The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-28 00:00:00

'02A.A24 GAMBLING PLACES.

BADEN-BADEN, Arson 26.
For fob a few years longer will the tables at
Medea-Baden remain open; for only a few years
snore %la the rolling ball and the ever-falling
etude tempt ingenuous youth, covetous middle
age, and greedy senility to risk their money at
rouge-et-noir or roulette. No foreshadowing of
the approaching doom has, however, yet fallen
upon this pleasant little town. No apprehensions
of the future have been allowed to mar the enjoy-
ments of its inhabitants, whether permanent or
temporary ; or to diminish the usual gaiety and
kveliness of its society. The game still goes on
as of old; and no one thinks of inquiring whether
or not it is worth the candle. From early in the
morning until late at night the tables are crowded
with people, the majority of whom lose their
money with a steady persistency which is quite
amarung. So much has been written abcut the
appearance of these gambling rooms, and of the
',crons who frequent them, that 1 am afraid I can
add but little to what has already been said.
Mail of the descriptions that I have met
with, too, have been so highly coloured, not
to say exaggerated, that what I have to tell will
rel ably al pear tame and feeble by comparison.
It mould be very easy to draw such a picture as
has often been drawn before, of a group of men
and weanen of all classes:, from princes to pea-
sants, thronging almost fiercely round the green
Cloth, and hanging eagerly upon every motion of
the croupier who site the ball iu motion, or of him
who di tali the cards. Much might be made of the
dim light of the rooms rendered, let us say, almost
lurid by its transmission through this green shades
of the lamps; and of the various expressions of
hop., disappointutent, exultation, and despair
which it nught be assumed to reveal upon the
eountialaneen of the various players, as fortune
proved fievouruble or adverse. Eager eyes, half
starting from the heads to which they belong,
unit hands that appear to be always ready to grasp
at the money before it is won, muttered exclama-
tions and half-uttered imprecations, might be
thrown in to heighten the effect, and complete
the repulsivenees of the picture. With such ma-
t rials one might draw a very effective sketch ;
but it would not be a fair or truthful representa-
tion of the appearance of a gambling-room ; at
all events not of any one of those at Baden-Baden.
At rare intervals, when the bank is broken, or when
WWI- specially wealthy or peculiarly reckless player
loses sums of more than ordinary magnitude, there
may. I dare say, be some manifestations of emo-
tion on the part of the players or of the lookers-
on • but tie a rule the most noticeable feature
about the play here is the calm, matter-of-fact
spirit in which it is carried on, and the complete
absence of all excitement with which it seems to
be attended. Occasionally indeed a novice at the
game may show his mortification at the loss of a
few napoleons by rising rather hastily than dis-
creetly from his chair, or turning away from the
tables with an angry gesture ; but the regular
players, the men and women who are to be found
at one or other of the tables afternoon after after-
noon, and evening after evening, carry on their
operations with as much quietness and decorum,
and with as entire an absence of any manifestation
of strong feeling, whether pleasurable or painful,
UP though they were engaged inthe most ordinary
or most laudable commercial pursuit. If they win
they pack up their notes or gold as calmly and with
as little expression of interest as does any banker's
clerk in the City of London Land if they lose—
they have generally a good deal of practice in this
respect—they bear their losses with as much out-
ward calmness as does the trader who has been
. .

disappointed of the profit he expected to gain, but
who lies complete confidence that he shall be able
by some new venture to recover the money which
he has lost upon the old one. That the opera-
tions of the dealers and croupiers are closely
watched is true enough but the gaze which is
directed towards them exhibits none of that in-
_ _

tense and all-absorbing anxiety which I have seen
attributed to it in paintings and in printed de-
scriptions. It is impossible to say by how many
different passions or sentiments those who risk
their money may be animated while they are play-
ing. Hope and fear, satisfaction and regret, they
must experience in turn, as luck runs in their
favour or against them; but certainly, as far as
my observation goes, none of these emotions find
any expression upon their features. There is, in-
deed, one expression which seems habitual with all
the regular players, and which never for a mo-
ment leaves their features—an expression of steady,
settled, iiitetise greediness and covetousness.
Whether they m•e watching the dealer as he
rapidly drops the cards upon the smooth table
before him. or whether they are contemplating
their own or their neighbour's stores of gold and
notes, there is still the same look in their eyes.

However fortunate they may be, they never ap
pear to be satisfied with what they have won
and even the disappointment occasioned by their
losses does not seem powerful enough to substi-
tute for this craving, coveting look, any expression
of biitcr sorrow or deep regret. Tins impossibi-
lity of mating satisfied with what they have won,
of leaving off playing when they liave made a
good " pile " (as the Americans eall it), often
operates very much to the detriment of the
players, and Lads to the loss of what they have
already acquired. Such an instance I witnessed
yesterday afternoon. When I went into one of
the rooms where they play rouge-et-noir, I found
the table crowded, and the attention of the lookers-
on mainly directed towards a gentleman who had
the appearance of a luabitua and who was evi-
dently playing with more boldness and success
than any of the other gamesters. He generally
staked 6,000, and never less than 3.000 francs ;
and though he sustained occasional losses, he so
frequently backed the tight colour that at the end
of half an hour he had accumulated a very
considerable bundle of notes of a thousand francs
each. Ile must have bad at least 50,000 or 60,000
francs. At last, when the pack was exhausted and
play was suspended for a short time while the
croupiers shuffled the cards, he took up his notes
and left the rOO/11. As I walked away I mentally
congratulated him tqsat the prudence which he
displayed in rctiting with so good a stake; but on
my return to the room. not ten minutes afterwards.
I found him in his old place. His resolution had
yielded to the temptation of further increasing his
store, and there he was playing again, but
with very different fortune. lrow Ins losses were
frequent, and it wits success which came at rare in-
tervals. Gradually the heap of notes which he
had before him—only a portion of those which I
had seen him take up—grew smaller and smaller,
and in a very shorttime the last billet of 1,000 francs
was thrown upon the table and lost. Then he
again retired, but only for a. short time, and before
wasthe evening he had lost all, and more
than all, the money that I had seen him win in
the afternoon. When the play was closed for the
night he was still struggling to repair the
losses which he had sustained earlier; but
money that is lost by the five or six
thousand francs at a time, comes back but slowly
when you can only afford to stake a napoleon or
two; and although fortune had rather turned in
his favour, I um afraid he made but small progress.
Another high and still more fortunate player here
now is a French woman. lam told that she is by
profession an actress. She. too, has a fancy for
staking 6,000 francs at u time ; and during the
last two evenings has been very fortunate with
her venture. The night belt ," la.f she won 7001. or
800/. sterling, not francs. anal L. 4 night, although
she played for only a short Clue, she must have
won a good deal 11101 V. When the rouge-et-
noir was over she stopped for a few minutes at
the roulette table, lost a few hundred francs, and
then ran merrily off to supper with a bundle of
notes in her Land, which drew after her glances of
envy from all whom she passed.
I need hardly any float not every one who comes
here is a prey to the Laminations of the gamizig
table. Of comae there can be no doubt that it is
the clamors of rouge-et-noir and roulettethat draw
the majority of the visitors hither, but it is not