Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-07-22
GAMBLING NPARlS.

GAMBLING INPARls.
A Glance at the Popular Hells and Their
Peculiar Management.
AS there is reason to believe that the
English police contemplate making a
raid on the foreign gambling clubs in
London, it may be of interest at the
present time to consider the manage
ment of similar places on the other side
of the Channel. In France the main
difference between the vulgar tripot
and the cercle are these: There is not
in the latter solidly organized con-
spiracy against every player, and it is
expected that nervous excitement will
not show itself in foul language and
abuse. When resentment is violent,
the duel is the only channel through
which it must flow, unless player is
caught in the act of cheating. Con-
spiracies, indeed, exist in the most gen.
tlemanly clubs between members who
are birds Of a afeather and ''garcons>de
jcux." But they must be conducted
with much tact, and give rise to no cry
ing scandal. Well-bred men hate
noise, however immoral their practice
may be. In the tripot there is no ef-
fective committee to hold in the owner
and the rascals who are in league with
him. The police alone can control
them, and know, from an official
source, that, as it is their habit to re-
ceive hush-money from grecs, their Sc
verify is more apparent than real
There arc high officials at the Prefec-
ture of Police who protect gangs that
operate in Paris. Although from fifty
to sixty inferior hells are yearly sup
pressed in the French capital, 1000 dis
guised gambling houses are tolerated,
and frequented by whole army of men
who live at once upon their wits and on
the fat of the land. But, leading few
erish and nocturnal life, they soon lose
elasticity and break down. Not less
than 5000 have 'dossiers' at the Pre-
lecture of Police. The "dossier,' or
''record," is kept in the archives of the
department which is especially charged
| to watch men and women of vicious
lives, who may or may not belong
technically to the criminal classes. 1t
is pigeon-holed in alphabetical order,
in strong blue wrapper, folding in all
| directions, and consists of reports of
secret police inquiries, cuttings from
newspapers and letters of denunciation,
with records of tho Investigations
which they led to. A card-sharper's
| dossicr is sometimes communicated to
Scotland Yard, but in strict confidence;
the non-oflicial mortal who has been
| allowed to 90 over one is rare.
The gamblers who may be counted as
being shady, and yet have not dossiers
form community of about twelve
thousand. They, and gamesters who
arc not "blown' upon, but who are in
corrigiblc in their passion for the
tables, might people large city. The
number of shop assistants, clerks and
so on who haunt the tripots is prodi-
gious. Artists and Students, of science
and literature arc less addicted to tho
vice of gambling than young men en-
gagged in commercial pursuits. If tho
former have merely bread and cheese
their thoughts do not greatly turn
poor fellow! thinks that wealth and
happiness are synonymous. Small
master -tradesman also steal in crowds
to the tripots and rush to bookmaking
agencies and race-courscs, which last
have done more than anything else to
let loose the demon of gambling. The
imagination and all the higher faculties
are bent on one idca-how to make
money quickly. In this age of sudden
krachs, the situation of tradesman is
precarious, and so he tries to force the
hand of fortune in hell. lola has yet
to write the monograph of the petit
bourgeois who frequents the tripot.
There arc hclls for women. which are
the most hcllish of any. This is a case
for saying, "Glissez, mortel, nap
puycz pas.
The police know that there is daily
cagnottc in the inferior cercles of Paris
which probably reaches a total Of 14O,-
100000 frapcs year. We're the crou-
piers honest, this sum, great as it is,
would be considerably exceeded; and
what is lost and won at the watering
place casinos must be prodigious.
The suppression of gambling in Ger
many to some extent explains why it
RACES with so much violence in France.
Early in the last decade new cerclcs
started up to supply the cravings of
those gamesters who used to 90 to
Badcn-Badcn and Hamburg and run
back when they were cleaned out.
The contagion spread. Horse-racing,
which Dc Morney promoted on the
grounds that it improves horse-hcsh
and circulates money briskly, has
steadily fed the fever. So has the lot
terry which government has encouraged
under the pretext Of forwarding patri-
otic and charitable enterprises. One
4 commercial result of the spread of the
hells is the ruin of the cafcs-rcstaurants.
Hardly any of the first or even second
class restaurants arc now able to make
both ends meet. If French ladies were
not fond of going for change to dine
in cabinets particuliers and the demi-
monde were not still power, Big
non 8, the Cafe Anglaise and Petcrs's
would have to follow the example of
the Cafe Hclder in winding up. The
spreading-out of Paris to some extent
draws the rush of life from the old
boulevards; but the restaurants could,
nevertheless, go on prospecting were it
not for the hells. know Of a grandiose
hell where dejeuner is provided at
from three to five francs, which would
be charged twenty francs for at Big
nom s and could not be furnished at q
second-rate house. All the vices are
now and then g]orified in its salons, as
soirees artistiques ct dramati1ue At
these entertainments special reviews,
charades and comediettas are played.
If not written in Latin, they brave
l'honnefofe They arc not mere riskx