River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-07-23
GAMBLING IN PARIS.
A Glance at the Popular Hells and TheiI
Peculiar Management.

A Glance at the Popular HeIIs 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 |
caught in the act of cheating. Con-
spiracies, indeed, exist i'll the most gen
| tlemanly clubs between members who
are birds of feather and 'garcons de
jeux.' 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 10 re-
ceive hush-money from grecs, their Sc
verify is more apparent than real.
There are high officials at the Prefcc-
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
guSed 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, headings 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
4 to watch men and women Of vicious
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 dcnunciation,
! with records of the investigations
which they led to. A card-sharper
dossier is sometimes communicated to
/ Scotland NarI Int ~, l.
the nOn-oilicial mortal who has been
allowed to 90 over one is rare.
The gamblers who may be counted as
being shady, and yet have not doSsicrs
form community of about twelve
thousand They, and gamesters who
are not blown upon, but who are in
corrigible 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 are less addicted to the
vice of gambling than young men en-
gagged lin commercial pursuits. If the
former have merely bread and cheese
their thoughts do not greatly turn
upon money. The commercial gent.
poor fellow! thinks that wealth and
happiness are synonymous. Small
Observation-Disclosures also steal in crowds
to the tripots and rush to bookmaking
agencies and racc-courScS. which last
have done more than anything else to
LEI loose The demon Of gambling The
imagination and all the higher faculties
are bent on one idea how to make
money quickly. In this age of sudden
krachs, the situation of a 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 are hells for women. which are
the most hellish of any. This is a case
for saying, "Glssez, mortcl, II zap
puyez pas.
The police know that there is daily
cagnottG in the inferior ccrcleS of Paris
which probably reaches total Of no.
100000 francs a year. Were 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 il
RACES with so much violence in France.
Early in the last decade new ccrcleS
started up to supply the cravings of
| those gamesters who usedI to 90 to
Baden-Baden and Hamburg and run
back when they were cleaned out.
The contagion spread Horse-racing,
which DE Mornev promoted on the
! grounds that it improves horse-lcsh
and circulatcs money briskly, has
steadily fed the fever. So has the lot
terry which government has encouraged
under the preteXt of forwarding patri-
ot, and charitable enterprises. One
commercial result of the spread of the
! bells is the ruin of the cafes-rcstaurantS
Hardly any of the first or even second
class restaurants are now able to make
both ends meet. If French ladies were
not fond of going for change to dine
in cabinets particulars and the demi-
monde were not still a power. Big
non $. the Cafe Anglaisc and Peters
would have to follow the example of
/ the Cafe Helder in winding up. The
spreading-Out of Paris TO some extent
| draws the rush of life from the old
! boulcyards; but the restaurants could,
nevertheless, 90 on prospecting were it
! hot for the bells. know of grandiose
nell where a deieuner is provided at
/ from three to five francs, which would
be charged twenty francs for at Big
mons and could not be furnished at a
second-rate house. All the vices are
now and then glorifed in ts salons, as
soirees artstiques ct dramatilues. At
these entertainments special reviews,
charades and comcdiettas are played. |
If not written in Latin, they brave
! 'honnetete. They are not mere risky |
gauoiseries, intended just to raise a
/ laugh, but are calculated to unloose
the brute beast which lies hidden in 50
many civilized beings These divertsse-
ments get to the head like drugged
wine. and attach young fools, and
still more old fools, TO the disguised
! hell.-Loudon Truth.
-
Garfield on Margins.
Life is almost wholly made up of /