Weekly Trinity journal., 1869-10-23
The Gamblers at HOmburg.

The following graphic picture of the people
who surround the tables in the gamblers para
disc, we take from the correspondence of the
Continental Gazette:
Now watch the game in operation it sounds
more complex affair than it is. Look at that
tall man with the heavy. bushy mustache, who
has just tossed gold piece on the numbers,
seemingly indifferent to which it lights The
croupier bows, and indicating twelve with the
end of his rake, inquiries by the gesture if that
be where the money is to be staked. The play
ers face is not common one, neither German,
English nor French in type-a bold, manly face,
too-thought, obstinacy and resolution about it.
He does not look like communicative man, nor
of those one would ask to pass the salt, or give
a light for cigar There goes the machine
The keen eyes of the banker and croupiers are
on every square inch of the table to see that no
stake is placed or altered when the ball falls.
So did you not hear it drop? ." Rien ne ga
plus, Trentedeur, rouge, pair, ct passe" Such is
the bankers declaration.
With half smile the tall loser of the gold
piece turns away, his eyebrows lifting slightly
as he encounters the glance of two gentlemen,
who, standing behind, move aside to let him
pass, and follow him at a short distance as he
moves toward the doors. His gold piece is
tossed in among the rest tomorrow it Will be
no longer recognizable. The hand that staked
it can do much, but cannot make the double
Frederick worth more than twenty forins, al
though it belongs to Alexander, Emperor of All
the Russias.
Turn your eyes upon that group of people
pressed one against the other, to watch those
two Frenchmen who are playing in concert at
the roulette table. Well, within that group are
to be found representatives of most of the classes
into which nature, employment, or necessity has
forced the flood of humanity to diyerge. Can
YOU recognize any of the spectators? No. The
man whose broad shoulders intercept your view
spends fortune in advertising quack medi-
cine; the advertisement sheet of every news
paper in the United States undergoes course Of
his pills. Near him again, is an oddity the
old old man in the brown coat with a cape to
it. He was at the Duchess ball at Brussels on
that memorable summer night in -15. The
British treasury has paid him half-pay for fifty
years, which he has regularly lost at roulette ;
be spends his life compiling system of play, in
the belief that the bank is to be broken by arith
metic.
What lovely face that girls who has just
handed form to the croupier to stake for her.
Where are we to find the blue with which her
eyes are painted? So young, so beautiful and
so innocent; for crime itself would be found not
guilty if detected in such guise. Mercy upon
us, what sham the world is. She is Frulein
- la sylphide des sylphides of the ballet at Ber-
lin !; and that gentleman who has arrested her
hand in the act of passing another stake to the
croupier is Herzog Won, her protector.
The Jews abound here. Splendid heads have
some of them. Homburg is their paradise.
Here is one before us-a pleasant face, fair,
ford, blue-eyed, xon-looking-English did
you say? Not bit of it; German as the Drach-
en:els, and deeper than the Rhine at Bingen
Measure him from his well-made boots to his
delicately- y-coored neckte. Is there something of
design in the idely-thrown-back coat-front ?
The waist-coat is spotlessly white, the watch
guard massive, and the dangling pendants
bulky Is there purpose in the ungloved left
hand the diamond in the ring has certainly no
flaw? His race has known how to distinguish pure
stones and standard gold ever since it spoiled
the Egyptians. He eyes you keeny it. is his
business to scan faces and fathom pockets. But,
let US be just; the Homburg banker and money
lender loves gold without hating his fellow
creatures, and, if he has many acceptances in
his iron chest, he has heart in his own. His
mania is to collect autographs beneath Orders
to pay" Do you not suppose that be has not
already calculated the depth of your purse, and
is now calculating your losses - at roulette ?
Well, if flies will dash into webs, spiders must
eat them The embryo Redpaths and Robsons
of society are there, too, looking with sckeninp
heart at the rake of the croupier pitilessly over
taking the gold diverted from its legitimate des-
tiration, aad feeling the damp shade of the
prison creeping over the glittering saloons-the
looming event casting its shadow before"