Omaha daily bee., 1884-05-16
WILD ENGLISH GAMBLERS.
Ruined British "BlOOdS" Who COOlly
BLOW their Brains Out,
The Days of Walpoie and the Noted
Cocoa Tree CIub-Men who
Gould CoolIy Lose 100000
at n Sitting.

hlJlOuBu AileTlCd, anu IlOIo pdIllC
ularly the cities Of New York and Wash
ington, have furnished many noted gam
blers, the amounts that have been staked
and lost or won at play on this side of the
Atlantic may be said to be small in com
parison with the tremendous ventures
made abroad. Now that gambling has
fallen into ~disrepute in England and in
some parts of the Continent, the wealth.
Ter classes and sporting men Of title fight
rather shy of the green cloth. But the
private clubs of London and the tables of
Monaco and Baden-Bade still furnish
their quota of patrons who frequently
make ventures and take risks that are
astonishing, and upon which the success
or complete ruin of the player depednds.
The famous old London gambling Kent
Cocoa Tree Club, in St. James street,
had its origin in a Tory chocolate house
in Queen Anne's days, and assumed the
higher form of a club in 1746. Members
of parliament and persons high in life
belonged to this club, which, it used to
be said, exercised a very important in
luence on the course of politics. In those
days members of parliament were not
always above taking a bride, and many
Of the Cocoa Tree gentlemen were only
too easilyinduced TO accept bank notes
for goo or E300 each when the ministry
hard pushed, were obliged to resort to
such q device to obtain support; and the
peace of Fontainebleau is alleged to have
cost the government in this way e25,-
600. Gambling also went on to a fearful
extent at the Cocoa Tree. Horace Wal
pole relates, in.l77O, that a Mr.. OBirne,
ar Irishman, won El00,C 0 from a young
Mr.. Harvey.
"You can never pay me-" said o.
Brine.
81 cam" replied the young fellow;
my estate will sell for the amount"
"No," said the Irishman, II will take
e10, 900, and we will throw for the old
ninety"
They did, andlHarvey won. In most
of the fashionable clubs of the last centu-
ry gaming wa carried on in the most
reckless manner In the club book of
Almack's there is this note:
"Mr. Flynne, hayinglwon only IL, 1000
guineas during the last two months,
retired in disgust March 81, 1772."
To lose e20,0 600 in one evening was
not unusual. Generally e1O, 900 in spe-
Gle lay on the table. A curious account
is given of the way these desperate gam
blers used to equip themselves for the
sport. They took off their embroidered
coats, put or frieze garments, protected
their lace rufles with pieces of leather,
shaded their eyes with broad brimmed
straw hats adorned with flowers and rib
bons, and wore masks to conceal their
emotionsl" That suicide was not an un-
frequent result of such high play can
hardly be wondered at. Lord Mountford,
a member of Whites, where the gamb-
ling was fearful, got SO terribly involved
that he determined to ask for a govern
ment appointment, and failing that, to
take his own life. He did fail, and after
asking several persons what was the east
est mode of dying, invited some friends
to dinner New Near's day, having supped
the evening before at Whites, where he
played at whist until l o'clock in the
morning. A fellow-member drinking to
him a happy New Year, she clapped his
hands strangely to his eyes," In the
morning. he sent for a lawyer and three
witnesses, made his will with great DELHI
Grafton, and then asked the lawyer if it
would stand good though he were to
shoot himself. The answer being yes,
he said:
"Pray stay while l step into the next
room," and then, retiring, shot himself
dead.
According to Walpole, three brothers,
members of Whites, contracted a gam
bling debt of $4,000, while Lord Foley's
two sons had to borrow money to such an
extent that the interest almost amounted
to Els, DOC, 900 a year. The same viva
cious chronicler OF the manner of his
times gives an almost incredible account
of Fox's love of play and dissipation. In
the debate on the thirty-ninth article, on
on February 6, 1878, he spoke very in
differently, which, Walpole says, was not
surprising under the circumstances
"He had sat up. playing hazard at
Almack's from Tuesday evening, the 4th,
till 3 in the afternoon of the following
day. An hour before he had won back
fl2,00O that he had lost, but by dinner
time, which was at B o'clock, when play
ended, he had lost e12, 900. On the
Thursday he spoke in the above debate;
went to dinner after IL at night; from
thence to Alnf sk's, where he won Co.
600, and, between 3 and A in the after
noon, he set out for Newmarket. His
brother Stephen lost ell ,0O0 two nights
after, and Charles e1O, 900 more on the
18th; 30 that, in three nights, the three
brothers, the eldest not 20 lost f32, 900.
Captain Gronow relates that, about this
time, Lord Robert Spencer and General
Eit1nafriaL MANA a1lnwa1 tn laan IN farr
bank at Brookes', and that the former
bagged, as his share of the proceeds,
9l00, 600; after which he never again
gambled. George Harley Drummond,
the banker, only played once in his
life, when he lost f20, 900 to Brummel,
and was obliged to ietire from the
firm. In the first hall of the Eighteenth
century, ladies of title kept gambling
houses.
An entry il the Journals of the House
of Lords, dated April 20, 1745, shows
that Ladies Mornington aud Cassius
claimed privilege of peerage in resisting
certain peace officers in doing their duty
in ''suppressing certain gaming houses
kept by the said ladies'" but the claim
was not allowed. Betting was also in
dulged in at the clubs with'as much fran-
tic zest as play. Anything served as
an excuse, and sometimes the occasions
of the bets were so shocking
that the men of the least
ecency would have shrunS
from associating them with any form of
amusement, A man dropped down at
the door of Whites and was carried into
the house; immeditely the betting har-
pc, were stalking large sums on the ques-
ton whether he was dead or not: and
when it was proposed t. bleed him, those
- Ia 49,. njJs tbak bfa ,vaa ~axtinct