The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-01


able at the Persian Court in the times of the
younger Cyrus (about four hundred years
before the Christian era).
Among the ancient Roman Emperors gaming
was fashionable. Augustus was greatly ad
dicted to, and even gloried in it. The Oe-
sars indulged in it, At the gaming table
Caligula stopped even to falsehood and per-
Jury. On one occasion, after having con-
dernned to death several Gauls of great opu-
lence, he Immediately went back to his gam
bling companions and said, 81 pity you when
see you lose q few sestertii while, with
stroke of the pen, l have Just won six hun
dred Millions" (Thirty millions of pounds
sterling) The Emperor Claudius played like
an imbecile; Nero like mailman. The latter
would stake four hundred thousand sestertii
(G20,000) on a single throw of the dice.
Claudius played at dice on his journeys,
having the interior of his carriage SO
arranged as to prevent the motion from
interfering with the game. Seneca, in
his play on the death of Claudius, repre-
sents him as in the lower regions condemned
to pick up dice forever, putting them into
a box without a bottom. Caligula was re-
preached for having played at dice on the day
of his sisters funeral. Domitian gained from
morning to night, without excepting the fes-
tivals of the Roman calendar. The day on
which Didius Julianus was proclaimed en-
peror, he walked over the dead and bloody
body of Pertinax, and began to play at dice
in the next room. Finally, at the epoch when
Constantine abandoned Rome never to re-
turn, every inhabitant of that city, down to
the populace, was addicted to gambling.
In France, during the reign of Henry ",
gambling became the rage. Many distin-
guished families were utterly ruined by it,
The Due de Biron lost, in single year, more
than 500 900 crowns (about G125, 0oO). 'AIy
son Constant" says DAubigne, lost twenty
times more than he was worth; SO that find
ing himself without refources, he abjured his
religion" It was at the court of this king
that was invented the method of speedy ruin
by means of written vouchers for loss, which
simplifed the thing in all subsequent times.
One can scarcely form an idea of the extent
of gaming at this period. Bassompierre de-
clares, in his Memoirs, that he won more
than 500, 900 ivres (f25, ,000) in one year, and
his friend Pimentello won more than 200, 900
crowns ESQ, ,000). Late in life Bassompierre
won ESQ, 900 at a single sitting from M. de
Guise, Joinville, and the Marechal d'Ancre.
But, like most gamblers, he died SO poor that
he did not leave enough to pay the twentieth
part of his debt.
Henry " was finally cured of gambling.
Having lost an immense sum at play he asked
his Minister, the great Duke of Sully, for the
money. The latter demurred, so that the
king had to send to him several times. Finally
Sully took him the money and spread it out
before him ON the table, exclaiming, ''There
is the sum !" Henry fixed his eyes on the vast
amount. 1t is said to have been enough to
purchase Amiens from the Spaniards, who then
held it, The king thereupon exclaimed: :-'I
am corrected! L will never again lose my
money at gaming!"
Fouche, the minister of police, derived an
income of G12S,00 year for licensing, or
"privileging, gaming houses, to which cards
of address were regularly furnished. Be-
sides this, the keepers of the houses were
compelled to hire and pay 100000 persons
employed in those houses as cr0upierS, or
attendants at the gaming table, from half a
crown to half a guinea day; and all these
120, 900 persons were spies Of f0uche :!
There were no gamestresses among the
Greeks, and the Roman women were always
too much occupied with their domestic affairs
to find time for play. What will our modern
ladies think when we state that the Emperor
Augustus scarcely wore garment which had
not been woven by his wife, his sister, or
granddaughters (''Veste non temere ALA
guam domestica usus est, alb uxore ct fila
nepotibusque confecta." Suet. in Vit9
CRSdrum.)
In France, women wishing to gamble were at
first obliged to keep the thing secret for if it
became known they lost caste. In the reigns
of Louis XIV and Louis XIV they became
bolder, and the wives of the great engaged
in the deepest play in their mansions; but
still a gamestress was always denounced with
horror. ''Such women, says La Bruyere,
snake us chaste; they have nothing of the
sex but its garments" Then, as now, the
vice led to other crimes. The Countess of
Schwiechelt, young and beautiful lady from
Hanover, was much given to gambling, and
lost so, 900 livres at Paris. In order to repair
this great loss she planned and executed the
robbery of q fine coronet of emeralds, the
property of Madame Demidoff She had made
herself acquainted with the place where it was
kept, and at a ball given by its owner, the
Hanoverian lady contrived to purloin it. Her
youth and rank in life induced many persons
to solicit her pardon; but Bonaparte left hel
to the punishment to which she was con
demned. This occurred in 1904.
OF English gamestresses Goldsmith men
tions an old lady in the country who, having
been given over by her physician, played with
the curate of the parish to pass the time
away. Having won all his money, she mex
proposed playing for the funeral charges Il
which she would be liable. Unfortunately
the lady expired just as she had taken up the
game
A lady who was desperately fond of play
was confessing herself. The priest repre-
sented, among other arguments agains
gaming, the great loss of time it occasioned
"Ah !" said the lady, ''that is what vexes M,
so mach time lost IN shutting the cardSi"
A curious case is reported in the Londol
papers of 1920 of James Lloyd, who practices
, on the credulity of the lower orders by keep
, ing LitHe GO, or illegal lottery. He wa
brought up for the twentieth time to answe
= for that offense. This man was Methods
f preacher, and assembled his neighbors ia
| L.