The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-07-03

arriving ana departing. ana, occasionally
Il ong-drawn mournful sigh of one who
has lost his money
THE PLAYERS.
At the first table is gray-haired man
with white moustache and smoothly
shaved cheeks He has tlorid counte-
nance. He must be at least sixty years old,
for Time is multiplying and deepening the
burrows. He is not a desperate gamester-
perhaps plays for the fun of it. He stakes
but a dollar at 4 timc-loscs, gains, loses.
and, after while, leaves the table. \
young man, with tuft of hair on his
chin, and thin side whskers, hollow checks,
sunken eyes, wearing thread-bare coat
a portemonae from his pocket, lays dol
lar on the green cloth, and watches, with
intense eagerness, the rolling ball. He is
poor and this is the way he has taken to
lie is dollar richer. He clutches the shin
ing silver, turns it over gloats upon it
with misery satisfaction he lays another.
Nineteen" says the man at the wheel,
and the dollar is seooped 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
his seat, crestfallen, looking longingly at
the growing heap of gold and silver beneath
the hands of the raker.
At the other side of the table sits II lady
in the bloom of early womanhood, of a fair
countenance, and large, lustrous eyes. She
was hear yesterday evening, with a pile of
gold before her, and was playing twenty
francs at 4 time. She wears a jockey hat,
with superb ostrich plume, and her rich
silk hlac-colorcd robe lies at her feet in
wavy folds. When she walks it is with the
air of aqueen, and she sits there seemingly
indifferent whether twenty frame pieces are
Won or lost, and yet, when four successive
stakes have been swept away, a slight flush
ovcrspreads her face; she bites her under
lip smooths the wavy hair upon her fore
head, and, with an air of braCddo, lays
another piece and wins. \ little later
every one of the shining pieces of metal
have disappeared-all gone into the bank.
Standing behind this lady is young
man, dressed with taste and elegance, who
has well-trimmed beard, smoothly brush
cd hair, who plays but dollar at time,
but he lays it down with an air of one who
expects to win. He goes from the table
richer than he came. At the end of the
table is a fellow with hard, cold face-an
eye of the color of steel-who looks not to
the right or the left, but only upon the ia
ble He lays down thousand francs in
gold. 1t is raked into the bank, and not 4
muscle of his countenancc moves. He lays
a second thousand, and sees it drawn away
with as much unconcern as if it were but
Il half-dime. True, it is not great amount,
but the wheel is all the time turning, and
there are not many men who can afford to
k,sc two hundred dollars every minute.
4 tall man-broad-shou with
bald crown, thin locks of hair about his
ears great shaggy eyebrows, rough fea-
lures. wearing dark suit, with Il heavy
gold chain to his watch. lays half dozen
Napoleons-scattering them all over the
table, to divide his risks. He loses, then
wins-loses and wins again. Some are in
tently watching the playing-marlling the
numb ers to see if there is any lucky figure.
Among them is woman wearing a black
bonnet, and faded black silk dress. She
has long row of figures. and is engaged
in a mathematical calculation to find out
the ratio between gains and losses. Look
at her face narrowly 1T is as cold and pas
sionless as that of yonder marble statue in
the park. She could see man step upon
the fatal drop and swing into eternity with
out raising her fan to shut out, even for 4
second, the horrid sight. No scene Of suf-
fering can change for an instant the rigidity
of that corrugated countenance-as hard
as the hardest steel! She has finished her
calculations, folds her paper slowly, puts
up her pencil deliberately, watches the ia
BILE, lays double guilder on number twelve,
sees it swept away lays another-another
"a fourth all are gone, but the fifth wins
the sixth loses, yet there is no change of
feature in that metallic countenance.
There is another woman clothed in black
bonnet. shawl and dress all black-mourn-
ing raimcnt, perhaps, for some friend gone
to the future life. Fifty years ago she was
a child, but Time has changed her once "a
ven hair to an iron gray. Her cheeks were
blooming once, but now they are bleached
to ashy whiteness. Her lips are thin, and,
at times, they are drawn tightly across the
teeth. She is restless. There is constant
movement of hands and arms, 4 turning of
the head, quick glanceupon the throng,
now to the right, now to the left, con-
slant REIMBURSEMENT of her shawl, a
and when the dollar which she has laid
disappears, there is Il gasp and an III
voluntary reaching forth of the hand to
save it. She had Il pile of dollars a short
time since, but they have disappeared
She turns, with haggard countenance, to
go away. but the attraction of the place is
irresistible. She opens her pnrse, finds
another guilder, and, while looking at ii
breathes upon her fingers as if they were
hot. Passion has lighted the fires, and
every fibre, muscle and tendon is heated
She WINS and picks up the coin with q
CHASTITY smile at this freak of fortune.
Before we leave the hall let us take one
more look. There is one player whom we
must not pass by; it is an old woman, with
thin, gray hair hollow cheeks, toothless
gums, shrivelled countenance, deep set eyes
dim with age, and trembling hands. She
wears ill-fitting garments, an old straw bon,
net. trimmed with faded ribbons, shaw
worn threadbare. She is an old habitue OF
the place. Year after year she has sat by
this table. Many thousand francs she has
won and lost She is low down now. and
will he lower soon-in the grave. IIel
voice is sepulchral; hollow as if sounding
from tomb. She has six dollars in the
corner of dirty handkerchief; she plays
and every one is lost, then leaves the table
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