The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-08-16
A STUDY FROM LIFE. !
Scenes in a Gaming Houseln Germany

or pubic gaming mouse. w G steal across
the square, planted with magnificent lin
dens, where are fountains playing, and en-
ter the building beneath an imposing por-
tico. If we wish to play at hazard there
are men in gorgeous livery ready to take
our hat and cane. We enter spacious,
lofty hall, its roofs supported by Auted col
umns, its ceiling ornate with stuceo, in
golden panels, With frescoed walls, damask
divans, oaken floors, waxed and polished.
This is the great dancing saloon. where,
from 9 O'Clock this Saturday evening till
the break of day on Sunday morning, the
waltz and quadrile will be kept up. There
are coffee rooms and restaurants, and two
or three thousand persons are sitting be-
meath the trees in the pa,k, listening to
the music of the band, slipping coffee and
eating ices, supplied from these rooms.
There are four great saloons radiant
with hght-four restless, anxious throngs
of men and woinen--seated, standing ~ walk
ing neryously. calculating chances, exnit-
ing over gains, bewaiIing losses. The
doors of this magnificent suite of rooms
arc open to every body The gambling is
conducted on democratic plan; prince
aud peasant, countess and courtesan-all
may enter and roam at will through the
eildcd halls, play if they please, provided
they have the guldar-forty cents ia Amer
lean currency. The man yondcr who has
pale and sunken CHI eeks and dreamy eyes,
who wear an old threadbare coat, who con
vu!sively clutches his last piece of silver,
who if he losses it will go to bed supper
less, may win thousand dollars, may ere
daylight have his. pockets bursting with
handfuils Of gold or that portly dame in
a chair at the other side of the table );
wearing white satin robe covered with
gold spangles, with at.great pie, of gold
before her,. may be from hence without a
penny in her purse. Be it one way or the
other, the men who whirl the wheel and
roll the ball will be utterly Indifferent
They are as remorsess as fate. They work
for the bank, and the bank has no SOUL
Come not here for soll, or heart, or con-
science. They are extlnct-burned up
These men and women are animate forms,
only flesh ard blood, bones, cords, muscles
destitute, utterly void of a soul, of 4
conscience to be quickened or animated by
moral considerations.
"At the first table is a gray haired man
with white mustache and smoothly shaved
checks. He has ford countenance. He
must at be least sixty years old, for time
is. multiplying and deepening the burrows.
He is not a desperate gamesteT-p perhaps
plays for the fun of it. He makes but a
dollar at time-loses, gains, loses, and
after while leaves the table. A young
man with tuft OF. hair on bis chin and
thin side whiskers, hollow cheeks, sunken
eyes, wearing threadbare Coat and dirty
linen, takes the vacant seat, pulls lean
por monnaic from his pocket lays dol
lar on the green cloth and watches with in
tense eagerness the rolling ball He is
poor and this is the way he has taken to
| increase his fortune. Luck is on his side.
He is dollar richer He clutches the
shining silver, turns it over; gloats upon
it with misery satisfaction he lays anoth-
err. Nineteen" says the man at the
| wheel and the dollar is sc0opcd away =
The next time he will win again He is
mistaken the bank takes it, He tries
once more sees second dollar disappear;
then quits lis seat cresttalen, looking long
ingly at the growing heap of gold and sill
yer beneath the hands Of the raker.
AT the other side of the table sits a
lady in the bloom Of early womanhood, Of
a fair counteuance, and large, lustrous
eyes. She was here yesterday evening
with pile of gold before her.. and was
playing twenty francs at time. She
wears 'jocky hat with superb ostrich
plume, and her rich silk lilac colored robe
hes at her feetin wavy folds. When she
walks it is with the air of queen, and she
sits there seemingly Indifferent whether
twenty franc pieces are won or lost, and
yet when four successive stakes have been
swept away Slight flush oversprcads her
face; she bites her underllp; smooths the
wavy hair upon her forehead, and with an
air of a bravado lays another piece and
wins. A little later every one Of the
shining pieces of metal have disappeared
all gone into the bank. n -
Standing behind the lady is young
man, dressed with taste and elegance, who
has a well trimmed beard, ,moothly- brush
ed hair, who plays but dollar at a time,
but he lays it down with an air of enc who
expects to win. He goes from the table
richer than he came. At the end of the
| table is fellow with hard, cold face
an eye of the color of steel, who looks not
to the right or to the left, but only upon
| the table. He lays down a thousand francs
| IN gold. 1t is raked into the bank, and
not a muscle of his countenance moves
He lays a second thousand, and sees it
drawn away with as much unconcern as if
it were but half dime. True, it is not a
great amount, but the wheel is all the
willie turning and there are not many men
who can afford to lose 5000 every minute
"a tall man-broad shouldered, with
a bald crown, thin locks Of hair about his
ears, great, shaggy eyebrows, rough fea-
lures, wearing a dark suit, with heavy
gold chain to his watch, lays half dozen
Napoleons scattering them all over the
table, to divide hts risks He loses, then
wins-loses and wins again. Some are In
tently watching the playing-marking the
numbers to see if there is any lucky figure
Among them there is woman wearing
black bonnet and faded black silk dress.
She has long row of figures, and is en-
gagged in mathematical calculation to find
out the ratio between gains and loses. =
Look at her face narrowly. 1t is as cold
and passionless as that Of yonder mable
statute in the park She could see man
step upon the fatal drop and swing into
eternity without raising her fan to shut
ont even for a second the horrid sight =
No scene of suffering can change for an
instant the rigidity of that corrugated
countenance-a hard as the hardest steel!