The Gaming Table, Its Votaries and Victims Volume #2
by
Andrew Steinmetz
Part 1 out of 5
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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. II.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
I. CHEVALIERS D'INDUSTRIE, OR POLITE SHARPERS
II. PROFESSIONAL GAMESTERS AND THEIR FRAUDS
III. ANECDOTES OF THE PASSIONS AND VICISSITUDES OF GAMESTERS
IV. ACTROCITIES, DUELS. SUICIDES, AND EXECUTION OF GAMBLERS
V. ODDITIES AND WITTICISMS OF GAMBLERS
VI. THE GAMING CLUBS
VII. DOINGS IN GAMING HOUSES
VIII. THE DOCTRINE OF PROBABILITIES APPLIED TO GAMBLING
IX. THE HISTORY OF DICE AND CARDS
X. PIQUET, BASSET, FARO, HAZARD, PASSE-DIX, PUT,
CROSS AND PILE, THIMBLE-RIG
XI. COCK-FIGHTING
XII. THE TURF, HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, MORAL
XIII. FORTUNE-TELLING BY CARDS (FOR LADIES)
XIV. AMUSING CARD TRICKS
THE GAMING TABLE.
CHAPTER I.
CHEVALIERS D'INDUSTRIE, OR POLITE SHARPERS.
Chevaliers d'industrie, or polite and accomplished sharpers, have
always existed in every city, from the earliest times to the
present. The ordinary progress of these interesting gentlemen is
as follows. Their debut is often difficult, and many of them are
stopped short in their career. They only succeed by means of
great exertion and severe trials; but they endure everything in
order to be tolerated or permitted to exercise their calling. To
secure credit they ally themselves with men of respectability, or
those who pass for such. When they have no titles they fabricate
them; and few persons dispute their claims. They are found
useful for the pleasures of society, the expenses of which they
often pay--at the cost of the dupes they make in the world. The
income of chevaliers d'industrie is at first derived from those
inexperienced persons whom they get in their clutches by means of
every kind of enticement, in order to ruin them some day--if they
have any 'expectations' or are likely to be rich; or in order to
make accomplices of them if they have only aptitudes for the
purpose. After having led them from error to error, after
suggesting to them all sorts of wants and vices, they make them
gamble, if they are of age; they hold up play to them as an
inexhaustible source of wealth.
The 'protector' next hands over his 'young friends' to
'executioners,' who fleece them for the common benefit of the
confederates. They do not always wait for the coming of age of
their young dupes in order to strike the grand 'stroke.' When
they find that the father of a family shudders at the idea of a
public scandal, they immolate their victim at once--for fear lest
he should escape from their hands. Of course they are always
open to 'capitulate'--to come to terms; and if the aid of the law
is invoked they give in discreetly.
About a century ago there flourished at Paris one of these
adventurers, who made a great noise and did a vast amount of
evil. This man of a thousand faces, this Proteus, as great a
corrupter as he was corrupted, changed his name, his quarters,
and field of operations, according to the exigences of business.
Although a man of ardent temperament and inconceivable activity,
his cold-blooded rascality was never in a hurry. He could wait;
he could bide his time. Taking in, at a glance, all the
requirements of a case, and seeing through all its difficulties,
he worked out his scheme with the utmost patience and consummated
his crime with absolute security.
Sometimes he gave a concert for amateurs, elegant suppers for gay
ladies, and special soirees for the learned and the witty. He
was not particular as to the means of doing business; thus he
trafficked in everything,--for the sale of a living, or the
procuration of a mistress--for he had associates in all ranks,
among all professions of men.
He had twenty Faro tables in operation every night, whilst his
emissaries were on the watch for new arrivals, and for those who
had recently come into property.
In general, rogues soon betray themselves by some stupid bungle;
but such was not the case with this man; he defended himself, as
it were, on all sides, and always kept himself in position so as
to oppose to each of his vices the proof positive of the contrary
virtues. Thus, if accused of usury, he could prove that he had
lent, without interest, considerable sums of money. Cowardly and
base in a tete-a-tete, he was bold and redoubtable in public;
those who had made him tremble in secret were then compelled to
acknowledge him a man of courage. Even his more than suspected
probity was defended by such as believed themselves his
depositaries, whereas they were, in point of fact, only receivers
of stolen property.
Affable, insinuating to a degree, he might be compared to those
brigands of Egypt who embraced their victims in order to strangle
them.[1] He never showed more devotedness than when he meditated
some perfidy, nor more assurance than when convicted of the
rascality. Playing fast and loose with honour and the laws, he
was sure to find, when threatened by the arm of justice, the
female relatives of the judges themselves taking his part and
doing their best to 'get him off.' Such was this extraordinary
chevalier d'industrie, who might have gone on with his diabolical
perpetrations had he not, at last, attempted too much, failing in
the grandest stroke he had ever meditated--and yet a vulgar
fraud--when he was convicted, branded, and sent to the
galleys.[2]
[1] Senec., Epist. Ii.
[2] Dusaulx, De la Passion du Jeu.
The following narrative elucidates a still more modern phase of
this elegant 'industry.' My authority is M. Robert-Houdin.
CAUGHT IN A TRAP.
M. Olivier de ---- was a dissipated young gentleman. His family
was one of the oldest and most respectable of the country, and
deservedly enjoyed the highest consideration. M. Olivier de
----, his father, was not rich, and therefore could not do much
for his son; the consequence was that owing to his outrageous
prodigality the son was sorely pinched for means to keep up his
position; he exhausted his credit, and was soon overwhelmed with
debt. Among the companions of his dissipation was a young man
whose abundant means filled him with admiration and envy; he
lived like a prince and had not a single creditor. One day he
asked his friend to explain the mystery of the fact that, without
possessing any fortune, he could gratify all his tastes and
fancies, whilst he himself, with certain resources, was compelled
to submit to privations, still getting into debt.
Chauvignac--such was the name of the friend thus addressed--was a
card-sharper, and he instantly seized the opportunity to make
something out of the happy disposition of this modern prodigal
son, this scion of gentility. With the utmost frankness he
explained to the young man his wonderful method of keeping his
pockets full of money, and showed that nothing could be easier
than for Olivier to go and do likewise in his terrible
condition;--in short, on one hand there were within his grasp,
riches, pleasure, all manner of enjoyment; on the other, pitiless
creditors, ruin, misery, and contempt. The tempter, moreover,
offered to initiate his listener in his infallible method of
getting rich. In his frame of mind Olivier yielded to the
temptation, with the full determination, if not to get money by
cheating at cards, at any rate to learn the method which might
serve as a means of self-defence should he not think proper to
use it for attack--such was the final argument suggested by the
human Mephistopheles to his pupil.
Taking Olivier to his house, he showed him a pack of cards. 'Now
here is a pack of cards,' he said; 'there seems to be nothing
remarkable about it, does there?' Olivier examined the pack and
declared that the cards did not appear to differ in the least
from all others. 'Well,' said Chauvignac, 'nevertheless they
have been subjected to a preparation called biseautage, or having
one end of the cards made narrower than the other. This
disposition enables us to remove from the pack such and such
cards and then to class them in the necessary order so that they
may get into the hand of the operator.' Chauvignac then
proceeded to apply his precepts by an example, and although the
young man had no particular qualification for the art of
legerdemain, he succeeded at once to admiration in a game at
Ecarte, for he had already mastered the first process of
cheating. Having thus, as he thought, sufficiently compromised
his victim, Chauvignac left him to his temptations, and took
leave of him.
Two days afterwards the professor returned to his pupil and
invited him to accompany him on a pleasure trip. Olivier excused
himself on account of his desperate condition--one of his
creditors being in pursuit of him for a debt of one thousand
francs. 'Is that all?' said Chauvignac; and pulling out his
pocket-book he added,--'Here's a bank-note; you can repay me to-
morrow.' 'Why, man, you are mad!' exclaimed Olivier. 'Be it
so,' said Chauvignac; 'and in my madness I give you credit for
another thousand-franc bank-note to go and get thirty thousand
francs which are waiting for you.' 'Now, do explain yourself,
for you are driving ME mad.' 'Nothing more easy. Here is the
fact,' said Chauvignac. 'M. le Comte de Vandermool, a wealthy
Belgian capitalist, a desperate gamester if ever there was one,
and who can lose a hundred thousand francs without much
inconvenience, is now at Boulogne, where he will remain a week.
This millionnaire must be thinned a little. Nothing is easier.
One of my friends and confreres, named Chaffard, is already with
the count to prepare the way. We have only now to set to work.
You are one of us--that's agreed--and in a few days you will
return, to satisfy your creditors and buy your mistress a shawl.'
'Stop a bit. You are going too fast. Wait a little. I haven't
as yet said Yes,' replied Olivier. 'I don't want your Yes now;
you will say it at Boulogne. For the present go and pay your
bill. We set out in two hours; the post-horses are already
ordered; we shall start from my house: be punctual.'
The party reached Boulogne and put up at the Hotel de l'Univers.
On their arrival they were informed that no time was to be lost,
as the count talked of leaving next day. The two travellers took
a hasty dinner, and at once proceeded to the apartment of the
Belgian millionnaire. Chaffard, who had preceded them,
introduced them as two of his friends, whose property was
situated in the vicinity of Boulogne.
M. le Comte de Vandermool was a man about fifty years of age,
with an open, candid countenance. He wore several foreign
decorations. He received the two gentlemen with charming
affability; he did more; he invited them to spend the evening
with him. Of course the invitation was accepted. When the
conversation began to flag, the count proposed a game--which was
also, of course, very readily agreed to by the three comperes.
While the table was prepared, Chauvignac gave his young friend
two packs of cards, to be substituted for those which should be
furnished by the count. Ecarte was to be the game, and Olivier
was to play, the two other associates having pretended to know
nothing about the game, and saying that they would content
themselves by betting with each other. Of course Olivier was
rather surprised at this declaration, but he soon understood by
certain signs from Chauvignac that this reservation was intended
to do away with the count's suspicions, in case of their success.
The count, enormously rich as he was, would only play for
bank-notes. 'Metal smells bad in a room,' he said. The novice,
at first confused at being a party to the intended roguery,
followed the dictates of his conscience and, neglecting the
advantages of his hands, trusted merely to chance. The result
was that the only thousand-franc bank-note he had was speedily
transferred to the count. At that moment Chauvignac gave him a
significant look, and this, together with the desire to retrieve
his loss, induced him to put into execution the culpable
manoeuvres which his friend had taught him. His work was of the
easiest; the count was so short-sighted that he had to keep his
nose almost upon the cards to see them. Chance now turned, as
might be expected, and thousand-franc bank-notes soon accumulated
in the hands of Olivier, who, intoxicated by this possession,
worked away with incredible ardour. Moreover, the count was not
in the least out of humour at losing so immensely; on the
contrary, he was quite jovial; indeed, from his looks he might
have been supposed to be the winner. At length, however, he said
with a smile, taking a pinch from his golden snuff-box--'I am
evidently not in vein. I have lost eighty thousand francs. I
see that I shall soon be in for one hundred thousand. But it is
proper, my dear sir, that I should say I don't make a habit of
losing more than this sum at a sitting; and if it must be so, I
propose to sup before losing my last twenty thousand francs.
Perhaps this will change my vein. I think you will grant me this
indulgence.' The proposal was agreed to.
Olivier, almost out of his senses at the possession of eighty
thousand francs, could not resist the desire of expressing his
gratitude to Chauvignac, which he did, grasping his hand with
emotion and leading him into a corner of the room.
Alas! the whole thing was only an infamous conspiracy to ruin the
young man. The Belgian capitalist, this count apparently so
respectable, was only an expert card-sharper whom Chauvignac had
brought from Paris to play out the vile tragi-comedy, the
denouement of which would be the ruin of the unfortunate Olivier.
At the moment when the latter left the card-table to go to
Chauvignac, the pretended millionnaire changed the pack of cards
they had been using for two other packs.
Supper went off very pleasantly. They drank very moderately, for
the head had to be kept cool for what had to follow. They soon
sat down again at the card-table. 'Now,' said the Parisian card-
shaper, on resuming his seat, 'I should like to end the matter
quickly: I will stake the twenty thousand francs in a lump.'
Olivier, confident of success after his previous achievement,
readily assented; but, alas, the twenty thousand francs of which
he made sure was won by his adversary.
Forty thousand francs went in like manner. Olivier, breathless,
utterly prostrate, knew not what to do. All his manoeuvres were
practised in vain; he could give himself none but small cards.
His opponent had his hands full of trumps, and HE dealt them to
him! In his despair he consulted Chauvignac by a look, and the
latter made a sign to him to go on. The wretched young man went
on, and lost again. Bewildered, beside himself, he staked
fabulous sums to try and make up for his losses, and very soon
found, in his turn, that he owed his adversary one hundred
thousand francs(L4166)!
At this point the horrible denouement commenced. The pretended
count stopped, and crossing his arms on his breast, said
sternly--'Monsieur Olivier de ----, you must be very rich to
stake so glibly such enormous sums. Of course you know your
fortune and can square yourself with it; but, however rich you
may be, you ought to know that it is not sufficient to lose a
hundred thousand francs, but that you must pay it. Besides, I
have given you the example. Begin, therefore, by putting down
the sum I have won from you; after which we can go on.' . . .
'Nothing can be more proper, sir,' stammered out young Olivier,
'I am ready to satisfy you; but, after all, you know that . . . .
gaming debts . . . . my word . . . .'
'The d--l! sir,' said the pretended count, giving the table a
violent blow with his fist--'Why do you talk to me about your
WORD. Gad! You are well entitled to appeal to the engagements
of honour! Well! We have now to play another game on this
table, and we must speak out plainly. Monsieur Olivier de ----,
you are a rogue . . . Yes, a rogue! The cards we have been
using are biseautees and YOU brought them hither.'
'Sir! . . You insult me!' said Olivier.
'Indeed? Well, sir, that astonishes me!' replied the false
Belgian ironically.
'That is too much, sir. I demand satisfaction, and that on the
very instant. Do you understand me? Let us go out at once.'
'No! no! We must end this quarrel here, sir. Look here--your
two friends shall be your "seconds;" I am now going to send for
MINE.'
The card-sharper, who had risen at these words, rang the bell
violently. His own servant entered. 'Go,' said he, 'to the
Procureur de Roi, and request him to come here on a very
important matter. Be as quick as you can.'
'Oh, sir, be merciful! Don't ruin me!' exclaimed the wretched
Olivier; 'I will do what you like.' At these words, the sharper
told his servant to wait behind the door, and to execute his
order if he should hear nothing to the contrary in ten minutes.
'And now, sir,' continued the sharper, turning to Olivier, 'and
now, sir, for the business between you and me. These cards have
been substituted by you in the place of those which I supplied .
. . You must do them up, write your name upon the cover, and
seal it with the coat of arms on your ring.'
Olivier looked first at Chauvignac and then at Chaffard, but both
the fellows only made signs to him to resign himself to the
circumstances. He did what was ordered.
'That is not all, sir,' added the false Belgian; 'I have fairly
won money from you and have a right to demand a guarantee for
payment. You must draw me short bills for the sum of one hundred
thousand francs.'
As the wretched young man hesitated to comply with this demand,
his pitiless creditor rose to ring the bell.
'Don't ring, sir, don't ring,' said Olivier, 'I'll sign.'
He signed, and the villany was consummated. Olivier returned to
his family and made an humble avowal of his fault and his
engagements. His venerable father received the terrible blow
with resignation, and paid the 100,000 francs, estimating his
honour far above that amount of money.[3]
[3] This narrative is condensed from the account of the affair by
Robert-Hondin, Tricherics des Grecs devoilees.
AN ATTORNEY 'DONE' BY A GAMBLER.
A turfite and gambler, represented under the letters of Mr H--e,
having lost all his money at Doncaster and the following York
Meeting, devised a plan, with his coadjutor, to obtain the means
for their departure from York, which, no doubt, will be
considered exceedingly ingenious.
He had heard of an attorney in the town who was very fond of
Backgammon; and on this simple piece of information an elaborate
plan was concocted. Mr H--e feigned illness, went to bed, and
sent for a large quantity of tartar emetic, which he took. After
he had suffered the operation of the first dose he sent for a
doctor, who pronounced him, of course, very languid and ill; and
not knowing the cause, ordered him more medicine, which the
patient took good care not to allow to stay on his stomach.
On the second day he asked the doctor, with great gravity, if he
considered him in danger, adding, 'because he had never made a
WILL to bequeath his property.' The doctor replied, 'No, not in
absolute danger, but there was no harm in making a WILL.'
The attorney, accordingly, was sent for--of course the very man
wished for--the lover of Backgammon before mentioned. The good
man came; he took the 'instructions,' and drew up the last will
and testament of the ruined turfite, who left (in the will) about
L50,000, which no man ever heard of, living or dead.
The BUSINESS being done, the patient said that if he had a
moment's relaxation he thought he should rally and overcome the
malady. The poor lawyer said if he could in any way contribute
to his comfort he should be happy. The offer was embraced by
observing that if he could sit up in bed--but he was afraid he
was not able--a hit at Backgammon would be a great source of
amusement.
The lawyer, like all adepts in such matters, was only too willing
to catch at the idea; the board was brought.
Of course the man who had L50,000 to leave behind could not be
expected to play 'for love;' and so when Mr H--e proposed 'a
pound a hit or treble a gammon,' the lawyer not only thought it
reasonable, but, conscious of his power in the game, eagerly
accepted the terms of playing. They played; but the lawyer was
gammoned almost incessantly, till he lost L50. Then H--e
proposed 'double or quits to L1000,'--thereupon the poor lawyer,
believing that fortune could not always forsake him, said he had
but L2000 in the world, but that he would set the L1000. He
lost; and became almost frantic. In the midst of his excessive
grief, H--e said, 'You have a HORSE, what is it worth?' L50 was
the answer. 'Well, well, you may win all back now, and I'll set
L50 on your horse.'
They began again. Lost! 'You have a COW in your paddock,
haven't you? What's that worth?' asked Mr H--e. The attorney
said L12. 'Well, I'll set that sum by way of giving you a
chance.' The game proceeded, and the poor lawyer, equally
unfortunate, raved and swore he had lost his last shilling. 'No,
no!' said H--e,' you have not: I saw a HAY-RICK in your ground.
It is of no use now that the horse and cow are gone-- what is
that worth?' L15, replied the attorney, with a sigh. 'I set L15
then,' said H--e.
This seemed to be 'rather too much' for the lawyer. The loss of
the hay-rick--like the last straw laid on the overladen camel's
back--staggered him. Besides, he thought he saw--as doubtless he
did see--H--e twisting his fingers round one of the dice. Up he
started at once, and declared that he was cheated!
Thereupon the sick man forgot his sickness, jumped out of bed,
and gave the lawyer a regular drubbing, got the cheque for the
L2000,--but the horse, cow, and hay he said he would leave 'until
further orders.'
A VERY CURIOUS STORY.
An Archbishop of Canterbury was once on a tour, when a genteel
man, apparently in earnest conversation, though alone in a wood,
attracted his notice. His Grace made up to him, and, after a
little previous conversation, asked him what he was about.
Stranger. 'I am at play.'
Archbishop. 'At play? With whom? I see nobody.'
Sir. 'I own, sir, my antagonist is not visible: I am playing
with God.'
Abp. 'At what game, pray, sir?'
Str. 'At Chess.'
Abp. 'Do you play for anything?'
Str. 'Certainly.'
Abp. 'You cannot have any chance, as your adversary must be so
superior to you.'
Str. 'He takes no advantage, but plays merely as a man.'
Abp. 'When you win or lose, how do you settle accounts?'
Str. 'Very exactly and punctually.'
Abp. 'Indeed! Pray, how stands your game now?'
Str. 'There! I have just lost!'
Abp. 'How much have you lost?'
Str. 'Fifty guineas.'
Abp. 'How do you manage to pay it? Does God take your money?'
Str. 'No! The poor are his treasurers. He always sends some
worthy person to receive it, and you are at present his
purse-bearer.'
Saying this, the stranger put fifty guineas into his Grace's
hand, and retired, adding--'I shall play no more to-day.'
The prelate was delighted; though he could not tell what to make
of this extraordinary man. The guineas were all good; and the
archbishop applied them to the use of the poor, as he had been
directed.
The archbishop, on his return, stopped at the same town, and
could not help going in search of the chess-player, whom he found
engaged as before, when the following dialogue ensued:--
Abp. 'How has the chance stood since we met before?'
Str. 'Sometimes for me--sometimes against me. I have lost and
won.'
Abp. 'Are you at play now?'
Str. 'Yes, sir. We have played several games to-day.'
Abp. 'Who wins?'
Str. 'The advantage is on my side. The game is just over. I
have a fine stroke--check-mate-- there it is.'
Abp. 'How much have you won?'
Str. 'Five hundred guineas.'
Abp. 'That is a large sum. How are you to he paid?'
Str. 'God always sends some good rich man when I win, and YOU
are the person. He is remarkably punctual on these occasions.'
The archbishop had received a considerable sum on that day, as
the stranger knew; and so, producing a pistol by way of receipt,
he compelled the delivery of it. His Grace now discovered that
he had been the dupe of a thief; and though he had greatly
bruited his first adventure, he prudently kept his own counsel in
regard to the last.
Such is the tale. Se non e vero e ben trovato.
SKITTLE SHARPERS.
'I know a respectable tradesman,' says a writer in Cassell's
Magazine--'I know him now, for he lives in the house he occupied
at the time of my tale--who was sent for to see a French
gentleman at a tavern, on business connected with the removal of
this gentleman's property from one of the London docks. The
business, as explained by the messenger, promising to be
profitable, he of course promptly obeyed the summons, and during
his walk found that his conductor had once been in service in
France. This delighted Mr Chase--the name by which I signify the
tradesman--for he, too, had once so lived in France; and by the
time he reached the tavern he had talked himself into a very good
opinion of his new patron. The French gentleman was very urbane,
gave Mr Chase his instructions, let him understand expense was
not to be studied, and, as he was at lunch, would not be
satisfied unless the tradesman sat down with him. This was a
great honour for the latter, as he found his employer was a
baron. Well, the foreigner was disposed to praise everything
English; he was glad he had come to live in London--Paris was
nothing to it; they had nothing in France like the English beer,
with which, in the exuberance of his hospitality, he filled and
refilled Mr Chase's glass; but that which delighted him above all
that he had seen "vos de leetle game vid de ball--vot you call--
de--de--aha! de skittel." Mr Chase assented that it was a very
nice game certainly; and the French gentleman seeming by this
time to have had quite enough beer, insisted, before they went to
the docks--which was essential--that they should see just one
game played.
'As he insisted on paying Mr Chase for all the time consumed with
him, and as his servant, of course, could not object, the party
adjourned to the "Select Subscription Ground" at once. In the
ground there was a quiet, insignificant-looking little man,
smoking a cigar; and as they were so few, he was asked to assist,
which, after considerable hesitation and many apologies for his
bad play, he did. The end is of course guessed. The French
gentleman was a foolish victim, with more money than wits, who
backed himself to do almost impossible feats, when it was evident
he could not play at all, and laid sovereigns against the best
player, who was the little stranger, doing the easiest. What
with the excitement, and what with the beer, which was probably
spiced with some unknown relish a little stronger than nutmeg, Mr
Chase could not help joining in winning the foreign gentleman's
money; it seemed no harm, he had so much of it.
'By a strange concurrence of events, it so happened that by
random throws the Frenchman sometimes knocked all the pins down
at a single swoop, though he clearly could not play--Mr Chase was
sure of that--while the skilful player made every now and then
one of the blunders to which the best players are liable. That
the tradesman lost forty sovereigns will be easily understood;
and did his tale end here it would have differed so little from a
hundred others as scarcely to deserve telling; but it will
surprise many, as it did me, to learn that he then walked to and
from his own house--a distance of precisely a mile each
way--fetched a bill for thirty pounds, which a customer had
recently paid him, got it discounted, went back to the skittle-
ground, and, under the same malignant star, lost the whole.
'It was the only case in my experience of the work going on
smoothly after such a break. I never could account for it, nor
could Mr Chase. Great was the latter's disgust, on setting the
police to work, to find that the French nobleman, his servant,
and the quiet stranger, were all dwellers within half a mile or
so of his own house, and slightly known to him--men who had
trusted, and very successfully, to great audacity and well-
arranged disguise.'
A vast deal of gambling still goes on with skittles all over the
country. At a place not ten miles from London, I am told that as
much as two thousand pounds has been seen upon the table in a
single 'alley,' or place of play. The bets were, accordingly,
very high. The instances revealed by exposure at the police-
courts give but a faint idea of the extent of skittle sharping.
Amidst such abuses of the game, it can scarcely surprise us that
the police have been recently directed to prohibit all playing at
skittles and bowls. However much we may regret the interference
with popular pastimes, in themselves unobjectionable, it is
evident that their flagrant abuse warrants the most stringent
measures in order to prevent their constantly repeated and dismal
consequences. Even where money was not played for, pots of beer
were the wager--leading, in many instances, to intoxication, or
promoting this habit, which is the cause of so much misery among
the lower orders.
CHAPTER II.
PROFESSIONAL GAMESTERS AND THEIR FRAUDS.
A gambling house at the end of the last century was conducted by
the following officials:--
1. A Commissioner,--who was always a proprietor; who looked in
of a night, and audited the week's account with two other
proprietors.
2. A Director,--who superintended the room.
3. An Operator,--who dealt the cards at the cheating game called
Faro.
4. Two Croupiers, or crow-pees, as they were vulgarly called,
whose duty it was to watch the cards and gather or rake in the
money for the bank.
5. Two Puffs,--who had money given to them to decoy others to
play.
6. A Clerk,--who was a check on the Puffs, to see that they sank
none of the money given to them to play with.
7. A Squib,--who was a puff of a lower rank, serving at half
salary, whilst learning to deal.
8. A Flasher,--to swear how often the bank had been stripped by
lucky players.
9. A Dunner,--who went about to recover money lost at play.
10. A Waiter,--to fill out wine, snuff candles, and attend the
room.
11. An Attorney,--who was generally a Newgate solicitor.
12. A Captain,--who was to fight any gentleman who might be
peevish at losing his money.
13. An Usher,--who lighted the gentlemen up and down stairs, and
gave the word to the porter.
14. A Porter,--who was generally a soldier of the Foot Guards.
15. An Orderly-man,--who walked up and down the outside of the
door, to give notice to the porter, and alarm the house at the
approach of the constables.
16. A Runner,--who was to get intelligence of the Justices'
meetings.
17. Link Boys, Coachmen, Chairmen, Drawers, and others, who
brought the first intelligence of Justices' meetings, of
constables going out, at half a guinea reward.
18. Common Bail, Affidavit Men, Ruffians, Bravos, Assassins, &c.
&c.
It may be proper to remark that the above list of officials was
only calculated for gambling houses of an inferior order. In
these it is evident that the fear of interruption and the
necessity for precaution presided over the arrangements. There
were others, however, which seemed to defy law, to spurn at
justice, and to remain secure, in every way, by the
'respectability' of their frequenters. These were houses
supported at an amazing expense--within sight of the palace--
which were open every night and all night--where men of the first
rank were to be found gambling away immense sums of money, such
as no man, whatever his fortune might be, could sustain. 'What,
then,' says a writer at the time, 'are the consequences? Why,
that the UNDONE part of them sell their VOTES for bread, and the
successful give them for honours.
'He who has never seen the gamblers' apartments in some of the
magnificent houses in the neighbourhood of St James's, has never
seen the most horrid sight that the imagination of a thinking man
can conceive.
'A new pack of cards is called for at every deal, and the "old"
ones are then thrown upon the floor, and in such an immense
quantity, that the writer of this letter has seen a very large
room nearly ANKLE-DEEP, in the greatest part of it, by four
o'clock in the morning! Judge, then, to what height they must
have risen by daylight.'
It is a melancholy truth, but confirmed by the history of all
nations, that the most polite and refined age of a kingdom is
never the most virtuous; not, indeed, that any such compliment
can be paid to that gross age, but still it was refined compared
with the past. The distinctions of personal merit being but
little regarded--in the low moral tone that prevailed--there
needed but to support a certain 'figure' in life (managed by the
fashionable tailor)[4], to be conversant with a few etiquettes of
good breeding and sentiments of modern or current honour, in
order to be received with affability and courteous attention in
the highest circles. The vilest sharper, having once gained
admission, was sure of constant entertainment, for nothing formed
a greater cement of union than the spirit of HIGH GAMING. There
being so little cognizance taken of the good qualities of the
heart in fashionable assemblies, no wonder that amid the medley
of characters to be found in these places the 'sharper' of polite
address should gain too easy an admission.
[4] 'How shalt THOU to Caesar's hall repair?
For, ah! no DAMAGED coat can enter there!'
BEATTIE'S Minstrel.
This fraternity of artists--whether they were to be denominated
rooks,[5] sharps, sharpers, black-legs, Greeks, or gripes--were
exceedingly numerous, and were dispersed among all ranks of
society.
[5] So called because rooks are famous for stealing materials out
of other birds' nests to build their own.
The follies and vices of others--of open-hearted youth in
particular--were the great game or pursuit of this odious crew.
Though cool and dispassionate themselves, they did all in their
power to throw others off their guard, that they might make their
advantage of them.
In others they promoted excess of all kinds, whilst they
themselves took care to maintain the utmost sobriety and
temperance. 'Gamesters,' says Falconer, 'whose minds must be
always on the watch to take advantages, and prepared to form
calculations, and to employ the memory, constantly avoid a full
meal of animal food, which they find incapacitates them for play
nearly as much as a quantity of strong liquor would have done,
for which reason they feed chiefly on milk and vegetables.'
As profit, not pleasure, was the aim of these knights of
darkness, they lay concealed under all shapes and disguises, and
followed up their game with all wariness and discretion. Like
wise traders, they made it the business of their lives to excel
in their calling.
For this end they studied the secret mysteries of their art by
night and by day; they improved on the scientific schemes of
their profound master, Hoyle, and on his deep doctrines and
calculations of chances. They became skilful without a rival
where skill was necessary, and fraudulent without conscience
where fraud was safe and advantageous; and while fortune or
chance appeared to direct everything, they practised numberless
devices by which they insured her ultimate favours to themselves.
Of these none were more efficacious, because none are more
ensnaring, than bribing their young and artless dupes to future
play by suffering them to win at their first onsets. By rising a
winner the dupe imbibed a confidence in his own gambling
abilities, or deemed himself a favourite of fortune. He engaged
again, and was again successful--which increased his exultation
and confirmed his future confidence; and thus did the simple
gudgeon swallow their bait, till it became at last fast hooked.
When rendered thus secure of their prey, they began to level
their whole train of artillery against the boasted honours of his
short-lived triumph. Then the extensive manors, the ancient
forests, the paternal mansions, began to tremble for their future
destiny. The pigeon was marked down, and the infernal crew began
in good earnest to pluck his rich plumage. The wink was given on
his appearance in the room, as a signal of commencing their
covert attacks. The shrug, the nod, the hem--every motion of the
eyes, hands, feet--every air and gesture, look and word--became
an expressive, though disguised, language of fraud and cozenage,
big with deceit and swollen with ruin. Besides this, the card
was marked, or 'slipped,' or COVERED. The story is told of a
noted sharper of distinction, a foreigner, whose hand was thrust
through with a fork by his adversary, Captain Roche, and thus
nailed to the table, with this cool expression of concern-- 'I
ask your pardon, sir, if you have not the knave of clubs under
your hand.' The cards were packed, or cut, or even SWALLOWED. A
card has been eaten between two slices of bread and butter, for
the purpose of concealment.
With wily craft the sharpers substituted their deceitful
'doctors' or false dice; and thus 'crabs,' or 'a losing game,'
became the portion of the 'flats,' or dupes.
There were different ways of throwing dice. There was the
'Stamp'--when the caster with an elastic spring of the wrist
rapped the cornet or box with vehemence on the table, the dice as
yet not appearing from under the box. The 'Dribble' was, when
with an air of easy but ingenious motion, the caster poured, as
it were, the dice on the board--when, if he happened to be an old
practitioner, he might suddenly cog with his fore-finger one of
the cubes. The 'Long Gallery' was when the dice were flung or
hurled the whole length of the board. Sometimes the dice were
thrown off the table, near a confederate, who, in picking them
up, changed one of the fair for a false die with two sixes. This
was generally done at the first throw, and at the last, when the
fair die was replaced. The sixes were on the opposite squares,
so that the fraud could only be detected by examination. Of
course this trick could only be practised at raffles, where only
three throws are required.
A pair of false dice was arranged as follows:--
{Two fours
On one die, {Two fives
{Two sixes
{Two fives
On the other, {Two threes
{Two aces
With these dice it was impossible to throw what is at Hazard
denominated Crabs, or a losing game--that is, aces, or ace and
deuce, twelve, or seven. Hence, the caster always called for his
main; consequently, as he could neither throw one nor seven, let
his chance be what it might, he was sure to win, and he and those
who were in the secret of course always took the odds. The false
dice being concealed in the left hand, the caster took the box
with the fair dice in it in his right hand, and in the act of
shaking it caught the fair dice in his hand, and unperceived
shifted the box empty to his left, from which he dropped the
false dice into the box, which he began to rattle, called his
main seven, and threw. Having won his stake he repeated it as
often as he thought proper. He then caught the false dice in the
same way, shifted the empty box again, and threw till he threw
out, still calling the same main, by which artifice he escaped
suspicion.
Two gambling adventurers would set out with a certain number of
signs and signals. The use of the handkerchief during the game
was the certain evidence of a good hand. The use of the snuff-
box a sign equally indicative of a bad one. An affected cough,
apparently as a natural one, once, twice, three, or four times
repeated, was an assurance of so many honours in hand. Rubbing
the left eye was an invitation to lead trumps,--the right eye the
reverse,--the cards thrown down with one finger and the thumb was
a sign of one trump; two fingers and the thumb, two trumps, and
so on progressively, and in exact explanation of the whole hand,
with a variety of manoeuvres by which chance was reduced to
certainty, and certainty followed by ruin.[6]
[6] Bon Ton Magazine, 1791.
CHEATING AT WHIST.
In an old work on cards the following curious disclosures are
made respecting cheating at whist:--
'He that can by craft overlook his adversary's game hath a great
advantage; for by that means he may partly know what to play
securely; or if he can have some petty glimpse of his partner's
hand. There is a way by making some sign by the fingers, to
discover to their partners what honours they have, or by the wink
of one eye it signifies one honour, shutting both eyes two,
placing three fingers or four on the table, three or four
honours. FOR WHICH REASON ALL NICE GAMSTERS PLAY BEHIND
CURTAINS.
'Dealing the cards out by one and one to each person is the best
method of putting it out of the dealer's power to impose on you.
But I shall demonstrate that, deal the cards which way you will,
a confederacy of two sharpers will beat any two persons in the
world, though ever so good players, that are not of the gang, or
in the secret, and "THREE poll ONE" is as safe and secure as if
the money was in their pockets. All which will appear presently.
The first necessary instructions to be observed at Whist, as
principals of the secret, which may be likewise transferred to
most other games at cards, are:--
Brief or short cards,
Corner-bend,
Middle-bend (or Kingston-bridge).
'Of brief cards there are two sorts: one is a card longer than
the rest,--the other is a card broader than the rest. The long
sort are such as three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine;
the broad sort are such as aces, kings, queens, and knaves. The
use and advantage of each are as follows:--
'Example:--When you cut the cards to your adversary, cut them
long, or endways, and he will have a three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, or nine at bottom. When your adversary cuts the
cards to you, put them broadside to him, and he will naturally
cut (without ever suspecting what you do) ace, king, queen, or
knave, &c., which is sufficient advantage to secure any game.
'And in case you cannot get cards of proper sizes ready-made to
mix with others, you may shave them with a razor or penknife from
the threes to the nines each side, and from the aces to the
knaves each end; then put them up in the same case or cover, and
if they are done as they ought to be, they will pass upon
anybody.
'As Whist is a tavern-game, the sharpers generally take care to
put about the bottle before the game begins, so quick, that a
BUBBLE cannot be said to see clearly even when he begins to play.
'The next is the corner-bend, which is four cards turned down
finely at one corner--a signal to cut by.
'The other is vulgarly called Kingston-bridge, or the middle-
bend. It is done by bending your own or adversary's TRICKS two
different ways, which will cause an opening, or arch, in the
middle, which is of the same use and service as the other two
ways, and only practised in its turn to amuse you.
'The next thing to be considered is, who deals the cards, you or
your adversary; because that is a main point, and from whence
your advantage must arise. Suppose, for example,
{Sharpers,
A and B {
{Partners,
{Bubbles, or Flats,
C and D {
{ Partners.
After a deal or two is formally played, A and B will begin to
operate in the following manner:--
'When A or B is to deal, they observe the PRECEDING DEAL to take
up the tricks thus:--
1. A bad card. 2. A good card.
3. A bad card. 4. A good card.
(Meaning the best and worst that fall in that list).
'When C or D deals, they must be taken up thus:--
1. A good card. 2. A bad card.
3. A good card. 4. A bad card.
'By this rule it is plain that the best cards fall to A and B
every deal. How is it possible, therefore, that C and D should
ever win a game without permission? But it would be deemed ill
policy, and contrary to the true interest of A and B, to act thus
every deal. I will, therefore, suppose it is practised just when
they please, according as bets happen in company; though the rule
with gamesters, in low life, is at the first setting out to
stupify you with wine and the loss of your money, that you may
never come to a perfect understanding of what you are doing. It
may be truly said that many an honest gentleman has been kept a
month in such a condition by the management and contrivance of a
set of sharpers.
'Now you may imagine it not in the power of A and B to cause the
tricks to be taken up after the manner aforesaid: there is
nothing so easy nor so frequently practised, especially at Three
poll One; for in playing the cards the confederates will not only
take care of their own tricks, but also of yours, for the cards
may be so played, and shoved together in such a manner, as will
even cause you to take them right yourself; and if a trick should
lie untowardly on the table, A or B will pay you the compliment
of taking it up for you, and say--"Sir, that's yours." This
operation will the more readily be apprehended by seeing it
practised half a score times; when once you are aware of it, it
will otherwise (I may say fairly) pass upon any person that has
not been let into the secret. This being allowed, the next point
and difficulty is to shuffle and cut.
'I say, that either A or B are such curious workmen, and can make
a sham shuffle with a pack of cards so artfully, that you would
believe they were splitting them, when at the time they will not
displace a single card from its order! Such is the SHARPER'S
shuffling.
'Now, to cut the cards, a BEND is prepared for you to cut to--
the middle is the best; and it is odds but you unwarily cut to
it; if not, SLIP is the word; but if you have no opportunity to
do that neither, then deal away at all hazards, it is but an
equal bet that they come in your favour; if right, proceed; if
otherwise, miss a card in its course, and it brings the cards
according to your first design; it is but giving two at last
where you missed; and if that cannot be conveniently done, you
only lose the deal, and there is an end of it.
'But when A or B is to cut, they make it all safe; for then they
make the CORNER-BEND, which any one that knows may cut to, a
hundred times together.
'Piping at Whist. By piping I mean, when one of the company that
does not play, which frequently happens, sits down in a
convenient place to smoke a pipe, and so look on, pretending to
amuse himself that way. Now, the disposing of his fingers on the
pipe whilst smoking discovers the principal cards that are in the
person's hand he overlooks; which was always esteemed a
sufficient advantage whereby to win a game. There is another
method, namely, by uttering words. "Indeed" signifies diamonds;
"truly," hearts; "upon my word," clubs; "I assure you," spades.
But as soon as these methods become known, new ones are invented;
and it is most curious that two persons may discover to each
other what sort of cards they have in hand, and which ought first
to be played, many different ways, without speaking a word.'
There can be no doubt that the act of sorting the cards is
capable of giving an acute observer a tolerably accurate idea of
his partner's or either of his opponents' hands; so that where
cheating is suspected it would be better to play the cards
without sorting them. The number of times a sorter carries a
card to a particular part indicates so many of a suit; your own
hand and his play will readily indicate the nature of the cards
in which he is either strong or weak.
I now quote Robert-Houdin's account of
CARD TELEGRAPHY.
Although there are 32 cards in the game of Piquet, all of them
may be designated by twelve different signs, namely, eight for
the nature of the cards, and four for the colours.
At Ecarte, the number of the signals is still less, as it is only
the figures that require indication: but to make these
indications it is necessary to execute a sort of pantomime,
according to certain authors, such as blowing the nose, coughing,
drumming on the table, sneezing, &c. Such evolutions, however,
are totally unworthy of your modern Greek, and would soon be
denounced as gross fraud. The signals which he employs are only
appreciable by his confederate,--as follows:--
If he looks
1. At his confederate, he designates A king.
2. At the play of his adversary . . . A queen.
3. At the stake . . . . . . . . . . . A knave.
4. At the opposite side . . . . . . . An ace.
And whilst he indicates the nature of the cards he at the same
time makes known the colour by the following signs:--
1. The mouth slightly open . . . . . Hearts.
2. The mouth shut . . . . . . . . . . Diamonds.
3. The upper-lip slightly pouting
over the lower . . . . . . . Clubs.
4. The lower-lip drawn over the
upper . . . . . . . . . . . Spades.
Thus, if the Greek wishes to announce, for instance, the knave
and ace of hearts, he successively directs his looks upon the
play of his adversary, upon the stake, and to the opposite side,
whilst keeping his mouth slightly open.
It is evident that this telegraphy may be employed at all games
where there is a gallery. In effect, nothing is easier at Piquet
than to indicate, by the aid of these signals, the colour in
which the player should discard and that in which he should keep
what cards he has.
These are the simplest signs; but some of the Greeks have a great
number of them, to designate everything; and even sometimes to
communicate and receive intelligence, when necessary. This
telegraphy is so imperceptible that it is difficult to describe
it, and altogether impossible to detect it.[7]
[7] Tricheries des Grecs devoilees.
Robert-Houdin has exhausted the subject of card-trickery, in
connection with that prestidigitation which, it seems, all card-
sharpers cultivate, the description of which, however, is by no
means so entertaining as the visible performance. I find,
nevertheless, in his book, under the title of 'Small Trickeries
made innocent by Custom,' certain things alluded to which I can
attest by experience.
I. At Whist, no communication whatever must be made by a player
to his partner, excepting those authorized by the laws of the
game; but some persons go further, and by the play of their
features 'telegraph' to their partners the value of their hands.
II. Any one with a good memory and endowed with quick perception
may form a very accurate estimate of the hands held by all the
players by remembering THE TRICKS AS THEY ARE PLAYED AND TURNED
DOWN--all of a suit, or trumped. Cards 'stick together' most
lovingly, and the ordinary shuffling scarcely alters their
sequence; and so, if a trick has been taken by an ace over a
king, for instance, and in the next deal you get the same king,
you may be sure that the ace is either on your right or your
left, according to the deal; of course, if you get the ace, then
the same probability, or rather necessity, exists as to the king;
and so on. Knave, queen, king, ace, of the same name, are almost
sure to be separated in the deal between the four players, or one
player will have two of them. The observation is a tax upon the
faculties; but I am sure, quite sure, that the thing can be done,
and is, when done, of material service; although, of course, the
knowledge can be turned to account only by an expert player, with
a partner who can understand the game which he wishes to play.
Whist is, decidedly, one of the fairest of games; but for that
very reason, it is open to the greatest over-reaching, or, if you
like, cheating.
With regard to dice, of course, they were and, doubtless, are
still loaded. Such were formerly called 'dispatches,' because
they would 'in five minutes dispatch L500 out of the pocket of
any young man when intoxicated with champagne.'
Roulette and Rouge et Noir tables were and are so arranged as
always to make the bank win at the will of the attendant,
regulating them with a touch.
At Hazard, they used 'low or high dice,' that is, with only
certain numbers on them, high or low,--a pair of which every
sharper always had in his possession, changing them with great
dexterity. They also used 'cramped' boxes, by which they
'cogged' or fastened the dice in the box as they dropped them IN,
and so could drop them OUT with the required face upwards.
CHAPTER III.
ANECDOTES OF THE PASSIONS AND VICISSITUDES OF GAMESTERS.
Although all the motives of human action have long been known--
although psychology, or the science of soul and sentiment, has
ceased to present us with any new facts--it is quite certain that
our edifice of Morals is not quite built up. We may rest assured
that as long as intellectual man exists the problem will be
considered unsolved, and the question will be agitated. Future
generations will destroy what we establish, and will fashion a
something according to their advancement, and so on; for if there
be a term which, of all others, should be expunged from the
dictionaries of all human beings, it seems to be Lord Russell's
word FINALITY. Something NEW will always be wanted. 'Sensation'
is the very life of humanity; it is motion--the reverse of
'death'--which we all abhor.
The gamester lives only for the 'sensation' of gaming. Menage
tells us of a gamester who declared that he had never seen any
luminary above the horizon but the moon. Saint Evremond, writing
to the Count de Grammont, says--'You play from morning to night,
or rather from night to morning. All the rays of the gamester's
existence terminate in play; it is on this centre that his very
existence depends. He enjoys not an hour of calm or serenity.
During the day he longs for night, and during the night he dreads
the return of day.'
Being always pre-occupied, gamesters are subject to a ridiculous
absence of mind. Tacitus tells us that the Emperor Vitellius was
so torpid that he would have forgotten he was a prince unless
people had reminded him of it from time to time.[8] Many
gamesters have forgotten that they were husbands and fathers.
During play some one said that the government were about to levy
a tax on bachelors. 'Then I shall be ruined!' exclaimed one of
the players absorbed in the game. 'Why, man, you have a wife and
five children,' said the speaker.
[8] Tanta torpedo invaserat animum Vitellii, ut si principem eum
fuisse non meminissent, ipse oblivisceretur. Hist., lib. iii.
This infatuation may be simply ridiculous; but it has also a
horrible aspect. A distracted wife has rushed to the gaming
table, imploring her husband, who had for two entire days been
engaged at play, to return to his home.
'Only let me stay one moment longer--only one moment. . . . . I
shall return perhaps the day after to-morrow,' he stammered out
to the wretched woman, who retired. Alas! he returned sooner
than he had promised. His wife was in bed, holding the last of
her children to her breast.
'Get up, madam,' said the ruined gambler, 'the bed on which you
lie belongs to us no longer!' . . .
When the gamester is fortunate, he enjoys his success elsewhere;
to his home he brings only consternation.
A wife had received the most solemn promise from her husband that
he would gamble no more. One night, however, he slunk out of
bed, rushed to the gaming table, and lost all the money he had
with him. He tried to borrow more, but was refused. He went
home. His wife had taken the precaution to lock the drawer that
contained their last money. Vain obstacle! The madman broke it
open, carried off two thousand crowns--to take his revenge, as he
said, but in reality to lose the whole as before.
But it is to the gaming room that we must go to behold the
progress of the terrible drama--the ebb and flow of opposite
movements--the shocks of alternate hope and fear, infinitely
varied in the countenance, not only of the actors, but also of
the spectators. What is visible, however, is nothing in
comparison to the secret agony. It is in his heart that the
tempest roars most fiercely.
Two players once exhibited their rage, the one by a mournful
silence, the other by repeated imprecations. The latter, shocked
at the sang-froid of his neighbour, reproached him for enduring,
without complaint, such losses one after the other. 'Look here!'
said the other, uncovering his breast and displaying it all
bloody with lacerations.
It is only at play that we can observe, from moment to moment,
all the phases of despair; from time to time there occur new
ones--strange, eccentric, or terrible. After having lost
quietly, and even with serenity, half his fortune, the father of
a family staked the remainder, and lost it without a murmur.
Facere solent extrema securos mala.[9] The bystanders looked at
him; his features changed not; only it was perceived that they
were fixed. It seemed that he was unconscious of life. Two
streams of tears trickled from his eyes, and yet his features
remained the same. He was literally a weeping statue. The
spectators were seized with fright, and, although gamesters, they
melted into pity.
[9] 'Great calamities render us CARELESS.'
At Bayonne, in 1725, a French officer, in a rage at billiards,
jammed a billiard-ball in his mouth, where it stuck fast,
arresting respiration, until it was, with difficulty, extracted
by a surgeon. Dusaulx states that he was told the fact by a
lieutenant-general, who was an eye-witness.
It is well known that gamblers, like dogs that bite a stone flung
at them, have eaten up the cards, crushed up the dice, broken the
tables, damaged the furniture, and finally 'pitched into' each
other--as described by Lucian in his Saturnalia. Dusaulx assures
us that he saw an enraged gambler put a burning candle into his
mouth, chew it, and swallow it. A mad player at Naples bit the
table with such violence that his teeth went deep into the wood;
thus he remained, as it were, nailed to it, and suddenly expired.
The other players took to flight; the officers of justice visited
the place; and the corpse was deprived of the usual ceremony of
burial.[10]
[10] Gazette de Deux-Ponts, du 26 Novembre, 1772.
The following strange but apparently authentic fact, is related
in the Mercure Francois (Tome I. Annee 1610).
'A man named Pennichon, being a prisoner in the Conciergerie
during the month of September, 1610, died there of a wonderfully
sudden death. He could not refrain from play. Having one day
lost his money, he uttered frightful imprecations against his
body and against his soul, swearing that he would never play at
cards again. Nevertheless, a few days after, he began to play
again with those in his apartment, and on a dispute respecting
discarding, he repeated his execrable oaths. And when one of the
company told him he should fear the Divine justice, he only swore
the more, and made such confusion that there had to be another
deal. But as soon as three other cards were given him, he placed
them in his hat, which he held before him, and whilst looking at
them, with his elbows on the table and his face in the hat, he so
suddenly expired that one of the party said--"Come, now play,"
and pushed him with his elbow, thinking he was asleep, when he
fell down dead upon the floor.'
In some cases the effect of losses at play is simply
stupefaction. Some players, at the end of the sitting, neither
know what they do nor what they say. M. de Crequi, afterwards
Duc de Lesdiguieres, leaving a gambling party with Henry IV.,
after losing a large sum, met M. de Guise in the court-yard of
the castle. 'My friend,' said he to the latter, 'where are the
quarters of the Guards now-a-days?' M. de Guise stepped back,
saying, 'Excuse me, sir, I don't belong to this country,' and
immediately went to the king, whom he greatly amused with the
anecdote.
A dissipated buck, who had been sitting all night at Hazard, went
to a church, not far from St James's, just before the second
reading of the Lord's Prayer, on Sunday. He was scarcely seated
before he dozed, and the clerk in a short time bawled out AMEN,
which he pronounced A--main. The buck jumped up half asleep and
roared out, 'I'll bet the caster 20 guineas!' The congregation
was thrown into a titter, and the buck ran out, overwhelmed with
shame. A similar anecdote is told of another 'dissipated buck'
in a church. The grand masquerade given on the opening of the
Union Club House, in Pall Mall, was not entirely over till a late
hour on the following Sunday. A young man nearly
intoxicated--certainly not knowing what he was about-- reeled
into St. James's church, in his masquerade dress, with his hat
on. The late Rev. Thomas Bracken, attracted by the noise of his
entrance, looked directly at him as he chanced to deliver the
following words:--'Friend! how camest thou in hither, not having
on a wedding garment?' It seemed so to strike the culprit that
he instantly took off his hat and withdrew in confusion.
At play, a winner redoubles his caution and sang-froid just in
proportion as his adversary gets bewildered by his losses,
becoming desperate; he takes advantage of the weakness of the
latter, giving him the law, and striving for greater success.
When the luck changes, however, the case is reversed, and the
former loser becomes, in his turn, ten times more pitiless--like
that Roman prefect, mentioned by Tacitus, who was the more
inexorable because he had been harshly treated in his youth, co
immmitior quia toleraverat. The joy at winning back his money
only makes a gamester the more covetous of winning that of his
adversary. A wealthy man once lost 100,000 crowns, and begged to
be allowed to go and sell his property, which was worth double
the amount he had lost. 'Why sell it?' said his adversary; 'let
us play for the remainder.' They played; luck changed; and the
late LOSER ruined the other.
Sometimes avidity makes terrible mistakes; many, in order to win
more, have lost their all to persons who had not a shilling to
lose. During the depth of a severe winter, a gamester beheld
with terror the bottom of his purse. Unable to resolve on
quitting the gaming table--for players in that condition are
always the most stubborn--he shouted to his valet--'Go and fetch
my great sack.' These words, uttered without design, stimulated
the cupidity of those who no longer cared to play with him, and
now they were eager for it. His luck changed, and he won thrice
as much as he had lost. Then his 'great sack' was brought to
him: it was a BEAR-SKIN SACK he used as a cloak!
In the madness of gaming the player stakes everything after
losing his money--his watch, his rings, his clothing; and some
have staked their EARS, and others their very LIVES-- instances
of all which will be related in the sequel.
Not very long ago a publican, who lost all his money, staked his
public-house, lost it, and had to 'clear out.' The man who won
it is alive and flourishing.
'The debt of honour must be paid: 'these are the terrible words
that haunt the gamester as he wakes (if he has slept) on the
morning after the night of horrors: these are the furies that
take him in hand, and drag him to torture, laughing the while. .
. .
What a 'sensation' it must be to lose one's ALL! A man,
intoxicated with his gains, left one gaming house and entered
another. As soon as he entered he exclaimed, 'Well, I am filled,
my pockets are full of gold, and here goes, ODDS OR EVEN?'
'Odds,' cried a player. It was ODDS, and the fortunate winner
pocketed the enormous sum just boasted of by the other.
On the other hand, sudden prosperity has deranged more heads and
killed more people than reverses and grief; either because it
takes a longer time to get convinced of utter ruin than great
good fortune, or because the instinct of self- preservation
compels us to seek, in adversity, for resources to mitigate
despair; whereas, in the assault of excessive joy, the soul's
spring is distended and broken when it is suddenly compressed by
too many thoughts and too many sensations. Sophocles, Diagoras,
Philippides, died of joy. Another Greek expired at the sight of
the three crowns won by his three sons at the Olympic games.
Many fine intellects among players have been brutified by loses;
others, in greater number, have been so by their winnings. Some
in the course of their prosperity perish from idleness, get
deranged, and ruin themselves after ruining others. An instance
is mentioned of an officer who won so enormously that he actually
lost his senses in counting his gains. Astonished at himself, he
thought he was no longer an ordinary mortal; and required his
valets to do him extraordinary honours, flinging handfuls of gold
to them. The same night, however, he returned to the gaming
house, and recovered from his madness when he had lost not only
all his gains, but even the value of an appointment which he
held.
UNFORTUNATE WINNING.
M. G--me was a most estimable man, combining in himself the best
qualities of both heart and head. He was good-humoured, witty,
and benevolent. With these qualifications, and one other which
seldom operates to a man's disadvantage--a clear income of three
thousand a year--the best society in Paris was open to him. He
had been a visitor in that capital about a month, when he
received an invitation to one of the splendid dinners given
weekly at the salon. As he never played, he hesitated about the
propriety of accepting it, but on the assurance that it would not
be expected of him to play; and, moreover, as he might not again
have so good an opportunity of visiting an establishment of the
kind, he resolved to go--merely for the satisfaction of his
curiosity. He had a few stray napoleons in his purse, to throw
them--'just for the good of the house,' as he considered it--
could hardly be called PLAY, so he threw them. Poor fellow! He
left off a winner of fourteen hundred napoleons, or about as many
pounds sterling--and so easily won! He went again, again, and
again; but he was not always a winner; and within fifteen months
of the moment when his hand first grasped the dice-box he was
lying dead in a jail!
LORD WORTHALL'S DESPERATE WAGER.
At a gambling party Lord Worthall had lost all his money, and in
a fit of excitement staked his whole estate against L1000, at
cutting low with cards, and in cutting exclaimed,--
'Up now Deuce, or else a Trey,
Or Worthall's gone for ever and aye.'
He had the luck to cut the deuce of diamonds; and to commemorate
the serious event, he got the deuce of diamonds cut in marble and
had it fixed on the parapet of his mansion.
THE CELEBRATED THADDEUS STEVENS.
He was an inveterate gamester on a small scale, and almost
invariably, after a day's duty in the House, would drop in at a
favourite casino, and win or lose fifty dollars--that being the
average limit of his betting.
A PROVIDENT GAMBLER.
A Monsieur B--, well known in Parisian life, having recently lost
every shilling at a certain sporting club where play is carried
on in Paris, went to the country, where his sister lent him L150.
He won all back again, and got a considerable sum of money in
hand. He then went to his hotel, to his bootmaker, and tailor,
paid them, and made arrangements to be fed, clothed, and shod for
ten years.
A MAGNIFICENT FORTUNE WASTED.
Lord Foley, who died in 1793, entered upon the turf with an
estate of L18,000 per annum, and L100,000 ready money. He left
with a ruined constitution, an encumbered estate, and not a
shilling of ready money!
AN ENTERPRISING CLERK.
Lord Kenyon, in 1795, tried a clerk 'for misapplying his master's
confidence,' and the facts were as follows. He went with a bank
note of L1000 to a gaming house in Osendon Street, where he won a
little. He also won two hundred guineas at another in Suffolk
Street. He next accompanied some keepers of a third house to
their tables, where he lost above nine hundred pounds. He played
there almost every night; and finally lost about L2500!
GAMBLING FOR RECRUITS FOR THE ARMY.
An Irish officer struck out a mode of gambling, for recruits. He
gave five guineas bounty, and one hundred to be raffled for by
young recruits,--the winner to be paid immediately, and to
purchase his discharge, if he pleased, for L20. The dice-box was
constantly going at his recruiting office in Dublin.
DOUBLING THE STAKES.
A dashing young man of large fortune, about the year 1820, lost
at a subscription house at the West End, L80,000. The winner was
a person of high rank. The young man, however, by doubling the
stakes, not only recovered his losses, but in his turn gained
considerably of his antagonist.
AN ANNUITY FOR A GAMBLING DEBT.
A fashionable nobleman had won from a young and noble relative
the sum of L40,000. The cash not being forthcoming, he accepted
an annuity of L4000.
SIR WILLIAM COLEPEPPER.
It is told of Sir William Colepepper that, after he had been
ruined himself at the gaming table, his whole delight was to sit
there and see others ruined. Hardened wretch--'Who though he
plays no more, overlooks the cards'--with this diabolical
disposition!
THE BITER BITTEN.
A certain duchess, of a ci-devant lord-lieutenant, who expected
to make a pigeon of Marshal Blucher, was fleeced of L200,000; to
pay which her lord was obliged to sell a great part of his
property, and reside on the continent.
HUNTED DOWN.
A stout-hearted and gallant military baronet lost an immense sum
at a celebrated gaming house; but was so fortunate as to recover
it, with L1200 more. This last sum HE PRESENTED TO THE WAITERS.
He was pursued by two of the 'play-wrights' to a northern
watering-place, where he was so plucked that all his possessions
were brought to the hammer. A competency was, however, saved
from the magnificent wreck.
COMING OF AGE.
When Sir C-- T--, a weak young man, with a large fortune, came of
age, the Greeks, thinking him an excellent quarry, went to York
Races, made him drunk and plundered him of a large sum. The next
morning one of the party waited upon him to acquaint him of his
loss--(L20,000 or L30,000), and brought bonds for his signature
to that amount!
HEAVY LIABILITIES TO BEGIN WITH.
In the year 1799, when the Marquis of Donegal succeeded to the
title on his father's death, his debts, principally to gamblers
and money-lenders, amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds sterling!
A GENTLEMAN TURNED BARBER.
In an old magazine I find the following curious statement:--
'There is now living in Barnaby Street, Carnaby Market, a man
who, although exercising the menial office of penny barber, was
in his younger days in possession of estates and personal
property to a large amount, and is the only lineal descendant
remaining of the very ancient family of the H--s of Bristol.
'His relations dying when he was young, he was placed under
proper guardians, and received a liberal education, first at
Westminster, and afterwards at Cambridge, suitable to his rank
and fortune. When of age he converted his estates into money,
and retired to Dublin, where he remained some time. He then made
the tour of Europe, and returned to Ireland, where he went
through all the scenes of dissipation to which young men are so
much addicted, till at last he was beset by those harpies the
gamblers, and stripped of his immense fortune in one single
night!
'He then subsisted for some little time on the bounty of his
undoers, who intended to make him one of them; but, not having
sufficient address for the profession, he was dismissed and "left
in the lurch;" and most of his friends discarding him, he
embarked with his last guinea for England. Here he has
encountered many difficulties, often been in gaol for debt, and
passed through various scenes of life, as valet, footman, thief-
taker, and at length, a penny-barber! He has a wife and large
family and lives in a very penurious manner, often lamenting his
early folly.'[11]
[11] 'The Western County Magazine, 1791. By a Society of
Gentlemen.' This well-conducted old magazine was printed and
published at Salisbury, and was decidedly a credit to the town
and county.
PENSIONED OFF BY A GAMING HOUSE.
A visitor at Frascati's gaming house in Paris tells us:--
'I saw the Chevalier de la C--(a descendant of the once
celebrated romance-writer) when he was nearly ninety. The mode
of life of this old man was singular. He had lost a princely
property at the play-table, and by a piece of good fortune of
rare occurrence to gamesters, and unparalleled generosity, the
proprietors of the salon allowed him a pension to support him in
his miserable senility, just sufficient to supply him with a
wretched lodging--bread, and a change of raiment once in every
three or four years! In addition to this he was allowed a
supper--which was, in fact, his dinner--at the gaming house,
whither he went every night at about eleven o'clock. Till
supper-time (two o'clock in the morning) he amused himself in
watching the games and calculating the various chances, although
incapable of playing a single coup. At four o'clock he returned
to his lodging, retired to bed, and lay till between nine and ten
o'clock on the following night. A cup of coffee was then brought
to him, and, having dressed himself, at the usual hour he again
proceeded to the salon. This had been his round of life for
several years; and he told me that during all that time
(excepting on a few mornings about Midsummer) he had never beheld
the sun!'
A Mr R--y, son of a baronet, left Wattier's club one night with
only L4 in his pocket, saying that he would look in at the hells.
He did so, and, returning after three o'clock in the morning,
offered to bet L500 that he had above L4000. The result proved
that he had L4300, all won at gaming tables, from the small
beginning of L4. He then sat down to play games of skill at
Wattier's, and went home at six o'clock without a single pound!
The same man subsequently won L30,000, and afterwards lost it
all, with L15,000 more, and then 'went to the Continent.'
A major of the Rifle Brigade, in consequence of gambling in
London, by which he lost vast sums of money, went out of his
senses and died a few years ago in an asylum. This occurred
within the last ten or twelve years.
Says Mr Seymour Harcourt, in his 'Gaming Calendar,' 'I have
myself seen hanging in chains a man whom, a short time before, I
saw at a Hazard table!'
Hogarth lent his tremendous power to the portrayal of the ruined
gamester, and shows it to the life in his print of the gaming
house in the 'Rake's Progress.'
Three stages of that species of madness which attends gaming are
there described. On the first shock all is inward dismay. The
ruined gamester is represented leaning against a wall with his
arms across, lost in an agony of horror. Shortly after this
horrible gloom bursts into a storm and fury. He tears in pieces
whatever comes near him, and, kneeling down, invokes curses on
himself. His next attack is on others--on every one whom he
imagines to have been instrumental in his ruin. The eager joy of
the winning gamester, the attention of the usurer, and the
profound reverie of the highwayman, are all strongly marked in
this wonderful picture.
HOW MANY GAMESTERS LIVE BY PLAY?
It is an observation made by those who calculate on the gaming
world, that above nine-tenths of the persons who play LIVE by it.
Now, as the ordinary establishment of a GENTEEL gamester, as he
is commonly called, cannot be less than L1000 per annum, luck,
which turns out EQUAL in the long run, will not support him; he
must therefore LIVE by what they call among themselves the BEST
OF THE GAME--or, in plain English, cheating.
So much for the inner and outer life of gamblers. And now I
shall introduce Mr Ben. Disraeli, recounting, in the happiest
vein of his younger days, a magnificent gambling scene, quite on
a par with the legend of the Hindoo epic before quoted,[12] and
which, I doubt not, will (to use the young Disraeli's own words)
make the reader 'scud along and warm up into friskiness.'
[12] Chapter II.
A curious phrase occurs in the 9th chapter of 'The Young Duke,'
in the paragraph at the beginning, after the words--'O ye
immortal gods!'
Although the scene of the drama is part of a novel, yet there can
be no doubt of its being 'founded on fact'--at any rate, I think
there never was a narrative of greater verisimilitude.
'After dinner, with the exception of Cogit, who was busied in
compounding some wonderful liquid for the future refreshment,
they sat down to Ecarte. Without having exchanged a word upon
the subject, there seemed a general understanding among all the
parties, that to-night was to be a pitched battle--and they began
at once, very briskly. Yet, in spite of their universal
determination, midnight arrived without anything very decisive.
Another hour passed over, and then Tom Cogit kept touching the
baron's elbow, and whispering in a voice which everybody could
understand. All this meant that supper was ready. It was
brought into the room.
'Gaming has one advantage--it gives you an appetite; that is to
say, so long as you have a chance remaining. The duke had
thousands,--for at present his resources were unimpaired, and he
was exhausted by the constant attention and anxiety of five
hours. He passed over the delicacies, and went to the side-
table, and began cutting himself some cold roast beef. Tom Cogit
ran up, not to his Grace, but to the baron, to announce the
shocking fact, that the Duke of St James was enduring great
trouble; and then the baron asked his Grace to permit Mr Cogit to
serve him.
'Our hero devoured--we use the word advisedly, as fools say in
the House of Commons--he devoured the roast beef, and rejecting
the hermitage with disgust, asked for porter.
'They set to again, fresh as eagles. At six o'clock, accounts
were so complicated, that they stopped to make up their books.
Each played with his memorandums and pencil at his side. Nothing
fatal had yet happened. The duke owed Lord Dice about L5000, and
Temple Grace owed him as many hundreds. Lord Castlefort also was
his debtor to the tune of 750, and the baron was in his books,
but slightly.
'Every half-hour they had a new pack of cards, and threw the used
ones on the floor. All this time Tom Cogit did nothing but snuff
the candles, stir the fire, bring them a new pack, and
occasionally made a tumbler for them.
'At eight o'clock the duke's situation was worsened. The run was
greatly against him, and perhaps his losses were doubled. He
pulled up again the next hour or two; but, nevertheless, at ten
o'clock owed every one something. No one offered to give over;
and every one, perhaps, felt that his object was not obtained.
They made their toilets, and went down-stairs to breakfast. In
the mean time the shutters were opened, the room aired; and in
less than an hour they were at it again.
'They played till dinner-time without intermission; and though
the duke made some desperate efforts, and some successful ones,
his losses were, nevertheless, trebled. Yet he ate an excellent
dinner, and was not at all depressed; because the more he lost
the more his courage and his resources seemed to expand. At
first, he had limited himself to 10,000; after breakfast, it was
to have been 20,000; then 30,000 was the ultimatum; and now he
dismissed all thoughts of limits from his mind, and was
determined to risk or gain everything.
'At midnight he had lost L48,000.
'Affairs now began to be serious. His supper was not so hearty.
While the rest were eating, he walked about the room, and began
to limit his ambition to recovery, and not to gain.
'When you play to win back, the fun is over: there is nothing to
recompense you for your bodily tortures and your degraded
feelings; and the very best result that can happen, while it has
no charms, seems to your cowed mind impossible.
'On they played, and the duke lost more. His mind was jaded. He
floundered--he made desperate efforts, but plunged deeper in the
slough. Feeling that, to regain his ground, each card must tell,
he acted on each as if it must win, and the consequences of this
insanity (for a gamester at such a crisis is really insane) were,
that his losses were prodigious.
'Another morning came, and there they sat, ankle-deep in cards.
No attempt at breakfast now--no affectation of making a toilet,
or airing the room. The atmosphere was hot, to be sure, but it
well became such a hell. There they sat, in total, in positive
forgetfulness of everything but the hot game they were hunting
down. There was not a man in the room, except Tom Cogit, who
could have told you the name of the town in which they were
living. There they sat, almost breathless, watching every turn
with the fell look in their cannibal eyes, which showed their
total inability to sympathize with their fellow-beings. All the
forms of society had been forgotten. There was no snuff-box
handed about now, for courtesy, admiration, or a pinch; no
affectation of occasionally making a remark upon any other topic
but the all-engrossing one.
'Lord Castlefort rested with his arms on the table:--a false
tooth had got unhinged. His Lordship, who, at any other time,
would have been most annoyed, coolly put it in his pocket. His
cheeks had fallen, and he looked twenty years older.
'Lord Dice had torn off his cravat, and his hair flung down over
his callous, bloodless checks, straight as silk.
'Temple Grace looked as if he were blighted by lightning; and his
deep-blue eyes gleamed like a hyaena.
'The baron was least changed.
'Tom Cogit, who smelt that the crisis was at hand, was as quiet
as a bribed rat.
'On they played till six o'clock in the evening, and then they
agreed to desist till after dinner. Lord Dice threw himself on a
sofa. Lord Castlefort breathed with difficulty. The rest walked
about. While they were resting on their oars, the young duke
roughly made up his accounts. He found that he was minus about
L100,000.
'Immense as this loss was, he was more struck--more appalled, let
us say--at the strangeness of the surrounding scene, than even by
his own ruin. As he looked upon his fellow-gamesters, he seemed,
for the first time in his life, to gaze upon some of those
hideous demons of whom he had read. He looked in the mirror at
himself. A blight seemed to have fallen over his beauty, and his
presence seemed accursed. He had pursued a dissipated, even more
than a dissipated, career. Many were the nights that had been
spent by him not on his couch; great had been the exhaustion that
he had often experienced; haggard had sometimes even been the
lustre of his youth. But when had been marked upon his brow this
harrowing care? When had his features before been stamped with
this anxiety, this anguish, this baffled desire, this strange,
unearthly scowl, which made him even tremble? What! was it
possible?--it could not be--that in time he was to be like those
awful, those unearthly, those unhallowed things that were around
him. He felt as if he had fallen from his state, as if he had
dishonoured his ancestry, as if he had betrayed his trust. He
felt a criminal.
'In the darkness of his meditations a flash burst from his lurid
mind, a celestial light appeared to dissipate this thickening
gloom, and his soul felt, as it were, bathed with the softening
radiancy. He thought of May Dacre, he thought of everything that
was pure, and holy, and beautiful, and luminous, and calm. It
was the innate virtue of the man that made this appeal to his
corrupted nature. His losses seemed nothing; his dukedom would
be too slight a ransom for freedom from these ghouls, and for the
breath of the sweet air.
'He advanced to the baron, and expressed his desire to play no
more. There was an immediate stir. All jumped up, and now the
deed was done. Cant, in spite of their exhaustion, assumed her
reign. They begged him to have his revenge,--were quite annoyed
at the result,--had no doubt he would recover if he proceeded.
'Without noticing their remarks, he seated himself at the table,
and wrote cheques for their respective amounts, Tom Cogit jumping
up and bringing him the inkstand. Lord Castlefort, in the most
affectionate manner, pocketed the draft; at the same time
recommending the duke not to be in a hurry, but to send it when
he was cool. Lord Dice received his with a bow, Temple Grace
with a sigh, the baron with an avowal of his readiness always to
give him his revenge.
'The duke, though sick at heart, would not leave the room with
any evidence of a broken spirit; and when Lord Castlefort again
repeated--"Pay us when we meet again," he said, "I think it very
improbable that we shall meet again, my Lord. I wished to know
what gaming was. I had heard a great deal about it. It is not
so very disgusting; but I am a young man, and cannot play tricks
with my complexion."
'He reached his house. The Bird was out. He gave orders for
himself not to be disturbed, and he went to bed; but in vain he
tried to sleep. What rack exceeds the torture of an excited
brain and an exhausted body? His hands and feet were like ice,
his brow like fire; his ears rung with supernatural roaring; a
nausea had seized upon him, and death he would have welcomed. In
vain, in vain he courted repose; in vain he had recourse to every
expedient to wile himself to slumber. Each minute he started
from his pillow with some phrase which reminded him of his late
fearful society. Hour after hour moved on with its leaden pace;
each hour he heard strike, and each hour seemed an age. Each
hour was only a signal to cast off some covering, or shift his
position. It was, at length, morning. With a feeling that he
should go mad if he remained any longer in bed, he rose, and
paced his chamber. The air refreshed him. He threw himself on
the floor, the cold crept over his senses, and he slept.'[13]
[13] 'The Young Duke,' by B. Disraeli, chapter VIII. This
gambling is the turning-point in the young duke's career; he
proves himself at length not unworthy of his noble ancestry arm
his high hereditary position,--takes his place in the Senate, and
weds the maiden of his love.
CHAPTER IV.
ATROCITIES, DUELS, SUICIDES, AND EXECUTION OF GAMBLERS.
The history of all nations is but the record of their cupidity;
and when the fury of gaming appears on the scene, it has never
failed to double the insolence and atrocities of tyranny.
The atrocious gambling of the Hindoo Rajas has been related;[14]
and I have incidentally adverted to similar concomitants of the
vice among all nations. I now propose to bring together a series
of facts specially elucidative of the harrowing theme.
[14] Chapter II.
One of the Ptolemys, kings of Egypt, required all causes to be
submitted to him whilst at play, and pronounced even sentence of
death according to chance. On one occasion his wife, Berenice,
pronounced thereanent those memorable words:--'There cannot be
too much deliberation when the death of a man is concerned'--
afterwards adopted by Juvenal--Nulla unquam de morte hominis
cunctatio longa est.[15]
[15] Aelian, Var. Hist. lib. XLIV. c. xiii.; Juvenal, Sat. vi.
Tolomnius, King of the Veii, happened to be playing at dice when
the arrival of Roman ambassadors was announced. At the very
instant he uttered the word KILL, a term of the game; the word
was misinterpreted by the hearers, and they went forthwith and
massacred the ambassadors. Livy suggests that this was an excuse
alleged AFTER the commission of the deed; but gamesters are
subject to such absence of mind that there is really nothing
incredible or astonishing in the act. 'Sire,' exclaimed a
messenger to the Caliph Alamin, 'it is no longer time for play--
Babylon is besieged!' 'Silence!' said the caliph, 'don't you see
I am on the point of giving checkmate?' The same story is told
of a Duke of Normandy.
Wars have arisen from very trivial causes--among the rest
gambling. Henry, the son of William the Conqueror, was playing
at chess with Louis, the son of Philip, King of France. The
latter, perceiving that he was losing the game got into a
passion, and calling Henry the son of a bastard, flung the chess-
board into his face. Henry took the chess-board and struck Louis
with it so violently that he drew blood, and would have killed
him if his brother, who happened to come in, had not prevented
him. The two brothers took to flight, but a great and lasting
war was the consequence of the gambling fracas.
A gaming quarrel was the cause of the slap in the face given by
the Duc Rene to Louis XII., then only Duc d'Orleans. This slap
was the origin of a ligue which was termed 'the mad war.' The
resentment of the outraged prince was not appeased until he
mounted the throne, when he uttered these memorable words:--'A
King of France does not avenge insults offered to a Duke of
Orleans.'
Many narratives of suicide committed by desperate gamblers are on
record, some of which I now adduce.
SIR JOHN BLAND, OF KIPPAX PARK.
Sir John Bland, of Kippax Park, flirted away his whole fortune at
Hazard. 'He, t'other night,' says Walpole, 'exceeded what was
lost by the late Duke of Bedford, having at one period of the
night (though he recovered the greater part of it) lost two and
thirty thousand pounds.' Sir John Kippax shot himself in 1705.
LORD MOUNTFORD.
Lord Mountford came to a tragic end through his gambling. He had
lost money; feared to be reduced to distress; asked for a
government appointment, and determined to throw the die of life
or death on the answer received from court. The answer was
unfavourable. He consulted several persons, indirectly at first,
afterwards pretty directly, on the easiest mode of finishing
life; invited a dinner-party for the day after; supped at
White's, and played at Whist till one o'clock of the New Year's
morning. Lord Robert Bertie drank to him 'a happy new year;' he
clapped his hand strangely to his eyes. In the morning, he sent
for a lawyer and three witnesses, executed his will, made them
read it over twice, paragraph by paragraph, asked the lawyer if
that will would stand good though a man were to shoot himself.
Being assured it would, he said--'Pray stay, while I step into
the next room;' went into the next room and shot himself, placing
the muzzle of the pistol so close to his head that the report was
not heard.
A SUICIDE ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL.
Gamblers have been known to set as coolly and deliberately about
blowing out their brains as if they had only been going to light
their cigars. Lord Orford, in his correspondence with Horace
Walpole, mentions two curious instances.
One of the fashionable young men of Lord Orford's day had been
unhappily decoyed into a gambling house, where his passion for
play became so great that he spent nearly the whole of his time
in throwing the dice. He continued to gamble until he had not
only lost a princely fortune, but had incurred a large amount of
debt among his tradesmen. With the loss of his money, and the
utter beggary which stared him in the face, the unfortunate
victim of play lost all relish for life; and sought in death the
only refuge he could fancy from the infamy and misery which he
had brought upon himself. But whilst fully resolved on self-
destruction, he thought, before carrying his fatal purpose into
execution, he might as well do his tradesmen an act of justice,
even if in so doing he should do injustice to others. He insured
his life to the extent of his debts, amounting to several
thousand pounds. Being acquainted with several of the directors
of the company (he called them his life-and-death brokers) in
which he insured, he invited them to dinner the following day,
with the ostensible view of celebrating the completion of the
insurance. The tradesmen also received strict orders to be
present; and as the non-payment of their accounts for a long
period to come was the penalty of not acceding to his wishes in
this respect, it can scarcely be necessary to say that they were
all 'punctual as lovers to the moment sworn.' The dinner over,
and a liberal allowance of wine having been quaffed, the ruined
gambler desired the servant to call up all who were in the hall
below. In a few seconds the dining-room was filled with
tradesmen, all eager to receive payment of their accounts. 'Now,
gentlemen,' said the gambler, addressing his guests, and pointing
to the little crowd of tradesmen,--'now, gentlemen, these are all
my tradesmen; they are honest industrious men, to whom I am
indebted, and as I see no other earthly means of being ever able
to meet their just claims, you will be so kind as to pay them out
of the sum for which I insured my life yesterday. Allow me,
gentlemen, to bid you farewell.' And so saying, he pulled a
pistol from his pocket, and placing it to his head, that instant
blew out his brains. Of course his insurance office must have
been one that undertook to pay insurances whatever might be the
cause of death, not excepting suicide--which, like duelling, has
usually been a bar to such claims.
REVELATIONS OF A GAMBLER ON THE POINT OF COMMITTING SELF-MURDER.
The following is 'A full and particular account of a person who
threw himself into the Thames, from Blackfriars Bridge, on
Wednesday, July 10, 1782; with the melancholy paper he left
behind him, accounting to his wife and children for so rash an
action.' It is said that several thousands of the papers were
dispersed through London, and it is to be hoped that some of them
might produce that good effect which seems to have been so
anxiously desired by the person who wished them to be
distributed.
'Midnight, July 10, 1782.
'Whoever thou art that readest this paper, listen to the voice of
one from the DEAD. While thine eyes peruse the lines their
writer may be suffering the most horrid punishments which an
incensed Creator can inflict upon the greatest sinner.
'Reader, art thou of my own sex? Art thou a man? Oh, in
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