The Louisiana populist. [volume] (Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, La.) 1894-1898, 1896-06-12

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met every Sunday
evening in the back parlor of barber
Four of these were one time acting as
pall-bearers at the funeral of a rever-
end brother, when a delay occurred,
owing to the grave being not quite
ready, and the coffin was set down at
the chancel. By way of Willing away
the time one of them produced a pack
of cards from his pocket and proposed
few hands of whist The rest gladly
assented and they were deep in the
game when the sexton came to an
nounce that the preparations were COM
plete.
Goldsmith tells of an old lady who,
lying sick unto death, played cards with
the curate to pass the time away, and,
after winning all his money, had just
prepared to play for her funeral charges
when she expired.
Metternich, the great Austrian
statesman, owed to a single game of
whist the greatest sorrow of his life.
One evening, while he was engaged in
his favorite game, an express arrived
! with dispatches from Galicia. He
placed the papers on the mantelpiece
, and went on playing all that night and
, far into the morning. When the party
broke up he was Mortified to learn that
upon his immediate reply to the dis
patches depended the fate of 1000 inno-
| cent persons. Had Metternich loved
whist less passionately, history had
never recorded the infamous Galician
massacre. 1t is said that when the
revolution broke out in Paris repeated
and frantic messages were sent to
Charles X, informing him of the state
of affairs. The king was engrossed in
cards, however, and not to be disturbed
and each time the reply came: His
majesty is playing whist"
Another cool whist player was Lord
Sligo. When the news arrived that
his magnificent residence was on fire he
stopped only moment to ascertain
whether or not his presence could be of
material service on the scene of the con-
f1agration. Finding that it would not.
he calmly took up the hand which had
been dealt him while he was talking
with the messenger and resumed play.
Does whist playing cause or encour-
age heartlessness? When Lord Thanet
was in the Tower for the O'Connor riot,
three friends-the duke of Bedford, the
duke De Laval and Capt. Smith-were
admitted to play whist with him, and
remained till the lookup hour of H.
Early in the sitting Capt Smith fell
back in a fit Of apoplexy, and one of the
party rose to call for help. STOP" cried
another, I'VE shall be turned out IL you
make a noise; let our friend alone till
IL; We can play dummy, and he will be
none the worse, for can read death in
his face
A case where single game of whist |
was responsible for a good deal was
that in which G. H. Drummond of the |
famous Charing Cross banking house
Of London lost 100000 at single sit
ting to Beau Brummel. When his loss |
became known to Drummond's partners |
they decided that a gambler was an un- |
desirable associate in business requir- |
ing for prosperity the confidence of the
public in its managers. They there
fore forced him to retire.
Unless Espartero and his foe, Marcia.
are much belied, their quarrel was set
tied by game of cards in farmhouse
at Bergara, where they met to arrange a
truce between their respective forces.
No sooner did Espartero enter the room
than the Carlist chief challenged him to
a game Of tresilio, a challenge the
Christine accekted with alacrity. Es-
partero first won all Marota's money,
then his own conditions for the truce,
article by article, and finally the entire
submissi On of the Carlist army. With
in twenty-four hours Marcia had paid
his debt and the'ferce Carlist war was
at an end.
A Marlborough hand is hand in
which there is no card above a nine
spot. The name given to this hand is
derived from a certain Lord Yaroor-
ough, who used to offer the attractive
but very safe wager of 1000 pounds to |
pound that a hand of this sort would |
not be dealt. His lordship may have
worked out the chances or he may not.
but the fact is that such hand occurs
only once In 1927 rounds, although |
Pembridge says he has held three Yar-
boroughs in single evening. His lord
ships wager, to be quite fair. should
have been 1927 pounds to pound. II
is said that he won his wager many
thousand times.