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The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)

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Title: The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)

Author: Andrew Steinmetz


        
Release date: March 1, 1996 [eBook #466]
                Most recently updated: November 29, 2009

Language: English

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Credits: Produced by Mike Lough, and David Widger


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAMING TABLE: ITS VOTARIES AND VICTIMS. VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***




Produced by Mike Lough





THE GAMING TABLE:

ITS VOTARIES AND VICTIMS,


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


IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I.


By Andrew Steinmetz, Esq.,


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


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



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


TO HIS GRACE

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

THE AUTHOR.




PREFACE.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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


(1) Standard, Jan. 12, 1870.


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

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

ANDREW STEINMETZ.



CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


CHAP.

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

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

III GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS AND GREEKS

IV GAMING AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPERORS

V GAMBLING IN FRANCE IN ALL TIMES

VI THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN GAMING IN ENGLAND

VII GAMBLING IN BRIGHTON IN 1817

VIII GAMBLING AT THE GERMAN BATHING-PLACES

IX GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES

X LADY GAMESTRESSES

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

XII REMARKABLE GAMESTERS

XIII THE LOTTERIES AND THEIR BEWILDERMENTS

XIV THE LAWS AGAINST GAMING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES




THE GAMING TABLE.



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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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


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


(3) Herod. 1. ii.

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


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


(5) _In Vita Romuli_.


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


(7) Carver, _Travels_.


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

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

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

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


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



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

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


(9) De Ludis Orient.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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


(13) Harleian Misc. ii. 108.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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



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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parravicin smiled, took the box, and threw _TEN_.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disbrowe averted his head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

'I will do it,' replied Disbrowe.

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

'Margaret!' exclaimed Disbrowe.

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

'But you have the plague!'

'What does that matter? I may recover.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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


(20) Hyde, _De Ludis Oriental_.


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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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


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



CHAPTER IV. GAMING AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPERORS.

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


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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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


(28) Epist. lib. I. xix.


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


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


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


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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

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


(35) Sat. I. 87.


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

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

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


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


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

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


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


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



CHAPTER V. GAMBLING IN FRANCE IN ALL TIMES.

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


(38) Hist. de Dugueselin, par Menard.


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


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


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

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


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

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


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

In another part of the poem he says:--

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


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

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


(41) Sauval, _Antiquites de Paris_, ii.


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


(42) Pasquier, _Recherche des Recherches_.


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

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


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


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

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


(44) Duverdier, _Diverses Lecons_.


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


(45) Journal de Henri III.


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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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


(48) Mem. de Nevers. ii.


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


(49) Hist. de Henri le Grand.


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

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


(50) Mem. de Sully.


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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


(52) Mem. Hist. iii.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'29th July, 1676.

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


(54) The Dauphin.

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


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

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

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

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

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


(56) Mem. de Gourville, i.


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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


(62) Nouv. Heloise, t. iv.

(63) Novel. Theodos. 18.


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

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


STATE OF THE ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE GAMES OF PARIS.


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


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

  SERVICE FOR THE NINE ROULETTES AND ONE PASSE-DIX.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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



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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Signed, W. KINSBY.'


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

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

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

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

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


(68) 'Refexions sur l'Homme.'


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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


(70) Quarterly Review, vol. LII.


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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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



CHAPTER VII. GAMBLING IN BRIGHTON IN 1817.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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



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

BADEN AND ITS CONVERSATION HOUSE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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


(75) 'Illustrated Times.'


'At the present moment,' says another authority, writing more than a
year ago, 'there are three very bold female gamblers at Baden. One is
the Russian Princess ----, who plays several hours every day at _Rouge
et Noir_, and sometimes makes what in our money would be many hundreds,
and at others goes empty away. She wins calmly enough, but when luck
is aga

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