The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-20
GAMBLING AT HOMBoURG.
A Description by Rev. DIR. Bellows.

houses at Hombourg, and in letter to the
Liberal ObTisttdn,o ,ot New York, describes what he
saw. He says:-'Deep playing Is sure to attract
q crowd OF spectators, and commonly at any
given time there will be only one person at each
table who is playing for a stake of five Napo-
!eons-about twenty dollars--fer each coup;
tnat s each deal OF cards or turn on the roulette.
Most OF the players pledge a two 1orin piece
eighty cents-on every coup, Even at this rate,
as the deal occurs once IN a minute or two,
much money may be lost or won in half
hour; and for the heavier players, who COM
mence with five Napoleons, and double their
stake every time, it is plain that thirty thou
sand francs may be changed from the private
pocket to the bank, or the bank to the private
pocket, in ten or fifteen minutes. / have seen
men and women both going away minus two or
three thousand francs, after halfa-dozen coups
and some others carrying away as much after
ten minutes successful playing. Usually, how
ever, large players are too fond of the excite
ment to leave because they are fortunate. They
stay more commonly to shift their fortunes and
leave their winnings with the bank. If every
gamester left the table when the chances were
in his favor, he bank would soon be out of
capital. But it reckons too surely on the appe-
tite which success stimulates.
FASCINATION OF GAMBLING,
II have tired to analyze the fascination of
gambling by watching the faces and the play of
those engaged in it, A more serious company it
Is hard to conceive OF than the one gathered
around these tables. Silence, gravity, unsmiling
attention, absorption in the business in hand, a
n,
moved by success nor disturbed by ill-luck, are
the prevailing characteristics. You look in vain
for the nervous, impassioned, suicidal express
slons OF countenance you are taught to expect.
MOST OF the company at play look beautifully
unconscious of anything unusual, disgraceful, or
sinful in their occupation. They are simply
intent upon the game, each man watching his
stake with unfeigned interest, but with prac-
tlsed knowledge of the risks and feeling that
he may gain at the next turn what he lost in the
last. The possibility of success is always before
the player, and he sees success attending his
neighbor. The fact that in one minute by sink
ing horln you may make it two or twenty,
presents an excitement which to those without
moral scruples on the subject must be very
fascinating.
Nothing but q well-considered and estab-
lshed conviction of the public and private
Generalization and peril of gambling could
prevent persons from dipping into its deceitful
waters here, where sort of exceptional license
covers gambling from reprobation; where all ITS
concomtants are decorous; where drinking and
carousing and the more common forms OF dissi-
patton are suppressed; where people of excellent
social position and general respectability-lords
and barens, bankers aud countesses, gentlemen
and ladies of fixed standing-are found amusing
themselves at the gambling-table and where it
Is open and legalized, and conducted with un-
questioned fairness. Then it is doubtful whether
the lookers-on are not really participants to the
extent OF lending the countenance of their
presence to the immoral game.
Curiosity and desire to study human ma.
tuIe under powerful passion, have drawn me
very often into the saloon; but confess l never
felt quite innocent even in watching this be-
quilting and perious fountain OF ruin and cor
ruphon. The chief evil is not done here at
Hombourg or at other public tables. 1t is the
passion which is first awakened under the com.
paratively innocent circumstances of these
public and honestly conducted gambling rooms
which leads thousands OF young men, and old
ones too, to private play, until it becomes the
business of their lives or the ruin of their for
tunes and bodies and souls. The more habltual
players here seem to be old men and women.
Byron calls 'avarice good Oldgentemanly
vice. Certainly the love of the excitement of
gambling seems to survive most other passions.
| No form OF gambler has appeared so truly dis
| gusting, however, as that of the old woman. A
| young Countess, lovely in person and dignlhed
| and selfpossessed, whom saw now losing, now
| winning, considerable sums, did not lose quite
| all her charms in the atmosphere of the gam
bling table; but several old hags in lace and
jewels, who sat hour after hour at the board,
seemed made up to disgrace their sex and their
age.
| SUPERSTITION OF PLAYERS.
'The superstitions OF the players are a singu
lar exhibition OF the credulity of those who
have generally ceased to have any faith in Goo
or man. No grovelling worshipper of any i'm
aginary toe-natl of an imaginary saint evel
exceeded in superstition the mass of the mer
and women who sit at these gambling tables
solemnly pricking holes in their card-gospels
from which they read their guidance anC
through which they peep into the future for
tunes which await them. Victims to absurd
mysticisms about lucky numbers and false in
feTences from the abused law of averages, the!
go religlously on, trusting in their stars and te(
to their dotages
zone very pious gambler, who believes in ou
glorious liturgy, but not in preaching, hurrie
from his Sunday prayers to try his luck a
roulette, upon the 24-10 (chapter and verse; O
the text the minister announces! Another
turns his Bible to see what psalm opens, or wha
page cuts, and hastens to try his luck unde
such blessed guidancel Now it is the min
which the divinities of the gamblers table hav
consecrated, and the next day seven or twenty
| three.
'If Macmillan is shot by seven men on tn
10Th of June, seven and nineteen would be th
secret talisman ofthe first gamester that heart
the news, II he was not warned by the fate o
the noble gambler in thrones, who staked hi
life and lost it upon the throw! Were ther
thirty-one words in Napoleons letter to NJ
Rouher, Offering him the diamond cross of tn
Legion of Honor it would be ground enough
for bareheaded Frenchman here, who carrie
his velvet cap In his hand in rain and shine, Il
play all day on that lumber, confident o
coming out winner by IL P. NJ, at which tim
the tables close.
"Failure to-day would do as little to cure th
folly of such hope as the empty results o
| ignorant and fanatical expectations do usual.
to correct superstitions. 1t is not the fruit 0
the superstition, but the superstition itsel
which is precious! Religion, even IN lts talses
forms, is more disinterested than detamers
human nature suspect. But enough Oh thl
hateful but fascina ting theme"
A Balloon Survey OF a Coming Storm
The English aeronaut Coxwell writes the fol
lowing account OF remarkable series OF storm
observations in his ballOon:-
II ascended from the Crystal Palace at Syden
nam, and witnessed, during a tour into Berk