" "Is your game ready?" or, "_Le jeu est pret,
Messieurs_," "The game is ready, gentlemen." He then deals the first
card with its face upwards, saying "_Noir;_" and continues dealing until
the cards turned exceed thirty points or pips in number, which number
he must mention, as "_Trente-et-un_," or "_Trente-six_," as the case may
be.

'As the aces reckon but for one, no card after thirty can make up forty;
the dealer, therefore, does not declare the _tens_ after _thirty-one_,
or upwards, but merely the units, as one, two, three; if the number of
points dealt for _Noir_ are thirty-five he says "_Cinq_."

'Another parcel is then dealt for _rouge_, or _red_, and with equal
deliberation and solemnity; and if the players stake beyond the colour
that comes to _thirty-one_ or nearest to it, he wins, which happy
eventuality is announced by the dealer crying--"_Rouge gagne_," "Red
wins," or "_Rouge perd_," "Red loses." These two parcels, one for each
colour, make a _coup_. The same number of parcels being dealt for each
colour, the dealer says, "_Apres_," "After." This is a "doublet," called
in the amiable French tongue, "_un refait_," by which neither party
wins, unless both colours come to _thirty-one_, which the dealer
announces by saying, "_Un refait Trente-et-un_," and he wins half the
stakes posted on both colours. He, however, does not take the money, but
removes it to the middle line, and the players may change the _venue_ of
their stakes if they please. This is called the first "prison," or
_la premiere prison_, and, if they win their next event, they draw the
entire stake. In case of another "_refait_," the money is removed into
the third line, which is called the second prison. So you see that there
are wheels within wheels, and Lord Chancellor King's dictum, that walls
can be built higher, but there should be no prison within a prison, is
sometimes reversed.

When this happens the dealer wins all.

'The cards are sometimes cut for which colour shall be dealt first; but,
in general, the first parcel is for _black_, and the second for _red_.
The odds against a "_refait_" turning up are usually reckoned as 63 to
1. The bankers, however, acknowledge that they expect it twice in three
deals, and there are generally from twenty-nine to thirty-two coups in
each deal. The odds in favour of winning several times are about the
same as in the game of Pharaon, and are as delusive. 'He who goes to
Hombourg and expects to see any melodramatic manifestation of rage,
disappointment, and despair in the losing players, reckons without his
host. Winners or losers seldom speak above a whisper; and the only sound
that is heard above the suppressed buzz of conversation, the muffled
jingle of the money on the green cloth, the "sweep" of the croupiers'
rakes, and the ticking of the very ornate French clocks on the
mantel-pieces, is the impassibly metallic voice of the banker, as he
proclaims his "_Rouge perd_," or "_Couleur gagne_." People are too
genteel at Hombourg-von-der-Hohe to scream, to yell, to fall into
fainting fits, or go into convulsions, because they have lost four or
five thousand francs or so in a single coup.

'I have heard of one gentleman, indeed, who, after a ruinous loss, put
a pistol to his head, and discharging it, spattered his brains over the
Roulette wheel. It was said that the banker, looking up calmly, called
out--'_Triple Zero,' 'Treble Nothing_,'--a case as yet unheard of in
the tactics of Roulette, but signifying annihilation,--and that, a cloth
being thrown over the ensanguined wheel, the bank of that particular
table was declared to be closed for the day. Very probably the whole
story is but a newspaper _canard_, devised by the proprietors of some
rival gaming establishment, who would have been delighted to see the
fashionable Hombourg under a cloud.

'When people want to commit suicide at Hombourg, they do it genteelly;
early in the morning, or late at night, in the solitude of their own
apartments at the hotels. It would be reckoned a gross breach of good
manners to scandalize the refined and liberal administration of the
Kursaal by undisguised _felo-de-se_. The devil on two _croupes_ at
Hombourg is the very genteelest of demons imaginable. He ties his
tail up with cherry-coloured ribbon, and conceals his cloven foot in
a patent-leather boot. All this gentility and varnish, and elegant
veneering of the sulphurous pit, takes away from him, if it does not
wholly extinguish, the honour and loathing for a common gaming-house,
with which the mind of a wellured English youth has been sedulously
imbued by his parents and guardians. He has very probably witnessed the
performance of the "Gamester" at the theatre, and been a spectator of
the remorseful agonies of Mr Beverly, the virtuous sorrows of Mrs B.,
and the dark villanies of Messieurs Dawson and Bates.

'The first visit of the British youth to the Kursaal is usually paid
with fear and trembling. He is with difficulty persuaded to enter the
accursed place. When introduced to the saloons--delusively called _de
conversation_, he begins by staring fixedly at the chandeliers, the
ormolu clocks, and the rich draperies, and resolutely averts his eyes
from the serried ranks of punters or players, and the Pactolus, whose
sands are circulating on the green cloth on the table. Then he thinks
there is no very great harm in looking on, and so peeps over the
shoulder of a moustached gamester, who perhaps whispers to him in the
interval between two coups, that if a man will only play carefully, and
be content with moderate gains, he may win sufficient--taking the
good days and the evil days in a lump--to keep him in a decent kind of
affluence all the year round. Indeed, I once knew a croupier--we used to
call him Napoleon, from the way he took snuff from his waistcoat pocket,
who was in the way of expressing a grave conviction that it was possible
to make a capital living at Roulette, so long as you stuck to the
colours, and avoided the Scylla of the numbers and the Charybdis of the
Zero. By degrees, then, the shyness of the neophyte wears off. Perhaps
in the course of his descent of Avernus, a revulsion of feeling takes
place, and, horror-struck and ashamed, he rushes out of the Kursaal,
determined to enter its portals no more. Then he temporizes; remembers
that there is a capital reading-room, provided with all the newspapers
and periodicals of civilized Europe, attached to the Kursaalian
premises. There can be no harm, he thinks, in glancing over "Galignani"
or the "Charivari," although under the same roof as the abhorred _Trente
et Quarante;_ but, alas! he finds _Galignani_ engaged by an acrid old
lady of morose countenance, who has lost all her money by lunch-time,
and is determined to "take it out in reading," and the _Charivari_
slightly clenched in one hand by the deaf old gentleman with the dingy
ribbon of the Legion of Honour, and the curly brown wig pushed up over
one ear, who always goes to sleep on the soft and luxurious velvet
couches of the Kursaal reading-room, from eleven till three, every day,
Sundays not excepted. The disappointed student of home or foreign news
wanders back to one of the apartments where play is going, on. In fact,
he does not know what to do with himself until table-d'hote time. You
know what the moral bard, Dr Watts says:--

"Satan finds some mischief still, For idle hands to do."

The unfledged gamester watches the play more narrowly. A stout lady in
a maroon velvet mantle, and a man with a bald head, a black patch on
his occiput, and gold spectacles, obligingly makes way for him. He finds
himself pressed against the very edge of the table. Perhaps a chair--one
of those delightfully comfortable Kursaal chairs--is vacant. He is tired
with doing nothing, and sinks into the emolliently-cushioned _fauteuil_.
He fancies that he has caught the eye of the banker, or one of the
gentlemen of the _croupe_, and that they are meekly inviting him to
try his luck. "Well, there can't be much harm in risking a florin," he
murmurs. He stakes his silver-piece on a number or a colour. He wins,
we will say, twice or thrice. Perhaps he quadruples his stake, nay,
perchance, hits on the lucky number. It turns up, and he receives
thirty-five times the amount of his _mise_. Thenceforth it is all over
with that ingenuous British youth. The Demon of Play has him for his
own, and he may go on playing and playing until he has lost every florin
of his own, or as many of those belonging to other people as he can beg
or borrow. Far more fortunate for him would it be in the long run, if
he met in the outset with a good swinging loss. The burnt child
_DOES_ dread the fire as a rule; but there is this capricious, almost
preternatural, feature of the physiology of gaming, that the young and
inexperienced generally win in the first instance. They are drawn on and
on, and in and in. They begin to lose, and continue to lose, and by the
time they have cut their wise teeth they have neither sou nor silver to
make their dearly-bought wisdom available.

'At least one-half of the company may be assumed to be arrant
rascals--rascals male and rascals female--_chevaliers d'industrie_, the
offscourings of all the shut-up gambling-houses in Europe, demireps and
_lorettes_, single and married women innumerable.'

In the course of the three visits he has paid to Hombourg, Mr Sala
has observed that 'nine-tenths of the English visitors to the Kursaal,
play;' and he does not hesitate to say that the moths who flutter round
the garish lamps at the Kursaal Van der Hohe, and its kindred Hades,
almost invariably singe their wings; and that the chaseer at _Roulette_
and _Rouge_, generally turn out edged tools, with which those incautious
enough to play with them are apt to cut their fingers, sometimes very
dangerously.

The season of 1869 in Hombourg is thus depicted in a high class
newspaper.

'Never within the memory of the oldest inhabitant (who in this instance
must undoubtedly be that veteran player Countess Kisselef) has the town
witnessed such an influx of tourists of every class and description.
Hotels and lodging-houses are filled to overflowing. Every day imprudent
travellers who have neglected the precaution of securing rooms before
their arrival return disconsolately to Frankfort to await the vacation
of some apartment which a condescending landlord has promised them after
much negotiation for the week after next. The morning promenade is a
wonderful sight; such a host of bilious faces, such an endless variety
of eccentric costumes, such a Babel of tongues, among which the shrill
twang of our fair American cousins is peculiarly prominent, could
be found in no other place in the civilized world. A moralist would
assuredly find here abundant food for reflection on the wonderful
powers of self-deception possessed by mankind. We all get up at most
inconvenient hours, swallow a certain quantity of a most nauseous
fluid, and then, having sacrificed so much to appearances, soothe our
consciences with the unfounded belief that a love of early rising and
salt water was our real reason for coming here, and that the gambling
tables had nothing whatever to do with it. Perhaps, in some few
instances, this view may be the correct one; some few invalids, say
one in a hundred, may have sought Hombourg solely in the interest of an
impaired digestion, but I fear that such cases are few and far between;
and, as a friend afflicted with a mania for misquotation remarked to me
the other day, even "those who come to drink remain to play."

'Certainly the demon of Rouge et Noir has never held more undisputed
sway in Hombourg than in the present season; never have the tables
groaned under such a load of notes and rouleaux. It would seem as if the
gamblers, having only two or more years left in which to complete
their ruin, were hurrying on with redoubled speed to that desirable
consummation, and where a stake of 12,000 francs is allowed on a single
coup the pace can be made very rapid indeed. High play is so common
that unless you are lucky enough to win or rich enough to lose a hundred
thousand francs at least, you need not hope to excite either envy or
commiseration. One persevering Muscovite, who has been punting steadily
for six weeks, has actually succeeded in getting rid of a million of
florins. As yet there have been no suicides to record, owing probably to
the precautionary measures adopted by a paternal Administration. As soon
as a gambler is known to be utterly cleared out he at once receives a
visit from one of M. Blanc's officials, who offers him a small sum on
condition he will leave the town forthwith; which viaticum, however, for
fear of accidents, is only handed to him when fairly seated in the train
that bears him away, to blow out his brains, should he feel so inclined,
elsewhere. One of the most unpleasant facts connected with the gambling
is the ardour displayed by many ladies in this very unfeminine pursuit:
last night out of twenty-five persons seated at the Roulette table I
counted no fewer than fifteen ladies, including an American lady with
her two daughters!

'The King of Prussia has arrived, and, with due deference to the
official editors who have described in glowing paragraphs the popular
demonstrations in his honour, I am bound to assert that he was received
with very modified tokens of delight. There was not even a repetition of
the triumphal arch of last year; those funereal black and white flags,
whose sole aspect is enough to repress any exuberance of rejoicing,
were certainly flapping against the hotel windows and the official
flagstaffs, but little else testified to the joy of the Hombourgers at
beholding their Sovereign. They manage these things better in France.
Any French _prefet_ would give the German authorities a few useful hints
concerning the cheap and speedy manufacture of loyal enthusiasm. The
foreigners, however, seem determined to atone amply for any lack of
proper feeling on the part of the townspeople. They crowd round his
Majesty as soon as he appears in the rooms or gardens, and mob the
poor old gentleman with a vigour which taxes all the energies of his
aides-de-camp to save their Royal master from death by suffocation. Need
I add that our old friend the irrepressible "'Arry" is ever foremost in
these gentlemanlike demonstrations?

'Of course the town swarms with well-known English faces; indeed, the
Peers and M.P.s here at present would form a very respectable party in
the two Houses. We are especially well off for dukes; the _Fremdenliste_
notifies the presence of no fewer than five of those exalted personages.
A far less respectable class of London society is also, I am sorry
to say, strongly represented: I allude to those gentlemen of the
light-fingered persuasion whom the outer world rudely designate
as pickpockets. This morning two gorgeously arrayed members of the
fraternity were marched down to the station by the police, each being
decorated with a pair of bright steel handcuffs; seventeen of them were
arrested last week in Frankfort at one fell swoop, and at the tables
the row of lookers-on who always surround the players consists in
about equal proportions of these gentry and their natural enemies--the
detectives. Their booty since the beginning of the season must be
reckoned by thousands. Mustapha Fazyl Pasha had his pocket picked of
a purse containing L600, and a Russian lady was lately robbed of a
splendid diamond brooch valued at 75,000 francs.(79)


(79) Pall Mall Gazette, Aug. 1869.


But the days of the Kursaal are numbered, and the glories or infamies of
Hombourg are doomed.

'The fiat has gone forth. In five years(80) from this time the "game
will be made" no longer--the great gambling establishment of Hombourg
will be a thing of the past. The town will be obliged to contend on
equal terms with other watering-places for its share of the wool on the
backs of summer excursionists.


(80) In 1872.


'As most of the townspeople are shareholders in this thriving concern,
and as all of them gain either directly or indirectly by the play,
it was amusing to watch the anxiety of these worthies during the war
between Austria and Prussia. Patriotism they had none; they cared
neither for Austrian nor Prussian, for a great Germany nor for a
small Germany. The "company" was their god and their country. All that
concerned them was to know whether the play was likely to be suppressed.
When they were annexed to Prussia, at first they could not believe
that Count Bismarck, whatever he might do with kings, would
venture to interfere with the "bank." It was to them a divine
institution--something far superior to dynasties and kingdoms....

'For a year the Hombourgers were allowed to suppose that their "peculiar
institution" was indeed superior to fate, to public opinion, and to
Prussia; but at the commencement of the present year they were rudely
awakened from their dreams of security. The sword that had been hanging
over them fell. The directors of the company were ordered to appear
before the governor of the town, and they were told that they and all
belonging to them were to cease to exist in 1872, and that the following
arrangement was to be made respecting the plunder gained until that
date. The shareholders were to receive 10 per cent. on their money; 5000
shares were to be paid off at par each year, and if this did not absorb
all the profits, the surplus was to go towards a fund for keeping up
the gardens after the play had ceased. By this means, as there are now
36,000 shares, 25,000 will be paid off at par, and the remaining 11,000
will be represented by the buildings and the land belonging to the
company, which it will be at liberty to sell to the highest bidder.
Since this decree has been promulgated the Hombourgers are in despair.
The croupiers and the clerks, the Jews who lend money at high interest,
the Christians who let lodgings, all the rogues and swindlers who one
way or another make a living out of the play, fill the air with their
complaints.

'Although no doubt individuals will suffer by the suppression of public
play here, it is by no means certain that the town itself will not be a
gainer by it. Holiday seekers must go somewhere. The air of Hombourg is
excellent; the waters are invigorating; the town is well situated and
easy of access by rail; living is comparatively cheap--a room may be had
for about 18_s_. a week, an excellent dinner for 2_s_.; breakfast
costs less than a shilling. Hombourg is now a fixed fact, and if the
townspeople take heart and grapple with the new state of things--if they
buy up the Kursaal, and throw open its salons to visitors; if they keep
up the opera, the cricket club, and the shooting; if they have good
music, and balls and concerts for those who like them, there is no
reason why they should not attract as many visitors to their town as
they do now.'(81)


(81) Correspondent of _Daily News._


AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.


The gaming at Aix-la-Chapelle is equally desperate and destructive.
'A Russian officer of my acquaintance,' says a writer in the Annual
Register for 1818, 'was subject, like many of his countrymen whom I
have known, to the infatuation of play to a most ridiculous excess.
His distrust of himself under the assailments which he anticipated at
a place like Aix-la-Chapelle, had induced him to take the prudent
precaution of paying in advance at his hotel for his board and lodging,
and at the bathing-house for his baths, for the time he intended to
stay. The remaining contents of his purse he thought fairly his own;
and he went of course to the table all the gayer for the license he had
taken of his conscience. On fortune showing him a few favours, he came
to me in high spirits, with a purse full of Napoleons, and a resolute
determination to keep them by venturing no more; but a gamester can no
more be stationary than the tide of a river, and on the evening he
was put out of suspense by having not a Napoleon left, and nothing to
console but congratulation on his foresight, and the excellent supper
which was the fruit of it.'

Towards the end of the last century Aix-la-Chapelle was a great
rendezvous of gamblers. The chief banker there paid a thousand louis
per annum for his license. A little Italian adventurer once went to the
place with only a few louis in his pocket, and played crown stakes at
Hazard. Fortune smiled on him; he increased his stakes progressively; in
twenty-four hours won about L4000. On the following day he stripped the
bank entirely, pocketing nearly L10,000. He continued to play for some
days, till he was at last reduced to a single louis! He now obtained
from a friend the loan of L30, and once more resumed his station at the
gaming table, which he once more quitted with L10,000 in his pocket,
and resolved to leave it for ever. The arguments of one of the
bankers, however, who followed him to his inn, soon prevailed over his
resolution, and on his return to the gaming table he was stripped of his
last farthing. He went to his lodgings, sold his clothes, and by that
means again appeared at his old haunt, for the half-crown stakes, by
which he honourably repaid his loan of L30. His end was unknown to the
relater of the anecdote, but 'ten to one,' it was ruin.

At the same place, in the year 1793, the heir-apparent of an Irish
Marquis lost at various times nearly L20,000 at a billiard table, partly
owing to his antagonist being an excellent calculator, as well as a
superior player.

A French emigrant at Aix-la-Chapelle, who carried a basket of tarts,
liqueurs, &c., for regaling the gamesters, put down twenty-five louis at
_Rouge et Noir_. He lost. He then put down fifteen, and lost again; at
the third turn he staked ten; but while the cards were being shuffled,
seeming to recollect himself, he felt all his pockets, and at length
found two large French crowns, and a small one, which he also ventured.
The deal was determined at the ninth card; and the poor wretch, who had
lost his all, dashed down his basket, started from his seat, overturning
two chairs as he forced the circle, tore off his hair, and with horrid
blasphemies, burst the folding doors, and rushing out like a madman, was
seen no more.

Another emigrant arrived here penniless, but meeting a friend, obtained
the loan of a few crowns, nearly his all. With these he went to the
rooms, put down his stake, and won. He then successively doubled his
stakes till he closed the evening with a hundred louis in his pocket.
He went to his friend, and with mutual congratulations they resolved to
venture no more, and calculated how long their gains would support them
from absolute want, and thus seemed to strengthen their wise resolution.

The next night, however, the lucky gambler returned to the room--but
only to be a spectator, as he firmly said. Alas! his resolution failed
him, and he quitted the tables indebted to a charitable bystander for a
livre or two, to pay for his petty refreshments.

It is said that the annual profit to the bankers was 120,000 florins, or
L14,000.

'The very name of Aix-la-Chapelle,' says a traveller, 'makes one think
(at least, makes me think) of cards and dice,--sharks and pigeons.
It has a "professional odour" upon it, which is certainly not that of
sanctity. I entered the Redoute with my head full of sham barons, German
Catalinas, and the thousand-and-one popular tales of renowned knights of
the green cloth,--their seducing confederates, and infatuated dupes.

'The rooms are well distributed; the saloons handsome. A sparkling of
ladies, apparently (and really, as I understood) of the best water, the
_elite_, in short, of Aix-la-Chapelle, were lounging on sofas placed
round the principal saloon, or fluttering about amidst a crowd of men,
who filled up the centre of the room, or thronged round the tables that
were ranged on one side of it.

'The players continued their occupation in death-like silence,
undisturbed by the buzz or the gaze of the lookers-on; not a sound was
heard but the rattle of the heaped-up money, as it was passed from one
side of the table to the other; nor was the smallest anxiety or emotion
visible on any countenance.

'The scene was unpleasing, though to me curious from its novelty.

Ladies are admitted to play, but there were none occupied this morning.
I was glad of it; indeed, though English travellers are accused of
carrying about with them a portable code of morality, which dissolves or
stiffens like a soap-cake as circumstances may affect its consistency,
yet I sincerely believe that there are few amongst us who would not
feel shocked at seeing one of the gentler sex in so unwomanly a
position.'(82)


(82) Reminiscences of the Rhine, &c. Anon.


WIESBADEN.


The gambling here in 1868 has been described in a very vivid manner.

'Since the enforcement of the Prussian Sunday observance regulations,
Monday has become the great day of the week for the banks of the German
gambling establishments. Anxious to make up for lost time, the regular
contributors to the company's dividends flock early on Monday forenoon
to the play-rooms in order to secure good places at the tables, which,
by the appointed hour for commencing operations (eleven o'clock), are
closely hedged round by persons of both sexes, eagerly waiting for the
first deal of the cards or the initial twist of the brass wheel, that
they may try another fall with Fortune. Before each seated player are
arranged precious little piles of gold and silver, a card printed
in black and red, and a long pin, wherewith to prick out a system of
infallible gain. The croupiers take their seats and unpack the strong
box; rouleaux--long metal sausages composed of double and single
florins,--wooden bowls brimming over with gold Frederics and Napoleons,
bank notes of all sizes and colours, are arranged upon the black leather
compartment, ruled over by the company's officers; half-a-dozen packs
of new cards are stripped of their paper cases, and swiftly shuffled
together; and when all these preliminaries, watched with breathless
anxiety by the surrounding speculators, have been gravely and carefully
executed, the chief croupier looks round him--a signal for the prompt
investment of capital on all parts of the table--chucks out a handful of
cards from the mass packed together convenient to his hand--ejaculates
the formula, "Faites le jeu!" and, after half a minute's pause, during
which he delicately moistens the ball of his dealing thumb, exclaims "Le
jeu est fait, rien ne va plus," and proceeds to interpret the decrees of
fate according to the approved fashion of Trente et Quarante. A similar
scene is taking place at the Roulette table--a goodly crop of florins,
with here and there a speck of gold shining amongst the silver harvest,
is being sown over the field of the cloth of green, soon to be reaped
by the croupier's sickle, and the pith ball is being dropped into the
revolving basin that is partitioned off into so many tiny black and red
niches. For the next twelve hours the processes in question are carried
on swiftly and steadily, without variation or loss of time; relays of
croupiers are laid on, who unobtrusively slip into the places of their
fellows when the hours arrive for relieving guard; the game is never
stopped for more than a couple of minutes at a time, viz., when the
cards run out and have to be re-shuffled. This brief interruption is
commonly considered to portend a break in the particular vein which the
game may have happened to assume during the deal--say a run upon black
or red, an alternation of coups (in threes or fours) upon either
colour, two reds and a black, or _vice versa_, all equally frequent
eccentricities of the cards; and the heavier players often change
their seats, or leave the table altogether for an hour or so at such a
conjuncture. Curiously enough, excepting at the very commencement of the
day's play, the _habitues_ of the Trente et Quarante tables appear to
entertain a strong antipathy to the first deal or two after the cards
have been "re-made." I have been told by one or two masters of the craft
that they have a fancy to see how matters are likely to go before they
strike in, as if it were possible to deduce the future of the game from
its past! That it is possible appears to be an article of faith with
the old stagers, and, indeed, every now and then odd coincidences occur
which tend to confirm them in their creed. I witnessed an occurrence
which was either attributable (as I believe) to sheer chance, or (as
its hero earnestly assured me) to instinct. A fair and frail Magyar was
punting on numbers with immense pluck and uniform ill fortune. Behind
her stood a Viennese gentleman of my acquaintance, who enjoys a certain
renown amongst his friends for the faculty of prophecy, which, however,
he seldom exercises for his own benefit. Observing that she hesitated
about staking her double florin, he advised her to set it on the number
3. Round went the wheel, and in twenty seconds the ball tumbled into
compartment 3 sure enough. At the next turn she asked his advice, and
was told to try number 24. No sooner said than done, and 24 came up in
due course, whereby Mdlle L. C. won 140 odd gulden in two coups, the
amount risked by her being exactly four florins. Like a wise girl, she
walked off with her booty, and played no more that day at Roulette.
A few minutes later I saw an Englishman go through the performance of
losing four thousand francs by experimentalizing on single numbers.
Twenty times running did he set ten louis-d'ors on a number (varying the
number at each stake), and not one of his selection proved successful.
At the "Thirty and Forty" I saw an eminent diplomatist win sixty
thousand francs with scarcely an intermission of failure; he played all
over the table, pushing his rouleaux backwards and forwards, from black
to red, without any appearance of system that I could detect, and the
cards seemed to follow his inspiration. It was a great battle; as usual,
three or four smaller fish followed in his wake, till they lost courage
and set against him, much to their discomfiture and the advantage of the
bank; but from first to last--that is, till the cards ran out, and he
left the table--he was steadily victorious. In the evening he went in
again for another heavy bout, at which I chanced to be present; but
fortune had forsaken him; and he not only lost his morning's winnings,
but eight thousand francs to boot. I do not remember to have ever
seen the tables so crowded--outside it was thundering, lightening, and
raining as if the world were coming to an end, and the whole floating
population of Wiesbaden was driven into the Kursaal by the weather. A
roaring time of it had the bank; when play was over, about which time
the rain ceased, hundreds of hot and thirsty gamblers streamed out of
the reeking rooms to the glazed-in terrace, and the next hour, always
the pleasantest of the twenty-four here and in Hombourg--at Ems people
go straight from the tables to bed,--was devoted to animated chat and
unlimited sherry-cobbler; all the "events" of the day were passed in
review, experiences exchanged, and confessions made. Nobody had won; I
could not hear of a single great success--the bank had had it all its
own way, and most of the "lions," worsted in the fray, had evidently
made up their minds to "drown it in the bowl." The Russian detachment--a
very strong one this year--was especially hard hit; Spain and Italy were
both unusually low-spirited; and there was an extra solemnity about the
British Isles that told its own sad tale. Englishmen, when they have
lost more than they can afford, generally take it out of themselves in
surly, brooding self-reproach. Frenchmen give vent to their disgust and
annoyance by abusing the game and its myrmidons. You may hear them,
loud and savage, on the terrace, "Ah! le salle jeu! comment peut-on se
laisser eplucher par des brigands de la sorte! Tripot, infame, va! je
te donne ma malediction!" Italians, again, endeavour to conceal their
discomfiture under a flow of feverish gaiety. Germans utter one or two
"Gotts donnerwetterhimmelsapperment!" light up their cigars, drink a
dozen or so "hocks," and subside into their usual state of ponderous
cheerfulness. Russians betray no emotion whatever over their calamities,
save, perhaps, that they smoke those famous little 'Laferme' cigarettes
a trifle faster and more nervously than at other times; but they are
excellent winners and magnificent losers, only to be surpassed in either
respect by their old enemy the Turk, who is _facile princeps_ in the art
of hiding his feelings from the outer world.

'The great mass of visitors at Wiesbaden this season, as at Hombourg,
belong to the middle and lower middle classes, leavened by a very few
celebrities and persons of genuine distinction. There are a dozen or two
eminent men here, not to be seen in the play-rooms, who are taking the
waters--Lord Clarendon, Baron Rothschild, Prince Souvarof, and a few
more--but the general run of guests is by no means remarkable for birth,
wealth, or respectability; and we are shockingly off for ladies. As
a set-off against this deficiency, it would seem that all the aged,
broken-down courtesans of Paris, Vienna, and Berlin have agreed to make
Wiesbaden their autumn rendezvous. Arrayed in all the colours of
the rainbow, painted up to the roots of their dyed hair, shamelessly
_decolletees_, prodigal of "free" talk and unseemly gesture, these
ghastly creatures, hideous caricatures of youth and beauty, flaunt
about the play-rooms and gardens, levying black-mail upon those who are
imprudent enough to engage them in "chaff" or badinage, and desperately
endeavouring to hook themselves on to the wealthier and younger members
of the male community. They poison the air round them with sickly
perfumes; they assume titles, and speak of one another as "cette chere
comtesse;" their walk is something between a prance and a wriggle; they
prowl about the terrace whilst the music is playing, seeking whom they
may devour, or rather whom they may inveigle into paying for their
devouring: and, _bon Dieu!_ how they do gorge themselves with food and
drink when some silly lad or aged roue allows himself to be bullied
or wheedled into paying their scot! Their name is legion; and they
constitute the very worst feature of a place which, naturally a
Paradise, is turned into a seventh hell by the uncontrolled rioting
of human passions. They have no friends--no "protectors;" they are
dependent upon accident for a meal or a piece of gold to throw away at
the tables; they are plague-spots upon the face of society; they are,
as a rule, crassly ignorant and horribly cynical; and yet there are many
men here who are proud of their acquaintance, always ready to entertain
them in the most expensive manner, and who speak of them as if they were
the only desirable companions in the world!

'Amongst our notabilities of the eccentric sort, not the least singular
in her behaviour is the Countess C----o, an aged patrician of immense
fortune, who is as constant to Wiesbaden as old Madame de K----f is to
Hombourg on the Heights. Like the last-named lady, she is daily wheeled
to her place in the Black and Red temple, and plays away for eight or
nine hours with wonderful spirit and perseverance. She has with her a
_suite_ of eight domestics; and when she wins (which is not often), on
returning to her hotel at night, she presents each member of her
retinue with--twopence! "not," as she naively avows, "from a feeling of
generosity, but to propitiate Fortune." When she loses, none of them,
save the man who wheels her home, get anything but hard words from her;
and he, happy fellow, receives a donation of six kreutzers. She does not
curse the croupiers loudly for her bad luck, like her contemporary, the
once lovely Russian Ambassadress; but, being very far advanced in years,
and of a tender disposition, sheds tears over her misfortunes, resting
her chin on the edge of the table. An edifying sight is this venerable
dame, bearing an exalted title, as she mopes and mouths over her varying
luck, missing her stake twice out of three times, when she fain would
push it with her rake into some particular section of the table! She is
very intimate with one or two antediluvian diplomatists and warriors,
who are here striving to bolster themselves up for another year with the
waters, and may be heard crowing out lamentations over her fatal passion
for play, interspersed with bits of moss-grown scandal, disinterred
from the social ruins of an age long past: Radetzky, Wratislaw (le beau
sabreur), the two Schwarzenbergs (he of Leipsic, and the former Prime
Minister), Paul Eszterhazy, Wrangel, and Blucher were friends of her
youth; judging from her appearance, one would not be surprised to hear
that she had received a "poulet" from Baron Trenck, or played whist with
Maria Theresa. She has outlived all human friendships or affections, and
exists only for the chink of the gold as it jingles on the gaming table.
I cannot help fancying that her last words will be "Rien ne va
plus!" She is a great and convincing moral, if one but interpret her
rightly.'(83)


(83) Daily Telegraph, Aug. 15, 1868.


The doom of the German gaming houses seems to be settled. They will all
be closed in 1872, as appears by the following announcement:--

'The Prussian government, not having been able to obtain from the
lessees of the gaming tables at Wiesbaden, Ems, and Hombourg their
consent to their cancelling of their contracts, has resolved to
terminate their privileges by a legislative measure. It has presented a
bill to the Chamber of Deputies at Berlin, fixing the year 1872 as the
limit to the existence of these establishments, and even authorizing the
government to suppress them at an earlier period by a royal
ordinance. No indemnity is to be allowed to the persons holding
concessions.'--_Feb_. 23, 1868.

A London newspaper defends this measure in a very successful manner.

'Prussia has declared her purpose to eradicate from the territories
subject to her increased sway, and from others recognizing her
influence, the disgrace of the _Rouge et Noir_ and the Roulette table
as public institutions. Her reasoning is to the effect that they
bring scandal upon Germany; that they associate with the names of its
favourite watering-places the appellation of "hells;" that they attract
swindlers and adventurers of every degree; and that they have for many a
year past been held up to the opprobrium of Europe. For why should this
practice be a lawful practice of Germany and of no other country in
Europe? Why not in France, in Spain, in Italy, in the Northern States,
in Great Britain itself? Let us not give to this last proposition more
importance than it is worth. The German watering-places are places of
leisure, of trifling, of _ennui_. That is why, originally, they were
selected as encampments by the tribes which fatten upon hazards. But
there was another reason: they brought in welcome revenues to needy
princes. Even now, in view of the contemplated expurgation, Monaco is
named, with Geneva, as successor to the perishing glories of Hombourg,
Wiesbaden, and the great Baden itself. That is to say, the gamblers,
or, rather, the professionals who live upon the gambling propensities of
others, having received from Prussia and her friends notice to quit, are
in search of new lodgings.

'The question is, they being determined, and the accommodation being
not less certainly ready for them than the sea is for the tribute of
a river, will the reform designed be a really progressive step in the
civilization of Europe? Prussia says--decidedly so; because it will
demolish an infamous privilege. She affirms that an institution which
might have been excusable under a landgrave, with a few thousand acres
of territory, is inconsistent with the dignity and, to quote continental
phraseology, the mission of a first-class state. Here again the
reasoning is incontrovertible. Of one other thing, moreover, we may feel
perfectly sure, that Prussia having determined to suppress these centres
and sources of corruption, they will gradually disappear from Europe.
Concede to them a temporary breathing-time at Monaco; the time left for
even a nominally independent existence to Monaco is short: imagine that
they find a fresh outlet at Geneva; Prussia will have represented the
public opinion of the age, against which not even the Republicanism of
Switzerland can long make a successful stand. Upon the whole, history
can never blame Prussia for such a use either of her conquests or her
influence. Say what you will, gambling is an indulgence blushed over in
England; abroad, practised as a little luxury in dissipation, it may be
pardoned as venial; habitually, however, it is a leprosy. And as it is
by habitual gamblers that these haunts are made to flourish, this alone
should reconcile the world of tourists to a deprivation which for them
must be slight; while to the class they imitate, without equalling, it
will be the prohibition of an abominable habit.'(84)


(84) Extracts from a 'leader' in the Standard of Sept. 4, 1869.



CHAPTER IX. GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES.

It is not surprising that a people so intensely speculative, excitable,
and eager as the Americans, should be desperately addicted to gambling.
Indeed, the spirit of gambling has incessantly pervaded all their
operations, political, commercial, and social.(85) It is but one of
the manifestations of that thorough license arrogated to itself by the
nation, finding its true expression in the American maxim recorded by Mr
Hepworth Dixon, so coarsely worded, but so significant,--'Every man has
a right to do what he _DAMNED_ pleases.'(86)


(85) In the American correspondence of the Morning Advertiser, Feb. 6,
1868, the writer says:--'It was only yesterday (Jan. 24) that an eminent
American merchant of this city (New York) said, in referring to the
state of affairs--"we are socially, politically, and commercially
demoralized."'


(86) 'Spiritual Wives.'--A work the extraordinary disclosures of which
tend to show that a similar spirit, destined, perhaps, to bring about
the greatest social changes, is gaining ground elsewhere than in
America.


Although laws similar to those of England are enacted in America against
gambling, it may be said to exist everywhere, but, of course, to the
greatest extent in the vicinity of the fashionable quarters of the large
cities. In New York there is scarcely a street without its gambling
house--'private,' of course, but well known to those who indulge in the
vice. The ordinary public game is Faro.

High and low, rich and poor, are perfectly suited in their requirements;
whilst at some places the stakes are unlimited, at others they must
not exceed one dollar, and a player may wager as low as five cents, or
twopence-halfpenny. These are for the accommodation of the very poorest
workmen, discharged soldiers, broken-down gamblers, and street-boys.

'I think,' says a recent writer,(87) 'of all the street-boys in
the world, those of New York are the most precocious. I have seen a
shoe-black, about three feet high, walk up to the table or 'Bank,' as it
is generally called, and stake his money (five cents) with the air of a
young spendthrift to whom "money is no object."'


(87) 'St James's Magazine,' Sept., 1867.


The chief gambling houses of New York were established by men who are
American celebrities, and among these the most prominent have been Pat
Hern and John Morrissey.


PAT HERN.


Some years ago this celebrated Irishman kept up a splendid establishment
in Broadway, near Hauston Street. At that time his house was the centre
of attraction towards which 'all the world' gravitated, and did the
thing right grandly--combining the Apicius with the Beau Nash or
Brummell. He was profusely lavish with his wines and exuberant in
his suppers; and it was generally said that the game in action there,
_Faro_, was played in all fairness. Pat Hern was a man of jovial
disposition and genial wit, and would have adorned a better position.
During the trout-fishing season he used to visit a well-known place
called Islip in Long Island, much frequented by gentlemen devoted to
angling and fond of good living.

At Islip the equally renowned Oby Snedecker kept the tavern which was
the resort of Pat Hern and his companions. It had attached to it a
stream and lake to which the gentlemen who had the privilege of the
house were admitted. Mrs Obadiah Snedecker, the buxom wife of 'mine
host,' was famous for the exquisite way in which she cooked veal
cutlets. There were two niggers in the establishment, named Steve and
Dick, who accompanied the gentlemen in their angling excursions, amusing
them with their stolidity and the enormous quantity of gin they could
imbibe without being more than normally fuddled.

After fishing, the gentlemen used to take to gambling at the usual
French games; but here Pat Hern appeared not in the character of
gambler, but as a private gentleman. He was always well received by
the visitors, and caused them many a hearty laugh with his overflowing
humour. He died about nine years ago, I think tolerably well off.


JOHN MORRISSEY.


John Morrissey was originally a prize-fighter,--having fought with
Heenan and also with Yankee Sullivan, and lived by teaching the young
Americans the noble art of self-defence. He afterwards set up a 'Bar,'
or public-house, and over this he established a small Faro bank, which
he enlarged and improved by degrees until it became well known, and was
very much frequented by the gamblers of New York. He is now, I believe,
a member of Congress for that city, and immensely wealthy. Not content
with his successful gambling operations in New York, he has opened a
splendid establishment at the fashionable summer resort of Saratoga,
consisting of an immense hotel, ballrooms, and gambling-rooms, and is
said to have a profit of two millions of dollars (about L400,000) during
the season.(88) He is mentioned as one of those who pay the most income
tax.


(88) _Ubi supra_.


Morrissey's gambling house is in Union Square, and is said to be
magnificently furnished and distinguished by the most princely
hospitality. At all hours of the day or night tables are laid out with
every description of refreshment, to which all who visit the place are
welcome.

This is a remarkable feature in the American system. At all 'Bars,' or
public-houses, you find provided, free of charge, supplies of cheese,
biscuits, &c., and sometimes even some savoury soup--which are often
resorted to by those unfortunates who are 'clean broke' or 'used up,'
with little else to assuage the pangs of hunger but the everlasting quid
of tobacco, furiously 'chawed.' Another generous feature of the American
system is that the bar-man does not measure out to you, after our stingy
fashion, what drink you may require, but hands you the tumbler and
bottle to help yourself, unless in the case of made drinks, such as
'mint-juleps,' &c. However, you must drink your liquor at a gulp, after
the Yankee fashion; for if you take a sip and turn your back to the
counter, your glass will disappear--as it is not customary to have
glasses standing about. Morrissey's wines are very good, and always
supplied in abundance.

Almost every game of chance is played at this establishment, and the
stakes are very high and unlimited. The visitors are the wealthy and
wild young men of New York, and occasionally a Southern-looking man
who, perhaps, has saved some of his property, being still the same
professional gambler; for it may be affirmed that all the Southern
planters were addicted to gambling.

'The same flocks of well-dressed and fashionable-looking men of all
ages pass in and out all through the day and night; tens of thousands of
dollars are lost and won; the "click" of the markers never ceases; all
speak in a low tone; everything has a serious, quiet appearance. The
dealers seem to know every one, and nod familiarly to all who approach
their tables. John Morrissey is occasionally to be seen, walking
through the rooms, apparently a disinterested spectator. He is a short,
thick-set man, of about 40 years, dark complexion, and wears a long
beard, dresses in a slovenly manner, and walks with a swagger. Now and
then he approaches the table; makes a few bets, and is then lost in the
crowd.'(89)


(89) _Ubi supra_.


OTHER GAMING-HOUSES.


The same writer furnishes other very interesting facts.

'After the opera-house and theatres are closed, Morrissey's gambling
house becomes very full; in fact, the best time to see it to advantage
is about two or three o'clock in the morning.

'A little below the New York Hotel, and on the opposite side of
Broadway, there is a gambling house, not quite so "respectable" as the
one I have been describing; here the stakes are not below a dollar, and
not more than twenty-five; there are no refreshments gratis, and the
rooms are not so well furnished. The men to be seen gaming in this house
differ but very little in appearance from those in Union Square, but
there seems to be less discipline amongst them, and more noise and
confusion. It is a rare thing to see an intoxicated man in a gambling
house; the door-keepers are very particular as to whom they admit, and
any disturbance which might call for the interference of the police
would be ruinous to their business. The police are undoubtedly aware
of everything going on in these houses, and do not interfere as long as
everything goes on quietly.

'Now and then a clerk spends his employer's money, and if it is
discovered where he lost it then a _RAID_ is made by the police in
force, the tables and all the gaming paraphernalia are carried off, and
the proprietors heavily fined.

'I witnessed a case of this: a young man in the employment of a
commission merchant appropriated a large sum of his employer's money,
and lost it at Faro. He was arrested, and confessed what he had done
with it. The police at once proceeded to the house where the Faro bank
was kept, and the scene, when it was known that the police were below,
beggars description. The tables were upset, and notes and markers were
flying about in all directions. Men, sprawling and scrambling on the
floor, fought with one another for whatever they could seize; then the
police entered and cleared the house, having arrested the owners of the
bank. This was in one of the lowest gaming houses, where "skin" games
(cheating games) are practised.

'In the gambling house in Broadway, near the New York Hotel, I have
often noticed a young man, apparently of some 18 or 20 years of age,
fashionably dressed, and of prepossessing appearance. On some days he
would play very high, and seemed to have most remarkable luck; but he
always played with the air of an old gamester, seeming careless as to
whether he won or lost. One night he lost so heavily that he attracted
the notice of all the players; every stake of his was swept away; and he
still played on until his last dollar was lost; then he quietly walked
out, whistling a popular Yankee air. He was there next day _MINUS_ his
great-coat and watch and chain--he lost again, went out and returned
in his shirt sleeves, having pawned his coat, studs, and everything he
could with decency divest himself of. He lost everything; and when I
next saw him he was selling newspapers in front of the post-office!

'The mania for gambling is a most singular one. I have known a man to
win a thousand dollars in a few hours, and yet he would not spend a
dollar to get a dinner, but when he felt hungry he went to a baker's
shop and bought a loaf of bread, and that same night lost all his money
at Roulette.

'There is another house on the corner of Centre and Grand Streets, open
during night and day. The stakes here are the same as in the one in
Broadway, and the people who play are very much the same--in fact, the
same faces are constantly to be met with in all the gambling houses,
from the highest to the lowest. When a gambler has but small capital, he
will go to a small house, where small stakes are admissible. I saw a
man win 50 or 60 dollars at this place, and then hand in his checks
(markers) to be cashed. The dealer handed him the money, and said--"Now
you go off, straight away to Union Square, and pay away all you have
won from here to John Morrissey. This is the way with all of them; they
never come here until they are dead broke, and have only a dirty
dollar or so to risk." There was some truth in what he said, but
notwithstanding he managed to keep the bank going on. There is a great
temptation to a man who has won a sum of money at a small gambling house
to go to a higher one, as he may then, at a single stake, win as much as
he could possibly win if he had a run of luck in a dozen stakes at the
smaller bank.

'In No. 102, in the Bowery, there is one of the lowest of the gaming
houses I have seen in the Empire city. The proprietor is an Irishman;
he employs three men as dealers, and they relieve one another every four
hours during the day and night. The stakes here are of the lowest, and
the people to be seen here of the roughest to be found in the city. The
game is Faro, as elsewhere.

'In this place I met an old friend with whom I had served in the army of
Northern Virginia, under General Lee, in his Virginia campaign of 1865.
He told me he had been in New York since the end of the war, and lived
a very uncertain sort of life. Whatever money he could earn he spent at
the gaming table. Sometimes he had a run of luck, and whilst it lasted
he dressed well, and stopped at the most expensive hotels. One night he
would sleep at the Astor House; and perhaps the next night he would
not be able to pay for his bed, and would stay all night in the parks.
Strange to say, hundreds live in this way, which is vulgarly called
"scratching" in New York. I afterwards saw my friend driving an omnibus;
and when I could speak to him, I found that he was still attending the
banks with every cent he earned!

'It is amusing to watch the proprietor of this place at the Bowery; he
has a joke for every one he sees. "Hallo, old sport!" he cries, "come
and try your luck--you look lucky this evening; and if you make a
good run you may sport a gold watch and chain, and a velvet vest, like
myself." Then to another, "Young clear-the-way, you look down at the
mouth to-night! Come along and have a turn--and never mind your supper
tonight." In this way the days and nights are passed in those gambling
houses.'

There is also in New York an association for the prevention of gambling.
The society employs detectives to visit the gambling saloons, and
procure evidence for the suppression of the establishments.

It is the business of these agents also to ascertain the names and
occupations of those who frequent the gambling rooms, and a list of the
persons thus detected is sent periodically to the subscribers to the
society, that they may know who are the persons wasting their money, or
perhaps the money of their employers, in gambling. Many large houses of
business subscribe.

In the month of August the society's agents detected among the gamblers
68 clerks of mercantile houses, and in the previous six months reported
623 cases. It is stated that there are in New York and Brooklyn 1017
policy and lottery offices, and 163 Faro banks, and that their net
annual gains are not less than 36,000,000 dollars.


AMERICAN GAMBLERS.


At American gambling houses 'it is very easy,' says the same writer, 'to
distinguish the professional from the ordinary gambler. The latter has a
nervous expression about the mouth, and an intense gaze upon the cards,
and altogether a very serious nervous appearance; while the professional
plays in a very quiet manner, and seems to care but little how the game
goes; and his desire to appear as if the game was new to him is almost
certain to expose him to those who know the manoeuvre.

'Previous to the struggle for independence in the South, there were
many hundreds of gamblers scattered through the Southern towns, and
the Mississippi steam-boats used to abound with them. In the South, a
gambler was regarded as outside the pale of society, and classed with
the slave-trader, who was looked upon with loathing by the very same men
who traded with him; such was the inconsistency of public opinion.

'The American gambler differs from his European brethren in many
respects. He is very frequently, in education, appearance, and manner, a
gentleman, and if his private history were known, it would be found
that he was of good birth, and was at one time possessed of considerable
fortune; but having lost all at the gambling table, he gradually came
down to the level of those who proved his ruin, and having no profession
nor means of livelihood left to him, he adopted their mode of life.

'On one occasion I met a brother of a Southern General (very famous in
the late war and still a wealthy man) who, at one time, was one of the
richest planters in the State of Louisiana, and is now acting as
an agent for a set of gamblers to their gaming houses. After losing
everything he had, he became a croupier to a gambling house in New
Orleans, and afterwards plied his trade on the Mississippi for some
years; then he went into Mexico, and finally to New York, where he
opened a house on his own account.

'During the war he speculated in "greenbacks," and lost all his
ill-gotten gains, and had to descend to his present position.'(90)


(90) _Ubi supra_.


AMERICAN GAMES:--DRAW POKER, OR BLUFF.


Draw Poker, or Bluff, is a favourite game with the Americans. It is
played by any number of persons, from four to seven; four, five, or six
players are preferred; seven are only engaged where a party of friends
consists of that number, and all require to be equally amused.

The deal is usually determined by fixing on a card, and dealing round,
face upwards, until such card appears. The dealer then places in the
pool an _Ante_, or certain agreed-upon sum, and proceeds to deal to each
person five cards. The player next to the dealer, before looking at
his cards, has the option of staking a certain sum. This is called the
'blind,' and makes him the elder hand, or last player; and when his
turn comes round he can, by giving up his first stake, withdraw from
the game, or, if he pleases, by making good any sum staked by a previous
player, raise the stakes to any sum he pleases, provided, of course,
that no limit has been fixed before sitting down. The privilege of
raising or doubling on the _blind_ may be exercised by any one round the
table, provided he has not looked at his cards. If no intervening player
has met the original _blind_, that is, staked double the sum, this must
be done by all who wish to play, and, of course, must be made good by
the last player. Each person then looks at his cards, and decides on
his plan of action. It should be understood that every one, except the
_blind_, may look at his cards in his turn before deciding if he will
meet the _blind_. Before speaking of the manner of drawing it will be
better to give the relative value of the hands, which will much simplify
the matter, and make it more easily understood. Thus: four aces are the
best cards that can be held; four kings next, and so on, down to four
twos; four cards of the same value beating anything except four of a
higher denomination.

The next best hand is called a _full_, and is made up thus:--three aces
and a pair of sixes; three nines and pair of twos; in fact, any three
cards of the same value and a pair constitute a full hand, and can only
be beaten by a full hand of a higher denomination or fours. The next
hand that takes precedence is a _flush_, or five cards of one colour;
after this comes _threes_, vis., three cards all of the same value,
say, three aces, kings, queens, and so on, downwards (the two remaining,
being odd ones, are of no value). The next is a sequence, as five
following cards, for instance, nine, eight, seven, six, five; it is not
necessary they should all be of one colour, as this, of course, would
constitute a _flush_. Next come two pairs, say, two knaves and two
fives; and, last of all, is a single pair of cards. Having explained the
value of the hands, let us show how you endeavour to get them. The bets
having been made, and the _blind_ made good or abandoned, or given up,
the dealer proceeds to ask each player in his turn how many cards he
wants; and here begins the first study of the game--_TO KNOW WHAT
TO THROW AWAY_ in order to get in others to make the hand better if
possible. Your hand may, of course, be so utterly bad as to make it
necessary to throw away the whole five and draw five new ones; this is
not very likely, as few players will put a stake in the pool unless, on
looking first at his cards, he has seen something, say a pair, to start
with. We will suppose he has this, and, of course, he throws away three
cards, and draws three in place of them. To describe the proper way to
fill up a hand is impossible; we can but give an instance here and there
to show the varying interest which attaches to the game;--thus, you may
have threes in the original hand dealt; some players will throw away the
two odd cards and draw two more, to try and make the hand fours, or, at
least, a full; while a player knowing that his is not a very good hand,
will endeavour to _DECEIVE_ the rest by standing out, that is, not
taking any fresh cards; of course all round the table make remarks as to
what he can possibly have.

It is usually taken to be a sequence, as this requires no drawing, if
originally dealt. The same remark applies to a _flush;_ two pairs or
four to a flush, of course, require one card to make them into good
hands, a player being only entitled to draw once; and the hands being
made good, the real and exciting part of the game begins. Each one
endeavours to keep his real position a secret from his neighbours. Some
put on a look of calm indifference, and try to seem self-possessed; some
will grin and talk all sorts of nonsense; some will utter sly bits of
_badinage;_ while others will study intently their cards, or gaze at the
ceiling--all which is done merely to distract attention, or to conceal
the feelings, as the chance of success or failure be for or against; and
then begins the betting or gambling part of the game. The player next
the _blind_ is the first to declare his bet; in which, of course, he is
entirely governed by circumstances. Some, being the first to bet, and
having a very good card indeed, will 'bet small,' in hopes that some one
else will see it, and 'go better,' that is, bet more, so that when it
comes round to his turn again he may see all previous bets, and bet as
much higher as he thinks proper; for it must be borne in mind that a
player's first bet does not preclude him from coming in again if his
first bet has been raised upon by any player round the table in his
turn; but if once the original bet goes round and comes to the _blind_,
or last player, without any one going better, the game is closed, and it
becomes a _show of hands_, to see who takes the pool and all the bets.
This does not often happen, as there is usually some one round the table
to raise it; but my informant has seen it occur, and has been highly
amused at watching the countenance of the expectant _small better_ at
having to show a fine hand for a mere trifle. Some players will, in
order to conceal their method of play, occasionally throw their cards
among the waste ones and abandon their stakes; this is not often done;
but it sometimes happens where the stakes have been small, or the player
has been _trying a bluff_, and has found some one whom he could not
_bluff off_. The foregoing is a concise account of the game, as played
in America, where it is of universal interest, and exercises great
fascination. It is often played by parties of friends who meet regularly
for the purpose, and instances can be found where fortunes have been
lost in a night.

The game of Pokers differs from the one just described, in so far that
the players receive only the original five cards dealt without drawing
fresh ones, and must either play or refuse on them. In this game, as
there are more cards, as many as ten persons can play.


LANSQUENET.(91)


Lansquenet is much played by the Americans, and is one of the most
exciting games in vogue.

The dealer or banker stakes a certain sum, and this must be met by
the nearest to the dealer first, and so on. When the stake is met, the
dealer turns up two cards, one to the right,--the latter for himself,
the former for the table or the players. He then keeps on turning up
the cards until either of the cards is matched, which constitutes the
winning,--as, for instance, suppose the five of diamonds is his card,
then should the five of any other suit turn up, he wins. If he loses,
then the next player on the left becomes banker and proceeds in the same
way.


(91) This name is derived from the German '_landsknecht_' ('valet of the
fief'), applied to a mercenary soldier.


When the dealer's card turns up, he may take the stake and pass the
bank; or he may allow the stake to remain, whereat of course it becomes
doubled if met. He can continue thus as long as the cards turn up in
his favour--having the option at any moment of giving up the bank and
retiring for that time. If he does that, the player to whom he passes
the bank has the option of continuing it at the same amount at which it
was left. The pool may be made up by contributions of all the players in
certain proportions. The terms used respecting the standing of the
stake are, 'I'll see' (_a moi le tout)_ and _Je tiens_. When _jumelle_
(twins), or the turning up of similar cards on both sides, occurs, then
the dealer takes half the stake.

Sometimes there is a run of several consecutive winnings; but on one
occasion, on board one of the Cunard steamers, a banker at the game
turned up in his own favour I think no less than eighteen times. The
original stake was only six-pence; but had each stake been met as won,
the final doubling would have amounted to the immense sum of L3,236
16_s_.! This will appear by the following scheme:--

L s. d. L s. d. 1st turn up 0 0 6 10th turn up 12 16 0 2nd,, 0 1 0
11th,, 25 12 0 3rd,, 0 2 0 12th,, 51 4 0 4th,, 0 4 0 13th,, 102 8 0
5th,, 0 8 0 14th,, 204 16 0 6th,, 0 16 0 15th,, 409 12 0 7th,, 1 12 0
16th,, 819 4 0 8th,, 3 4 0 17th,, 1,618 8 0 9th,, 6 8 0 18th,, 3,236 16
0


In fair play, as this is represented to have been, such a long sequence
of matches must be considered very remarkable, although six or seven is
not unfrequent.

Unfortunately, however, there is a very easy means by which card
sharpers manage the thing to perfection. They prepare beforehand a
series of a dozen cards arranged as follows:--

1st Queen 6th Nine 2nd Queen 7th Nine 3rd Ten 8th Ace 4th Seven 9th
Eight 5th Ten 10th Ace

Series thus arranged are placed in side pockets outside the waistcoat,
just under the left breast. When the sharper becomes banker he leans
negligently over the table, and in this position his fingers are as
close as possible to the prepared cards, termed _portees_. At the proper
moment he seizes the cards and places them on the pack. The trick
is rendered very easy by the fact that the card-sharper has his coat
buttoned at the top, so that the lower part of it lies open and permits
the introduction of the hand, which is completely masked.

Some sharpers are skilful enough to take up some of the matches already
dealt, which they place in their _costieres_, or side-pockets above
described, in readiness for their next operation; others keep them
skilfully hidden in their hand, to lay them, at the convenient moment,
upon the pack of cards. By this means, the pack is not augmented.(92)


(92) Robert Houdin, 'Les Tricheries des Grecs devoilees.'


In France the stakes commence at 5 francs; and it may be easily
imagined how soon vast sums of money may change hands if the players are
determined and reckless.


EUCHRE.


This is also a game much played in the States. I suppose it is a Yankee
invention, named by one of their learned professors, from the Greek
(gr euceis) (eucheir), meaning 'well in the hand' or 'strong'--a very
appropriate designation of the game, which is as follows:--

In this game all the cards are excluded up to the sixes,--seven being
the lowest in the Euchre pack. Five cards are dealt out, after the usual
shuffling and cutting, with a turn-up, or trump. The dealer has the
privilege of discarding one of his cards and taking up the trump--not
showing, however, the one he discards. The Knave is the best card in
the game--a peculiar Yankee 'notion.' The Knave of trumps is called the
Right Bower, and the other Knave of the _same colour_ is the Left Bower.
Hence it appears that the nautical propensity of this great people is
therein represented--'bower' being in fact a sheet anchor. If both are
held, it is evident that the _point_ of the deal is decided--since it
results from taking three tricks out of the five; for, of course, the
trump card appropriated by the dealer will, most probably, secure a
trick, and the two Knaves must necessarily make two. The game may be
five or seven points, as agreed upon. Euchre is rapid and decisive, and,
therefore, eminently American.


FLY LOO.


Some of the games played by the Americans are peculiar to themselves.
For instance, vast sums of money change hands over Fly Loo, or the
attraction existing between lumps of sugar and adventurous flies! This
game is not without its excitement. The gamblers sit round a table, each
with a lump of sugar before him, and the player upon whose lump a fly
first perches carries off the pool--which is sometimes enormous.

They tell an anecdote of a 'cute Yankee, who won invariably and
immensely at the game. There seemed to be a sort of magical or mesmeric
attraction for the flies to his lump. At length it was ascertained
that he touched the lump with his finger, after having smeared it with
something that naturally and irresistibly attracts flies whenever they
can get at it. I am told that this game is also played in England; if
so, the parties must insist upon fresh lumps of sugar, and prevent all
touching.

The reader will probably ask--what next will gamblers think of
betting on? But I can tell of a still more curious source of gambling
infatuation. In the _Oxford Magazine_,(93) is the following statement:--


(93) Vol. V.


'A few days ago, as some sprigs of nobility were dining together at a
tavern, they took the following conceit into their heads after dinner.
One of them observing a maggot come from a filbert, which seemed to
be uncommonly large, attempted to get it from his companion, who, not
choosing to let it go, was immediately offered five guineas for it,
which was accepted. He then proposed to run it against any other two
maggots that could be produced at table. Matches were accordingly made,
and these poor reptiles were the means of L500 being won and lost in a
few minutes!'


THE CRIMES OF AMERICAN GAMBLERS.


Suicides, duels, and murders have frequently resulted from gambling here
as elsewhere. Many of the duels in dark rooms originate in disputes at
the gaming table. The combatants rush from play to an upper or adjoining
room, and settle their difference with revolver-shots, often fatal to
both.

One of these was a serio-comic affair which is perhaps worth relating.
Two players had a gambling dispute, and resolved to settle it in a
dark room with pistols. The door was locked and one of them fired, but
missed. On this the other exclaimed--'Now, you rascal, I'll finish you
at my leisure.' He then began to search for his opponent. Three or four
times he walked stealthily round the room--but all in vain--he could
not find his man; he listened; he could not hear him breathe. What had
become of him? 'Oh!' at length he exclaimed--'Now I've got you, you ----
sneak--here goes!' 'Hold! Hold!' cried a voice from the chimney, 'Don't
fire! I'll pay you anything.--Do take away that ---- pistol.' In effect
his adversary held the muzzle of his pistol close to the seat of honour
as the fellow stood stuffed up the chimney!

'You'll pay, will you?' said the former; 'Very well--800 dollars--is 't
a bargain?'

'Yes, yes!' gasped the voice in the chimney.

'Very well,' rejoined the tormentor, 'but just wait a bit; I must have
a voucher. I'll just cut off the bottom of your breeches by way of
voucher.' So saying he pulled out his knife and suited the action to the
words.

'Now get down,' he said, 'and out with the money;' which was paid, when
the above-named voucher was returned to the chimney-groper.

The town of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, was formerly notorious as the
rendezvous of all sorts of desperadoes. It was a city of men; you saw no
women, except at night; and never any children. Vicksburg was a sink of
iniquity; and there gambling raged with unrestricted fury. It was
always after touching at Vicksburg that the Mississippi boats became
the well-known scene of gambling--some of the Vicksburghers invariably
getting on board to ply their profession.

On one occasion, one of these came on board, and soon induced some of
the passengers to proceed to the upper promenade-deck for gambling. Soon
the stakes increased and a heap of gold was on the table, when a dispute
arose, in the midst of which one of the players placed his hand on the
stake. Thereupon the Vicksburg gambler drew his knife and plunged it
into the hand of the former, with a terrible imprecation.

Throughout the Southern States, as before observed, gambling prevailed
to a very great extent, and its results were often deplorable.

A planter went to a gambling house, accompanied by one of his negroes,
whom he left at the door to wait his return. Whilst the master was
gambling the slave did the same with another whom he found at the door.
Meanwhile a Mexican came up and stood by looking at the game of the
negroes. By-and-by one of them accused the other of cheating, which was
denied, when the Mexican interposed and told the negro that he saw him
cheat. The latter told the Mexican that he lied--whereupon the Mexican
stabbed him to the heart, killing him on the spot.

Soon the negro's master came out, and on being informed of the affair,
turned to the Mexican, saying--'Now, sir, we must settle the matter
between us--my negro's quarrel is mine.' 'Agreed,' said the Mexican;
they entered the house, proceeded to a dark room, fired at each other,
and both were killed.

About six and twenty years ago there lived in New York a well-to-do
merchant, of the name of Osborne, who had an only son, who was a partner
in the concern. The young man fell in love with the daughter of a
Southern planter, then on a visit at New York, to whom he engaged
himself to be married, with the perfect consent of all parties
concerned.

On the return of the planter and his daughter, young Osborne accompanied
them to Mobile. On the very night of their arrival, the planter proposed
to his intended son-in-law to visit the gaming table. They went; Osborne
was unlucky; and after some hours' play lost an immense amount to the
father of his sweetheart. He gave bills, drawn on his house, in payment
of the debt of honour.

On the following morning the planter referred to the subject, hinting
that Osborne must be ruined.

'Indeed, I am!' said the young man; 'but the possession of your daughter
will console me for the calamity, which, I doubt not, I shall be able to
make up for by industry and exertion.'

'The possession of _MY_ daughter?' exclaimed the planter; 'do you think
I would marry my daughter to a beggar? No, no, sir, the affair is ended
between you--and I insist upon its being utterly broken off.' Such was
the action of the heartless gambler, rendered callous to all sentiments
of real honour by his debasing pursuit.

Young Osborne was equal to the occasion. Summoning all his powers to
manfully bear this additional shock of fate, he calmly replied:--

'So be it, sir, as you wish it. Depend upon it, however, that my bills
will be duly honoured'--and so saying he bowed and departed, without
even wishing to take leave of his betrothed.

On returning to New York Osborne immediately disclosed the transaction
to his father, who, in spite of the utter ruin which impended, and the
brutality of the cause of the ruin, resolved to meet the bills when due,
and maintain the honour of his son--whatever might be the consequences
to himself.

The bills were paid; the concern was broken up; old Mr Osborne soon
died broken-hearted; and young Osborne went as clerk to some house of
business in Wall Street.

A year or so passed away, and one day a lady presented herself at the
old house of Osborne--now no longer theirs--inquiring for young Osborne.
She was directed to his new place of business; being no other than his
betrothed, who loved him as passionately as ever, and to whom her
father had accounted for the non-fulfilment of the engagement in a very
unsatisfactory manner. Of course Osborne could not fail to be delighted
at this proof of her devotedness; the meeting was most affectionate on
both sides; and, with the view of coming to a decision respecting their
future proceedings, they adjourned to an hotel in the vicinity. Here,
whilst seated at a table and in earnest conversation, the young lady's
father rushed in, and instantly shot down Osborne, who expired at
his feet. With a frantic shriek the poor girl fell on the body of her
betrothed, and finding a poniard or a knife concealed in his breast, she
seized it, instantly plunged it into her heart, and was soon a corpse
beside her lover.



CHAPTER X. LADY GAMESTRESSES.

The passions of the two sexes are similar in the main; the distinctions
between them result less from nature than from education. Often we meet
with women, especially the literary sort, who seem veritable men, if not
so, as the lawyers say, 'to all intents and purposes;' and often we
meet with men, especially town-dandies, who can only be compared to very
ordinary women.

Almost all the ancients had the bad taste to speak ill of women; among
the rest even that delightful old Father 'of the golden mouth,' St
Chrysostom.(94) So that, evidently, Dr Johnson's fierce dictum cannot
apply universally--'Only scoundrels speak ill of women.'


(94) Hom. II.


Seneca took the part of women, exclaiming:--'By no means believe that
their souls are inferior to ours, or that they are less endowed with the
virtues. As for honour, it is equally great and energetic among them.'

A foreign lady was surprised at beholding the equality established
between the men and women at Sparta; whereupon the wife of Leonidas, the
King of Sparta, said to her:--'Do you not know that it is we who bring
forth the men? It is not the fathers, but the mothers, that effectually
form the heart.'

Napoleon seems to have formed what may be called a professional estimate
of women. When the demonstrative Madame de Stael asked him--evidently
expecting him to pay her a compliment--'Whom do you think the greatest
woman dead or alive?' Napoleon replied, 'Her, Madame, _WHO HAS BORNE
MOST SONS_.' Nettled by this sarcastic reply, she returned to the
charge, observing, 'It is said you are not friendly to the sex.'
Napoleon was her match again; 'Madame,' he exclaimed, 'I am passionately
fond of my wife;' and off he walked. Assuredly it would not mend matters
in this world (or the next) if all men were Napoleons and all women de
Staels.

If we consider the question in other points of view, have there been,
proportionally, fewer celebrated women than illustrious men? fewer great
queens than truly great kings? Compare, on all sides, the means and the
circumstances; count the reigns, and decide.

The fact is that this question has been argued only by tyrannical
or very silly men, who found it difficult to get rid of the absurd
prejudices which retain the finest half of human nature in slavery,
and condemn it to obscurity under the pretext that it is essentially
corrupted. Towards the end of the 15th century a certain demented
writer attempted to prove that women do not even deserve the title of
reasonable creatures, which in the original sounds oddly enough, namely,
_probare nititur mulieres non homines esse_. Another, a very learned
Jesuit, endeavoured to demonstrate that women have no souls! Some say
that women surpass us in wickedness; others, that they are both worse
and better than men.

That morbid wretch, Alexander Pope, said, 'Every woman is at heart a
rake;' and a recent writer in the _Times_ puts more venom in the dictum
by saying, 'Every woman is (or likes) at heart a rake.' Both these
opinions may be set down as mere claptrap, witty, but vile.

But a truce to such insults against those who beautify the earth;
_THEIR_ vices cannot excuse ours. It is we who have depraved them by
associating them with excesses which are repugnant to their delicacy.
The contagion, however, has not affected all of them. Among our
'plebeians,' and even among nobility, many women remind us of the
modesty and courage of those ancient republican matrons, who, so to
speak, founded, the manners and morals of their country; and among all
classes of the community there are thousands who inspire their husbands
with generous impulses in the battle of life, either by cheering words
of comfort, or by that mute eloquence of duties well fulfilled, which
nothing can resist if we are worthy of the name of men. How many a
gambler has been reformed by the tender appeals of a good and devoted
wife. 'Venerable women!' one of them exclaims, 'in whatever rank Heaven
has placed you, receive my homage.' The gentleness of your souls smooths
down the roughness of ours and checks its violence. Without your virtues
what would we be? Without YOU, my dear wife, what would have become of
me? You beheld the beginning and the end of the gaming fury in me, which
I now detest; and it is not to me, but to you alone, that the victory
must be ascribed.'(95)


(95) Dusaulx, _De la Passion du Jeu_.


A very pretty anecdote is told of such a wife and a gaming husband.

In order to simplify the signs of loss and gain, so as not to be
overburdened with the weight of gold and silver, the French players used
to carry the representation of their fortunes in small boxes, more or
less elegant. A lady (who else could have thought of such a device?),
trembling for the fate of her husband, made him a present of one of
these dread boxes. This little master-piece of conjugal and maternal
affection represented a wife in the attitude of supplication, and
weeping children, seeming to say to their father--_THINK OF US!_....

It is, therefore, only with the view of avenging good and honourable
women, that I now proceed to speak of those who have disgraced their
sex.

I have already described a remarkable gamestress--the Persian Queen
Parysatis.(96)


(96) Chapter III.


There were no gamestresses among the Greeks; and the Roman women were
always too much occupied with their domestic affairs to find time for
play. What will our modern ladies think, when I state that the Emperor
Augustus scarcely wore a garment which had not been woven by his wife,
his sister, or grand-daughters.(97)


(97) Veste non temere alia quam domestica usus est, ab uxore et filia
nepotibusque confecta. Suet. in Vita Augusti.


Although deeply corrupted under Nero and the sovereigns that resembled
him, the Roman women never gambled among themselves except during the
celebration of the festival of the Bona Dea. This ceremonial, so often
profaned with licentiousness, was not attended by desperate gambling.
The most depraved women abstained from it, even when that mania was at
its height, not only around the Capitol, but even in the remainder of
the Empire.

Contemporary authors, who have not spared the Roman ladies, never
reproached them with this vice, which, in modern times, has been
desperately practised by women who in licentiousness vied with
Messalina.

In France, women who wished to gamble were, at first, obliged to keep
the thing secret; for if it became known they lost caste. In the reign
of Louis XIV., and still more in that of Louis XV., they became
bolder, and the wives of the great engaged in the deepest play in their
mansions; but still a gamestress was always denounced with horror. 'Such
women,' says La Bruyiere, 'make us chaste; they have nothing of the sex
but its garments.'

By the end of the 18th century, gamestresses became so numerous that
they excited no surprise, especially among the higher classes; and the
majority of them were notorious for unfair play or downright cheating.
A stranger once betted on the game of a lady at a gaming-table, who
claimed a stake although on a losing card. Out of consideration for
the distinguished trickstress, the banker wished to pay the stranger as
well; but the latter with a blush, exclaimed--'Possibly madame won, but
as for myself, I am quite sure that I lost.'

But if women cheated at play, they also frequently lost; and were often
reduced to beggary, or to what is far viler, to sacrifice, not only
their own honour, but that of their daughters.

Gaming sometimes led to other crimes. The Countess of Schwiechelt, a
young and beautiful lady from Hanover, was much given to gambling, and
lost 50,000 livres at Paris. In order to repair this great loss, she
planned and executed the robbery of a fine coronet of emeralds, the
property of Madame Demidoff. She had made herself acquainted with the
place where it was kept, and at a ball given by its owner the Hanoverian
lady contrived to purloin it. Her youth and rank in life induced many
persons to solicit her pardon; but Buonaparte left her to the punishment
to which she was condemned. This occurred in 1804.

In England, too, the practice of gambling was fraught with the worst
consequences to the finest feelings and best qualities of the sex. The
chief danger is very plainly hinted at in the comedy of _The Provoked
Husband_.


_Lord Townley_.--'Tis not your ill hours that always distract me, but,
as often, the ill company that occasions those hours.

_Lady Townley_.--Sure I don't understand you now, my lord. What ill
company do I keep?

_Lord Townley_.--Why, at best, women that lose their money, and men that
win it; _or, perhaps, men that are voluntary bubbles at one game, in
hopes a lady will give them fair play at another._


'The facts,' says Mr Massey,(98) 'confirm the theory. Walpole's Letters
and Mr Jesse's volumes on George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, teem
with allusions to proved or understood cases of matrimonial infidelity;
and the manner in which notorious irregularities were brazened out,
shows that the offenders did not always encounter the universal
reprobation of society.


(98) History of England, ii.


'Whist was not much in vogue until a later period, and was far
too abstruse and slow to suit the depraved taste which required
unadulterated stimulants.'

The ordinary stakes at these mixed assemblies would, at the present day,
be considered high, even at the clubs where a rubber is still allowed.

'The consequences of such gaming were often still more lamentable than
those which usually attended such practices. It would happen that a lady
lost more than she could venture to confess to her husband or father.
Her creditor was probably a fine gentleman, or she became indebted
to some rich admirer for the means of discharging her liabilities. In
either event, the result may be guessed. In the one case, the debt
of honour was liquidated on the old principle of the law-merchant,
according to which there was but one alternative to payment in purse. In
the other, there was likewise but one mode in which the acknowledgment
of obligation by a fine woman would be acceptable to a man of the
world.'

'The pernicious consequences of gambling to the nation at large,'
says another writer, 'would have been intolerable enough had they been
confined to the stronger sex; but, unfortunately, the women of the day
were equally carried away by this criminal infatuation. The disgusting
influence of this sordid vice was so disastrous to female minds, that
they lost their fairest distinction and privileges, together with
the blushing honours of modesty. Their high gaming was necessarily
accompanied with great losses. If all their resources, regular and
irregular, honest and fraudulent, were dissipated, still, _GAME-DEBTS
MUST BE PAID!_ The cunning winner was no stranger to the necessities of
the case. He hinted at _commutations_--which were not to be refused.

"So tender these,--if debts crowd fast upon her, She'll pawn her
_VIRTUE_ to preserve her _HONOUR!_"


Thus, the last invaluable jewel of female possession was unavoidably
resigned. That was indeed the forest of all evils, but an evil to which
every deep gamestress was inevitably exposed.'

Hogarth strikingly illustrated this phase of womanhood in England,
in his small picture painted for the Earl of Charlemont, and entitled
'_Picquet, or Virtue in Danger_.' It shows a young lady, who, during a
_tete-a-tete_, had just lost all her money to a handsome officer of
her own age. He is represented in the act of returning her a handful of
bank-bills, with the hope of exchanging them for another acquisition
and more delicate plunder. On the chimney-piece are a watch-case and a
figure of Time, over it this motto--_Nunc_, 'Now!' Hogarth has caught
his heroine during this moment of hesitation--this struggle with
herself--and has expressed her feelings with uncommon success.

But, indeed, the thing was perfectly understood. In the _Guardian_ (No.
120) we read:--'All play-debts must be paid in specie or by equivalent.
The "man" that plays beyond his income pawns his estate; the "woman"
must find out something else to mortgage when her pin-money is gone. The
husband has his lands to dispose of; the wife her person. Now when the
female body is once dipped, if the creditor be very importunate, I leave
my reader to consider the consequences.'....

A lady was married when very young to a noble lord, the honour and
ornament of his country, who hoped to preserve her from the contagion of
the times by his own example, and, to say the truth, she had every good
quality that could recommend her to the bosom of a man of discernment
and worth. But, alas! how frail and short are the joys of mortals! One
unfortunate hour ruined his darling visionary scheme of happiness: she
was introduced to an infamous woman, was drawn into play, liked it, and,
as the unavoidable consequence, she was ruined,--having lost more in
one night than would have maintained a hundred useful families for a
twelvemonth; and, dismal to tell, she felt compelled to sacrifice her
virtue to the wretch who had won her money, in order to recover the
loss! From this moment she might well exclaim--

'Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!'

The affectionate wife, the agreeable companion, the indulgent mistress,
were now no more. In vain she flattered herself that the injury she had
done her husband would for ever remain one of those secrets which can
only be disclosed at the last day. Vengeance pursued her steps, she
was lost; the villain to whom she had sacrificed herself boasted of the
favours he had received. The fatal report was conveyed to her injured
husband. He refused to believe what he thought impossible, but honour
obliged him to call the boaster to the field. The wretch received the
challenge with much more contentment than concern; as he had resolution
enough to murder any man whom he had injured, so he was certain, if he
had the good fortune to conquer his antagonist, he should be looked upon
as the head of all modern bucks and bloods--esteemed by the men as
a brave fellow, and admired by the ladies as a fine gentleman and an
agreeable rake. The meeting took place--the profligate gambler not
content with declaring, actually exulted in his guilt. But his triumph
was of short date--a bullet through the head settled his account with
this world.

The husband, after a long conflict in his bosom, between justice and
mercy, tenderness and rage, resolved--on what is very seldom practised
by an English husband--to pardon his wife, conceal her crime, and
preserve her, if possible, from utter destruction. But the gates of
mercy were opened in vain--the offender refused to receive forgiveness
because she had offended. The lust of gambling had absorbed all her
other desires. She gave herself up entirely to the infamous pursuit and
its concomitants, whilst her husband sank by a quick decay, and died the
victim of grief and anguish.(99)


(99) Doings in London.


Of other English gamestresses, however, nothing but the ordinary success
or inconveniences of gambling are recorded. In the year 1776, a lady
at the West End lost one night, at a sitting, 3000 guineas at Loo.(100)
Again, a lady having won a rubber of 20 guineas from a city merchant,
the latter pulled out his pocket-book, and tendered L21 in bank notes.
The fair gamestress, with a disdainful toss of the head, observed--'In
the great houses which I frequent, sir, we always use gold.' 'That may
be, madam,' said the gentleman, 'but, in the _LITTLE_ houses which I
frequent, we always use paper.'


(100) Annual Register.


Goldsmith mentions an old lady in the country who, having been given
over by her physician, played with the curate of the parish to pass the
time away. Having won all his money, she next proposed playing for the
funeral charges to which she would be liable. Unfortunately, the lady
expired just as she had taken up the game!

A lady who was desperately fond of play was confessing herself. The
priest represented, among other arguments against gaming, the great loss
of time it occasioned. 'Ah!' said the lady, 'that is what vexes me--so
much time lost in shuffling the cards!'

The celebrated Mrs Crewe seems to have been fond of gaming. Charles
James Fox ranked among her admirers. A gentleman lost a considerable sum
to this lady at play; and being obliged to leave town suddenly, he gave
Fox the money to pay her, begging him to apologize to the lady for his
not having paid the debt of honour in person. Fox unfortunately lost
every shilling of it before morning. Mrs Crewe often met the
supposed debtor afterwards, and, surprised that he never noticed the
circumstance, at length delicately hinted the matter to him. 'Bless me,'
said he, 'I paid the money to Mr Fox three months ago!' 'Oh, you did,
sir?' said Mrs Crewe good-naturedly, 'then probably he paid me and I
forgot it.'

This famous Mrs Crewe was the wife of Mr Crewe, who was created, in
1806, Lord Crewe. She was as remarkable for her accomplishments and her
worth as for her beauty; nevertheless she permitted the admiration of
the profligate Fox, who was in the rank of her admirers, and she was a
gamestress, as were most of the grand ladies in those days. The lines
Fox wrote on her were not exaggerated. They began thus:--

'Where the loveliest expression to features is join'd, By Nature's most
delicate pencil design'd; Where blushes unhidden, and smiles without
art, Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart, Where in
manners enchanting no blemish we trace, But the soul keeps the promise
we had from the face; Sure philosophy, reason, and coldness must prove
Defences unequal to shield us from love.'


'Nearly eight years after the famous election at Westminster, when she
personally canvassed for Fox, Mrs Crewe was still in perfection, with
a son one-and-twenty, who looked like her brother. The form of her
face was exquisitely lovely, her complexion radiant. "I know not,"
Miss Burney writes, "any female in her first youth who could bear the
comparison. She _uglifies_ every one near her."

'This charming partisan of Fox had been active in his cause; and
her originality of character, her good-humour, her recklessness of
consequences, made her a capital canvasser.'(101)


(101) Wharton, _The Queens of Society._


THE GAMBLING BARROW-WOMEN.


In 1776 the barrow-women of London used generally to carry dice with
them, and children were induced to throw for fruit and nuts.

However, the pernicious consequences of the practice beginning to be
felt, the Lord Mayor issued an order to apprehend all such offenders,
which speedily put an end to such street-gambling. At the present day a
sort of roulette is used for the same purpose by the itinerant caterers
to the sweetmeat and fruit-loving little ones.


GAMESTRESSES AT BADEN-BADEN.


Mrs Trollope has described two specimens of the modern gamestresses
at the German watering-places, one of whom seems to have specially
attracted her notice:--

'There was one of this set,' she says, 'whom I watched, day after day,
during the whole period of our stay, with more interest than, I believe,
was reasonable; for had I studied any other as attentively I might have
found less to lament.

'She was young--certainly not more than twenty-five--and, though not
regularly nor brilliantly handsome, most singularly winning both in
person and demeanour. Her dress was elegant, but peculiarly plain and
simple,--a close white silk bonnet and gauze veil; a quiet-coloured silk
gown, with less of flourish and frill, by half, than any other person;
a delicate little hand which, when ungloved, displayed some handsome
rings; a jewelled watch, of peculiar splendour; and a countenance
expressive of anxious thoughtfulness--must be remembered by many who
were at Baden in August, 1833. They must remember, too, that, enter the
rooms when they would, morning, noon, or night, still they found her
nearly at the same place at the _Rouge et Noir_ table.

'Her husband, who had as unquestionably the air of a gentleman as she
had of a lady, though not always close to her, was never very distant.
He did not play himself, and I fancied, as he hovered near her, that
his countenance expressed anxiety. But he returned her sweet smile, with
which she always met his eye, with an answering smile; and I saw not the
slightest indication that he wished to withdraw her from the table.

'There was an expression in the upper part of her face that my
blundering science would have construed into something very foreign to
the propensity she showed; but there she sat, hour after hour, day after
day, not even allowing the blessed sabbath, that gives rest to all, to
bring it to her;--there she sat, constantly throwing down handfuls of
five-franc pieces, and sometimes drawing them back again, till her young
face grew rigid from weariness, and all the lustre of her eye faded into
a glare of vexed inanity. Alas! alas! is that fair woman a mother? God
forbid!

'Another figure at the gaming table, which daily drew our attention,
was a pale, anxious old woman, who seemed no longer to have strength to
conceal her eager agitation under the air of callous indifference,
which all practised players endeavour to assume. She trembled, till her
shaking hand could hardly grasp the instrument with which she pushed or
withdrew her pieces; the dew of agony stood upon her wrinkled brow; yet,
hour after hour, and day after day, she too sat in the enchanted chair.
I never saw age and station in a position so utterly beyond the pale of
respect. I was assured she was a person of rank; and my informant added,
but I trust she was mistaken, that she was an _ENGLISH_ woman.'(102)


(102) Belgium and Western Germany, in 1833.


GAMING HOUSES KEPT BY LADIES.


There is no doubt that during the last half of the last century many
titled ladies not only gambled, but kept gaming houses. There is even
evidence that one of them actually appealed to the House of Lords
for protection against the intrusion of the peace officers into her
establishment in Covent Garden, on the plea of her Peerage! All this is
proved by a curious record found in the Journals of the House of Lords,
by the editor of the _Athenaeum_. It is as follows:--

'Die Lunae, 29 Aprilis, 1745.--_Gaming_. A Bill for preventing the
excessive and deceitful use of it having been brought from the Commons,
and proceeded on so far as to be agreed to in a Committee of the whole
House with amendments,--information was given to the House that Mr
Burdus, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the city and liberty of
Westminster, Sir Thomas de Veil, and Mr Lane, Chairman of the Quarter
Sessions for the county of Middlesex, were at the door; they were called
in, and at the Bar severally gave an account that claims of privilege of
Peerage were made and insisted on by the Ladies Mordington and Casselis,
in order to intimidate the peace officers from doing their duty in
suppressing the public gaming houses kept by the said ladies. And the
said Burdus thereupon delivered in an instrument in writing under the
hand of the said Lady Mordington, containing the claim she made of
privilege for her officers and servants employed by her in her said
gaming house. And then they were directed to withdraw. And the said
instrument was read as follows:--"I, Dame Mary, Baroness of Mordington,
do hold a house in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, for and as an
Assembly, where all persons of credit are at liberty to frequent and
play at such diversions as are used at other Assemblys. And I have hired
Joseph Dewberry, William Horsely, Ham Cropper, and George Sanders as
my servants or managers (under me) thereof. I have given them orders
to direct the management of the other inferior servants (namely):
John Bright, Richard Davis, John Hill, John Vandenvoren, as
box-keepers,--Gilbert Richardson, housekeeper, John Chaplain, regulator,
William Stanley and Henry Huggins, servants that wait on the company at
the said Assembly, William Penny and Joseph Penny as porters thereof.
And all the above-mentioned persons I claim as my domestick servants,
and demand all those privileges that belong to me as a peeress of Great
Britain appertaining to my said Assembly. M. MORDINGTON. Dated 8th Jan.,
1744."

'Resolved and declared that no person is entitled to privilege of
Peerage against any prosecution or proceeding for keeping any public
or common gaming house, or any house, room, or place for playing at any
game or games prohibited by any law now in force.'

That such practice continued in vogue is evident from the police
proceedings subsequently taken against


THE FAMOUS LADY BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.


This notorious gamestress of St James's Square, at the close of the last
century, actually slept with a blunderbuss and a pair of pistols at her
side, to protect her Faro bank.

On the 11th of March, 1797, her Ladyship, together with Lady E.
Lutterell and a Mrs Sturt, were convicted at the Marlborough Street
Police-court, in the penalty of L50, for playing at the game of Faro;
and Henry Martindale was convicted in the sum of L200, for keeping the
Faro table at Lady Buckinghamshire's. The witnesses had been servants
of her Ladyship, recently discharged on account of a late extraordinary
loss of 500 guineas from her Ladyship's house, belonging to the Faro
bank.(103)


(103) The case is reported in the Times of March 13th, 1797. One cannot
help being struck with the appearance of the Times newspaper at that
period--70 years ago. It was printed on one small sheet, about equal
to a single page of the present issue, and contained four pages, two of
which were advertisements, while the others gave only a short summary of
news--no leader at all.


In the same year, the croupier at the Countess of Buckinghamshire's one
night announced the unaccountable disappearance of the cash-box of the
Faro bank. All eyes were turned towards her Ladyship. Mrs Concannon said
she once lost a gold snuff-box from the table, while she went to speak
to Lord C--. Another lady said she lost her purse there last winter. And
a story was told that a certain lady had taken, _BY MISTAKE_, a cloak
which did not belong to her, at a rout given by the Countess of ----.
Unfortunately a discovery of the cloak was made, and when the servant
knocked at the door to demand it, some very valuable lace which it was
trimmed with had been taken off. Some surmised that the lady who stole
the cloak might also have stolen the Faro bank cash-box.

Soon after, the same Martindale, who had kept the Faro bank at Lady
Buckinghamshire's, became a bankrupt, and his debts amounted to
L328,000, besides 'debts of honour,' which were struck off to the
amount of L150,000. His failure is said to have been owing to misplaced
confidence in a subordinate, who robbed him of thousands. The first
suspicion was occasioned by his purchasing an estate of L500 a year;
but other purchases followed to a considerable extent; and it was soon
discovered that the Faro bank had been robbed sometimes of 2000 guineas
a week! On the 14th of April, 1798, other arrears, to a large amount,
were submitted to, and rejected by, the Commissioners in Bankruptcy,
who declared a first dividend of one shilling and five-pence in the
pound.(104)


(104) Seymour Harcourt, _Gaming Calendar._


This chapter cannot be better concluded than with quoting the _Epilogue_
of 'The Oxonian in Town,' 1767, humorously painting some of the
mischiefs of gambling, and expressly addressed to the ladies:--

'Lo! next, to my prophetic eye there starts A beauteous gamestress in
the Queen of Hearts. The cards are dealt, the fatal pool is lost, And
all her golden hopes for ever cross'd. Yet still this card-devoted fair
I view--Whate'er her luck, to "_honour_" ever true. So tender there,--if
debts crowd fast upon her, She'll pawn her "virtue" to preserve her
"honour." Thrice happy were my art, could I foretell, Cards would be
soon abjured by every belle! Yet, I pronounce, who cherish still the
vice, And the pale vigils keep of cards and dice--'Twill in their charms
sad havoc make, ye fair! Which "rouge" in vain shall labour to repair.
Beauties will grow mere hags, toasts wither'd jades, Frightful and ugly
as--the _QUEEN OF SPADES_.'



CHAPTER XI. GAMBLING POETS, SAVANTS, PHILOSOPHERS, WITS, AND STATESMEN.

Perhaps the stern moralist who may have turned over these pages has
frowned at the facts of the preceding chapter. If so, I know not what he
will do at those which I am about to record.

If it may be said that gamesters must be madmen, or rogues, how has it
come to pass that men of genius, talent, and virtue withal, have been
gamesters?

Men of genius, 'gifted men,' as they are called, are much to be pitied.
One of them has said--'Oh! if my pillow could reveal my sufferings last
night!' His was true grief--for it had no witness.(105) The endowments
of this nature of ours are so strangely mixed--the events of our lives
are so unexpectedly ruled, that one might almost prefer to have been
fashioned after those imaginary beings who act so _CONSISTENTLY_ in the
nursery tales and other figments. Most men seem to have a double soul;
and in your men of genius--your celebrities--the battle between the two
seems like the tremendous conflict so grandly (and horribly) described
by Milton. Who loved his country more than Cato? Who cared more for his
country's honour? And yet Cato was not only unable to resist the soft
impeachments of alcohol--

Narratur et prisci Catonis Saepe mero caluisse virtus--

but he was also a dice-player, a gambler.(106)


(105) Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet. Martial, lib. I.

(106) Plutarch, _Cato._


Julius Caesar did not drink; but what a profligate he was! And I have no
doubt that he was a gambler: it is certain that he got rid of millions
nobody knew how.

I believe, however, that the following is an undeniable fact. You may
find suspicious gamesters in every rank of life, but among men of genius
you will generally, if not always, find only victims resigned to the
caprices of fortune. The professions which imply the greatest enthusiasm
naturally furnish the greater number of gamesters. Thus, perhaps, we may
name ten poet-gamesters to one savant or philosopher who deserved the
title or infamy.

Coquillart, a poet of the 15th century, famous for his satirical verses
against women, died of grief after having ruined himself by gaming.
The great painter Guido--and a painter is certainly a poet--was another
example. By nature gentle and honourable, he might have been the
most fortunate of men if the demon of gambling had not poisoned his
existence, the end of which was truly wretched.

Rotrou, the acknowledged master of Corneille, hurried his poetical
effusions in order to raise money for gambling. This man of genius was
but a spoilt child in the matter of play. He once received two or three
hundred _louis_, and mistrusting himself, went and hid them under some
vine-branches, in order not to gamble all away at once. Vain precaution!
On the following night his bag was empty.

The poet Voiture was the delight of his contemporaries, conspicuous as
he was for the most exquisite polish and inexhaustible wit; but he was
also one of the most desperate gamesters of his time. Like Rotrou, he
mistrusted his folly, and sometimes refrained. 'I have discovered,'
he once wrote to a friend, 'as well as Aristotle, that there is no
beatitude in play; and in fact I have given over gambling; it is now
seven months since I played--which is very important news, and which I
forgot to tell you.' He would have died rich had he always refrained.
His relapses were terrible; one night he lost fifteen hundred pistoles
(about L750).

The list of foreign poets ruined by gambling might be extended; whilst,
on the other hand, it is impossible, I believe, to quote a single
instance of the kind among the poets of England,--perhaps because very
few of them had anything to lose. The reader will probably remember Dr
Johnson's exclamation on hearing of the large debt left unpaid by poor
Goldsmith at his death--'Was ever poet so trusted before!'...

The great philosophers Montaigne and Descartes, seduced at an early age
by the allurements of gambling, managed at length to overcome the evil,
presenting examples of reformation--which proves that this mania is not
absolutely incurable. Descartes became a gamester in his seventeenth
year; but it is said that the combinations of cards, or the doctrine of
probabilities, interested him more than his winnings.(107)


(107) Hist. des Philos. Modernes: _Descartes_.


The celebrated Cardan, one of the most universal and most eccentric
geniuses of his age, declares in his autobiography, that the rage for
gambling long entailed upon him the loss of reputation and fortune,
and that it retarded his progress in the sciences. 'Nothing,' says he,
'could justify me, unless it was that my love of gaming was less than my
horror of privation.' A very bad excuse, indeed; but Cardan reformed and
ceased to be a gambler.

Three of the greatest geniuses of England--Lords Halifax, Anglesey, and
Shaftesbury--were gamblers; and Locke tells a very funny story about
one of their gambling bouts. This philosopher, who neglected nothing,
however eccentric, that had any relation to the working of the human
understanding, happened to be present while my Lords Halifax, Anglesey,
and Shaftesbury were playing, and had the patience to write down, word
for word, all their discordant utterances during the phases of the game;
the result being a dialogue of speakers who only used exclamations--all
talking in chorus, but more to themselves than to each other. Lord
Anglesey observing Locke's occupation, asked him what he was writing.
'My Lord,' replied Locke, 'I am anxious not to lose anything you utter.'
This irony made them all blush, and put an end to the game.

M. Sallo, Counsellor to the Parliament of Paris, died, says Vigneul de
Marville, of a disease to which the children of the Muses are rarely
subject, and for which we find no remedy in Hippocrates and Galen;--he
died of a lingering disease after having lost 100,000 crowns at the
gaming table--all he possessed.

By way of diversion to his cankering grief, he started the well-known
_Journal des Savans_, but lived to write only 13 sheets of it, for he
was wounded to the death.(108)


(108) Melanges, d'Hist. et de Litt. i.


The physician Paschasius Justus was a deplorable instance of an
incorrigible gambler. This otherwise most excellent and learned man
having passed three-fourths of his life in a continual struggle with
vice, at length resolved to cure himself of the disease by occupying
his mind with a work which might be useful to his contemporaries and
posterity.(109) He began his book, but still he gamed; he finished it,
but the evil was still in him. 'I have lost everything but God!' he
exclaimed. He prayed for delivery from his soul's disease;(110) but
his prayer was not heard; he died like any gambler--more wretched than
reformed.

(109) 'De Alea, sive de curanda in pecuniam cupiditate,' pub. in 1560.

(110) Illum animi morbum, ut Deus tolleret, serio et frequenter optavit.


M. Dusaulx, author of a work on Gaming, exclaims therein--'I have
gambled like you, Paschasius, perhaps with greater fury. Like you I
write against gaming. Can I say that I am stronger than you, in more
critical circumstances?'(111)


(111) La Passion du Jeu.


What, then, is that mania which can be overcome neither by the love of
glory nor the study of wisdom!

The literary men of Greece and Rome rarely played any games but those of
skill, such as tennis, backgammon, and chess; and even in these it was
considered 'indecent' to appear too skilful. Cicero stigmatizes two
of his contemporaries for taking too great a delight in such games, on
account of their skill in playing them.(112)


(112) Ast alii, quia praeclare faciunt, vehementius quam causa postulat
delectantur, ut Titius pila, Brulla talis. De Orat. lib. iii.


Quinctilian advised his pupils to avoid all sterile amusements, which,
he said, were only the resource of the ignorant.

In after-times men of merit, such as John Huss and Cardinal Cajetan,
bewailed both the time lost in the most innocent games, and the
disastrous passions which are thereby excited. Montaigne calls chess
a stupid and childish game. 'I hate and shun it,' he says, 'because
it occupies one too seriously; I am ashamed of giving it the attention
which would be sufficient for some useful purpose.' King James I., the
British Solomon, forbade chess to his son, in the famous book of royal
instruction which he wrote for him.

As to the plea of 'filling up time,' Addison has made some very
pertinent observations:--'Whether any kind of gaming has ever thus
much to say for itself, I shall not determine; but I think it is very
wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing away a dozen hours
together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with no other
conversation but what is made up of a few game-phrases, and no other
ideas but those of black or red spots ranged together in different
figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his species
complaining that life is short?'

Men of intellect may rest assured that whether they win or lose at play,
it will always be at the cost of their genius; the soul cannot support
two passions together. The passion of play, although fatigued, is never
satiated, and therefore it always leaves behind protracted agitation.
The famous Roman lawyer Scaevola suffered from playing at backgammon;
his head was always affected by it, especially when he lost the game,
in fact, it seemed to craze him. One day he returned expressly from the
country merely to try and convince his opponent in a game which he had
lost, that if he had played otherwise he would have won! It seems that
on his journey home he mentally went through the game again, detected
his mistake, and could not rest until he went back and got his adversary
to admit the fact--for the sake of his _amour propre_.(113)


(113) Quinctil., _Instit. Orat_. lib. XI. cap. ii.


'It is rare,' says Rousseau, 'that thinkers take much delight in
play, which suspends the habit of thinking or diverts it upon sterile
combinations; and so one of the benefits--perhaps the only benefit
conferred by the taste for the sciences, is that it somewhat deadens
that sordid passion of play.'

Unfortunately such was not the result among the literary and scientific
men, in France or England, during the last quarter of the last century.
Many of them bitterly lamented that they ever played, and yet played
on,--going through all the grades and degradations appointed for his
votaries by the inexorable demon of gambling.


BEAU NASH.


Nature had by no means formed Nash for _beau_. His person was clumsy,
large, and awkward; his features were harsh, strong, and peculiarly
irregular; yet even with these disadvantages he made love, became an
universal admirer of the sex, and was in his turn universally admired.
The fact is, he was possessed of, at least, some requisites of a
'lover.' He had assiduity, flattery, fine clothes--and as much wit as
the ladies he addressed. Accordingly he used to say--'Wit, flattery,
and fine clothes are enough to debauch a nunnery!' This is certainly a
fouler calumny of women than Pope's

    'Every woman is at heart a rake.'


Beau Nash was a barrister, and had been a remarkable, a distinguished
one in his day--although not at the bar. He had the honour to organize
and direct the last grand 'revel and pageant' before a king, in the Hall
of the Middle Temple, of which he was a member.

It had long been customary for the Inns of Court to entertain our
monarchs upon their accession to the crown with a revel and pageant, and
the last was exhibited in honour of King William, when Nash was chosen
to conduct the whole with proper decorum. He was then a very young man,
but succeeded so well in giving satisfaction, that the king offered
to give him the honour of knighthood, which, however, Nash declined,
saying:--'Please your Majesty, if you intend to make me a knight, I wish
it may be one of your poor knights of Windsor; and then I shall have a
fortune at least able to support my title.'

In the Middle Temple he managed to rise 'to the very summit of
second-rate luxury,' and seems to have succeeded in becoming a
fashionable _recherche_, being always one of those who were called good
company--a professed dandy among the elegants.

No wonder, then, that we subsequently find him Master of the Ceremonies
at Bath, then the theatre of summer amusements for all people of
fashion. It was here that he took to gambling, and was at first classed
among the needy adventurers who went to that place; there was, however,
the great difference between him and them, that his heart was not
corrupt; and though by profession a gamester, he was generous, humane,
and honourable.

When he gave in his accounts to the Masters of the Temple, among
other items he charged was one--'For making one man happy, L10.' Being
questioned about the meaning of so strange an item, he frankly declared
that, happening to overhear a poor man declare to his wife and large
family of children that L10 would make him happy, he could not avoid
trying the experiment. He added, that, if they did not choose to
acquiesce in his charge, he was ready to refund the money. The Masters,
struck with such an uncommon instance of good nature, publicly thanked
him for his benevolence, and desired that the sum might be doubled as a
proof of their satisfaction.

'His laws were so strictly enforced that he was styled "King of Bath:"
no rank would protect the offender, nor dignity of station condone
a breach of the laws. Nash desired the Duchess of Queensberry, who
appeared at a dress ball in an apron of point-lace, said to be worth 500
guineas, to take it off, which she did, at the same time desiring his
acceptance of it; and when the Princess Amelia requested to have one
dance more after 11 o'clock, Nash replied that the laws of Bath, like
those of Lycurgus, were unalterable. Gaming ran high at Bath, and
frequently led to disputes and resort to the sword, then generally worn
by well-dressed men. Swords were, therefore, prohibited by Nash in
the public rooms; still they were worn in the streets, when Nash, in
consequence of a duel fought by torchlight, by two notorious gamesters,
made the law absolute, "That no swords should, on any account, be worn
in Bath."'(114)


(114) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.


About the year 1739 the gamblers, in order to evade the laws against
gaming, set up E O tables; and as these proved very profitable to the
proprietors at Tunbridge, Nash determined to introduce them at Bath,
having been assured by the lawyers that no law existed against them.
He therefore set up an E O table, and the speculation flourished for a
short time; but the legislature interfered in 1745, and inflicted severe
penalties on the keepers of such tables. This was the ruin of Nash's
gambling speculation; and for the remaining sixteen years of his life he
depended solely on the precarious products of the gaming table. He died
at Bath, in 1761, in greatly reduced circumstances, being represented as
'poor, old, and peevish, yet still incapable of turning from his former
manner of life.'

'He was buried in the Abbey Church with great ceremony: a solemn hymn
was sung by the charity-school children, three clergymen preceded the
coffin, the pall was supported by aldermen, and the Masters of the
Assembly-Rooms followed as chief mourners; while the streets were
filled and the housetops covered with spectators, anxious to witness the
respect paid to the venerable founder of the prosperity of the city of
Bath.'(115)


(115) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.


The following are the chief anecdotes told of Beau Nash.

A giddy youth, who had resigned his fellowship at Oxford, brought his
fortune to Bath, and, without the smallest skill, won a considerable
sum; and following it up, in the next October added four thousand pounds
to his former capital. Nash one night invited him to supper, and offered
to give him fifty guineas to forfeit twenty every time he lost two
hundred at one sitting. The young man refused, and was at last undone.

The Duke of B---- loved play to distraction. One night, chagrined at a
heavy loss, he pressed Nash to tie him up from deep play in future.
The beau accordingly gave his Grace one hundred guineas on condition to
receive ten thousand whenever he lost that amount at one sitting. The
duke soon lost eight thousand at Hazard, and was going to throw for
three thousand more, when Nash caught the dice-box, and entreated the
peer to reflect on the penalty if he lost. The duke desisted for that
time; but ere long, losing considerably at Newmarket, he willingly paid
the penalty.

When the Earl of T---- was a youth he was passionately fond of play.
Nash undertook to cure him. Conscious of his superior skill, he engaged
the earl in single play. His lordship lost his estate, equipage,
everything! Our generous gamester returned all, only stipulating for the
payment of L5000 whenever he might think proper to demand it. Some
time after his lordship's death, Nash's affairs being on the wane, he
demanded it of his heirs, _WHO PAID IT WITHOUT HESITATION_.

Nash one day complained of his ill luck to the Earl of Chesterfield,
adding that he had lost L500 the last night. The earl replied, 'I don't
wonder at your _LOSING_ money, Nash, but all the world is surprised
where you get it to lose.'

'The Corporation of Bath so highly respected Nash, that the Chamber
voted a marble statue of him, which was erected in the Pump-room,
between the busts of Newton and Pope; this gave rise to a stinging
epigram by Lord Chesterfield, concluding with these lines:

"The _STATUE_ placed these busts between  Gives satire all its strength;
_WISDOM_ and _WIT_ are little seen,  But _FOLLY_ at full length."'(116)


(116) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.


THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.


Walpole tells us that the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield _LIVED_ at
White's Club, gaming, and uttering witticisms among the boys of quality;
'yet he says to his son, that a member of a gaming club should be a
cheat, or he will soon be a beggar;' an inconsistency which reminds
one of old Fuller's saw--'A father that whipt his son for swearing, and
swore himself whilst he whipt him, did more harm by his example than
good by his correction.'


GEORGE SELWYN.


The character of Selwyn,' says Mr Jesse, 'was in many respects
a remarkable one. With brilliant wit, a quick perception of the
ridiculous, and a thorough knowledge of the world and human nature,
he united classical knowledge and a taste for the fine arts. To these
qualities may be added others of a very contradictory nature. With
a thorough enjoyment of the pleasures of society, an imperturbable
good-humour, a kind heart, and a passionate fondness for children, he
united a morbid interest in the details of human suffering, and, more
especially, a taste for witnessing criminal executions. Not only was he
a constant frequenter of such scenes of horror, but all the details of
crime, the private history of the criminal, his demeanour at his trial,
in the dungeon, and on the scaffold, and the state of his feelings in
the hour of death and degradation, were to Selwyn matters of the deepest
and most extraordinary interest. Even the most frightful particulars
relating to suicide and murder, the investigation of the disfigured
corpse, the sight of an acquaintance lying in his shroud, seem to have
afforded him a painful and unaccountable pleasure. When the first Lord
Holland was on his death-bed he was told that Selwyn, who had lived on
terms of the closest intimacy with him, had called to inquire after his
health. "The next time Mr Selwyn calls," he said, "show him up; if I am
alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad
to see me." When some ladies bantered him on his want of feeling in
attending to see the terrible Lord Lovat's head cut off--"Why," he said,
"I made amends by going to the undertaker's to see it sewed on again."
And yet this was the same individual who delighted in the first words
and in the sunny looks of childhood; whose friendship seems to have
partaken of all the softness of female affection; and whose heart
was never hardened against the wretched and depressed. Such was the
"original" George Selwyn.'

This celebrated conversational wit was a devoted frequenter of the
gaming table. Writing to Selwyn, in 1765, Lord Holland said:--'All that
I can collect from what you say on the subject of money is, that fortune
has been a little favourable lately; or may be, the last night only.
Till you leave off play entirely you must be--in earnest, and without
irony--_en verite le serviteur tres-humble des evenements_, "in truth,
the very humble servant of events."'

His friend the Lord Carlisle, although himself a great gambler, also
gave him good advice. 'I hope you have left off Hazard,' he wrote to
Selwyn; 'if you are still so foolish, and will play, the best thing I
can wish you is, that you may win and never throw crabs.(117) You do not
put it in the power of chance to make you them, as we all know; and till
the ninth miss is born I shall not be convinced to the contrary.'


(117) That is, aces, or ace and deuce, twelve, or seven. With false
dice, as will appear in the sequel, it was impossible to throw any of
these numbers, and as the caster always called the main, he was sure to
win, as he could call an impossible number: those who were in the secret
of course always took the odds.


Again:--'As you have played I am happy to hear you have won; but by this
time there may be a _triste revers de succes_.'

Selwyn had taken to gaming before his father's death--probably from
his first introduction to the clubs. His stakes were high, though not
extravagantly so, compared with the sums hazarded by his contemporaries.
In 1765 he lost L1000 to Mr Shafto, who applied for it in the language
of an 'embarrassed tradesman.'

'July 1, 1765.

'DEAR SIR,--I have this moment received the favour of your letter. I
intended to have gone out of town on Thursday, but as you shall not
receive your money before the end of this week, I must postpone my
journey till Sunday. A month would have made no difference to me, had I
not had others to pay before I leave town, and must pay; therefore must
beg that you will leave the whole before this week is out, at White's,
as it is to be paid away to others to whom I have lost, and do not
choose to leave town till that is done. Be sure you could not wish an
indulgence I should not be happy to grant, if it my power.'

Nor was this the only dun of the kind that Selwyn had 'to put up with'
on account of the gaming table. He received the following from Edward,
Earl of Derby.(118)


(118) Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby, was born September 12, 1752, and
died October 21, 1834. He married first, Elizabeth, daughter of James,
sixth Duke of Hamilton, who died in 1799, and secondly, the celebrated
actress, Miss Farren, who died April 23, 1829.


_The Earl of Derby to George Selwyn_.

'Nothing could equal what I feel at troubling you with this disagreeable
note; but having lost a very monstrous sum of money last night, I find
myself under the necessity of entreating your goodness to excuse the
liberty I am taking of applying to you for assistance. If it is not very
inconvenient to you, I should be glad of the money you owe me. If it is,
I must pay what I can, and desire Brookes to trust me for the remainder.
I repeat again my apologies, to which I shall beg leave to add how very
sincerely I have the honour to be, my dear sir,

'Your most obedient humble servant, 'DEBBY.

This is the very model of a dun, and proves how handsomely such ugly
things can be done when one has to deal with a noble instead of a
plebeian creditor.

But Selwyn had not only to endure such indignities, but also to inflict
them, as appears by the following letter to him from the Honourable
General Fitzpatrick, in answer to a dun, which, we are assured, was
'gentle and moderate.'


'I am very sorry to hear the night ended so ill; but to give you some
idea of the utter impossibility of my being useful on the occasion, I
will inform you of the state of my affairs. I won L400 last night, which
was immediately appropriated by Mr _Martindale_, to whom I still owe
L300, and I am in Brookes' book for thrice that sum. Add to all this,
that at Christmas I expect an inundation of clamorous creditors, who,
unless I somehow or other scrape together some money to satisfy them,
will overwhelm me entirely. What can be done? If I could coin my heart,
or drop my blood into drachms, I would do it, though by this time I
should probably have neither heart nor blood left. I am afraid you will
find Stephen in the same state of insolvency. Adieu! I am obliged to you
for the gentleness and moderation of your dun, considering how long I
have been your debtor.

'Yours most sincerely, 'R. F.'(119)


(119) Apud _Selwyn and his Contemporaries_ by Jesse.


Selwyn is said to have been a loser on the whole, and often pillaged.
Latterly he appears to have got the better of his propensity for play,
if we may judge from the following wise sentiment:--'It was too great
a consumer,' he said, 'of four things--time, health, fortune, and
thinking.' But a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ seems to doubt
Selwyn's reformation; for his initiation of Wilberforce occurred in
1782, when he was 63; and previously, in 1776, he underwent the process
of dunning from Lord Derby, before-mentioned, and in 1779 from Mr
Crawford ('Fish Crawford,' as he was called), each of whom, like Mr
Shafto, 'had a sum to make up'--in the infernal style so horridly
provoking, even when we are able and willing to pay. However, as Selwyn
died comparatively rich, it may be presumed that his fortune suffered to
no great extent by his indulgence in the vice of gaming.

The following are some of George Selwyn's jokes relating to gambling:--

One night, at White's, observing the Postmaster-General, Sir Everard
Fawkener, losing a large sum of money at Piquet, Selwyn, pointing to the
successful player, remarked--'See now, he is robbing the _MAIL!_'

On another occasion, in 1756, observing Mr Ponsonby, the Speaker of the
Irish House of Commons, tossing about bank-bills at a Hazard table
at Newmarket--'Look,' he said, 'how easily the Speaker passes the
money-bills!'

A few months afterwards (when the public journals were daily containing
an account of some fresh town which had conferred the freedom of its
corporation in a gold box on Mr Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham,
and the Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge, his fellow-patriot and
colleague), Selwyn, who neither admired their politics nor respected
their principles, proposed to the old and new club at Arthur's, that
he should be deputed to present to them the freedom of each club in a
_dice-box_.

On one of the waiters at Arthur's club having been committed to prison
for a felony--'What a horrid idea,' said Selwyn, 'he will give of us to
the people in Newgate!'

When the affairs of Charles Fox were in a more than usually embarrassed
state, chiefly through his gambling, his friends raised a subscription
among themselves for his relief. One of them remarking that it would
require some delicacy in breaking the matter to him, and adding that 'he
wondered how Fox would take it.' 'Take it?' interrupted Selwyn, 'why,
_QUARTERLY_, to be sure.'(120)


(120) Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries._


LORD CARLISLE.


This eminent statesman was regarded by his contemporaries as an able, an
influential, and occasionally a powerful speaker.

Though married to a lady for whom in his letters he ever expresses the
warmest feelings of admiration and esteem; and surrounded by a young
and increasing family, who were evidently the objects of his deepest
affection, Lord Carlisle, nevertheless, at times appears to have been
unable to extricate himself from the dangerous enticements to play
to which he was exposed. His fatal passion for play--the source
of adventitious excitement at night, and of deep distress in the
morning--seems to have led to frequent and inconvenient losses, and
eventually to have plunged him into comparative distress.

'In recording these failings of a man of otherwise strong sense, of a
high sense of honour, and of kindly affections, we have said the worst
that can be adduced to his disadvantage. Attached, indeed, as Lord
Carlisle may have been to the pleasures of society, and unfortunate
as may have been his passion for the gaming table, it is difficult
to peruse those passages in his letters in which he deeply reproaches
himself for yielding to the fatal fascination of play, and accuses
himself of having diminished the inheritance of his children, without a
feeling of commiseration for the sensations of a man of strong sense
and deep feeling, while reflecting on his moral degradation. It is
sufficient, however, to observe of Lord Carlisle, that the deep sense
which he entertained of his own folly; the almost maddening moments to
which he refers in his letters of self-condemnation and bitter regret;
and subsequently his noble victory over the siren enticements of
pleasure, and his thorough emancipation from the trammels of a
domineering passion, make adequate amends for his previous unhappy
career.'(121)

(121) Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries_, ii.


Brave conquerors, for so ye are, Who war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires.


Lady Sarah Bunbury, writing to George Selwyn, in 1767, says:--'If you
are now at Paris with poor C. (evidently Carlisle), who I dare say is
now swearing at the French people, give my compliments to him. I call
him poor C. because I hope he is only miserable at having been such a
_PIGEON_ to Colonel Scott. I never can pity him for losing at play, and
I think of it as little as I can, because I cannot bear to be obliged to
abate the least of the good opinion I have always had of him.'

Oddly enough the writer had no better account to give of her own
husband; she says, in the letter:--'Sir Charles games from morning till
night, but he has never yet lost L100 in one day.'(122)


(122) This Lady Sarah Bunbury was the wife of Sir Charles Bunbury, after
having had a chance of being Queen of England, as the wife of George
III., who was passionately in love with her, and would have married her
had it not been for the constitutional opposition of his privy council.
This charming and beautiful woman died in 1826, at the age of 82.
She was probably the last surviving great-granddaughter of Charles
II.--Jesse, _Ubi supra_.


About the year 1776 Lord Carlisle wrote the following letter to George
Selwyn:--

'MY DEAR GEORGE, 'I have undone myself, and it is to no purpose to
conceal from you my abominable madness and folly, though perhaps the
particulars may not be known to the rest of the world. I never lost so
much in five times as I have done to-night, and am in debt to the house
for the whole. You may be sure I do not tell you this with an idea that
you can be of the least assistance to me; it is a great deal more than
your abilities are equal to. Let me see you--though I shall be ashamed
to look at you after your goodness to me.'


This letter is endorsed by George Selwyn--'After the loss of L10,000.'
He tells Selwyn of a set which, at one point of the game, stood to win
L50,000.

'Lord Byron, it is almost needless to remark, was nearly related to Lord
Carlisle. The mother of Lord Carlisle was sister to John, fourth Lord
Byron, the grandfather of the poet; Lord Carlisle and Lord Byron were
consequently first cousins once removed. Had they happened to have been
contemporaries, it would be difficult to form an idea of two individuals
who, alike from tastes, feelings, and habits of life, were more likely
to form a lasting and suitable intimacy. Both were men of high rank;
both united an intimate knowledge of society and the world with the
ardent temperament of a poet; and both in youth mingled a love of frolic
and pleasure with a graver taste for literary pursuits.'


CHARLES JAMES FOX.


In the midst of the infatuated votaries of the gaming god in England,
towers the mighty intellectual giant Charles James Fox. Nature had
fashioned him to be equally an object of admiration and love. In
addition to powerful eloquence, he was distinguished by the refinement
of his taste in all matters connected with literature and art; he was
deeply read in history; had some claims to be regarded as a poet; and
possessed a thorough knowledge of the classical authors of antiquity,
a knowledge of which he so often and so happily availed himself in his
seat in the House of Commons. To these qualities was added a good-humour
which was seldom ruffled,--a peculiar fascination of manner and
address,--the most delightful powers of conversation,--a heart perfectly
free from vindictiveness, ostentation, and deceit,--a strong sense of
justice,--a thorough detestation of tyranny and oppression,--and an
almost feminine tenderness of feeling for the sufferings of others.
Unfortunately, however, his great talents and delightful qualities
in private life rendered his defects the more glaring and lamentable;
indeed, it is difficult to think or speak with common patience of those
injurious practices and habits--that abandonment to self-gratification,
and that criminal waste of the most transcendent abilities which
exhausted in social conviviality and the gaming table what were formed
to confer blessings on mankind.

So much for the character of Fox, as I have gathered from Mr Jesse;(123)
and I continue the extremely interesting subject by quoting from that
delightful book, 'The Queens of Society.'(124) 'With a father who
had made an enormous fortune, with little principle, out of a public
office--for Lord Holland owed the bulk of his wealth to his appointment
of paymaster to the forces,--and who spoiled him, in his boyhood,
Charles James Fox had begun life _AS A FOP OF THE FIRST WATER_, and
squandered L50,000 in debt before he became of age. Afterwards he
indulged recklessly and extravagantly in every course of licentiousness
which the profligate society of the day opened to him. At Brookes' and
the Thatched House Fox ate and drank to excess, threw thousands upon the
Faro table, mingled with blacklegs, and made himself notorious for his
shameless vices. Newmarket supplied another excitement. His back room
was so incessantly filled with Jew money-lenders that he called it his
Jerusalem Chamber. It was impossible that such a life should not destroy
every principle of honour; and there is nothing improbable in the story
that he appropriated to himself money which belonged to his dear friend
Mrs Crewe, as before related.


(123) George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, ii.

(124) By Grace and Philip Wharton.


'Of his talents, which were certainly great, he made an affected
display. Of his learning he was proud--but rather as adding lustre
to his celebrity for universal tastes. He was not at all ashamed, but
rather gloried in being able to describe himself as a fool, as he does
in his verses to Mrs Crewe:--

"Is't reason? No; that my whole life will belie; For, who so at variance
as reason and I? Is't ambition that fills up each chink in my heart, Nor
allows any softer sensation a part? Oh! no; for in this all the world
must agree, _ONE FOLLY WAS NEVER SUFFICIENT FOR ME_."


'Sensual and self-indulgent--with a grossness that is even patent on his
very portrait (and bust), Fox had nevertheless a manner which enchanted
the sex, and he was the only politician of the day who thoroughly
enlisted the personal sympathies of women of mind and character, as well
as of those who might be captivated by his profusion. When he visited
Paris in later days, even Madame Recamier, noted for her refinement, and
of whom he himself said, with his usual coarse ideas of the sphere
of woman, that "she was the only woman who united the attractions of
pleasure to those of modesty," delighted to be seen with him! At the
time of which we are speaking the most celebrated beauties of England
were his most ardent supporters.

'The election of 1784, in which he stood and was returned for
Westminster, was one of the most famous of the old riotous political
demonstrations..... Loving _hazard_ of all kinds for its own sake,
Fox had made party hostility a new sphere of gambling, had adopted the
character of a demagogue, and at a time when the whole of Europe was
undergoing, a great revolution in principles, was welcomed gladly as
"The Man of the People." In the beginning, of the year he had been
convicted of bribery, but in spite of this his popularity increased....
The election for Westminster, in which Fox was opposed by Sir Cecil
Wray, was the most tempestuous of all. There were 20,000 votes to be
polled, and the opposing parties resorted to any means of intimidation,
or violence, or persuasion which political enthusiasm could suggest. On
the eighth day the poll was against the popular member, and he called
upon his friends to make a great effort on his behalf. It was then that
the "ladies' canvass" began. Lady Duncannon, the Duchess of Devonshire,
Mrs Crewe, and Mrs Damer dressed themselves in blue and buff--the
colours of the American Independents, which Fox had adopted and wore in
the House of Commons--and set out to visit the purlieus of Westminster.
Here, in their enthusiasm, they shook the dirty hands of honest workmen,
expressed the greatest interest in their wives and families, and even,
as in the case of the Duchess of Devonshire and the butcher, submitted
their fair cheeks to be kissed by the possessors of votes! At the
butcher's shop, the owner, in his apron and sleeves, stoutly refused his
vote, except on one condition--"Would her Grace give him a kiss?" The
request was granted; and the vote thus purchased went to swell the
majority which finally secured the return of "The Man of the People."

'The colouring of political friends, which concealed his vices, or
rather which gave them a false hue, has long since faded away. We now
know Fox as he _WAS_. In the latest journals of Horace Walpole his
inveterate gambling, his open profligacy, his utter want of honour, is
disclosed by one of his own opinion. Corrupted ere yet he had left his
home, whilst in age a boy, there is, however, the comfort of reflecting
that he outlived his vices which seem to have "cropped out" by his
ancestral connection in the female line with the reprobate Charles II.,
whom he was thought to resemble in features. Fox, afterwards, with a
green apron tied round his waist, pruning and nailing up his fruit trees
at St Ann's Hill, or amusing himself innocently with a few friends, is
a pleasing object to remember, even whilst his early career occurs
forcibly to the mind.'

Peace, then, to the shade of Charles James Fox! The three last public
acts which he performed were worthy of the man, and should suffice to
prove that, in spite of his terrible failings, he was most useful in his
generation. By one, he laboured to repair the outrages of war--to obtain
a breathing time for our allies; and, by an extension of our commerce,
to afford, if necessary, to his country all the advantages of a
renovated contest, without the danger of drying up our resources. By
another, he attempted to remove all legal disabilities arising out of
religion--to unite more closely _THE INTERESTS OF IRELAND WITH THOSE
OF ENGLAND;_ and thus, by an extension of common rights, and a
participation of common benefits, wisely to render that which has always
been considered the weakest and most troublesome portion of our empire,
at least a useful and valuable part of England's greatness among the
nations. Queen Elizabeth's Minister, Lord Burleigh, in the presence of
the 'Irish difficulty' in his day, wished Ireland at the bottom of
the sea, and doubtless many at the present time wish the same; but Fox
endeavoured to grapple with it manfully and honestly, and it was not his
fault that he did not settle it. The vices of Fox were those of the age
in which he lived; had he been reserved for the present epoch, what a
different biography should we have to write of him! What a helmsman he
might be at the present time, when the ship of Old England is at sea and
in peril!

It appears from a letter addressed by Lord Carlisle to Lady Holland
(Fox's mother) in 1773, that he had become security for Fox to the
amount of fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds; and a letter to Selwyn
in 1777, puts the ruinous character of their gaming transactions in
the strongest light. Lord Ilchester (Fox's cousin) had lost thirteen
thousand pounds at one sitting to Lord Carlisle, who offered to take
three thousand pounds down. Nothing was paid. But ten years afterwards,
when Lord Carlisle pressed for his money, he complained that an attempt
was made to construe the offer into a _remission_ of the ten thousand
pounds:--'The only way, in honour, that Lord Ilchester could have
accepted my offer, would have been by taking some steps to pay the
L3000. I remained in a state of uncertainty, I think, for nearly three
years; but his taking no notice of it during that time, convinced me
that he had no intention of availing himself of it. Charles Fox was also
at a much earlier period clear that he never meant to accept it. There
is also great injustice in the behaviour of the family in passing by the
instantaneous payment of, I believe, five thousand pounds, to Charles,
won at the same sitting, without any observations. _At one period of the
play I remember there was a balance in favour of one of these gentlemen
(but which I protest I do not remember) of about fifty thousand_.'

At the time in question Fox was hardly eighteen. The following letter
from Lord Carlisle, written in 1771, contains highly interesting
information respecting the youthful habits and already vast intellectual
pre-eminence of this memorable statesman:--'It gives me great pain to
hear that Charles begins to be unreasonably impatient at losing. I fear
it is the prologue to much fretfulness of temper, for disappointment in
raising money, and any serious reflections upon his situation, will
(in spite of his affected spirits and dissipation) occasion him many
disagreeable moments.' Lord Carlisle's fears proved groundless in this
respect. As before stated, Fox was always remarkable for his sweetness
of temper, which remained with him to the last; but it is most painful
to think how much mankind has lost through his recklessness.

Gibbon writes to Lord Sheffield in 1773, 'You know Lord Holland is
paying Charles Fox's debts. They amount to L140,000.'(125)

(125) Timbs, _Club Life in London_.


His love of play was desperate. A few evenings before he moved the
repeal of the Marriage Act, in February, 1772, he had been at Brompton
on two errands,--one to consult Justice Fielding on the penal laws, the
other to borrow L10,000, which he brought to town at the hazard of being
robbed. He played admirably both at Whist and Piquet,--with such skill,
indeed, that by the general admission of Brookes' Club, he might have
made four thousand pounds a-year, as they calculated, at these games,
if he could have confined himself to them. But his misfortune arose from
playing games of chance, particularly at Faro.

After eating and drinking plentifully, he would sit down at the Faro
table, and invariably rose a loser. Once, indeed, and once only, he won
about eight thousand pounds in the course of a single evening. Part of
the money he paid to his creditors, and the remainder he lost almost
immediately.

Before he attained his thirtieth year he had completely dissipated
everything that he could either command or could procure by the most
ruinous expedients. He had even undergone, at times, many of the
severest privations incidental to the vicissitudes that attend a
gamester's progress; frequently wanting money to defray the common daily
wants of the most pressing nature. Topham Beauclerc, who lived much
in Fox's society, declared that no man could form an idea of the
extremities to which he had been driven to raise money, often losing
his last guinea at the Faro table. The very sedan-chairmen, whom he
was unable to pay, used to dun him for arrears. In 1781, he might be
considered as an extinct volcano,--for the pecuniary aliment that had
fed the flame was long consumed. Yet he even then occupied a house or
lodgings in St James's Street, close to Brookes', where he passed almost
every hour which was not devoted to the House of Commons. Brookes' was
then the rallying point or rendezvous of the Opposition, where Faro,
Whist, and supper prolonged the night, the principal members of the
minority in both Houses met, in order to compare their information, or
to concert and mature their parliamentary measures. Great sums were then
borrowed of Jews at exorbitant premiums.

His brother Stephen was enormously fat; George Selwyn said he was in the
right to deal with Shylocks, as he could give them pounds of flesh.

Walpole, in 1781, walking up St James's Street, saw a cart at Fox's
door, with copper and an old chest of drawers, loading. His success at
Faro had awakened a host of creditors; but, unless his bank had
swelled to the size of the Bank of England, it could not have yielded
a half-penny apiece for each. Epsom too had been unpropitious; and one
creditor had actually seized and carried off Fox's goods, which did not
seem worth removing. Yet, shortly after this, whom should Walpole find
sauntering by his own door but Fox, who came up and talked to him at the
coach window, on the Marriage Bill, with as much _sang-froid_ as if he
knew nothing of what had happened. Doubtless this indifference was to be
attributed quite as much to the callousness of the reckless gambler as
to anything that might be called 'philosophy.'

It seems clear that the ruling passion of Fox was partly owing to the
lax training of his father, who, by his lavish allowances, not only
fostered his propensity to play, but had also been accustomed to give
him, when a mere boy, money to amuse himself at the gaming table.
According to Chesterfield, the first Lord Holland 'had no fixed
principles in religion or morality,' and he censures him to his son for
being 'too unwary in ridiculing and exposing them.' He gave full swing
to Charles in his youth. 'Let nothing be done,' said his lordship, 'to
break his spirit, the world will do that for him.' At his death, in
1774, he left him L154,000 to pay his debts; it was all 'bespoke,' and
Fox soon became as deeply pledged as before.(126)


(126) Timbs, ubi supra. There is a mistake in the anecdote respecting
Fox's duel with Mr Adam (not Adams), as related by Mr Timbs in his
amusing book of the Clubs. The challenge was in consequence of some
words uttered by Fox in parliament, and not on account of some remark
on Government powder, to which Fox wittily alluded, after the duel,
saying--'Egad, Adam, you would have killed me if it had not been
Government powder.' See Gilchrist, Ordeals, Millingen, Hist. of
Duelling, ii., and Steinmetz, Romance of Duelling, ii.


The following are authentic anecdotes of Fox, as a gambler.

Fox had a gambling debt to pay to Sir John Slade. Finding himself in
cash, after a lucky run at Faro, he sent a complimentary card to the
knight, desiring to discharge the claim. Sir John no sooner saw the
money than he called for pen and ink, and began to figure. 'What now?'
cried Fox. 'Only calculating the interest,' replied the other. 'Are you
so?' coolly rejoined Charles James, and pocketed the cash, adding--'I
thought it was a _debt of honour_. As you seem to consider it a trading
debt, and as I make it an invariable rule to pay my Jew-creditors last,
you must wait a little longer for your money.'

Fox once played cards with Fitzpatrick at Brookes' from ten o'clock at
night till near six o'clock the next morning--a waiter standing by to
tell them 'whose deal it was'--they being too sleepy to know.

On another occasion he won about L8000; and one of his bond-creditors,
who soon heard of his good luck, presented himself and asked for
payment. 'Impossible, sir,' replied Fox; 'I must first discharge my
debts of honour.' The bond-creditor remonstrated, and finding Fox
inflexible, tore the bond to pieces and flung it into the fire,
exclaiming--'Now, sir, your debt to me is a _debt of honour_.' Struck by
the creditor's witty rejoinder, Fox instantly paid the money.(127)


(127) The above is the version of this anecdote which I remember as
being current in my young days. Mr Timbs and others before him relate
the anecdote as follows:--'On another occasion he won about L8000; and
one of his bond-creditors, who soon heard of his good luck, presented
himself and asked for payment.'

'Impossible, sir,' replied Fox 'I must first discharge my debts of
honour.' The bond-creditor remonstrated. 'Well, sir, give me your bond.'
It was delivered to Fox, who tore it in pieces and threw it into the
fire. 'Now, sir,' said Fox, 'my debt to you is a debt of honour;' and
immediately paid him.

Now, it is evident that Fox could not destroy the document without
rendering himself still more 'liable' in point of law. I submit that
the version in the text is the true one, conforming with the legal
requirement of the case and influencing the debtor by the originality of
the performance of the creditor.


Amidst the wildest excesses of youth, even while the perpetual victim
of his passion for play, Fox eagerly cultivated his taste for letters,
especially the Greek and Roman historians and poets; and he found
resources in their works under the most severe depressions occasioned by
ill-successes at the gaming table. One morning, after Fox had passed the
whole night in company with Topham Beauclerc at Faro, the two friends
were about to separate.

Fox had lost throughout the night, and was in a frame of mind
approaching to desperation. Beauclerc's anxiety for the consequences
which might ensue led him to be early at Fox's lodgings; and on arriving
he inquired, not without apprehension, whether he had risen. The servant
replied that Mr Fox was in the drawing-room, when Beauclerc walked
up-stairs and cautiously opened the door, expecting to behold a frantic
gamester stretched on the floor, bewailing his losses, or plunged
in moody despair; but he was astonished to find him reading a Greek
Herodotus.

On perceiving his friend's surprise, Fox exclaimed, 'What would you have
me do? I have lost my last shilling.'

Upon other occasions, after staking and losing all that he could raise
at Faro, instead of exclaiming against fortune, or manifesting the
agitation natural under such circumstances, he would lay his head on the
table and retain his place, but, exhausted by mental and bodily fatigue,
almost immediately fall into a profound sleep.

Fox's best friends are said to have been half ruined in annuities given
by them as securities for him to the Jews. L500,000 a-year of such
annuities of Fox and his 'society' were advertised to be sold at one
time. Walpole wondered what Fox would do when he had sold the estates of
his friends. Walpole further notes that in the debate on the Thirty-nine
Articles, February 6, 1772, Fox did not shine; nor could it be wondered
at. He had sat up playing at Hazard, at Almack's, from Tuesday evening,
the 4th, till five in the afternoon of Wednesday, the 5th. An hour
before he had recovered L12,000 that he had lost; and by dinner, which
was at five o'clock, he had ended losing L11,000! On the Thursday he
spoke in the above debate, went to dinner at past eleven at night; from
thence to White's, where he drank till seven the next morning; thence
to Almack's, where he won L6000; and between three and four in the
afternoon he set out for Newmarket. His brother Stephen lost L11,000
two nights after, and Charles L10,000 more on the 13th; so that in three
nights the two brothers--the eldest not _twenty-five_ years of age--lost
L32,000!(128)


(128) Timbs, _ubi supra._


On one occasion Stephen Fox was dreadfully fleeced at a gaming house at
the West End. He entered it with L13,000, and left without a farthing.

Assuredly these Foxes were misnamed. _Pigeons_--dupes of sharpers at
play--would have been a more appropriate cognomen.


WILBERFORCE AND PITT.


These eminent statesmen were gamesters at one period of their lives.
When Wilberforce came to London in 1780, after his return to Parliament,
his great success signalized his entry into public life, and he was at
once elected a member of the leading clubs--Miles' and Evans', Brookes',
Boodle's, White's, and Goosetree's. The latter was Wilberforce's usual
resort, where his friendship with Pitt--who played with characteristic
and intense eagerness, and whom he had slightly known at
Cambridge--greatly increased. He once lost L100 at the Faro table.

'We played a good deal at Goosetree's,' he states, and I well remember
the intense earnestness which Pitt displayed when joining in these games
of chance. He perceived their increasing fascination, and soon after
abandoned them for ever.'

Wilberforce's own case is thus recorded by his biographers, on the
authority of his private Journal:--'We can have no play to-night,'
complained some of the party at the club, 'for St Andrew is not here to
keep bank.' 'Wilberforce,' said Mr Bankes, who never joined himself, 'if
you will keep it I will give you a guinea.' The playful challenge was
accepted, but as the game grew deep he rose the winner of L600. Much of
this was lost by those who were only heirs to fortunes, and therefore
could not meet such a call without inconvenience. The pain he felt at
their annoyance cured him of a taste which seemed but too likely to
become predominant.

Goosetree's being then almost exclusively composed of incipient orators
and embryo statesmen, the call for a gambling table there may be
regarded as a decisive proof of the universal prevalence of the vice.

'The first time I was at Brookes',' says Wilberforce, 'scarcely knowing
any one, I joined, from mere shyness, in play at the Faro tables,
where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend, who knew my inexperience, and
regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called to me--"What,
Wilberforce, is that you?" Selwyn quite resented the interference,
and, turning to him, said in his most expressive tone, "Oh, sir, don't
interrupt Mr Wilberforce, he could not be better employed."

Again: 'The very first time I went to Boodle's I won twenty-five guineas
of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to five clubs--Miles'
and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and Goosetree's.'


SIR PHILIP FRANCIS.


Sir Philip Francis, the eminent politician and supposed author of
the celebrated 'Letters of Junius,' was a gambler, and the convivial
companion of Fox. During the short administration of that statesman he
was made a Knight of the Bath. One evening, Roger Wilbraham came up to
the Whist table, at Brookes', where Sir Philip, who for the first time
wore the ribbon of the Order, was engaged in a rubber, and thus accosted
him. Laying hold of the ribbon, and examining it for some time, he
said:--'So, this is the way they have rewarded you at last; they have
given you a little bit of red ribbon for your services, Sir Philip,
have they? A pretty bit of red ribbon to hang about your neck; and that
satisfies you, does it? Now, I wonder what I shall have. What do you
think they will give me, Sir Philip?' The newly-made knight, who had
twenty-five guineas depending on the rubber, and who was not very well
pleased at the interruption, suddenly turned round, and looking at him
fiercely, exclaimed, 'A halter, and be,' &c.


THE REV. CALEB C. COLTON.


Unquestionably this reverend gentleman was one of the most lucky of
gamesters--having died in full possession of the gifts vouchsafed to him
by the goddess of fortune.

He was educated at Eton, graduated at King's College, Cambridge, as
Bachelor of Arts in 1801, and Master of Arts in 1804, and obtained a
fellowship, having also a curacy at Tiverton, held conjointly. Some six
years after he appeared in print as a denouncer of a 'ghost story,' and
in 1812, as the author of 'Hypocrisy,' a satirical poem, and 'Napoleon,'
a poem. In 1818 he was presented by his college to the vicarage of Kew
with Petersham, in Surrey. Two years after he established a literary
reputation--lasting to the present time--by the publication of a volume
of aphorisms or maxims, under the title of 'LACON; or, Many Things in
Few Words.' This work is very far from original, being founded mainly on
Lord Bacon's celebrated Essays, and Burdon's 'Materials for Thinking,'
La Bruyiere, and De la Rochefoucault; still it is highly creditable to
the abilities of the writer. It has passed through several editions;
and even at the present time its only rival is, 'The Guesses at Truth,'
although we have numerous collections of apothegmatic extracts from
authors, a class of works which is not without its fascination, if
readers are inclined to _THINK._(129)


(129) The first work I published was of this kind, and entitled, 'Gems
of Genius; or, Words of the Wise, with extracts from the Diary of a
Young Man,' in 1838.


Two years after he returned to his 'Napoleon,' which he republished,
with extensive additions, under the new title of 'The Conflagration of
Moscow.

It would appear that Colton at this period gave in to the fashionable
gaming of the day; at any rate, he dabbled deeply in Spanish bonds,
became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and, without investigating
his affairs closely--which might have been easily arranged--he
absconded.

He subsequently made appearance, in order to retain his living; but in
1828 he lost it, a successor being appointed by his college. He then
went to the United States of America; what he did there is not on
record; but he subsequently returned to Europe, went to Paris, took up
his abode in the Palais Royal, and--devoted his talents to the mysteries
of the gaming table, by which he was so successful that in the course of
a year or two he won L25,000!

Oddly enough, one of his 'maxims' in his Lacon runs as follows: 'The
gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He
adds his soul to every other loss, and, by the act of suicide, renounces
earth, to forfeit heaven.'

It has been suggested that this was writing his own epitaph, and it
would appear so from the notices of the man in most of the biographies;
but nothing could be further from the fact. Caleb Colton managed to
_KEEP_ his gambling fortune, and what is more, devoted it to a worthy
purpose. Part of his wealth he employed in forming a picture-gallery;
and he printed at Paris, for private distribution, an ode on the death
of Lord Byron. He certainly committed suicide, but the act was not the
gamester's martyrdom. He was afflicted by a disease which necessitated
some painful surgical operation, and rather than submit to it, he
blew out his brains, at the house of a friend, at Fontainebleau, in
1832.(130)


(130) Gent. Mag. New Month. Mag. Gorton's Gen. Biograph. Dict.


BEAU BRUMMELL.


This singular man was an inveterate gambler, and for some time very
'lucky;' but the reaction came at last; the stakes were too high, and
the purses of his companions too long for him to stand against any
continued run of bad luck; indeed, the play at Wattier's, which was very
deep, eventually ruined the club, as well as Brummell and several other
members of it; a certain baronet now living, according to Captain Jesse,
is asserted to have lost ten thousand pounds there at _Ecarte_ at one
sitting.(131)


(131) Life of Beau Brummell.


The season of 1814 saw Brummell a winner, and a loser likewise--and this
time he lost not only his winnings, but 'an unfortunate ten thousand
pounds,' which, when relating the circumstance to a friend many
years afterwards, he said was all that remained at his banker's. One
night--the fifth of a most relentless run of ill-luck--his friend
Pemberton Mills heard him exclaim that he had lost every shilling, and
only wished some one would bind him never to play again:--'I will,'
said Mills; and taking out a ten-pound note he offered it to Brummell
on condition that he should forfeit a thousand if he played at White's
within a month from that evening. The Beau took it, and for a few days
discontinued coming to the club; but about a fortnight after Mills,
happening to go in, saw him hard at work. Of course the thousand pounds
was forfeited; but his friend, instead of claiming it, merely went up to
him and, touching him gently on the shoulder, said--'Well, Brummell, you
may at least give me back the ten pounds you had the other night.'

Among the members who indulged in high play at Brookes' Club was
Alderman Combe, the brewer, who is said to have made as much money in
this way as he did by brewing. One evening whilst he filled the office
of Lord Mayor, he was busy at a full Hazard table at Brookes', where the
wit and the dice-box circulated together with great glee, and where Beau
Brummell was one of the party. 'Come, Mash-tub,' said Brummell, who was
the _caster_, 'what do you _set?_' 'Twenty-five guineas,' answered the
Alderman. 'Well, then,' returned the Beau, 'have at the mare's pony' (a
gaming term for 25 guineas). He continued to throw until he drove home
the brewer's twelve ponies running; and then getting up, and making him
a low bow, whilst pocketing the cash, he said--'Thank you, Alderman;
for the future I shall never drink any porter but yours.' 'I wish, sir,'
replied the brewer, 'that every other blackguard in London would tell me
the same.'(132)


(132) Jesse, _ubi supra_.


The following occurrence must have caused a 'sensation' to poor
Brummell.

Among the members of Wattier's Club was Bligh, a notorious madman, of
whom Mr Raikes relates:--'One evening at the Macao table, when the play
was very deep, Brummell, having lost a considerable stake, affected, in
his farcical way, a very tragic air, and cried out--"Waiter, bring me
a flat candlestick and a pistol." Upon which Bligh, who was sitting
opposite to him, calmly produced two loaded pistols from his coat
pocket, which he placed on the table, and said, "Mr Brummell, if you are
really desirous to put a period to your existence, I am extremely happy
to offer you the means without troubling the waiter." The effect upon
those present may easily be imagined, at finding themselves in the
company of a known madman who had loaded weapons about him.'

Brummell was at last completely beggared, though for some time he
continued to hold on by the help of funds raised on the mutual security
of himself and his friends, some of whom were not in a much more
flourishing condition than himself; their names, however, and still
more, their expectations, lent a charm to their bills, in the eyes of
the usurers, and money was procured, of course at ruinous interest. It
is said that some unpleasant circumstances, connected with the division
of one of these loans, occasioned the Beau's expatriation, and that a
personal altercation took place between Brummell and a certain Mr M--,
when that gentleman accused him of taking the lion's share.

He died in utter poverty, and an idiot, at Caen, in the year 1840, aged
62 years. Brummell had a very odd way of accounting for the sad change
which took place in his affairs. He said that up to a particular period
of his life everything prospered with him, and that he attributed good
luck to the possession of a certain silver sixpence with a hole in it,
which somebody had given him years before, with an injunction to take
good care of it, as everything would go well with him so long as he
did, and the reverse if he happened to lose it. The promised prosperity
attended him for many years, whilst he held the sixpence fast; but
having at length, in an evil hour, unfortunately given it by mistake
to a hackney-coachman, a complete reverse of his previous good fortune
ensued, till actual ruin overtook him at last, and obliged him to
expatriate himself. 'On my asking him,' says the narrator, 'why he did
not advertise and offer a reward for the lost treasure; he said, "I did,
and twenty people came with sixpences having holes in them to obtain
the promised reward, but mine was not amongst them!" And you never
afterwards,' said I, 'ascertained what became of it? "Oh yes," he
replied, "no doubt that rascal Rothschild, or some of his set, got hold
of it."' Whatever poor Brummell's supernatural tendencies may have
generally been, he had unquestionably a superstitious veneration for his
lost sixpence.


TOM DUNCOMBE.


Tom Duncombe graduated and took honours among the greatest gamblers of
the day. Like Fox, he was heir to a good fortune--ten or twelve thousand
a year--the whole of which he managed to anticipate before he was
thirty. 'Tom Duncombe ran Charles Fox close. When Mr Duncombe, sen., of
Copgrove, caused his prodigal son's debts to be estimated with a view
to their settlement, they were found to exceed L135,000;(133) and the
hopeful heir went on adding to them till all possibility of extrication
was at an end. But he spent his money (or other people's money), so long
as he had any, like a gentleman; his heart was open like his hand; he
was generous, cordial, high-spirited; and his expectations--till they
were known to be discounted to the uttermost farthing--kept up his
credit, improved his social position, and gained friends. "Society"
(says his son) "opened its arms to the possessor of a good name and the
inheritor of a good estate. Paterfamiliases and Materfamiliases rivalled
each other in endeavouring to make things pleasant in their households
for his particular delectation, especially if they had grown-up
daughters; hospitable hosts invited him to dinner, fashionable matrons
to balls; political leaders sought to secure him as a partisan;
_DEBUTANTES_ of the season endeavoured to attract him as an admirer;
_TRADESMEN THRONGED TO HIS DOORSTEPS FOR HIS CUSTOM_, and his table was
daily covered with written applications for his patronage." _Noblesse
oblige;_ and so does fashion. The aspirant had confessedly a hard time
of it. "He must be seen at Tattersall's as well as at Almack's; be
more frequent in attendance in the green-room of the theatre than at
a _levee_ in the palace; show as much readiness to enter into a
pigeon-match at Battersea Red House, as into a flirtation in May Fair;
distinguish himself in the hunting-field as much as at the dinner-table;
and make as effective an appearance in the park as in the senate; in
short, he must be everything--not by turns, but all at once--sportsman,
exquisite, gourmand, rake, senator, and at least a dozen other
variations of the man of fashion,--his changes of character being often
quicker than those attempted by certain actors who nightly undertake the
performance of an entire _dramatis personae_."'

(133) It will be remembered that when Fox's debts were in like manner
estimated they amounted to L140,000: the coincidence is curious. See
ante.


Tommy Duncombe was not only indefatigable at Crockford's, but at every
other rendezvous of the votaries of fortune; a skilful player withal,
and not unfrequently a winner beyond expectation. One night at
Crockford's he astonished the house by carrying off sixteen hundred
pounds. He frequently played at cards with Count D'Orsay, from whom, it
is said, he invariably managed to win--the Count persisting in playing
with his pleasant companion, although warned by others that he would
never be a match for 'Honest Tommy Duncombe.'

Tom Duncombe died poor, but, says his son, 'rich in the memory of those
who esteemed him, as Honest Tom Duncombe.'

Perhaps the best thing the son could have done was to leave his father's
memory at rest in the estimation of 'those who esteemed him;' but having
dragged his name once more, and prominently, before a censorious world,
he can scarcely resent the following estimate of Tom Duncombe, by
a well-informed reviewer in the _Times_. Alluding to the concluding
summary of the father's character and doings, this keen writer passes a
sentence which is worth preserving:--

'Much of this would do for a patriot and philanthropist of the highest
class--for a Pym, a Hampden, or a Wilberforce; or, we could fancy, a son
of Andrew Marvell, vowing over his grave "to endeavour to imitate the
virtues and emulate the self-sacrificing patriotism of so estimable a
parent, and so good a man." But we can hardly fancy, we cannot leave, a
son of Duncombe in such a frame of mind. We cannot say to _HIM_--

Macte nova virtute, puer; sic itur ad astra. "In virtue renewed go on;
thus to the skies we go."

We are unfeignedly reluctant to check a filial effusion, or to tell
disagreeable truths; but there are occasions when a sense of public duty
imperatively requires them to be told.

'Why did this exemplary parent die poor? When did he abandon the
allurements of a patrician circle? He died poor because he wasted a fine
fortune. If he abandoned a patrician circle, it was because he was
tired of it, or thought he could make a better thing of democracy. If he
conquered his passions, it was, like St Evremond--by indulging them.

'"Honest Tom Duncombe!" We never heard him so designated before except
in pleasantry. "As honest as any man living, that is an old man, and not
honester than I." We cannot go further than Verges; it is a stretch of
charity to go so far when we call to mind the magnificent reversion and
the French jobs. A ruined spendthrift, although he may have many good
qualities, can never, strictly speaking, be termed honest. It is absurd
to say of him that he is nobody's enemy but his own--with family,
friends, and tradespeople paying the penalty for his self-indulgence.
He must be satisfied to be called honourable--to be charged with no
transgression of the law of honour; which Paley defines as "a system
of rules constructed by people of fashion, and calculated to facilitate
their intercourse with one another, _AND FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE_."

'There was one quality of honesty, however, which "honest Tom Duncombe"
did possess. He was not a hypocrite. He was not devoid of right feeling.
He had plenty of good sense; and it would have given him a sickening
pang on his death-bed to think that his frailties were to be perpetuated
by his descendants; that he was to be pointed out as a shining star to
guide, instead of a beacon-fire to warn. "No," he would have said, if he
could have anticipated this most ill-chosen, however well-intentioned,
tribute, "spare me this terrible irony. Do not provoke the inevitable
retort. Say of me, if you must say anything, that I was not a bad
man, though an erring one; that I was kindly disposed towards my
fellow-creatures; that I did some good in my generation, and was able
and willing to do more, but that I heedlessly wasted time, money,
health, intellect, personal gifts, social advantages and opportunities;
that my career was a failure, and my whole scheme of life a melancholy
mistake."'(134)


(134) _Times_, Jan. 7, 1868.


This is a terrible rejoinder to a son endeavouring to raise a monument
to his beloved and respected parent. But, if we will rake up rottenness
from the grave--rottenness in which we are interested--we must take our
chance whether we shall find a Hamlet who will say, 'Alas! poor Yorick!'
and say _NO MORE_ than the musing Dane upon the occasion.


WAS THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON A GAMESTER?


A few years after the battle of Waterloo there appeared a French
work entitled '_L'Academie des Jeux_, par Philidor,' which was soon
translated into English, and here published under the title of 'Rouge et
Noir; or, the Academies.' It was a denunciation of gambling in all its
varieties, and was, no doubt, well-intentioned. There was, however, in
the publication the following astounding statement:--

'Not long ago the carriage of the heir-apparent to the T***** of
England, in going to his B****'s levee, was arrested for debt in the
open street. That great captain, who gained, if not laurels, an immense
treasure, on the plains of Wa****oo, besides that fortune transmitted
to him by the English people, was impoverished in a few months by this
ignoble passion.'

There can be no doubt that the alleged gambling of the great warrior and
statesman was the public scandal of the day, as appears by the duke's
own letters on the subject, published in the last volume of his
_Dispatches_. Even the eminent counsel, Mr Adolphus, thought proper
to allude to the report in one of his speeches at the bar. This called
forth the following letter from the duke to Mr Adolphus:--

'17 Sept., 1823. 'The Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Mr
Adolphus, and encloses him the "Morning Chronicle" of Friday, the 12th
instant, to which the duke's attention has just been called, in which Mr
Adolphus will observe that he is stated to have represented the duke as
a person _KNOWN SOMETIMES TO PLAY AT HAZARD, WHO MIGHT BE COMMITTED AS A
ROGUE AND VAGABOND_.

'The duke concludes that this paper contains a correct statement of what
Mr Adolphus said upon the occasion, and he assures Mr Adolphus that he
would not trouble him upon the subject if circumstances did not exist
which rendered this communication desirable.

'Some years have elapsed since the public have been informed, _FROM THE
VERY BEST AUTHORITY_, that the duke had totally ruined himself at play;
and Mr Adolphus was present upon one occasion when a witness swore that
he had heard the duke was constantly obliged to sell the offices in the
Ordnance himself, instead of allowing them to be sold by others!! The
duke has suffered some inconvenience from this report in a variety of
ways, and he is anxious that at least it should not be repeated by a
gentleman of such celebrity and authority as Mr Adolphus.

'He therefore assures Mr Adolphus that in the whole course of his
life he never won or lost L20 at any game, and that he never played at
Hazard, or any game of chance, in any public place or club, nor been for
some years at all at any such place.

'From these circumstances, Mr Adolphus will see that there is no ground
for making use of the duke's name as an example of a person _KNOWN
SOMETIMES TO PLAY AT HAZARD, WHO MIGHT BE COMMITTED AS A ROGUE AND
VAGABOND_.'

_Mr Adolphus to Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington_.

'Percy Street, 21st Sept., 1823.

'Mr Adolphus has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a note from
his Grace the Duke of Wellington, and would have done so yesterday, but
was detained in court till a late hour in the evening. Mr Adolphus is
extremely sorry that any expression used by him should have occasioned
a moment's uneasiness to the Duke of Wellington. Mr Adolphus cannot deny
that the report in the "Chronicle" is accurate, so far as it recites his
mere words; but the scope of his argument, and the intended sense of his
expression, was, that if the Vagrant Act were to receive the extensive
construction contended for, the most illustrious subject of the realm
might be degraded to the condition of the most abject and worthless, for
an act in itself indifferent--and which, until the times had assumed a
character of affected rigour, was considered rather as a proof of good
society than as an offence against good order. Mr Adolphus is, however,
perfectly sensible that his illustration in his Grace's person was in
all respects improper, and, considering the matters to which his Grace
has adverted, peculiarly unfortunate Mr Adolphus feels with regret
that any public expression of his sentiments on this subject in the
newspapers would not abate, but much increase, the evil. Should an
opportunity ever present itself of doing it naturally and without
affectation, Mr Adolphus would most readily explain, in speaking at
the bar, the error he had committed; but it is very unlikely that there
should exist an occasion of which he can avail himself with a due regard
to delicacy. Mr Adolphus relies, however, on the Duke of Wellington's
exalted mind for credit to his assurance that he never meant to treat
his name but with the respect due to his Grace's exalted rank and
infinitely higher renown.'

_To Mr Adolphus_.

'Woolford, 23rd Sept., 1823.

'The Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Mr Adolphus, and
assures Mr Adolphus that he is convinced that Mr Adolphus never intended
to reflect injuriously upon him. If the duke had believed that Mr
Adolphus could have entertained such an intention he would not have
addressed him. The duke troubles Mr Adolphus again upon this subject,
as, in consequence of the editor of the "Morning Chronicle" having
thought proper to advert to this subject in a paragraph published on the
18th instant, the duke has referred the paper of that date and that of
the 12th to the Attorney and Solicitor-general, his counsel, to consider
whether the editor ought not to be prosecuted.

'The duke requests, therefore, that Mr Adolphus will not notice the
subject in the way he proposes until the gentlemen above mentioned will
have decided upon the advice which they will give the duke.'(135)


(135) 'Dispatches,' vol. ii. part i.


The result was, however, that the matter was allowed to drop, as the
duke was advised by his counsel that the paragraph in the "Morning
Chronicle," though vile, was not actionable. The positive declaration of
the duke, 'that in the whole course of his life he never won or lost L20
at any game, and that he never played at Hazard, or any game of chance,
in any public place or club, nor been for some years at all at any such
place,' should set the matter at rest. Certainly the duke was afterwards
an original member of Crockford's Club, founded in 1827, but, unlike
Blucher, who repeatedly lost everything at play, 'The Great Captain,' as
Mr Timbs puts it, 'was never known to play deep at any game but war or
politics.'(136)


(136) Club Life in London.


This remarkable deference to private character and public opinion, on
the part of the Duke of Wellington, is in wonderful contrast with the
easy morality of the Old Bailey advocate, Mr Adolphus, who did not
hesitate to declare gambling 'an act in itself indifferent--and which,
until the times had assumed a character of _AFFECTED_ rigour, was
considered rather as a proof of good society than as an offence against
good order.' This averment of so distinguished a man may, perhaps,
mitigate the horror we now feel of the gambling propensities of our
ancestors; and it is a proof of some sort of advancement in morals, or
good taste, to know that no modern advocate would dare to utter such a
sentiment.

Other great names have been associated with gambling; thus Mr T. H.
Duncombe says, speaking of Crockford's soon after its foundation:--'Sir
St Vincent Cotton (Lord Combermere), Lord Fitzroy Somerset (Raglan),
the Marquis of Anglesey, Sir Hussey Vivian, Wilson Croker, _Disraeli_,
Horace Twiss, Copley, George Anson, and George Payne _WERE PRETTY SURE
OF BEING PRESENT_, many of them playing high.'

Respecting this statement the _Times'_(137) reviewer observes:--'We
do not know what the Chancellor of the Exchequer will say to this. Mr
Wilson Croker (who affected great strictness) would have fainted away.
But the authority of a writer who does not know Sir St Vincent Cotton
(the ex-driver of the Brighton coach) from Sir _Stapleton_ Cotton (the
Peninsular hero) will go for little in such matters; and as for Copley,
Lord Lyndhurst (just then promoted from the Rolls to the Woolsack), why
not say at once that he attended the nocturnal sittings at Crockford's
in his robes.'


(137) Jan. 7, 1868.



CHAPTER XII. REMARKABLE GAMESTERS. ----MONSIEUR CHEVALIER.

Monsieur CHevalier, Captain of the Grenadiers in the first regiment
of Foot Guards, in the time of Charles II. of England, was a native of
Normandy. In his younger days he was page to the Duchess of Orleans;
but growing too big for that service, he came to England to seek his
fortune, and by some good luck and favour became an ensign in the
first regiment of Foot Guards. His pay, however, being insufficient
to maintain him, he felt compelled to become a gamester, or rather to
resort to a practice in which doubtless he had been early initiated at
the Court of France; and he managed so well that he was soon enabled to
keep up an equipage much above his station.

Among the 'bubbles' who had the misfortune to fall into Chevalier's
hands, was a certain nobleman, who lost a larger sum to him than he
could conveniently pay down, and asked for time, to which Chevalier
assented, and in terms so courteous and obliging that the former,
a fortnight after, in order to let him see that he remembered his
civility, came one morning and told Chevalier that he had a company of
Foot to dispose of, and if it was worth his while, it should be at his
service. Nothing could be more acceptable to Chevalier, who at once
closed for the bargain, and got his commission signed the same day.
Besides the fact that it was a time of peace, Chevalier knew well that
the military title of Captain was a very good cloak to shelter under.

He knew that a man of no employment or any visible income, who appears
and lives like a gentleman, and makes gaming his constant business, is
always suspected of not playing for diversion only; and, in short, of
knowing and practising more than he should do.

Chevalier once won 20 guineas from mad Ogle, the Life-guardsman, who,
understanding that the former had bit him, called him to account,
demanding either his money back, or satisfaction in the field.
Chevalier, having always courage enough to maintain what he did, chose
the latter. Ogle fought him in Hyde Park, and wounded him through the
sword arm, and got back his money. After this they were always good
friends, playing several comical tricks, one of which is as follows,
strikingly illustrating the manners of the times.

Chevalier and Ogle meeting one day in Fleet Street jostled for the wall,
which they strove to take of each other, whereupon words arising between
them, they drew swords, and pushed very hard at one another; but were
prevented, by the great crowd which gathered about them, from doing any
mischief. Ogle, seeming still to resent the affront, cried to Chevalier,
'If you are a gentleman, pray follow me.' The French hero accepted the
challenge; so going together up Bell Yard and through Lincoln's Inn,
with some hundreds of the mob at their heels, as soon as the seeming
adversaries were got into Lincoln's Inn Fields, they both fell a running
as fast as they could, with their swords drawn, up towards Lord Powis's
house, which was then building, and leaped into a saw-pit. The rabble
presently ran after them, to part them again, and feared mischief would
be done before they could get up to them, but when they arrived at the
saw-pit, they saw Chevalier at one side of it and Ogle at the other,
sitting together as lovingly as if they had never fallen out at all. And
then the mob was so incensed at this trick put upon them, that had not
some gentlemen accidentally come by, they would have knocked them both
on the head with brickbats.

Chevalier had an excellent knack at cogging a die, and such command in
the throwing, that, chalking a circle on a table, with its circumference
no bigger than a shilling, he would, at above the distance of one foot,
throw a die exactly into it, which should be either ace, deuce, trey, or
what he pleased.

Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was a great gambler of the time, and
often practised dice-throwing in his shirt during the morning until he
fancied himself in luck, when he would proceed to try his fortune with
Chevalier; but the dexterity of the latter always convinced the earl
that no certainty lies on the good success which may be fancied as
likely to result from play in jest. Chevalier won a great deal of money
from that peer, 'who lost most of his estate at gaming before he died,
and which ought to be a warning to all noblemen.'

Chevalier was a skilful sharper, and thoroughly up in the art and
mystery of loading dice with quicksilver; but having been sometimes
detected in his sharping tricks, he was obliged 'to look on the point
of the sword, with which being often wounded, latterly he declined
fighting, if there were any way of escape.' Having once 'choused,' or
cheated, a Mr Levingstone, page of honour to King James II., out of 50
guineas, the latter gave the captain a challenge to fight him next day
behind Montague House--a locality long used for the purpose of
duelling. Chevalier seemingly accepted the challenge, and next morning,
Levingstone going to Chevalier's lodging, whom he found in bed, put him
in mind of what he was come about. Chevalier, with the greatest air
of courage imaginable, rose, and having dressed himself, said to
Levingstone--'Me must beg de favour of you to stay a few minutes, sir,
while I step into my closet dere, for as me be going about one desperate
piece of work, it is very requisite for me to say a small prayer or
two.' Accordingly Mr Levingstone consented to wait whilst Chevalier
retired to his closet to pray; but hearing the conclusion of his prayer
to end with these words--'Me verily believe spilling man's blood is
one ver' great sin, wherefore I hope all de saints will interced vid
de Virgin for my once killing Monsieur de Blotieres at Rochelle,--my
killing Chevalier de Cominge at Brest,--killing Major de Tierceville
at Lyons,--killing Lieutenant du Marche Falliere at Paris, with half a
dozen other men in France; so, being also sure of killing him I'm now
going to fight, me hope his forcing me to shed his blood will not be
laid to my charge;'--quoth Levingstone to himself--'And are you then so
sure of me? But I'll engage you shan't--for if you are such a devil at
killing men, you shall go and fight yourself and be ----.' Whereupon he
made what haste he could away, and shortly Chevalier coming out of the
closet and finding Levingstone not in the room, was very glad of his
absence.'

Some time after, Chevalier was called to account by another gentleman.
They met at the appointed hour in Chelsea Fields, when Chevalier said
to his adversary--'Pray, sir, for what do we fight?' The gentleman
replied--'For honour and reputation.' Thereupon Chevalier pulling
a halter out of his pocket, and throwing it between him and his
antagonist, exclaimed--'Begar, sir, we only fight for dis one piece
of rope--so e'en _WIN IT AND WEAR IT_.' The effect of this jest was
so great on his adversary that swords were put up, and they went home
together good friends.

Chevalier continued his sharping courses for about fourteen years,
running a reckless race, 'sometimes with much money, sometimes with
little, but always as lavish in spending as he was covetous in getting
it; until at last King James ascending the throne, the Duke of Monmouth
raised a rebellion in the West of England, where, in a skirmish between
the Royalists and Rebels, he was shot in the back, and the wound thought
to be given by one of his own men, to whom he had always been a most
cruel, harsh officer, whilst a captain of the Grenadiers of the Foot
Guards. He was sensible himself how he came by this misfortune; for when
he was carried to his tent mortally wounded, and the Duke of Albemarle
came to visit him, he said to his Grace--'Dis was none of my foe dat
shot me in the back.' 'He was none of your friend that shot you,' the
duke replied.

So dying within a few hours after, he was interred in a field near
Philip Norton Lane, as the old chronicler says--'much _UN_lamented by
all who knew him.'(138)


(138) Lucas, _Memoirs of Gamesters and Sharpers_.


JOHN HIGDEN.


This gambler, who flourished towards the end of the 17th century, was
descended from a very good family in the West of England. In his younger
days he was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, but
his inclinations being incompatible with close study of the law, he soon
quitted the inns of court and went into the army. He obtained not only a
commission in the first regiment of Boot Guards, but a commission of the
peace for the county of Middlesex, in which he continued for three or
four years as Justice Higden. He was very great at dice; and one night
he and another of his fraternity going to a gaming house, Higden drew
a chair and sat down, but as often as the box came to him he passed it,
and remained only as a spectator; but at last one of the players said
to him pertly, 'Sir, if you won't play, what do you sit there for?' Upon
which Higden snatched up the dice-box and said, 'Set me what you will
and I'll throw at it.' One of the gentlemen set him two guineas, which
he won, and then set him four, which he 'nicked' also. The rest of the
gentlemen took the part of the loser, and set to Higden, who, by some
art and some good luck, won 120 guineas; and presently, after throwing
out, rose from the table and went to his companion by the fireside, who
asked him how he durst be so audacious as to play, knowing he had not
a shilling in his pocket? One of the losers overhearing what was said,
exclaimed, 'How's that--you had no money when you began to play?'
'That's no matter,' replied Higden, 'I have enough _NOW;_ and if you
had won of me, you must have been contented to have kicked, buffeted,
or pumped me, and you would have done it as long as you liked. Besides,
sir, I am a soldier, and have often faced the mouths of thundering
cannons for _EIGHT SHILLINGS A DAY_, and do you think I would not hazard
the tossing of a blanket for the money I have won to-night?'

'All the parties wondered at his confidence, but he laughed heartily at
their folly and his good fortune, and so marched off with a light heart
and a heavy purse.' Afterwards, 'to make himself as miserable as he
could, he turned poet, went to Ireland, published a play or two, and
shortly after he died very poor, in 1703.'(139)


(139) _ubi supra._


MONSIEUR GERMAIN.


This gambler was of low birth, his parents keeping an ordinary in
Holland, where he was born, as stated by the old chronicler, 'in the
happy Revolution of 1688.'

His career is remarkable on account of his connection with Lady Mary
Mordaunt, wife of 'the Duke of Norfolk, who, proving her guilty of
adultery, was divorced from her. She then lived publicly with Germain.'

This Germain was the first to introduce what was called the _Spanish
Whist_, stated to be 'a mere bite, performed after this manner:--Having
a pack of cards, the four treys are privately laid on the top of
them, under them an ace, and next to that a deuce; then, letting your
adversary cut the cards, you do not pack them, but deal all of them
that are cut off, one at a time, between you; then, taking up the other
parcel of cards, you deal more cards, giving yourself two treys and a
deuce, and to the other persons two treys and an ace, when, laying the
remainder of the cards down--wherein are allowed no trumps, but only
the highest cards win--so they are but of the same suit, whilst you are
playing, giving your antagonist all you can, as though it is not in
your power to prevent him. You seem to fret, and cry you have good
_put-cards;_ he, having two treys and an ace, will be apt to lay a
wager with you that you cannot have better than he; then you binding the
wager, he soon sees his mistake. But in this trick you must observe to
put the other three deuces under yours when you deal.'

It seems that this Monsieur Germain is not only remarkable for the
above precious addition to human knowledge, but also on account of his
expertness at the game of _Ombre_, celebrated and so elegantly described
by Pope in his 'Rape of the Lock.'

He appears to have lived with the Duchess of Norfolk ever after
the divorce; and he died a little after Lady Mary, in 1712, aged 46
years.(140)


(140) _ubi supra_.


TOM HUGHES.


This Irishman was born in Dublin, and was the son of a respectable
tradesman. Falling into dissipated company, he soon left the city to try
his fortune in London, where he played very deep and very successfully.

He threw away his gains as fast as he made them, chiefly among the frail
sisterhood, at a notorious house in those days, in the Piazza,
Covent Garden. He frequented Carlisle House in Soho Square, and was a
proprietor of E O tables kept by a Dr Graham in Pall Mall.

He had a rencontre, in consequence of a dispute at play, and was
wounded. The meeting took place under the Piazza, and his antagonist's
sword struck a rib, which counteracted its dangerous effect.

Soon afterwards he won L3000 from a young man just of age, who made over
to him a landed estate for the amount, and he was shortly after admitted
a member of the Jockey Club.

His fortune now changed, and falling into the hands of Old Pope, the
money-lender, he was not long before he had to transfer his estate to
him.

After many ups and downs he became an inmate of the spunging-house of
the infamous Scoldwell, who was afterwards transported. He actually used
his prison as a gaming house, to which his infatuated friends resorted;
but his means failed, his friends cooled, and he was removed 'over the
water,' from which he was only released by the Insolvent Act, with a
broken constitution. Arrest soon restored him to his old habitation,
a lock-up house, where he died so poor, a victim to grief, misery, and
disease, that he did not leave enough to pay for a coffin, which was
procured by his quondam friend, Mr Thornton, at whose cost he was
buried. Perhaps more than half a million of money had 'passed through
his hands.'


ANDREWS, THE GREAT BILLIARD-PLAYER.


Andrews was reckoned so theoretically and practically perfect at the
game of Billiards that he had no equal except Abraham Carter, who kept
the tables at the corner of the Piazza, Russell Street, Covent Garden.

He one night won of Colonel W----e about a thousand pounds; and
the Colonel appointed to meet him next day to transact for stock
accordingly. Going in a hackney-coach to the Bank of England for this
purpose, they tossed up who should pay for the coach. Andrews lost--and
positively on this small beginning he was excited to continue betting,
until he lost the whole sum he had won the night before! When the
coachman stopped he was ordered to drive them back again, as they had no
occasion to get out!

Thus, in a few years, Hazard and other games of chance stripped him of
his immense winnings at Billiards, and he had nothing left but a small
annuity, fortunately for him so settled that he could not dispose of
it--though he made every effort to do so!

He afterwards retired in the county of Kent, and was heard to declare
that he never knew contentment when wallowing in riches; but that
since he was compelled to live on a scanty pittance, he was one of the
happiest men in the world.


WHIG MIDDLETON.


Whig Middleton was a tall, handsome, fashionable man, with an adequate
fortune. He one night had a run of ill-luck at Arthur's, and lost about
a thousand guineas. Lord Montford, in the gaming phrase, asked him what
he would do or what he would not do, to get home? 'My lord,' said he,
'prescribe your own terms.'

'Then,' resumed Lord Montford, 'dress directly opposite to the fashion
for ten years. Will you agree to it?' Middleton said that he would, and
kept his word. Nay, he died nine years afterwards so unfashionably
that he did not owe a tradesman a farthing--left some playing debts
unliquidated, and his coat and wig were of the cut of Queen Anne's
reign.

Lord Montford is said to have died in a very different but quite
fashionable manner.


CAPTAIN CAMPBELL.


Captain Campbell, of the Guards, was a natural son of the Duke of ----.
He lost a thousand guineas to a Shark, which he could not pay. Being
questioned by the duke one day at dinner as to the cause of his
dejection, he reluctantly confessed the fact. 'Sir,' said his Grace,
'you do not owe a farthing to the blackguard. My steward settled with
him this morning for _TEN_ guineas, and he was glad to take them, only
saying--"I was damned far North, and it was well it was no worse."'


WROTHESLY, DUKE OF BEDFORD.


Wrothesly, Duke of Bedford, was the subject of a conspiracy at Bath,
formed by several first-rate sharpers, among whom were the manager of a
theatre, and Beau Nash, master of the ceremonies. After being plundered
of above L70,000 at Hazard, his Grace rose in a passion, put the dice
in his pocket, and intimated his resolution to inspect them. He then
retired into another room, and, flinging himself upon a sofa, fell
asleep.

The winners, to escape disgrace, and obtain their money, cast lots who
should pick his pockets of the loaded dice, and introduce fair ones in
their place. The lot fell on the manager of the theatre, who performed
his part without discovery. The duke inspected the dice when he awoke,
and finding them correct, renewed his party, and lost L30,000 more.

The conspirators had received L5000, but disagreed on its division, and
Beau Nash, thinking himself ill-used, divulged the fact to his Grace,
who saved thereby the remainder of the money. He made Nash a handsome
present, and ever after gave him his countenance, supposing that the
secret had been divulged through pure friendship.


THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.


A similar anecdote is told of another gamester. 'The late Duke of
Norfolk,' says the author of 'Rouge et Noir,' writing in 1823, 'in one
evening lost the sum of L70,000 in a gaming house on the right side of
St James's Street: suspecting foul play, he put the dice in his pocket,
and, as was his custom when up late, took a bed in the house. The
blacklegs were all dismayed, till one of the worthies, who is believed
to have been a principal in poisoning the horses at Newmarket, for which
Dan Dawson was hanged, offered for L5000 to go to the duke's room with
a brace of pistols and a pair of dice, and, if the duke was awake, to
shoot him, if asleep to change the dice! Fortunately for the gang, the
duke "snored," as the agent stated, "like a pig;" the dice were changed.
His Grace had them broken in the morning, when, finding them good, he
paid the money, and left off gambling.'(141)


(141) Rouge et Noir; the Academicians of 1823.


GENERAL OGLE: A BOLD STROKE.


A few weeks before General Ogle was to sail for India, he constantly
attended Paine's, in Charles Street, St James's Square. One evening
there were before him two wooden bowls full of gold, which held L1500
guineas each, and L4000 in rouleaus, which he had won.

When the box came to him, he shook the dice and with great coolness and
pleasantry said--'Come, I'll either win or lose seven thousand upon this
hand. Will any gentleman set on the whole? _SEVEN_ is the main.' Then
rattling the dice once more, cast the box from him and quitted it, the
dice remaining uncovered.

Although the General did not think this too large a sum for one man to
risk at a single throw, the rest of the gentlemen did, and for some time
the bold gamester remained unset.

He then said--'Well, gentlemen, will you make it up amongst you?'

One set him 500 guineas, another 500. 'Come,' said he, 'whilst you
are making up the money I'll tell you a story.' Here he began--but
perceiving that he was at last completely set for the cast, stopt
short--laid his hand on the box, saying--'I believe I am completely
set, gentlemen?' 'Yes, sir, and Seven is the main,' was the reply. The
General threw out, and lost! Seven thousand guineas!

Then with astonishing coolness he took up his snuff-box and smiling
exclaimed--'Now, gentlemen, if you please, I'll finish my story.'


HORACE WALPOLE.


There can be no doubt that Horace Walpole was an inveterate gambler,
although he managed to keep always afloat and merrily sailing--for he
says himself:--'A good lady last year was delighted at my becoming peer,
and said--"I hope you will get an Act of Parliament for putting down
Faro." As if I could make Acts of Parliament! and could I, it would be
very consistent too in me, who for some years played more at Faro than
anybody.'(142)


(142) Letters, IX.


THE EARL OF MARCH.


This extraordinary and still famous personage, better known as the Duke
of Queensberry, was the 'observed of all observers' almost from his
boyhood to extreme old age. His passions were for women and the turf;
and the sensual devotedness with which he pursued the one, and the
eccentricity which he displayed in the enjoyment of both, added to the
observation which he attracted from his position as a man of high rank
and princely fortune, rendered him an object of unceasing curiosity. He
was deeply versed in the mysteries of the turf, and in all practical and
theoretical knowledge connected with the race-course was acknowledged
to be the most accomplished adept of his own time. He seems also to
have been a skilful gamester and player of billiards. Writing to George
Selwyn from Paris in 1763, he says:--'I won the first day about L2000,
of which I brought off about L1500. All things are exaggerated, I am
supposed to have won at least twice as much.' In 1765 he is said to
have won two thousand louis of a German at billiards. Writing to Selwyn,
Gilly Williams says of him: 'I did not know he was more an adept at
that game than you are at any other, but I think you are both said to be
losers on the whole, at least Betty says that her letters mention you as
pillaged.'

Among the numerous occasions on which the name of the Duke of
Queensberry came before the public in connection with sporting matters,
may be mentioned the circumstance of the following curious trial, which
took place before Lord Mansfield in the Court of King's Bench, in 1771.
The Duke of Queensberry, then Lord March, was the plaintiff, and a Mr
Pigot the defendant. The object of this trial was to recover the sum of
five hundred guineas, being the amount of a wager laid by the duke With
Mr Pigot--whether Sir William Codrington or _OLD_ Mr Pigot should die
first. It had singularly happened that Mr Pigot died suddenly the _SAME
MORNING_, of the gout in his head, but before either of the parties
interested in the result of the wager could by any possibility have
been made acquainted with the fact. In the contemporary accounts of the
trial, the Duke of Queensberry is mentioned as having been accommodated
with a seat on the bench; while Lord Ossory, and several other noblemen,
were examined on the merits of the case. By the counsel for the
defendant it was argued that (as in the case of a horse dying before the
day on which he was to be run) the wager was invalid and annulled. Lord
Mansfield, however, was of a different opinion; and after a brief charge
from that great lawyer, the jury brought in a verdict for the plaintiff
for five hundred guineas, and he sentenced the defendant to defray the
costs of the suit.(143)


(143) Jesse, George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, vol. i. p. 194.


This prince of debauchees seems to have surpassed every model of
the kind, ancient or modern. In his prime he reproduced in his own
drawing-room the scene of Paris and the Goddesses, exactly as we see
it in classic pictures, three of the most beautiful women of London
representing the divinities as they appeared to Paris on Mount Ida,
while he himself, dressed as the Dardan shepherd holding a _GILDED_
apple (it should have been really golden) in his hand, conferred the
prize on her whom he deemed the fairest. In his decrepit old age it was
his custom, in fine sunny weather, to seat himself in his balcony in
Piccadilly, where his figure was familiar to every person who was in the
habit of passing through that great thoroughfare. Here (his emaciated
figure rendered the more conspicuous from his custom of holding a
parasol over his head) he was in the habit of watching every attractive
female form, and ogling every pretty face that met his eye. He is said,
indeed, to have kept a pony and a servant in constant readiness, in
order to follow and ascertain the residence of any fair girl whose
attractions particularly caught his fancy! At this period the old
man was deaf with one ear, blind with one eye, nearly toothless, and
labouring under multiplied infirmities. But the hideous propensities of
his prime still pursued him when all enjoyment was impossible. Can there
be a greater penalty for unbridled licentiousness?


MR LUMSDEN.


Mr Lumsden, whose inveterate love of gambling eventually caused his
ruin, was to be seen every day at Frascati's, the celebrated gambling
house kept by Mme Dunan, where some of the most celebrated women of the
_demi-monde_ usually congregated. He was a martyr to the gout, and his
hands and knuckles were a mass of chalk-stones. He stuck to the _Rouge
et Noir_ table until everybody had left; and while playing would take
from his pocket a small slate, upon which he would rub his chalk-stones
until blood flowed. 'Having on one occasion been placed near him at the
_Rouge et Noir_ table, I ventured,' says Captain Gronow, 'to expostulate
with him for rubbing his knuckles against his slate. He coolly answered,
"I feel relieved when I see the blood ooze out."'

Mr Lumsden was remarkable for his courtly manners; but his absence of
mind was astonishing, for he would frequently ask his neighbour _WHERE
HE WAS_! Crowds of men and women would congregate behind his chair, to
look at 'the mad Englishman,' as he was called; and his eccentricities
used to amuse even the croupiers. After losing a large fortune at this
den of iniquity, Mr Lumsden encountered every evil of poverty, and died
in a wretched lodging in the Rue St Marc.(144)


(144) Gronow, _Last Recollections._


GENERAL SCOTT, THE HONEST WINNER OF L200,000.


General Scott, the father-in-law of George Canning and the Duke of
Portland, was known to have won at White's L200,000, thanks to his
notorious sobriety and knowledge of the game of Whist. The general
possessed a great advantage over his companions by avoiding those
indulgences at the table which used to muddle other men's brains. He
confined himself to dining off something like a boiled chicken, with
toast and water; by such a regimen he came to the Whist table with a
clear head; and possessing as he did a remarkable memory, with great
coolness of judgment, he was able honestly to win the enormous sum of
L200,000.


RICHARD BENNET.


Richard Bennet had gone through every walk of a blackleg, from being a
billiard sharper at a table in Bell Alley until he became a keeper or
partner in all the 'hells' in St James's. In each stage of his journey
he had contrived to have so much the better of his competitors, that
he was enabled to live well, to bring up and educate a large legitimate
family, and to gratify all his passions and sensuality. But besides all
this, he accumulated an ample fortune, which this inveterate gamester
did actually possess when the terriers of justice overtook and hunted
him into the custody of the Marshal of the Court of Queen's Bench.
Here he was sentenced to be imprisoned a certain time, on distinct
indictments, for keeping different gaming houses, and was ordered to be
kept in custody until he had also paid fines to the amount, we believe,
of L4000. Bennet, however, after undergoing the imprisonment, managed to
get himself discharged without paying the fines.


DENNIS O'KELLY.

Dennis O'Kelly was the Napoleon of the turf and the gaming table. Ascot
was his elysium. His horses occupied him by day and the Hazard table
by night. At the latter one night he was seen repeatedly turning over
a _QUIRE OF BANK NOTES_, and a gentleman asked him what he was looking
for, when he replied, 'I am looking for a _LITTLE ONE_.' The inquirer
said he could accommodate him, and desired to know for what sum. Dennis
O'Kelly answered, 'I want a FIFTY, or something of _THAT SORT_, just to
set the _CASTER_. At this moment it was supposed he had seven or eight
_THOUSAND_ pounds in notes in his hand, but not one for less than a
_HUNDRED!_

Dennis O'Kelly always threw with great success; and when he held the box
he was seldom known to refuse throwing for _ANY SUM_ that the company
chose to set him. He was always liberal in _SETTING THE CASTER_, and
preventing a stagnation of trade at the _TABLE_, which, from the great
property always about him, it was his good fortune very frequently
to deprive of its last floating guinea, when the box of course became
dormant for want of a single adventurer.

It was his custom to carry a great number of bank notes in his waistcoat
pocket, twisted up together, with the greatest indifference; and on one
occasion, in his attendance at a Hazard table at Windsor, during the
races, being a _STANDING_ better and every chair full, a person's hand
was observed, by those on the opposite side of the table, just in the
act of drawing two notes out of his pocket. The alarm was given, and
the hand, from the person behind, was instantly withdrawn, and the notes
left sticking out. The company became clamorous for taking the offender
before a magistrate, and many attempted to secure him for the purpose;
but Captain Dennis O'Kelly very philosophically seized him by the
collar, kicked him down-stairs, and exultingly exclaimed, ''Twas a
_SUFFICIENT PUNISHMENT_ to be deprived of the pleasure of keeping
company with _JONTLEMEN_.'

A bet for a large sum was once proposed to this 'Admirable Crichton' of
the turf and the gaming table, and accepted. The proposer asked O'Kelly
where lay his _ESTATES_ to answer for the amount if he lost?' 'My
estates!' cried O'Kelly. 'Oh, if that's what you _MANE_, I've a _MAP_ of
them here'--and opening his pocket-book he exhibited bank notes to
_TEN TIMES_ the sum in question, and ultimately added the _INQUIRER'S_
contribution to them.

Such was the wonderful son of Erin, 'Captain' or 'Colonel' Dennis
O'Kelly. One would like to know what ultimately became of him.


DICK ENGLAND.


Jack Tether, Bob W--r, Tom H--ll, Captain O'Kelly, and others, spent
with Dick England a great part of the plunder of poor Clutterbuck, a
clerk of the Bank of England, who not only lost his all, but robbed the
Bank of an immense sum to pay his 'debts of honour.'

A Mr B--, a Yorkshire gentleman, proposed to his brother-in-law, who was
with him, to put down ten pounds each and try their luck at the 'Hell'
kept by 'the Clerks of the Minster,' in the Minster Yard, next the
Church. It was the race-week. There were about thirteen Greeks there,
Dick England at their head. Mr B-- put down L10. England then called
'Seven the main--if seven or eleven is thrown next, the Caster wins.'
Of course Dick intended to win; but he blundered in his operation;
he _LANDED_ at six and the other did not answer his hopes. Yet, with
matchless effrontery, he swore he had called _SIX_ and not seven; and as
it was referred to the majority of the goodly company, thirteen _HONEST
GENTLEMEN_ gave it in Dick England's favour, and with him divided the
spoil.

A Mr D--, a gentleman of considerable landed property in the North,
proposed passing a few days at Scarborough. Dick England saw his
carriage enter the town, and contrived to get into his company and go
with him to the rooms. When the assembly was over, he prevailed on Mr
D-- to sup with him. After supper Mr D-- was completely intoxicated, and
every effort to make him play was tried in vain.

This was, of course, very provoking; but still something must be done,
and a very clever scheme they hit upon to try and 'do' this 'young man
from the country.' Dick England and two of his associates played for
five minutes, and then each of them marked a card as follows:--'D-- owes
me one hundred guineas,' 'D-- owes me eighty guineas;' but Dick marked
_HIS_ card--'I owe D--thirty guineas.'

The next day, Mr D-- met Dick England on the cliff and apologized for
his excess the night before, hoping he had given no offence 'when drunk
and incapable.' Having satisfied the gentleman on this point, Dick
England presented him with a thirty-guinea note, which, in spite of
contradiction, remonstrance, and denial of any play having taken place,
he forced on Mr D-- as his _FAIR WINNING_--adding that he had paid
hundreds to gentlemen in liquor, who knew nothing of it till he had
produced the account. Of course Mr D-- could not help congratulating
himself at having fallen in with a perfect gentleman, as well as
consoling himself for any head-ache or other inconvenience resulting
from his night's potation. They parted with gushing civilities between
them.

Soon afterwards, however, two other gentlemen came up to Mr D--, whom
the latter had some vague recollection of having seen the evening
before, in company with Dick England; and at length, from what the
two gentlemen said, he had no doubt of the fact, and thought it a fit
opportunity to make a due acknowledgment of the gentlemanly conduct
of their friend, who had paid him a bet which he had no remembrance of
having made.

No mood could be better for the purpose of the meeting; so the two
gentlemen not only approved of the conduct of Dick, and descanted on the
propriety of paying drunken men what they won, but also declared that
no _GENTLEMAN_ would refuse to pay a debt of honour won from him when
drunk; and at once begged leave to 'remind' Mr D-- that he had lost to
them 180 guineas! In vain the astounded Mr D-- denied all knowledge
of the transaction; the gentlemen affected to be highly indignant, and
talked loudly of injured honour. Besides, had he not received 30 guineas
from their friend? So he assented, and appointed the next morning to
settle the matter.

Fortunately for Mr D--, however, some intelligent friends of his arrived
in the mean time, and having heard his statement about the whole affair,
they 'smelt a rat,' and determined to ferret it out. They examined the
waiter--previously handing him over five guineas--and this man declared
the truth that Mr D-- did not play at all--in fact, that he was in such
a condition that there could not be any real play. Dick England was
therefore 'blown' on this occasion. Mr D-- returned him his thirty
guineas, and paid five guineas for his share of the supper; and well he
might, considering that it very nearly cost him 150 guineas--that
is, having to receive 30 guineas and to pay 180 guineas to the
Greeks--profit and loss with a vengeance.

Being thus 'blown' at Scarborough, Dick England and his associates
decamped on the following morning.

He next formed a connection with a lieutenant on half pay, nephew to an
Irish earl. With this lieutenant he went to Spa, and realized something
considerable; but not without suspicion--for a few dice were missed.

Dick England returned to London, where he shortly disagreed with the
lieutenant. The latter joined the worthy before described, Captain
O'Kelly, who was also at enmity with Dick England; and the latter took
an opportunity of knocking their heads together in a public coffee-room,
and thrashing them both till they took shelter under the tables. Dick
had the strength of an ox, the ferocity of a bull-dog, and 'the cunning
of the serpent,' although what the latter is no naturalist has ever yet
discovered or explained.

The lieutenant determined on revenge for the thrashing. He had joined
his regiment, and he 'peached' against his former friend, disclosing to
the officers the circumstance of the dice at Spa, before mentioned; and,
of course, upset all the designs of Dick England and his associates.
This enraged all the blacklegs; a combination was formed against the
lieutenant; and he was shot through the head by 'a brother officer,' who
belonged to the confraternity.

The son of an earl lost forty thousand pounds in play to Dick England;
and shot himself at Stacie's Hotel in consequence--the very night before
his honourable father sent his steward to pay the 'debt of honour' in
full--though aware that his son had been cheated out of it.

But the most extraordinary 'pass' of Dick England's career is still to
be related--not without points in it which make it difficult to believe,
in spite of the evidence, that it is the same 'party' who was concerned
in it. Here it is.

In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, in Gilchrist's Collection of British
Duels, in Dr Millingen's reproduction of the latter, the following
account occurs:--

'Mr Richard England was put to the bar at the Old Bailey, charged with
the "wilful murder" of Mr Rowlls, brewer, of Kingston, in a duel at
Cranford-bridge, June 18, 1784.

'Lord Derby, the first witness, gave evidence that he was present at
Ascot races. When in the stand upon the race-course, he heard Mr England
cautioning the gentlemen present not to bet with the deceased, as he
neither paid what he lost nor what he borrowed. On which Mr Rowlls went
up to him, called him rascal or scoundrel, and offered to strike him;
when Mr England bid him stand off, or he would be obliged to knock
him down; saying, at the same time--"We have interrupted the company
sufficiently here, and if you have anything further to say to me, you
know where I am to be found." A further altercation ensued; but his
Lordship being at the other end of the stand, did not distinctly hear
it, and then the parties retired.

'Lord Dartrey, afterwards Lord Cremorne, and his lady, with a gentleman,
were at the inn at the time the duel was fought. They went into the
garden and endeavoured to prevent the duel; several other persons were
collected in the garden. Mr Rowlls desired his Lordship and others not
to interfere; and on a second attempt of his Lordship to make peace, Mr
Rowlls said, if they did not retire, he must, though reluctantly, call
them impertinent. Mr England at the same time stepped forward, and took
off his hat; he said--"Gentlemen, I have been cruelly treated; I have
been injured in my honour and character; let reparation be made, and I
am ready to have done this moment." Lady Dartrey retired. His Lordship
stood in the bower of the garden until he saw Mr Rowlls fall. One or two
witnesses were called, who proved nothing material. A paper, containing
the prisoner's defence, being read, _the Earl of Derby, the Marquis of
Hertford, Sir Whitbread, jun., Colonel Bishopp, and other gentlemen_,
were called to his character. They all spoke of him as a man of _decent
gentlemanly deportment_, who, instead of seeking quarrels, was studious
to avoid them. He had been friendly to Englishmen while abroad, and had
rendered some service to the military at the siege of Newport.

'Mr Justice Rooke summoned up the evidence; after which the jury retired
for about three quarters of an hour, when they returned a verdict of
"manslaughter."

'The prisoner having fled from the laws of his country for twelve years,
the Court was disposed to show no lenity. He was therefore sentenced to
pay a fine of one shilling, and be imprisoned in Newgate twelve months.'

This trial took place in the year 1796, and the facts in evidence give a
strange picture of the times. A duel actually fought in the garden of
an inn, a noble lord close by in a bower therein, and his lady certainly
within _HEARING_ of the shots, and doubtless a spectator of the bloody
spectacle. But this is not the point,--the incomprehensible point,--to
which I have alluded--which is, how Lord Derby and the other gentlemen
of the highest standing could come forward to speak to the character of
_DICK ENGLAND_, if he was the same man who killed the unfortunate brewer
of Kingston?

Here is _ANOTHER_ account of the matter, which warrants the doubt,
although it is fearfully circumstantial, as to the certain identity:--

'Mr William Peter le Rowles, of Kingston, brewer, was habitually fond
of play. On one occasion he was induced--when in a state of
intoxication--to play with Dick England, who claimed, in consequence,
winnings to the amount of two hundred guineas. Mr le Rowles utterly
denied the debt, and was in consequence pursued by England until he
was compelled to a duel, in which Mr le Rowles fell. Lord Dartrey,
afterwards Lord Cremorne, was present at Ascot Heath races on the fatal
occasion, which happened in 1784; and his evidence before the coroner's
inquest produced a verdict of wilful murder against Dick England, who
fled at the time, but returned twelve years afterwards, was tried, and
found guilty of manslaughter only. He was imprisoned for twelve months.
England was strongly suspected of highway robberies; particularly on
one occasion, when his associate, F--, was shot dead by Col. P-- on
his return from the Curragh races to the town of Naas. The Marquis of
Hertford, Lords Derby and Cremorne, Colonels Bishopp and Wollaston, and
Messrs Whitbread, Breton, &c., were evidences in the trial.'(145)


(145) _The Gaming Calendar_, by Seymour Harcourt.


It may seem strange that such a man as Dick England could procure such
distinguished 'witnesses to character.' The thing is easily explained,
however. They knew the man only as a turf companion. We can come to no
other conclusion,--remembering other instances of the kind. For example,
the case of Palmer, convicted for the poisoning of Cooke. Had Palmer
been on his trial merely for fighting a fatal duel; there can be no
doubt that several noblemen would have come forward to give him a good
character. I was present at his trial, and saw him _BOW TO ONE, AT
LEAST, OF OUR MOST DISTINGUISHED NOBLEMEN_ when the latter took his
seat near the judge, at the trial. There was a _TURF ACQUAINTANCESHIP_
between them, and, of course, all 'acquaintanceship' may be presumed
upon, if we lay ourselves open to the degradation.

The following is a curious case in point. A gentleman of the highest
standing and greatest respectability was accosted by a stranger to whom
he said--'Sir, you have the advantage of me.' 'Oh!' rejoined the former,
'don't you remember when we used to meet at certain parties at Bath many
years ago?' 'Well, sir,' exclaimed the gentleman, 'you may speak to me
should you ever again meet me at certain parties at Bath, but nowhere
else.'


MAJOR BAGGS.


This famous gamester died in 1792, by a cold caught in 'a round-house,'
or place of detention, to which he had been taken by Justice Hyde, from
a gaming table.

When too ill to rise out of his chair, he would be carried in that chair
to the Hazard table.

He was supposed to have been the utter ruin of above forty persons at
play. He fought eleven duels.


THE DUC DE MIREFOIX.


The Duc de Mirefois was ambassador at the British Court, and was
extremely fond of chess. A reverend gentleman being nearly his equal,
they frequently played together. At that time the clergyman kept a petty
day-school in a small village, and had a living of not more than twenty
pounds a-year. The French nobleman made uncommon interest with a noble
duke, through whose favour he obtained for his reverend protege a living
of about L600 per annum--an odd way of obtaining the 'cure of souls!'


A RECLAIMED GAMBLER'S ACCOUNT OF HIS CAREER.


'Some years since I was lieutenant in a regiment, which the alarm and
policy of administration occasioned to be quartered in the vicinity of
the metropolis, where I was for the first time. A young nobleman of very
distinguished family undertook to be my conductor. Alas! to what scenes
did he introduce me! To places of debauchery and dens of destruction. I
need not detail particulars. From the lures of the courtesan we went
to an adjoining gaming room. Though I thought my knowledge of cards
superior to those I saw play that night, I touched no card nor dice.
From this my conductor, a brother officer, and myself adjourned to Pall
Mall. We returned to our lodgings about six o'clock in the morning.

'I could think of nothing but Faro's magic centre, and longed for the
next evening, when I determined to enter that path which has led so many
to infamy, beggary, and suicide. I began cautiously, and for some
time had reason to be satisfied with my success. It enabled me to
live expensively. I made golden calculations of my future fortune as I
improved in skill. My manuals were treatises on gaming and chances, and
no man understood this doctrine better than I did. I, however, did
not calculate the disparity of resisting powers--my purse with _FIFTY_
guineas, and the Faro bank with a hundred thousand. It was ruin only
which opened my eyes to this truism at last.

'Good meats, good cooking, and good wines, given gratis and plenteously,
at these houses, drew many to them at first, for the sake of the
society. Among them I one evening chanced to see a clerical prig, who
was incumbent of a parish adjoining that in which my mother lived. I was
intoxicated with wine and pleasure, when I, on this occasion, entered a
haunt of ruin and enterprising avarice in Pall Mall. I played high and
lost in proportion.

'The spirit of adventure was now growing on me every day. I was
sometimes very successful. Yet my health was impaired, and my temper
soured by the alternation of good and bad fortune, and my pity or
contempt for those with whom I associated. From the nobleman, whose
acres were nightly melting in the dice box, there were adventurers
even to the _UNFLEDGED APPRENTICE_, who came with the pillage of his
unsuspecting master's till, to swell the guilty bank of Dame N-- and
Co. Were the Commissioners of Bankruptcy to know how many citizens are
prepared for them at those houses, they would be bound to thank them.

'Many a score of guineas have I won of tradesmen, who seemed only
to turn an honest penny in Leadenhall Street, Aldgate, Birchin Lane,
Cornhill, Cheapside, Holborn, the Borough, and other eastern spots of
industry; but I fleeced them only for the benefit of the Faro bank,
which is sure, finally, to absorb the gain of all. Some of the croupiers
would call their gold _GIFTS OF THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST;_ others termed
their guineas _COCKNEY COUNTERS!_

'One night I had such a run of luck in the Hazard room, which was rather
thinly attended, that I won everything, and with my load of treasure
collected from the East and West, nay, probably, some of it from
_Finchley Common_ and _Hounslow Heath_, I went, in the flush of success,
to attack the Faro bank.

'It was my determination, however, if fortune favoured me through
the night, never to tempt her more. For some hours I proceeded in the
torture of suspense, alternately agitated by hope and fear--but by five
o'clock in the morning I attained a state of certainty similar to that
of a wretch ushered into the regions of the damned. I had lost L3500
guineas, which I had brought with me from the Hazard table, together
with L2000 which the bank advanced me on my credit. There they stopped;
and, with an apathy peculiar to themselves, listened to a torrent of
puerile abuse which I vented against them in my despair.

'Two days and two nights I shut myself up, to indulge in the most
racking reflections. I was ruined beyond repair, and I had, on the third
morning, worked myself up to resort for relief to a loaded pistol. I
rang for my servant to bring me some gunpowder, and was debating with
myself whether to direct its force to my brain or my heart, when he
entered with a letter. It was from Harriet ----. She had heard of my
misfortunes, and urged me with the soul and pen of a heroine, to fly the
destructive habits of the town, and to wait for nine months, when
her minority would expire, and she would come into the uncontrolled
possession of L1700. With that small sum she hoped my expenses, talents,
and domestic comfort, under her housewifery, would create a state of
happiness and independence which millions could not procure in the mad
career which I had pursued.

'This was the voice of a guardian angel in the moment of despair. In her
next, at my request, she informed me that the channel of her early and
minute information was the clerical prig, her neighbour and admirer, who
was related to one of the croupiers at ----, and had from him a regular
detail of my proceedings.

'Soothed by the magic influence of my virtuous Harriet, instead of
calling the croupier to account, I wrote to the proprietors of the bank,
stating my ruined condition, and my readiness to sell my commission and
pay them what I could. These gentlemen have friends in every department.
They completed the transfer of my lieutenancy in two days, and then,
in their superabundant humanity, offered me the place of croupier in
an inferior house which they kept near Hanover Square. This offer I
declined; and after having paid my tradesman's bill, I left London
with only eleven guineas in my pocket. I married the best of women, my
preserver, and have ever since lived in real comfort and happiness, on
an income less than one hundred pounds a year.'


A SURPRISE.


A stranger plainly dressed took his seat at a Faro table, when the bank
was richer than usual. After some little routine play, he challenged
the bank, and tossed his pocket-book to the banker that he might be
satisfied of his responsibility. It was found to contain bills to an
immense amount; and on the banker showing reluctance to accept the
challenge, the stranger sternly demanded compliance with the laws of
the game. The card soon turned up which decided the ruin of the banker.
'Heaven!' exclaimed an old infirm Austrian officer, who had sat next
to the stranger--'the twentieth part of your gains would make me the
happiest man in the universe!' The stranger briskly answered--'You shall
have it, then;' and quitted the room. A servant speedily returned, and
presented the officer with the twentieth part of the bank, adding--'My
master requires no answer, sir,' and went out. The successful stranger
was soon recognized to be the great King of Prussia in disguise.



CHAPTER XIII. THE LOTTERIES AND THEIR BEWILDERMENTS.

If we are to believe Pere Menestrier, the institution of Lotteries is to
be found in the Bible, in the words--'The _LOT_ causeth contentions to
cease, and parteth between the mighty,' Prov. xviii. 18. Be that as it
may, it is certain that lotteries were in use among the ancient Romans,
taking place during the _Saturnalia_, or festivities in honour of the
god Saturn, when those who took part in them received a numbered ticket,
which entitled the bearer to a prize. During the reign of Augustus the
thing became a means of gratifying the cupidity of his courtiers;
and Nero used it as the method of distributing his gifts to the
people,--granting as many as a thousand tickets a day, some of them
entitling the bearers to slaves, ships, houses, and lands. Domitian
compelled the senators and knights to participate in the lotteries, in
order to debase them; and Heliogabalus, in his fantastic festivities,
distributed tickets which entitled the bearers to camels, flies, and
other odd things suggested by his madness. In all this, however, the
distinctive character of modern lotteries was totally absent: the
tickets were always gratuitous; so that if the people did not win
anything, they never lost.

In the Middle Ages the same practice prevailed at the banquets of feudal
princes, who apportioned their presents economically, and without the
fear of exciting jealousy among the recipients, by granting lottery
tickets indiscriminately to their friends. The practice afterwards
descended to the merchants; and in Italy, during the 16th century, it
became a favourite mode of disposing of their wares.

The application of lotteries by paid tickets to the service of the state
is said to have originated at Florence, under the name of 'Lotto,' in
1530; others say at Genoa, under the following circumstances:--It had
long been customary in the latter city to choose annually, by ballot,
five members of the Senate (composed of 90 persons) in order to form a
particular council. Some persons took this opportunity of laying bets
that the lot would fall on such or such senators. The government, seeing
with what eagerness the people interested themselves in these bets,
conceived the idea of establishing a lottery on the same principle,
which was attended with such great success, that all the cities of Italy
wished to participate in it, and sent large sums of money to Genoa for
that purpose.

To increase the revenues of the Church, the Pope also was induced to
establish a lottery at Rome; the inhabitants of which place became so
fond of this species of gambling, that they often deprived themselves
and their families of the necessaries of life, that they might have
money to lay out in this speculation.

The French borrowed the idea from the Italians. In the year 1520,
under Francis I., lotteries were permitted by edict under the name of
_Blanques_, from the Italian _bianca carta_, 'white tickets,'-- because
all the losing tickets were considered _BLANKS;_--hence the introduction
of the word into common talk, with a similar meaning. From the year 1539
the state derived a revenue from the lotteries, although from 1563 to
1609 the French parliament repeatedly endeavoured to suppress them as
social evils. At the marriage of Louis XIV. a lottery was organized to
distribute the royal presents to the people--after the fashion of the
Roman emperor. Lotteries were multiplied during this reign and that of
Louis XV. In 1776 the Royal Lottery of France was established. This was
abolished in 1793, re-established at the commencement of the Republic;
but finally all lotteries were prohibited by law in 1836,--excepting
'for benevolent purposes.' One of the most remarkable of these lotteries
'for benevolent purposes' was the 'Lottery of the Gold Lingots,'
authorized in 1849, to favour emigration to California. In this lottery
the grand prize was a lingot of gold valued at about L1700.

The old French lottery consisted of 90 numbers, that is, from No. 1 to
No. 90, and the drawing was five numbers at a time. Five wheels were
established at Paris, Lyons, Strasbourg, Bordeaus, and Lille. A drawing
took place every ten days at each city. The exit of a single number was
called _extrait_, and it won 15 times the amount deposited, and 70 times
if the number was determined; the exit of two numbers was called the
_ambe_, winning 270 times the deposit, and 5100 times if the number was
determined;--the exit of three numbers was called the _terne_, winning
5500 times; the _quaterne_, or exit of four numbers, won 75,000 times
the deposit. In all this, however, the chances were greatly in favour
of the state banker;--in the _extrait_ the chances were 18 to 15 in
his favour, vastly increasing, of course, in the remainder; thus in the
_ambe_ it was 1602 against 270; and so on.

The first English lottery mentioned in history was drawn in the year
1569. It consisted of 400,000 lots, at 10_s_. each lot. The prizes were
plate; and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens or ports
of this kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St Paul's Cathedral.
The drawing began on the 10th of January, 1569, and continued
incessantly, _DAY AND NIGHT_, till the 6th of May following.(146)
Another lottery was held at the same place in 1612, King James having
permitted it in favour of 'the plantation of English colonies in
Virginia.' One Thomas Sharplys, a tailor of London, won the chief prize,
which was '4000 crowns in fair plate.'


(146) The printed scheme of this lottery is still in the possession of
the Antiquarian Society of London.


In 1680, a lottery was granted to supply London with water. At the end
of the 17th century, the government being in want of money to carry on
the war, resorted to a lottery, and L1,200,000 was set apart or _NAMED_
for the purpose. The tickets were all disposed of in less than six
months, friends and enemies joining in the speculation. It was a great
success; and when right-minded people murmured at the impropriety of
the thing, they were told to hold their tongues, and assured that this
lottery was the very queen of lotteries, and that it had just taken
Namur!(147)


(147) This town was captured in 1695, by William III.


At the same time the Dutch gave in to the infatuation with the utmost
enthusiasm; lotteries were established all over Holland; and learned
professors and ministers of the gospel spoke of nothing else but the
lottery to their pupils and hearers.

From this time forward the spirit of gambling increased so rapidly
and grew so strong in England, that in the reign of Queen Anne private
lotteries had to be suppressed as public nuisances.

The first _parliamentary_ lottery was instituted in 1709, and from this
period till 1824 the passing of a lottery bill was in the programme
of every session. Up to the close of the 18th century the prizes were
generally paid in the form of terminable, and sometimes of perpetual,
annuities. Loans were also raised by granting a bonus of lottery tickets
to all who subscribed a certain amount.

This gambling of annuities, despite the restrictions of an act passed in
1793, soon led to an appalling amount of vice and misery; and in 1808, a
committee of the House of Commons urged the suppression of this ruinous
mode of filling the national exchequer. The last public lottery in Great
Britain was drawn in October, 1826.

The lotteries exerted a most baneful influence on trade, by relaxing the
sinews of industry and fostering the destructive spirit of gaming
among all orders of men. Nor was that all. The stream of this evil was
immensely swelled and polluted, in open defiance of the law, by a set of
artful and designing men, who were ever on the watch to allure and
draw in the ignorant and unwary by the various modes and artifices of
'_insurance_,' which were all most flagrant and gross impositions on the
public, as well as a direct violation of the law. One of the most common
and notorious of these schemes was the insuring of numbers for the next
day's drawing, at a _premium_ which (if legal) was much greater than
adequate to the risk. Thus, in 1778, when the just premium of the
lottery was only 7_s_. 6_d_., the office-keepers charged 9_s_., which
was a certain gain of nearly 30 per cent.; and they aggravated the fraud
as the drawing advanced.

On the sixteenth day of drawing the just premium was not quite 20_s_.,
whereas the office-keepers charged L1 4_s_. 6_d_., which clearly
shows the great disadvantage that every person laboured under who was
imprudent enough to be concerned in the insurance of numbers.(148)


(148) Public Ledger, Dec. 3, 1778.


In every country where lotteries were in operation numbers were ruined
at the close of each drawing, and of these not a few sought an oblivion
of their folly ill self-murder--by the rope, the razor, or the river.

A more than usual number of adventurers were said to have been ruined in
the lottery of 1788, owing to the several prizes continuing long in the
wheel (which gave occasion to much gambling), and also to the desperate
state of certain branches of trade, caused by numerous and important
bankruptcies. The suicides increased in proportion. Among them one
person made herself remarkable by a thoughtful provision to prevent
disappointment. A woman, who had scraped everything together to put into
the lottery, and who found herself ruined at its close, fixed a rope to
a beam of sufficient strength; but lest there should be any accidental
failure in the beam or rope, she placed a large tub of water underneath,
that she might drop into it; and near her also were two razors on a
table ready to be used, if hanging or drowning should prove ineffectual.

A writer of the time gives the following account of the excitement that
prevailed during the drawing of the lottery:--'Indeed, whoever wishes to
know what are the "blessings" of a lottery, should often visit Guildhall
during the time of its drawing,--when he will see thousands of workmen,
servants, clerks, apprentices, passing and repassing, with looks full of
suspense and anxiety, and who are stealing at least from their master's
time, if they have not many of them also robbed him of his property, in
order to enable them to become adventurers. In the next place, at the
end of the drawing, let our observer direct his steps to the shops of
the pawnbrokers, and view, as he may, the stock, furniture, and clothes
of many hundred poor families, servants, and others, who have been
ruined by the lottery. If he wish for further satisfaction, let him
attend at the next Old Bailey Sessions, and hear the death-warrant of
many a luckless gambler in lotteries, who has been guilty of subsequent
theft and forgery; or if he seek more proof, let him attend to the
numerous and horrid scenes of self-murder, which are known to accompany
the closing of the wheels of fortune each year:(149) and then let him
determine on "the wisdom and policy" of lotteries in a commercial city.'


(149) A case is mentioned of two servants who, having lost their all in
lotteries, robbed their master; and in order to prevent being seized and
hanged in public, murdered themselves in private.


The capital prizes were so large that they excited the eagerness of
hope; but the sum secured by the government was small when compared with
the infinite mischief it occasioned. On opening the budget of 1788, the
minister observed in the House of Commons, 'that the bargain he had
this year for the lottery was so very good for the public, that it would
produce a gain of L270,000, from which he would deduct L12,000 for the
expenses of drawing, &c., and then there would remain a net produce of
L258,000.' This result, therefore, was deemed extraordinary; but what
was that to the extraordinary mischief done to the community by the
authorization of excessive gambling!

Some curious facts are on record relating to the lotteries.

Until the year 1800 the drawing of the lottery (which usually consisted
of 60,000 tickets for England alone) occupied forty-two days in
succession; it was, therefore, about forty-two to one against any
particular number being drawn the first day; if it remained in the
wheel, it was forty-one to one against its being drawn on the second,
&;c.; the adventurer, therefore, who could for eight-pence insure the
return of a guinea, if a given number came up the first day, would
naturally be led, if he failed, to a small increase of the deposit
according to the decrease of the chance against him, until his number
was drawn, or the person who took the insurance money would take it no
longer.

In the inquiry respecting the mendicity of London, in 1815, Mr Wakefield
declared his opinion that the lottery was a cause of mendicity; and
related an instance--the case of an industrious man who applied to the
Committee of Spitalfields Soup Society for relief; and when, on
being asked his profession, said he was a '_Translator_'--which, when
_TRANSLATED_, signifies, it seems, the art of converting old boots and
shoes into wearable ones; 'but the lottery is about to draw, and,' says
he, 'I have no sale for boots or shoes during the time that the lottery
draws'--the money of his customers being spent in the purchase of
tickets, or the payment of 'insurances.' The 'translator' may have been
mistaken as to the cause of his trade falling off; but there can be no
doubt that the system of the lottery-drawing was a very infatuating mode
of gambling, as the passion was kept alive from day to day; and though,
perhaps, it did not create mendicity, yet it mainly contributed, with
the gin-shops, night-cellars, obscure gambling houses, and places of
amusement, to fill the _PAWNBROKERS_' shops, and diminish the profits of
the worthy 'translator of old shoes.'(150)


(150) This term is still in use. I recently asked one of the craft if he
called himself a translator. 'Yes, sir, not of languages, but old boots
and shoes,' was the reply.


This reasoning, however, is very uncertain.

The sixteenth of a lottery ticket, which is the smallest share that can
be purchased, has not for many years been sold under thirty shillings,
a sum much too large for a person who buys old shoes 'translated,' and
even for the 'translator' himself, to advance; we may therefore safely
conclude that the purchase of tickets is not the mode of gambling by
which Crispin's customers are brought to distress.

A great number of foreign lotteries still exist in vigorous operation.
Some are supported by the state, and others are only authorized; most
of them are flourishing. In Germany, especially, lotteries are abundant;
immense properties are disposed of by this method. The 'bank' gains, of
course, enormously; and, also of course, a great deal of trickery and
swindling, or something like it, is perpetrated.

Foreign lottery tickets are now and then illegally offered in England. A
few years ago there appeared an advertisement in the papers, offering a
considerable income for the payment of one or two pounds. Upon inquiry
it was found to be the agency of a foreign lottery! These tempting
offers of advertising speculators are a cruel addition to the miseries
of misfortune.

The Hamburg lottery seems to afford the most favourable representation
of the system--as such--because in it all the money raised by the
sale of tickets is redistributed in the drawing of the lots, with
the exception of 10 per cent. deducted in expenses and otherwise; but
nothing can compensate for the pernicious effects of the spirit of
gambling which is fostered by lotteries, however fairly conducted. They
are an unmitigated evil.

In the United States lotteries were established by Congress in 1776,
but, save in the Southern States, heavy penalties are now imposed on
persons attempting to establish them.

I need scarcely say that lotteries, whether foreign or British, are
utterly forbidden by law, excepting those of Art Unions. The operations
of these associations were indeed suspended in 1811; but in the
following year an act indemnified those who embarked in them for losses
which they had incurred by the arrest of their proceedings; and since
that time they have been _TOLERATED_ under the eye of the law without
any express statute being framed for their exemption. It is thought,
however, that they tend to keep up the spirit of gambling, and therefore
ought not to be allowed even on the specious plea of favouring 'art.'

_PRIVATE_ lotteries are now illegal at Common Law in Great Britain and
Ireland; and penalties are also incurred by the advertisers of _FOREIGN_
lotteries. Some years ago it became common in Scotland to dispose of
merchandise by means of lotteries; but this is specially condemned
in the statute 42 Geo. III. c. 119. An evasion of the law has been
attempted by affixing a prize to every ticket, so as to make the
transaction resemble a legal sale; but this has been punished as a
fraud, even where it could be proved that the prize equalled in value
the price of the ticket. The decision rested upon the plea that in such
a transaction there was no definite sale of a specific article. Even
the lotteries; for Twelfth Cakes, &c., are illegal, and render their
conductors liable to the penalties of the law. Decisive action has been
taken on this law, and the usual Christmas lotteries have been this year
(1870) rigorously prohibited throughout the country. It is impossible
to doubt the soundness of the policy that strives to check the spirit
of gambling among the people; but still there may be some truth in the
following remarks which appeared on the subject, in a leading journal:--

'We hear that the police have received directions to caution the
promoters of lotteries for the distribution of game, wine, spirits, and
other articles of this description, that these schemes are illegal, and
that the offenders will be prosecuted. These attempts to enforce rigidly
the provisions of the 10 and 11 William III., c. 17, 42 George III.,
c. 119, and to check the spirit of speculation which pervades so many
classes in this country may possibly be successful, but as a mere
question of morality there can be no doubt that Derby lotteries, and, in
fact, all speculations on the turf or Stock Exchange, are open to quite
as much animadversion as the Christmas lotteries for a little pig or an
aged goose, which it appears are to be suppressed in future. Is it not
also questionable policy to enforce every law merely because it is a
law, unless its breach is productive of serious evil to the community?
If every old Act of Parliament is rummaged out and brought to bear upon
us, we fear we shall find ourselves in rather an uncomfortable position.

We cannot say whether or not the harm produced by these humble
lotteries is sufficient to render their forcible suppression a matter of
necessity. They certainly do produce an amount of indigestion which of
itself must be no small penalty to pay for those whose misfortune it is
to win the luxuries raffled for, but we never yet heard of any one being
ruined by raffling for a pig or goose; and if our Government is going
to be paternal and look after our pocket-money, we hope it will also be
maternal and take some little interest in our health. The sanitary
laws require putting into operation quite as much as the laws against
public-house lotteries and skittles.'

No 'extenuating circumstances,' however, can be admitted respecting the
notorious racing lotteries, in spite of the small figure of the tickets;
nay this rather aggravates the danger, being a temptation to the
thoughtless multitude. One of these lotteries, called the Deptford
Spec., was not long ago suppressed by the strong arm of the law; but
others still exist under different names. In one of these the law is
thought to be evaded by the sale of a number of photographs; in another,
a chance of winning on a horse is secured by the purchase of certain
numbers of a newspaper struggling into existence; but the following is,
perhaps, the drollest phase of the evasion as yet attempted:

'Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding _count the number of
the beast_.'--Rev., chap. xiii.

'NICKOLAS REX.--"LUCKY" BANQUETS.

'HIS SATANIC MAJESTY purposes holding a series of Banquets, Levees, and
DRAWING ROOMS at Pandemonium during the ensuing autumn, to each of which
about 10,000 of his faithful disciples will be invited. H. S. M. will,
at those drawing-rooms and receptions, _NUMBER_ a lot of beasts, and
distribute a series of REWARDS, varying in value from L100 to 10_s_. of
her Britannic Majesty's money.

'Tickets One Shilling each, application for which must be made _BY
LETTER_ to His S. Majesty's Chamberlain, &c. &c. The LAST _DRAWING-ROOM_
of this season will be held a few days before the Feast of the CROYDON
STEEPLECHASES, &c. &c.



CHAPTER XIV. THE LAWS AGAINST GAMING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

1. ANCIENT ROME.

In ancient Rome all games of chance, with the exception of five which
had relation to bodily vigour, were absolutely prohibited in public or
private. The loser could not be sued for moneys lost, and could recover
what he might have paid, such right being secured to his heirs against
the heirs of the winner, even after the lapse of 30 years' prescription.
During 50 years after the loss, should the loser or his heirs neglect
their action, it was open to any one that chose to prosecute, and
chiefly to the municipal authorities, the sum recovered to be expended
in that case for public purposes. No surety for the payment of money for
gambling purposes was bound. The betting on lawful games was restricted
to a certain amount, beyond which the loser could recover moneys paid,
and could not be sued for the amount. A person in whose house gambling
had taken place, if struck or injured, or if robbed on the occasion
thereof, was denied redress; but offences of gamblers among themselves
were punishable. Blows or injuries might be inflicted on the gambling
house keeper at any time and anywhere without being penal as against any
person; but theft was not exempted from punishment, unless committed at
the time of gambling--and not by a gambler. Children and freedmen could
recover their losses as against their parents and patrons.

Cicero, in his second Philippic, speaks of a criminal process (_publicum
judicium_) then in force against gamblers.

The laws of ancient Rome were, therefore, very stringent on this
subject, although, there can be no doubt, without much effect.


2. FRANCE.


At the time of the French Revolution warlike games alone conferred the
right of action, restricted, however, in cases of excessive losses;
games of strength and skill generally were lawful, but were considered
as not giving any right of action; games of mere chance were prohibited,
but minors alone were allowed to recover moneys lost.

By the present law of France no judicial action is allowed for gambling
debts and wagers, except in the case of such games as depend upon bodily
skill and effort, foot, horse, and chariot races, and others of the like
nature: the claim may be rejected if the court considers it excessive;
but moneys paid can never be recovered unless on the ground of fraud.
The keepers of gaming houses, their managers or agents, are punishable
with fine (100 to 6000 francs) and imprisonment (two to six months), and
may be deprived of most of their civil rights.


3. PRUSSIA.


By the Prussian Code all games of chance, except when licensed by the
state, are prohibited. Gaming debts are not the subjects of action; but
moneys paid cannot be sued for by losers. Wagers give a right of action
when the stakes consist of cash in the hands of a third person; they
are void if the winner had a knowledge of the event, and concealed it.
Moneys lent for gambling or betting purposes, or to pay gambling or
betting debts, cannot be sued for. Gaming house keepers and gamblers are
punishable with fine; professed gamblers with imprisonment. Occasional
cheating at play obliges to compensation; professed swindlers at play
are punishable as for theft, and banished afterwards. Moneys won from a
drunken man, if to a considerable amount, must be returned, and a fine
paid of equal value.



4. AUSTRIA.


In Austria no right of action is given either to the winner or the
loser. All games of chance are prohibited except when licensed by the
state. Cheating at play is punished with imprisonment, according to the
amount of fraudulent gain. Playing at unlawful games, or allowing such
to take place in one's house, subjects the party to a heavy fine, or in
default, to imprisonment.



5. ITALY.


The provisions of the Sardinian Civil Code are similar to those of
the French, giving an action for moneys won at games of strength or
skill--when not excessive in amount; but not allowing the recovery of
moneys lost, except on the ground of fraud or _MINORITY_, a provision
taken from the _OLD_ French law.


6. BAVARIA.


By the Bavarian Code games of skill, and of mixed skill and chance, are
not forbidden. The loser cannot refuse to pay, nor can he recover his
losses, provided the sport be honestly conducted, and the stakes not
excessive, having regard to the rank, character, and fortune of the
parties. In cases of fraudulent and excessive gaming, and in all games
of mere chance, the winner cannot claim his winnings, but must repay the
loser on demand. In the two latter cases (apparently) both winner and
loser are liable to a fine, equal in amount,--for the first time
of conviction, to one-third of the stakes; for the second time, to
two-thirds; and for the third time, to the whole: in certain cases the
bank is to be confiscated. Hotel and coffee-house keepers, &c., who
allow gambling on their premises, are punished for the first offence by
a fine of 50 florins; for the second, with one of 100 florins; for the
third, with the loss of the license. The punishment of private persons
for the like offence is left to the discretion of the judge. _UNLAWFUL_
games may be _LEGALIZED_ by authority; but in such case, fraud or gross
excess disables the winner from claiming moneys won, renders him liable
to repayment, and subjects him to arbitrary punishment. _IMMORAL_ wagers
are void; and _EXCESSIVE_ wagers are to be reduced in amount. Betting on
indifferent things is not prohibited, nor even as to a known and certain
thing--when there is no deception. No wager is void on account of mere
disparity of odds. Professed gamblers, who also cheat at play, and their
accomplices, and the setters-up and collectors of fictitious lotteries,
are subject to imprisonment, with hard labour, for a term of from four
to eight years.

Although, therefore, cheating gamblers are liable to punishment in
Bavaria, it is evident that gambling is there tolerated to the utmost
extent required by the votaries of Fortune.


7. SPAIN.


Wagers appear to be lawful in Spain, when not in themselves fraudulent,
or relating to anything illegal or immoral.


8. ENGLAND.


In England some of the forms of gambling or gaming have been absolutely
forbidden under heavy penalties, whilst others have been tolerated, but
at the same time discouraged; and the reasons for the prohibition were
not always directed against the impropriety or iniquity of the practice
in itself;--thus it was alleged in an Act passed in 1541, that for the
sake of the games the people neglected to practise _ARCHERY_, through
which England had become great--'to the terrible dread and fear of all
strange nations.'

The first of the strictly-called Gaming Acts is one of Charles II.'s
reign, which was intended to check the habit of gambling so prevalent
then, as before stated. By this Act it was ordered that, if any one
shall play at any pastime or game, by gaming or betting with those who
game, and shall lose more than one hundred pounds on credit, he shall
not be bound to pay, and any contract to do so shall be void. In
consequence of this Act losers of a less amount--whether less wealthy
or less profligate--and the whole of the poorer classes, remained
unprotected from the cheating of sharpers, for it must be presumed that
nobody has a right to refuse to pay a fair gambling debt, since he would
evidently be glad to receive his winnings. No doubt much misery followed
through the contrivances of sharpers; still it was a salutary warning to
gamesters of the poorer classes--whilst in the higher ranks the 'honour'
of play was equally stringent, and, I may add, in many cases ruinous.
By the recital of the Act it is evident that the object was to check
and put down gaming as a business profession, 'to gain a living;' and
therefore it specially mulcted the class out of which 'adventurers' in
this line usually arise.

The Act of Queen Anne, by its sweeping character, shows that gaming had
become very virulent, for by it not only were all securities for money
lost at gaming void, but money actually paid, if more than L10, might be
recovered in an action at law; not only might this be done, within three
months, by the loser himself, but by any one else--together with treble
the value--half for himself, and half for the poor of the parish.
Persons winning, by fraudulent means, L10 and upwards at any game were
condemned by this Act to pay five times the amount or value of the thing
won, and, moreover, they were to 'be deemed infamous, and suffer
such corporal punishment as in cases of wilful perjury.' The Act went
further:--if persons were suspected of getting their living by gaming,
they might be summoned before a magistrate, required to show that the
greater portion of their income did not depend upon gaming, and to find
sureties for their good behaviour during twelve months, or be committed
to gaol.

There were, besides, two curious provisions;--any one assaulting or
challenging another to a duel on account of disputes over gaming, should
forfeit all his goods and be imprisoned for two years; secondly,
the royal palaces of St James's and Whitehall were exempted from
the operation of this statute, so long as the sovereign was actually
resident within them--which last clause probably showed that the entire
Draconian enactment was but a farce. It is quite certain that it was
inoperative, and that it did no more than express the conscience of the
legislature--in deference to _PRINCIPLE_, 'which nobody could deny.'

After the lapse of many years--the evil being on the increase--the
legislature stirred again during the reign of George II., and passed
several Acts against gaming. The games of Faro, Basset, Hazard, &c.,
in fact, all games with dice, were proscribed under a penalty of L200
against the provider of the game, and L50 a time for the players.
Roulette or Roly Poly, termed in the Act 'a certain pernicious game,'
was interdicted, under the penalty of five times the value of the thing
or sum lost at it.

Thus stood the statute law against gaming down to the year 1845, when,
in consequence of the report of the select committee which sat on the
subject, a new enactment was promulgated, which is in force at the
present time.

It was admitted that the laws in force against gaming were 'of no avail
to prevent the mischiefs which may happen therefrom;' and the lawgivers
enacted a comprehensive measure on the subject. Much of the old law--for
instance, the prohibition of games which interfered with the practice
of _ARCHERY_--was repealed; also the Acts of Charles II., of Queen Anne,
and a part of that of George II.--Gaming houses, in which a bank is kept
by one or more of the players, or in which the chances of play are not
alike favourable to the players--being declared unlawful, as of old.
Billiards, bagatelle, or 'any game of the kind' (open, of course, to
legal discussion), may be played in private houses, or in licensed
houses; but still, in the case of licensed houses of public resort,
the police may enter at any time to see that the law is complied with.
'Licensed for Billiards' must be legibly printed on some conspicuous
place near the door and outside a licensed house. Billiards and like
games may not be played in public rooms after one, and before eight,
o'clock in the morning of any day, nor on Sundays, Christmas Day, Good
Friday, nor on any public fast or thanksgiving. Publicans whose houses
are licensed for billiards must not allow persons to play at any time
when public-houses are not allowed to be open.

'In order to constitute the house a common gaming house, it is not
necessary to prove that any person found playing at any game was playing
for any money, wager, or stake. The police may enter the house on the
report of a superintendent, and the authority of a commissioner, without
the necessity of an allegation of two householders; and if any cards,
dice, balls, counters, tables, or other instruments of gaming be found
in the house, or about the person of any of those who shall be found
therein, such discovery shall be evidence against the establishment
until the contrary be made to appear. Those who shall appear as
witnesses, moreover, are protected from the consequences of having been
engaged in unlawful gaming.'(151)


(151) Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Art. Gambling.


The penalty of cheating at any game is liability to penal servitude for
three years--the delinquent being proceeded against as one who obtains
money under false pretences. Wagers and bets are not recoverable by law,
whether from the loser or from the wager-holder; and money paid for bets
may be recovered in an action 'for money received to the defendant's
use.' All betting houses are gaming houses within the meaning of
the Act, and the proprietors and managers of them are punishable
accordingly.

The existing law on the gaming of horse-racing is as follows. Bets on
horse-races are illegal; and therefore are not recoverable by law. In
order to prevent the nuisance which betting houses, disguised under
other names, occasioned, a law was passed in 1853, forbidding the
maintenance of any house, room, or other place, for betting; and by the
new Metropolitan Traffic Regulation Act, now in force, any three
persons found betting in the street may be fined five pounds each 'for
obstructing the thoroughfare'--a very odd reason, certainly, since it
is the _BETTING_ that we wish to prevent, as we will not permit it to be
carried on in any house, &c. These _LEGAL_ reasons are too often sadly
out of place. Any constable, however, may, without a warrant, arrest
anybody he may see in the act of betting in the street.

The laws relating to horse-racing have undergone curious revisions and
interpretations. 'The law of George II.'s reign, declaring horse-racing
to be good, as tending to promote the breed of fine horses, exempted
horse-races from the list of unlawful games, provided that the sum
of money run for or the value of the prize should be fifty pounds and
upwards, that certain weights only might be used, and that no owner
should run more than one horse for the same prize, under pain of
forfeiting all horses except the first. Newmarket, and Black Hambledon
in Yorkshire, are the only places licensed for races in this Act, which,
however, was also construed to legalize any race at any place whatever,
so long as the stakes were worth fifty pounds and upwards, and the
weights were of the regulated standard. An Act passed five years
afterwards removed the restrictions as to the weights, and declared that
any one anywhere might start a horse-race with any weights, so long as
the stakes were fifty pounds or more. The provision for the forfeiture
of all horses but one belonging to one owner and running in the same
race was overlooked or forgotten, and owners with perfect impunity
ran their horses, as many as they pleased, in the same race. In 1839,
however, informations were laid against certain owners, whose horses
were claimed as forfeits; and then everybody woke up to the fact that
this curious clause of the Act of George II. was still unrepealed. The
Legislature interfered in behalf of the defendants, and passed an Act,
repealing in their eagerness not merely the penal clauses of the Act,
but the Act itself, so far as it related to horse-racing. Now, it was
supposed that upon the Act of the thirteenth of George II. depended the
whole legality of horse-racing, that the Act of the eighteenth of George
II. was merely explanatory of that statute, which, being repealed,
brought the practice again within the old law, according to which it
was illegal. By a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas it was decided,
however, that the words of the eighteenth of George II. were large
enough to legalize all races anywhere for fifty pounds and upwards, and
that the Act was not merely an explanatory one. Upon this basis rests
the existing law on the subject of horse-racing. Bets, however, as
before stated, on horse-races are still as illegal as they are on any of
the forbidden games--that is to say, they are outside the law; the law
will not lend its assistance to recover them.'(152)


(152) _Ubi Supra_.


The extent to which gambling has been carried on in the street by boys
was shown by the following summary laid before the Committee of the
House of Commons on Gaming, in 1844:--

Boys apprehended for gaming in the streets--

                      Convicted.  Discharged.
   1841....   305....    68....   237
   1842....   245....    66....   179
   1813....   329....   114....   185
              ----      ----      ----
              879       278       601


Only recently has any effectual check been put to this pernicious
practice. It is however enacted by the New Gaming Act, that--'Every
person playing or betting by way of wagering or gaming in any street,
road, highway, or other open and public place to which the public have
or are permitted to have access, at or with any table or instrument of
gaming, or any coin, card, token, or other article used as an instrument
of gaming or means of such wagering or gaming, at any game or pretended
game of chance, shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond within the true
intent and meaning of the recited Act, and as such may be punished under
the provision of that Act.'

On this provision a daily paper justly remarks:--'A statute very much
needed has come into force. Persons playing or betting in the streets
with coins or cards are now made amenable to the 5th George IV., c.
83, and may be committed to gaol as rogues and vagabonds. The statutes
already in force against such rogues and vagabonds subject them, we
believe, not only to imprisonment with hard labour, but also to corporal
punishment. In any case the New Act should, if stringently administered,
speedily put a stop to the too common and quite intolerable nuisance of
young men and boys sprawling about the pavement, or in corners of
the wharves by the waterside, and playing at "pitch-and-toss,"
"shove-halfpenny," "Tommy Dodd," "coddams," and other games of chance.
Who has not seen that terrible etching in Hogarth's "Industry and
Idleness," where the idle apprentice, instead of going devoutly to
church and singing out of the same hymn-book with his master's pretty
daughter, is gambling on a tombstone with a knot of dissolute boys? A
watchful beadle has espied the youthful gamesters, and is preparing
to administer a sounding thwack with a cane on the shoulders of Thomas
Idle. But the race of London beadles is now well-nigh extinct; and the
few that remain dare not use their switches on the small vagabonds, for
fear of being summoned for assault. It is to be hoped that the
police will be instructed to put the Act sharply in force against the
pitch-and-toss players; and, in passing, we might express a wish that
they would also suppress the ragged urchins who turn "cart-wheels" in
the mud, and the half-naked girls who haunt the vicinity of railway
stations and steamboat piers, pestering passengers to buy cigar-lights.'


END OF VOL. I.





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