The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1891-06-09
GAMBLING IN ENGLAND.
It Is INDUCED In Largely Among
Fashionable Circles.
A Vice Into Which the Gentler Sex Is Be-
coming lnitiated-The Card Table
Fast Becoming = Popu-
lar Resort.

Despite all that has been done by the
legislature and the police for putting
down gaming in those forms in which
they ca n take cognizance of it, it is now
practiced, under conditions which pre-
clude the interposition of the law and
its emissaries. to an extent and in a
manner which would have astonished
even the veteran frequenters of Crock
ford's and the Cocoa Tree in their palmy
days. 1t is true, says the London
World, that cards have supplanted dice
as the leading instruments of specula-
ton, and that baccarat instead of haz-
ard is the pastime principally in vogue.
But for all practical purposes the first
are not less effective than the second in
running fortunes and regulations, and
lend themselves quite as readily to the
transference of large sums of money.
In many respects, indeed, the gamb-
ling of the present is far more open to
objection than the gambling of the past.
In the old time, when gaming-houses,
whether in the shape of clubs or ordin-
airy houses, were tolerated, high play
was for the most part restricted to men.
No doubt few notorious women of
rank and fashion were in the habit of
playing high at one another's own
houses. But nearly all the gambling
was practiced at gaming-clubs, and to
them women were not admitted. In adj
dition to this, no man either belonged to
gamingclub or entered except with
the full intention of joining in the diver
sion there provided for him, and,
whatever his luck might be, he in
CURED the risks to which he was
exposed deliberately and of malice
prepense. At gaming-clubs public
ity generally, If not invariably, in
sured fair play, and, save in the way of
loans from the proprietary, there was
then no credit. Between the gamesters
themselves every transaction was
ready-money one, and thus, while win
ners received their gains at once, losers
were checked in any reckless attempt
that they might be disposed to make in
order to recover themselves. In private
gambling all this is changed, and, with
every disadvantage, not a single ad-
vantage incidental to public gambling
is present. In certain well-known
London drawing-rooms, and at host
of country houses, women are not less !
eager than men to hurry to the card
table, and neither in playing nor in
paying can many Of them, it is to be
be held up as examples of
rectitude and precision to the other sex.
Whether people will or will not join in
the game, more especially in the seelu-
sion of rustic retreat, does not de-
pend upon themselves They are ex-
pected to do as others do, and in certain
circles an invitation may be equivalent
to a command.
Moreover, it does not seem to be by
any means clear that even in the Sc
ectest assemblies the mistakes and
wrongs of fortune are always permitted
% pass uncorrected or unrepaired. And,
'urther, when everything is fair and
lbove board, it is impossible among
friends and acquaintance to refuse
.redit, and so to prevent plunging and
he importation of what may prove to
,e impossible sums for the benefit of
hose who may have suffered from
I'm of adverse luck. On the whole, in
ruth, as the late Lord Harrington, the
asst survivor of the gaming committee
f the house of commons, whose report
Crockford's and the London
ellis generally, stated in Blackwood's
1agazine shortly before his death, had
hey been aware of the dimensions
yhich private gambling was destined
, assume, they would never have re-
the abolition of public
ambling, which of the two is by far
ne less injurious and liable to abuse. /