The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-06-27
coNsEaUENcEs OF GAMBLING.


of his name and title-one of the oldest fam
lilies in Naples. He had been travelling for
his health for the last three years, when his
physicians recommended Dieppe to him as all
others had failed in restoring his strength
This occurred in the month of July, some few
years since.
His daughter accompanied him the most
beautiful of Italy's daughters, where there
are so many competitors for the prize of love-
illness
Olympia was an only child; yet the marquis
had been married four times
Devoured by ambition and pride, he could
not even from her conceal his annoyance, at
her sex; for now his name, which had been
handed down in the direct line in four CEN
turies, would perish with himself He would
freely have given his immense fortune twice
over, his life, his childs life, all, to have pos
sessed son who would hand down his name
to posterity.
At sixty he was the widower of two Roman
ladies of high descent, and of German prin-
cess, and all three had died without his wish
being accomplished. He was old now, and
worn by the intrigues of place and ambition.
He felt himself going; death stood before him
every moment more and more visibly, and to
try to conceal the painful fact from his view,
this last of the Fuscarini endeavored by gale
ties and pleasures to crown himself with the
semblance of youth. He raised around him a
rampant of debaucheries, orgies, and gambling,
he flung millions away, and when, by accident,
a thought of his child came across him it was
in bitterness of spirit.
ga woman woman" he exclaimed
"There will always remain a sufficient fortune
for her. child of eighteen! What would she
do with nv palaces? She would be afrighted
by the heaps of gold which I had accumulated
for son! On, on, let us amuse ourselves
while we may. 1 shall, perhaps, die to-mor-
row
Olympia knew why her father lived thus.
He did not spare her the knowledge of why
he was so reckless. Without pity towards her,
not caring how much he panied her heart, he
was constantly reproaching her as the cause of
all, cursing her and her dead mother, he
cared not how much she who so tenderly loved
him, beheld the unsightly wounds of his am
bilious heart; and when he saw her in tears,
his only resource was to leave her alone, to
weep in the bitterest sorrow child might
know, arising from fathers cruelty. And
vet Foscarini loved his daughter, not as a
father should have done, but as something be-
longing to himself beautiful, the most exquis-
ite of his possessions, handsome piece of fur
niture-his own. That was the reason he al
ways kept her with him, made her travel every
where he went, and refused her hand in mar
the ,xealthiest mobiles of Austria and
Italy.
"Stay with me-" he said "I want to have
you near me. You can marry when am
dead"
When his feverish nights of excitement had
passed, broken down and trembling from de.
bauch of wine and gambling, he was in the
habit of going to the baths, or seeking in the
wave renewal of vigor to pursue an existence
capable of killing strong man of twenty.
and yet he was too unhappy to relinquish the
excitement.
One day he endeavored to bathe alone, with
out his attendant, when the tide was coming
in, but weaker than usual, he was carried away,
and then flung in fainting state upon the
beach The next wave was taking him away
to destruction, when young man, who was
bathing, swan to his senseless form, and bore
him to land in safety.
When Foscarini opened his eyes, he turned
to thank the one who saved him, and, to his
annoyance, recognized an officer from Trabans,
whom he had met at the baths of Pyrmont
and at Vienna, and whose assiduities towards
| Olympia had given him much uneasiness.
A few words of cold thanks and politeness
we're exchanged, and the young German asked
permission to call sometimes at the marquis
hotel.
He was frigidly told he could do so.
At the end of month the marquis and
Stephen had become inseparable.
| Still madly in love with Olympia, the latter
| was, however, too clever this time to manifest
it SO openly as he had done at Pyrmont. He
allowed Foscarini to think that he was cured
of his passion. He spoke of Olympia without
| trembling turning pale, and with perfect
ease of manner, addressed few common place
| compliments to her, to which she replied in
| the same Indifferent tone.
Quite blinded, the old man unsuspiciously
Welded himself into the others hands. He
made him his companion and confident, and
raised the curtain before him which had con-
cealed all his past life, and revealed the hor-
rors which had been hidden beneath the
splendor and garland of his tetes. Stephen,
however, knew it already; Olympia had con-
cealed nothing from him. For two whole
years he had followed in the track of Foscarini
and his daughter. Thus Stephen passed al
most every night at the Marquis, and to meet
his tastes, and, at the same time, if possible,
keep him from going among strangers, he be.
came seeming gambler, to restrain the real
one.
During month he played away all the
money he possessed about him and all he
could borrow, and the more he lost, the better
Foscarini loved him, for the Marquis knew no
happiness but in dice, no pleasure save in win
| ming.
But luck changed.
The Marquis had passion for sort of loo
called bouillottee, which Stephen affected to
like equally WELL 1t had already cost him ten
thousand louis; when one evening he arrived
at the Marquis half an hour earlier than usual
with the last fifty louis he could then command
in the world, and firmly resolved, that he
would no longer carry on the fearful game he
had been playing, but at once throw off the
mask of hypocrisy and, demanding Olympia
again in marriage from her father, endeayored
by other means to win him from his love OF
gambling: If she were refused to him, he felt
all the desperation would seize upon him
which was natural to young man like him
self, who had vainly sought the one he loved
so long.
Stephens motive throughout had been a
good one. Ifhe won all from the Marquis, he
hoped by marriage with the daughter, then
more than probable, to win the ruined gambler
from his propensities, to peace in the bosom Of
| his family.