The record-union., 1893-06-22

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and son
OF his mother, audibly growled and be-
moaned hts fate Just like any common
everyday petty gambler.
THE BANKER's WINNINGS.
The attendants were kept busy serving
champagne, and with each new bottle the
play increased in recklessness, until
about O'Clock in the morning. when the
banker calmly inquired, lis there no one
who wishes to play longer?" No one re-
sponded. Every solitary one of the titled
gam blers had lost his last chip, and when
the banker carelessly asked the attendant
to count the great piles of chips in front
OF him that worthy, after half an hours
labor, reported that the several piles
footed little over 100000 marks. In
other words, in less than four hours the
man whose horse had won the great race
had profited to the extent of about $780,
OOO through the adversely of his royal and
titled gambling friends.
Albert Edward took his loss rather
badly, but still made the best of bad
bargain, lnquiring in droll sort of a way,
as he and his friends left the gambling
parlor: rs there anybody here except
the winner who would be good enough to
buy bottle of wine and cigar or two?"
This sally of royalty's raised laugh, for
not man in the crowd had so much as
the price of bottle left in his pocket and
Va" COAO "OhAN IOL POA4h1G tllS Wi W
do the buying, as such an action OH his
part would have been construed as an at
tempt to return a portion of his winnings
to the losers. Baron kahlden stepped
into the breach and announced that the
club would beg the privilege of opening
an appropriate number of bottles. No
body made an objection to this gracious
proposition, the bottles were opened and
just before day break the royal party dis
persed. Royal gambling meetings on
this scale, of course, do not take place
every night in the year, but of gambling
for more moderate stakes there is scarcely
no let up at the courts of Berlin, st.
Petersburg, Vienna, London, and the
other European capitals. At each of these
throne seats there are unorganized but
none the less well defined gambling
coteries, with a prince or two or duke
or two as the central figure. These coter-
les are made up of army officers, court
officials, royal favorites and so on, and
generally include quite number of So
ciety women, les grande DANES of the
court circle. The gambling mania is no
respecter of persons or classes. 1t levels
all, men and women alike. Both sexes
meet on common ground-the desire for
gain. The world around, in court circles
as well as out of them, in royal palaces as
well as professional gambling houses,
gambling is invariably attended by its
manu- Lldi1oIiS, SMOKING
At st. Petersburg the ladies' vino are
not averse to stalking their rubles along
with royalty go step further than even
the most reckless women of the other
capitals. Every Russian lady of quality
indulges in the dainty Cigarette; these
women must go further, SO they openly
smoke the long, strong, black Russian
cigar at the gambling tables of the select
coterie in which they move.
"BACCARAT" THE ROYAL FAvoRIrE.
AS rule, baccarat is the popular
method of aristocratic gambling. 1t is
played at st. Peters burg, London, Paris,
and most of the lively European capitals.
In Germany, ''tempel' is the favorite.
with baccarat a close second, "tempel"
being the first cousin of the game known
to Americans as faro" At Monte
Carlo and other public haunts of Europe
roulette is the thing. So far as royalty is
concerned, the public gambling places
cut no figure. Royalty, of course, must
gamble, but it also must gamble sub rosa
1t is hardly too much to say that there
is not royal family to which some social
scandal growing out of the gambling
transactions of one of its mem bers is not
attached. The immediate relatives of the
present Kaiser are not, to be sure, noted
as gamblers, but lots of the Emperor's s
second cousins or third cousins have
been bitten by the gambling demon. For
instance, Duke William of Mecklenburg-
Schwerin was one of the most notorious
gamblers in Europe. In every other way
his reputation was about as bad as could
be, though in the Franco-Prussian war
he displayed remarkable bravery and
ability as cavalry commander. After
the war the Duke became a mem Der of a
sort OF secret organization of the fast
young aristocratS of Berlin whose prin-
cipal function was gambling. His Cham
berlain, Baron Won Maltzahn, became in
volved with him in gambling operations
and got in debt to the extent OF $3.50, 900
or more, found himself in hopeless fix.
and decided upon suicide as the only way
out of it. Inviting all his creditors to
meet him in his apartments, he gave
superb dinner, and then, upon a pretext
of getting the money to pay them, he
went into an adjoining room and blew
out his brains. The affair was the sensa-
tion Of the continent at the time.
The Grand Duke Constantln, grandson
of the Emperor Nicholas l., also man
aged to get himself into pretty serious
trouble through his gambling inclina-
tions. Shortly after reaching his major
ity he proceeded to set a fast pace for
himself, lost good deal more money
than he had any means of paying, and
suddenly found himself threatened with
exposure by the people who held his dis
honored notes. About this time his
mother, who was famous beauty in her
day, awoke one bright morning in her
chamber in the Marble Palace at st.
Petersburg to find that someone had
stolen her dianondstudded frame in
closing the portrait of her guardian saint,
which she, like every other religious
Russian woman, kept hanging in her bed
chamber. OF course this act of sacriIepe
committed in the very palace of the Gar
of all the Russias set all st. PETERSBURG
by the ears.
THE GRAND DUKE CoNsTANTIN DIS
GRACED.,
All the resources of the Russian police
were employed to ferret out the thief,
only to discover the missing gems in
jewelers. shop and to identify the young
Grand Duke as the thief who had alb
stracted the gems and sold them For
this piece of work Constantin was dis
graced by being transferred from home
regiment to regiment stationed in ST.
IBERIA, where he promptly made bad
matter worse by marrying the humble
daughter of the humble village Post
master. The marriage, of course was
Cancelled, but Constantin has not yet re-
covered altogether from the two esca-
pedes, although he is now nearly 50 years
old. At the time he stole his mothers
jewels his uncle, the Emperor Alexander
H., proposed TO send him to a madhouse
saying that "a Grand Duke OF Russia
might go mad like any other man, but
could not steal.'
The Grand Duke Alexis, too, got into
trouble through yielding to the fascina-
tions OF the cards. Son of the Gar and
Grand Admiral of the Russian navy
though he was, he was punished by his
father by being sent away from home and
warned not to come back for two years
He wandered about various foreign
countries, incidentally taking in America
on his trip around the world.
Some of the German Princes are no.
torious for their devotion to the green