St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-17
FAST LIFE IN THE PAST
SOMETHING CONCERNING THE LONDON
GAMBLING HELLS.
HOW THEY WE'RE CONDUCTED.
Kept Before the Public by Adver-
tisements in the Papers,
They Were Afterward Closed
by the Police and Continued
to Be Closed.

III his entertaining "reminiscences of
the London of a past generation, pub
lished In the Daily Telegraph, George
Augustus Sala describes the fast life of
a period well-nigh forgotten nowadays.
lie gives a racy chapter to the gam
bling hells of the epoch, and their sup
preston. Speaking of one of the fashion
able gaming resorts, he says:
"Ihe place was, in fact. kind of tiny
chapel-of-ease TO Crockford's, in st.
James street. and from that palatial
gambling den in ST. James street the
greatest noblemen and gentlemen in
England, when they were tired of cock
ing mains i'll 'Crocky's,' would come
down to Nine. Une Telle to chat and
smoke, and eventually adjourn to the
back parlor. where, with the refresh
ments of champagne, brandy and water,
broiled bones and anchoVy toast. thew
would fall to gambling again, and keep
the dice-boX clacking merriIy to or 5 |
or 8 i'll the morning.
The whole neighbOrhood OH both
sides OF the Quadrant was spotted, and
plentHully spotted, too. with gambling
houses, which on one side spread
through Air street into Piceadilly, and
then down st. James street, while on
the opposite side the gambling house
pestllence reached as far as Golden
square.
TO the east there were numerous
tripots i'll Princes street and Cranborne
alley and Leicester square, but these
were OF a lower aud altogether more
repulslve type than the snowy infernos
of Regent street and ST. James.
Silver HeIIs.
"The lower class dens were known as
silver hells,' for the reason that stakes
as low as half crown were accepted,
and so late as 1917 or 1S4S there was-at
least have dim impression of its eX-
lstence-a very shady gambling house.
indeed. close to Leicester square, and |
which was called The Little Nick
ut may seem almost incredible, but |
1T is, nevertheless. the fact that in no. |
tortOus weekly journal. published at the |
period of which | am speaking, there |
appeared regularly every week a couple |
of columns with the attractive heading |
or PandemoniumS,' and therein the |
readers of the journal in question were
kept duly au courant with the edifying |
proceedings at the most noted gaming |
houses OF the time, the professional fire.
quenterS of which were known in the |
slang of the epoch as Greeks
Liz GI6th III Hail CENTURY since |
was type that may be said to have |
completely disappeared III these days.
lie was something superior to a welsher, |
and something inferior to a promoter of |
bogus companies and wildcat proprie- |
tary clubs.
Nov and again perhaps something |
family resembling his ghost may be |
be seen hanging about the promenade |
at Monte Carlo; but the authorities OF |
the Hades on the Reviera are we'll aware |
of the phantom Greeks character, and |
ScrupulOuSly exclude him from the in
terror of the Casino itself.
I'm England the gamiug-house Greek |
very frequently dubbed himself a cap
tain, and i'll some few instances, pos |
Sibly, he may have held a subaltern's |
commission in that celebrated British |
legion commanded by Gen. Sir de Lacy |
Evans, which, with the authority Of the |
reform parliament, was sent out to
Spain i'll the interests of Queen Chris |
tiana and her daughter, Queen Isabella,
to light the partiSanS of Don Carlos
THE Spanish auxiliaries were very
Imperfectly paid, if they were paid at
all, by the Spanish government In nv
boyhood it was by no means uncommon !
to see deplorable creatures in ragged |
scarlet Jackets, proclaiming their former |
connection with the British legion, |
sweeping crossings or begging in the |
streets of London.
Gambling House Greeks.
''The greater number. however, of the |
gambling house Greeks were the merest |
of copper captains. who were employed |
as toutS or 'bOnnets' to inveigle foolish |
or half-intoXicated gentlemen into COM
mon gambling houses, where they could |
be sWindled out of their money at haz
ard, faro or roulette.
"An exceptionally infamous Greek of
the generation just preceding that of
which | am speaking, was the notorious
Jack Thurtell, who in his youth had
actually been an officer of marines, but
who. after the peace, had taken to bet
ting on horse races and prize fights. and
to cheating the persons who were sim
pie enough to play cards with him.
"His victim, Mr.. Weare, who lived in
Lyons inn,' was, in point of morals.
not very much above the status of the
villain who murdered him. Weare, in
short, was professional gamester, and
he was led to join in the expedition
which ended SO fatally for him by a
story trumped up by ThurteIl and his
confederates that there was a pigeon |
The poor wretch himself was the
pigeon
1.-THE mischief effected by these com
mon gaming houses with their Greek |
'bonnets' and touts was almost immeas-
urable. Midnight gambling Slapped |
the vitals, socially speaking, of the COM
munity, and directly and indirectly led
to innumerable tragedies.
at is, perhaps, fact known to a
very few save systematic students of
old newspapers that the remote cause
of the ruin and the dreadful end of |
Arthur ThIstlewood, the chief of the
Cato street conspirators, who, with
their leaders. were hanged and be-
headed before the debtors door, New
gate, in 1920, was misadventure which |
he met with in gaming house.
''Thistlewood was the son of a coun-
try gentleman of fair estate When |
quite a young man he was sent I'D to |
London with a very large sum of money |
reaching four figures, if [ remember |
aright-in his possession, to make some |
investment on behalf Of relative
HE had this money about him in
bank notes, then, having dined much
too copiously at a tavern, he was EN-
ticed by some improvised acquaintance
of the Greek order to try his luck in a
gambling house. There he was stripped
OF every farthing of the money he had
about him.
ho mduc, subsequently, SOH6 lOer-
fectual attempts to show that the play
mad been unfair and to recover some
portion of his losses, but the wretched
mishap in the gaming house led, step
by step, to his utter ruin, and he be-
came an impoverished desperate, who
drifted first into sediton and then into
treason, very possibly because he had
become altogether social leper and
pariah.
sit was impossible that the evils at
which l nave briefly glanced could be
allowed to go on unchecked for any
considerable time after the accession Of
the queen, and the presence by her side
of the Prince Consort, whose polished.
decorous and blameless character be-
came at once model to all English
gentlemen.
The Great Crockfordss.