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+******The Project Gutenberg Etext of Andrew Steinmetz's********
+*********The Gaming Table:  Its Votaries and Victims***********
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+The Gaming Table:  Its Votaries and Victims
+
+by Andrew Steinmetz
+
+March, 1996  [Etext #466]
+
+******The Project Gutenberg Etext of Andrew Steinmetz's********
+*********The Gaming Table:  Its Votaries and Victims***********
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+
+
+THE GAMING TABLE:
+ITS VOTARIES AND VICTIMS,
+
+
+
+
+
+In all Times and Countries, especially in England
+and in France.
+
+
+
+
+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.'
+
+
+
+
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+Under the present Administration, there are:--
+7 Tables of Trente-et-un.
+9 ditto of Roulette.
+1 ditto of Passe-Dix.
+1 Table of Craps.
+1 ditto of Hazard.
+1 ditto of Biribi.
+--
+20
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+
+****End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Andrew Steinmetz's****
+**********The Gaming Table:  Its Votaries and Victims***********
+
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