The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-03-23
FEMALE GAM BLERS.
A Fow of Those who Figure Conspicuously
In English History.

A Fow of Those Who Figure Conspicuously
in English History.
In England. as in France the passion
for gambling has often reduced women
OF the nobest birth to the lowest depths
of depravity. From illusions in old
plays, such as .1he Provoked Hus.
band" and from Walpoles Letters"
and other publications, 1t is evident
that the sacrifice of honor was not an
infrequent method of paying gambling
debts The stakes were generally high,
and the debts incurred were a first
charge on the sensitiveness of the un-
fortunate lady players:
So tender these-if debts crowd fast upon
She'll pawn her virtue to preserve her honor.
Hogarth, in his picture entitled
"Piquct, or Virtue in Danger" realized
exactly the female gamblers fall and
his truthfulness was amply testified
TO by frequent occurrences in actual
life. A single illustration of these
may suffice. A lady was married
while very young to an English noble.
Ere long she was introduced to pro-
ltSSlOltl SsliilCobiSoSs wac lCu iiihO DluJ
and lost more in single night than
ever she could hope to pay. Her honor
paid the debt. Soon afterward the
gamblers boasts revealed the truth to
the ladys husband, and duel was the
necessary result. The gambler was
shot dead by the injured husband, after
which the latter actually offered to
pardon his wife and restore her to her
former position. The wife refused,
gave herself up entirely TO gambling
and its consequences, and the husband
died of II broken heart.
The stakes for which ladies played
during the closing years of the eigh-
teenth and the opening years of the
present century, were often OF consid.
cradle magnitude. In 1776, q lady in a
fashionable quarter of London, lost, at
n single sitting-according to the "An-
nual Register no less than 5000
guineas at loo; and at Lady Bucking-
hamshire's faro table in st. James
square, there were often enormous sums
lost in play.
Lady Buckinghamshire, it may be re-
marked, was perhaps the most notori-
Gus gamestress of her day. She actu-
ally slept with pair of pistols and
blunderbuss by her side for the pro-
lection of her cherished bank. Her
career, however, was a somewhat
checkered one. In the Times for
March 13, 1897. there is a police court
report which goes to show that Lady
Buckinghamshire's speculations were
not always free from worry. A couple
of days prior to the appearance of the
report her ladyship, together with
Lady T.. Luttrell and Mrs. Sturt, was
brought up at the Marlborough street
police court and fined ESQ for playing
at faro, while Henry Martindale, her
manager, was mulcted in f20O.
Later in the same year her croupier
got into trouble through the disap-
pearance of the cash-box. Awkward
stories of stolen purses. snuff-boxes and
cloaks began to be told, and finally
Martindale became bankrupt to the
tune of E32S, 600, besides debts of
honor" to the amount of ESQ, 900.
Lady Buckinghamshire. by the way,
was not the only titled dame of the
olden days who not only gambled, but
kept gambling establishments. One of
these professional gamestresses actual
ly applied to the House of Lords Tor
protection against police intrusion on
the plea that she was peeress OF
Great Britain.
81, Dame Mary. Baroness Of Mord-
ington," ran the petition. ''do hold a
house in the Great Piazza, Covent
Garden, for and as an assembly where
all persons of credit are at liberty to
frequent and play at such diversions as
are used at other assemblies and
demand all those privileges that belong
to me as peeress of Great Britain, ap-
pertaining to my said assembly"
The House of Lords very properly re-
fused her request. All the Year Round.