The Republican journal., 1875-01-28
should bring them In it's wake. Money is

- n111na1ll
should bring them In it's wake. Money is
scarce here and schemihg over. Inyesti-
cations and buckwheat cakes ale the only
staples of the year There are not less
than twenty gaming houses, generally OF
a small pattern and in quarters of ambigu-
Gus responsibility, where the Virginans,
Marylanders and old District roa1cs make
their resort, and, though they are perfect
ly secure from the law, very determined
effort to break them having shown that
the officials were more smirched than the
gamesters, yet could never perceive that
any Of these people made more than 4
livelihood But there are men here who
play Boston and poker among gentlemen
and have the reputation OF being rich. A
fair proportion of public men gamble
among each other all the while when at
leisure 1t is the habit at the West and
South. and army life taught thousands of
young officers the fascination OF the draw.
| heard group OF naval officers, discuss
inc Commander Cushing, who died last
week, say that his rash and large wagers
on shipboard with a small poker hand,
were as characteristic as his physical
bravery. But there is no hotel nor club in
Washington where company OF men
may not call for cards and servant and
keep up the combat all night The hotels
generally have card-rooms detached from
the family parts OF the house 1t remains
to be seen whether splendid supper and
an elegant house will WOO the sporting
element from its many sanctums, and
realize the ideas of Chamberlin. A club
house is seldom individual property or even
a partnership, and its visible sponsors FREE
quenty are backed in the bedrock of Wall
street
GROWTH OF GAMING.
The power of these machine games or
baizc table games to intensity the spirit of
chance is in their rapdity. The roulette
ball spins in such way as to arouse the
nervous system, rafting on rs if it would
stop directly, and yet seeming to continue
us long as the futter of play is in any re-
manning breast
70 the deal of faro, silent and steady,
crowd responds us to the work Of an auc-
tioneer and the nerves Of hazard are played
upon by the variable fortune Of the deal
until the coolest watcher who can under
stand the game grows sympathetic. More
over there is more romance ascribed to a
life of this demi-respectable sort than has
foundation in any reality. With their oc-
casional designations, gamblers-in-c hiefare
merely hard merchants, with the advant-
age at every point, They get pawnbrokers'
interest-not per annum, but per minute.
There is a small percentage, and the bank
has sure thing if there is enough to play
| know that every man of this kind ever
talked to advised me never to try the I'M
equal chance. Still, the great temptation
to game may be in the apparent honesty
of such admissions Poker have always
regarded as the most unequal and danger
Gus of all games, being play on the
character and the pocket at once. A young
man of fortune resident here told me that
it had cost him $50, 900 to play it, and he
had not learned it yet In the United
States Senate there is IA full qlloram of
poker players. When the Cabinet meets
together there are said to be two. This
game was introduced in England. some
say by General Schenck, who is a strong
player, a trihe too obstinate and it's sim
plicity and the powerful grip it has on the
eXcitabilities, as well as the steadier and
more untlinching qualities, greatly re-
commend it to Britons
THE HOSPITALITY OF THE PLACE.
In France the Empire took a course the
opposite Of ours with the deep seated hu-
man passion of gaming, rigidly suppress
ing it. but turning it into revenue through
municipal! lotteries for useful OBJ
jects, themselves taxed by the Imperial
harpy. M. Blanc, the great gambler of
Monaco, TO whose hereditary prince he
pays 100000 a year for the privilege, is
the same whom the Kaiser repealed from
Baden Baden. John Chamberlin is the
first sporting man who has assumed to
keep clubhouse on the scale of such
in the District of Columbia.
Nothing is more unobtrusive than this
place; no body letters around it; there is
no appearance OF illegality in closed shut
tiers or paid door-keepers. To all exterior
appearance it is still the home of the Brit
lsh Minister, with stables. grooms and ac-
cessorles as before. Entering, we'll
dressed negro bows the way Mann. in
his habltual blue broadcloth and rather
affable face, meets the arrivals
under the dome the sideboard is suggest
ed by the old negro. Trusty, as a matter
worth consultation. The whole OF the low
er part OF the house, brilliantly lighted, |
and room unfolding to room over a large
area, rather dazzles the eye and mind
with sense ofexteng and intricacy which
is further borne out by the curious hexa-
gonal and octagonal shapes of some of the
apartments. The wall paper is in general |
Of gilt and green-old but respecta Bile
Rosewood and red cedar are the wood col |
DIS. The carpets are Brussels, worn but |
'lch. Several OF knapps pictures remain, |
chiefly landscapes, and among them a !
large mosaic of Greek temple In the !
autumn OF next year the house will be re-
furnished. The following articles of food |
were called over by the servant the night
L looked in there: Beefsteak Sixteen
pounds, four inches thick) mutton chops,
kidneys whole, lambs fries,
broiled oysters, celery. lettuce, chicken
and lobster salads, pigs feet. snipe, quail,
woodcock, canvas back duck, halibut
smelts, roast turkey. Sixteen persons in
all are required to conduct the place as at
present, before the hotel feature is added.
The visible proprietor of this house
Chamberlln-is a stout, Italian-looking
man, OF not more than thirty-fiye years Of
age, and even very youthful appearance
and address. He is sort of Fra Dlavo-
10 IN the performance, more beau than
brigand and he does not approach the
games, but talks and hears talking, and
pacliles people. Charles Mann walks up
ana down the gaming rooms like Il Ser
geant-at-Arms whom the barber has great
" exerted himself upon. The chief per-
former at the balze was Il man of such cx-
ceeding badness that he seemed to me to
be naked from the waist up, and to have
abandoned very profitable occupation as
milllner's block. If it is necessary to be
as a little newborn child to enter the
Kingdom of Heaven, this man can crate
fully sing, 'Just as | am, without one
plea!'
This institution will suggest the ques-
ton of what kind of a government is to
be given to this District, for on that de-
pends the regulation Of subjects like the
above, which are intrenched in means and
friends and can be expelled by nothing
less than Government or poverty. By the