New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-11-14
Last Days Of the Gaming Tables.

for living here. In the old DAYS it wa:
rarely, indeed, that YOU saw two PLAYERS
claiming the same stake, when the stake wa:
OF any Importance. Cferaiters d'ndust,i
knew the chief croupier was there to pro
tect the customers as well as the bank, ant
that false claim would probably be punished
! by exposure Or expulsion. If the director
found himself puzzled to pronounce, or be.
| lieved both claims to be made in good faith
| he generally paid both the claimants. Now
| such sQuabbles are OF hourly occurrence, and
over sums so large that it is difficult to at
tribute the false claim to misrepresentation.
That is the reason, perhaps, why the bank
has abandoned the old system of Cancellation
as too costly, and has taken to the cheaper
plan of leaving the rivals to fight it out
But the result is that the rooms have come
to resemble beer gardens, while no gentle
man can seat himself to play except at the
hazard Of an alteration with some hrazen-
tongued escroc or brazen-faccd lorette. Reason
the more surely for ladies', and especially Eng
lish ladies', staying away. AT least one would
fancy so, for the tradition still fingers with
us of the times when the typical English wo-
man was regarded as the incarnation of purity
approaching to austerity, and ladies of indif-
ferent character We're constrained to ape
their hetters. The Mesdames Cruchecassee
might sheer at the shy forocity of the Eng
lish woman's virtue and the chilly prrldery
OF her deneanOr; the men might admire
and sheer and call her te0sieule. But on
the whole, when the Englishman would
carry his head high and declare himself
c1cis Roaaaaus, he neverfelt more proud of his
country than when he contrasted the be-
haviOr OF his Countrywomen with that of their
tereign sisters. Now all that is changed.
An En9lshman in difficulties must stand, as
well he may, on his individual character, and
say as little as may be about his Roman
citizenship. If any one Is entitled to boast
or to bully on the strength Of his citizenship
it is subject of the now Holy Roman En-
pire, whose capital is Berlin and whose
prophet is Bismarck. We know better than
foreigners that, if Englishmen abroad have
for time lost something of their self-respect,
it is owing to the timid, penny-wise policy
and the sentimental decisions of Govern
ment, and not any decay of the national
spirit. But morals are known to deteriorate
when nations suffer in their self-respect, and
the greater laxity of manners among our
travelling countrywomen is an unpleasant
coincidence, to say the least of it. Time
was when, if you saw one of them regularly
seated at the tables, you could pronounce
oif-hand on her character with little danger
OF doing her injustice. Anonyma risked her
some fallen Becky Sharpe came down in
faded finery from her garnet to try and double
the form or two she had obtained from doubt
ful charity. Now, every one seems to make
their game, the women, as freely and bodily
as the men. They may not stake so heavily
as Jewish bankers from Frankfort, Russian
princes, Magyar boyards, or Mediterranean
and pon cause i; but they play out
to the limits of their tether, and often their
tether appears to be pretty long one. 1t
is not case of borrowing form or two
from husband, father, or brother, throwing
them endways on to the cloth, blushing
to the roots of the hair, as, seeing them roll
about, they explain to the croupiers where
they desire to place them, and finally show
ing white teeth and dimples when the stakes
were swept up by the remorseless rake. Not
at ALL Nowadays the English maid or mat
ron draws in her chair in most business-like
fashion, smilingly receiving the cards to cut
from gentleman with the brand of the gall
legs on his features, and possibly the mark
OF the chain on his ankle. On the other side
she rubs shoulders with lady much letter
known than respected in the Partisan dane
ing saloons, and about whose vocation, in
deed, there could be no manner of doubt,
even if she did not offcher it by costume
excessively decotlette and tawdry blaze of
geous show she has greatly the disadvantage
of her English neighbor. Except that the
jewels of the one are real and those of the
other sham-that the chains of "respecta-
bility" are gold, while those of dsreputa-
bility are mOsaic-the pair might be intimates
if not sisters. Possibly week or so may
bring them yet nearer identity when the cou-
pie Of ladies have established a play-table
intimacy, and the English Jewels have gone
to the mont-depiete. For in the frankness of
the excitement of winning and losing as the
game goes on, the English woman exchanges
congratulations or coincidence, on holds coun-
sci with her neighbors, and SO the intimacy
warns fast. The young matrons may show
themselves the more easy at first, on the
strength Of their matrOnhOOd; but in the
greater exuberance Of their girlish spirits the
maids soon make up for lost time when once
they are fairly intoxicated with the excite
ment. The intoxication is kept up, for when
their impressonable natures have been steep
ed in the spirit of the game, they can never
keep themselves away from the tables.
There they are the first thing in the morning,
when the great professional players, worn
with long years Of dissipation, are still tri-
fling over their breakfast. There they are
the last thing at night, scrambling for NapO-
Icons with fingers sparkling with rings, among
all the fasCality ana TOueTle Ol Europe.
There are women among them, too-public
characters they choose to make themselves,
so we need not scruple to write Of them
who bring their children as regularly as they
come themselves, and, strange to say, they
are not ostracised altogether by their own
seq, while they are the objects of assiduous
calamity to travelling countrymen of charac-
ter who may be presumed to possess humanity
and sense. Yet, for our own part, were we
to embody the Spirit of Evil, We should
scarcely know how to incarnate it more APP
propriately than in an attractive woman who
day after day, seats her child beside her in a
hell, just at the age when it is most impress.
sionable. Women Of the kind may be the
exception, but then they are generally toll
Grated in such English society as fingers or
at :: German gambling place when the lights
are being extnguished for the season ani
the best company has departed. BE the
cause of this sad change what it may, we may
| be thankful that the German Government
has decided to remove this temptation from
the way Of weak natures, now that the ole
conventional restraints are being so fast re
laxed Should any other country extend i'll
hospitality to the tables after the scandals
of the last few months in Germany, at leas
it will do it with open eyes.--PaA Mall Ga
zette.
Last DAYS Of "a Noted Horse.