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

George Selwyn said he was in the right to deal /
with Shylocks, as he could give them pounds |
of flesh! On the death of Lord Holland he |
left Charles f154, 900 to pay his debts; it was |
all bespoke, and Fox soon became as deeply |
pledged as before. |
Amidst the widest excesses of youth, even |
while the perpetual victim of his passion for |
play, Fox eagerly cultivated his taste for let
ters, especially the Greek and Roman his
torians and poets, and he found resources in
their works under the most severe depressions
occasioned by losses. One morning, after he
had passed the whole night in company with
Topham Beauclerck at faro, the two friends
we're about to separate. Fox had lost through
the night, and was in frame of mind ap-
preaching to desperation. Beauclerck's
anxiety for the consequences which might
ensue led him to be early at Fox's lodg-
ings; and on arriving he inquired, not
without apprehension, whether he had
risen. The servant replied that Mr.. Fox
was in the drawing-room, when Beauclerck
walked up stairs and cautiously opened the
door, expecting to behold frantic gamester
stretched on the floor bewailing his losses;
but he was astonished to find him reading a
Greek Herodotus. On perceiving his friends
surprise Fox exclaimed, "What would you
have me do? 1 have lost my last shilling"
| Fox's best friends are said to have been
half ruined in annuities given by them as
securities for him to the Jews. e50O,0O0 a
year of such annuities of Fox and his
'society" were advertised to be sold at one
! time. Walpole notes that in the debate on
the Thirty-nine Articles "a religious de-
bate y, February 6, 1772, Fox did not
| shine. No wonder He had sat up playing
at hazard, at Almacks, from Tuesday evening,
| the 4th, till in the afternoon of Wednesday,
the 9Th. An hour before he had recovered
e12,0OO that he had lost; and by dinner,
which was at 3 o'clock, he had ended, losing
G11,0O0! On Thursday he spoke in the
above debate; went to dinner at past II at
night; from thence to Whites, where he
drank till the next morning; thence to
| Almack's, where he won 10000; and between
| and in the afternoon he set out for New
market. His brother Stephen lost Ell, 900
two nights AFTER and Charles 100000
more on the 13th so that in three nights
the two brothers-the eldest not twenty
five years of age-lost $3.50, 900! On
one occasion Stephen Fox was dreadfully
feeced at gaming house at the West End.
He entered it with 900, and left it with
out farthing. Mr.. Fox died at the age Of
fifty-seven. Probably no public man, of the
highest intellectual, social, and political
rank, either in England or in any other coun-
try, gained SO largely and desperately as Mr..
Fox. This was the great defect of his char
acter. In all other respects he was delight
full The pleasantly, perhaps, of no man of
wit had SO unlabored an appearance. 1t
seemed rather to escape from his mind
than to be produced by it. He had
lived on the most intimate terms with all
his contemporaries distinguished by
wit, politeness, philosophy, learning, or the
talents of public life. In the course of thirty
years he had known almost every man in
Europe whose intercourse could strengthen,
or enrich, or polish the mind. He was the
most Demosthenean speaker since the days of
Demosthenes. 81 knew him." said Edmund
Burke, "when he was nineteen; since which
time he has risen, by slow degrees, to be the
most brilliant and accomplished debater the
world ever saw"
Both Wilberforce and Pitt were at one
period of their lives gamesters Pitt once
lost e100 at the faro-table at Goosetree's but
soon after perceiving the fascination of
gaming, abandoned it forever.
Wilberforces own case is thus recorded by
his biographers, on the authority of his pri-
vate journal:-''We can have no play to-
night, complained some of the party at the
club, 'for st. Andrew is not here to keep the
bank" ''Wilberforce," said Mr. Bankes,
who never joined himself, 'if you will keep
it l will give you a guinea. The playful
challenge was accepted; but as the game
grew deep, he rose the winner of 9600.
Much of this was lost by those who were
only heirs to fortunes, and therefore could
C6.
The pain he felt at their annoyance cured
him of taste which seemed but too likely to
become predominant. -.r
Sir Philip Francis, the supposed author of
''Junius, was gambler, and the convivial
companion of Fox, who made him Knight
of the Bath. One evening Roger Wilbraham
came up to the whist-table where Sir Philip,
who for the first time wore the ribbon of the
order, was engaged in rubber, and said,
laying hold of the ribbon, $50 this is the
way they have rewarded you at last; bit of
red ribbon for your services; and that salts
they will give me, Sir Philip" The newly
made knight, who had twenty-five guineas
depending on the rubber, and who was not
denly turned round, and, looking at him
fiercely, exclaimed "a halter and be-" etc. ;
| Captain Dennis OKelly was called the Sad.
7 mirable Crichton" of the turf. A bet for q
} large sum having once been proposed to him,
the proposer asked O'Kelly where lay his
| estates to answer for the amount if he lost
my estates." cried O'Kelly. "Oh, if that's
what you name, I've a map of them here.
And opening his pocket-book, exhibited bank
notes to ten times the sum in question, and
ultimately added the iraQuirerS contribution
} to them.
Croekford's, which was opened in 1927
was the most famous of modern London
z gambling-houses. 1t was fashionable. Vel
lington, who was an original member, die
not play, being in this respect unlike Blucher
. who repeatedly lost everything he had
3 at play. Crockford was originally
fishmonger. In 1910 he retired million
| aire nuch as an Indian chief retires from