The Chattanooga Daily Rebel. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1862-1864, 1863-01-30
Gaming.


A writer in the Dublin Magazine has put
himself to the trouble of collecting the facts
and publishing q history OF gaming. We
make few extracts to show to what excesaos
the mind will run when unrestrained and given
free scope on the field of avarce and gain:
The vice Of gaming with cards seems to
have spread over Europe with frightful rapid.
ity in the fifteenth century. Even the clergy
were not exempt from the vice az is shown
by the story of q pretty little game of bluff
played by Pope Leo X who seems to have
understood himself" very well. His Holi.
Ress was playing at game somewhat similar
to our western bluff, and found himself in DOS.
session of hand which could not be beaten
except in tho contingency of his having 10
play last. His opponent also held very good
hand (did his Holiness dsdlS-the prudent
historian did not say,) and put up = heavy
stake. Give me point, and will soc you |"
cried the Pope. His opponent, thinking him
beaten doubled the former sta';e. His Holi-
ness having secured the advantage, "called
him, and "swept his pile"
Charles II, who never learned wisdom,
gambled with his courtiers. "I will bet my
soul to an orange on the gam" 4" called his
Majesty to Rochester. M.
Hlf your Majesty wiN bet odds will take
them" was the csol rejOinder.
Henry Cheney. created by Queen Eliza beth
Baron of Tudngton, played at dice once with
Henry II, of France, and wen ofhim diamond
OF great price at one cast. . 1896 3
qWhat would you have demo had you lostf''
inquired the King. ,.-
Il have" said young Cheney, with true Brit.
ish, brag, 'sheep's-taiIs enough in Kent, with
their wSol to buy better diamond than this!"
Caesar Borgia, Duke Of Vaentinois, when he
had lest many thousand crowns at sitting. at
dice, said, mo matter; the sins Of the Ger.
mans pay for thiSP-alluding to the fact that
his father, Pope Alexander vi, gave him his
income out Of his profits arising from the sale
Of indulgences in Germany.
Lord Lauderdale once staked FIVE thousand
pounds upon single card at faro. George
Fox played twenty-five consecutive hours
losing at the rate Of fEc hundred pounds per
hour. Major Aubreys favsrite toast was,
"Play, like the air we breathe, If we have il
not we die" One Matthias 0'Byrne, an Irish
adventuror, having won in one Dight one hun
dred thousand Of person who ho knew could
not pay so largo q sum, shrewdly allowed him
to win back all but ElO,0 900 which, being with.
in the losers compass, was paid. From this
he received from Hare the name Of "Xonophon
0Brien," to commemorate his mastery retreat
with the ten thousand. ... ,.,r
So did the gambling rage possess the public
mind that, when in Paris, in 1923, q man sat at
\ crowded gaming table and discharged pia
tOl into his mouth, the play did not even cease
while the scattered brains Of the victims were
being cleared away by the servants But
more extraordinary case occurred in Lsndon
in 1892. One Shelton, second rate public
pri2e fighter, gaming with a low companion,
ost first his money, next all hiG clothes be-
,ame forfeited, and stdksd his llfei He lost III
md the winner, assisted BY himseb, immediate
y hanged him 10 lamp post BY good luck
passing watchman out him down before he
vas quito dead.
Toward the close Of the last century the
,aming houses OF London-they were known
. the general public as "Cluba," and to the
'amesters as "Hells1--were fitted up in ex-
style. "Fishmongers' Hall"a cost
100000 merely to furnish-an expense which
oes not seem so great, however, when il isl ,
nown that the proprietor netted the first :
car $I5O,e00. The law prohibited the epon- J
ng Of such houses; but the proprietor oithisl
'as heard to boast that ho was in no danger
naSmueh aa he counted among his members ~ ?
was privilege tO gain admission 10 ona oil '
Aese hplls--ths majority Of those who made I
no awsl Soproftable were the gambling I
ouses Of Baden no longer ago than 1870 that n
70 purchasers Of new lease Of their priv d
'ge for fifteen yeara--which is farmed cut by q