The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-24
WOMEN WHO GAMBLED.
Historic Danes who Have Won and
Lost Big Fortunes at the Cards.

Historic Danes who Have Won and
Lost Big Fortunes at the Cards.
From the Philadelphia Telegraph
History is found to contain many in
stances of women, queens and slaves
alike, in whom the passion of gam
bling has gained a complete mastery
These women seem to lose all restraint
over themselves. they become trans
formed, and in the end, when all their
inner instincts have deserted them, they
sink into the uttermost degradation.
1t is notorious that English women
are fond of betting. With the majority
of course this Is merely a harmless
amusement Others have been known
to lose everything that they possessed
and finally to have gambled their souls
to the highest bidder and then to have
crept away and put an end to their
| Wretched lives Goldsmith's story of
the old woman who, knowing that she
! had not long to live, played cards with
her undertaken for her funeral ex-
penses is we'll known. Parallels are to
| be found in everyday life.
The women Of France, perhaps on
account of their warmer blood were
at one time the most ardent gamblers
! in the world. In Louis XIV.'s reign so
many families were ruined through
| the passionate love of the mothers and
that it was forbidden by law on pain
of death At Versailles an exception
was made to this rule, and here the
queen herself frequently lost large
sums of money
The frenzied gambling Of Nine. de
Montespan has become proverbial in
France as lie Jeu de la Montespan."
AT basset she would play for as much
as 100000 and would grumble heartily,
and the king also, if no one dared to
cover her stakes. One Christmas even
ing she lost an immense fortune, but
recovered with three cards $500 0OO
Three months later she lost $640, 900. but
Won it back almost Immediately. In
1852 the crash came. At "hOca'' alone
she had played away as much as $780,
000
In Louis XV.'s time matters were in
much the same state. On June 25 1865,
for instance, the Due de Richelieu un-
dertoOk to teach Nine. de Barry lans-
quenet in her boudoir Within a few
minutes, however, he had lost no less
than $1,000 This immensely amused
the king, who was looking on, and who
was delighted with his favorite's good
luck Nine. de POmpadour, it will be
remembered, gambled for enormous
stakes
In Charles rs time women played
freely That they had few scruples
about so doing is shown from the fact
that the kings wife, Henrietta Maria
Bassompierre. we'll known sport"
and buckingham, in 1926, played for
stakes IN window overlooking Cheap
side, while they waited for a process
sion to pass.
In Charles lis time, however,
women gambled to an extent hitherto
unknown in English history. In those
dissolute days the pleasures of the
! English court were not far different
from those of the French. The Duchess
of Mazarin, for instance, a niece of the
famous cardinal, lost more than a mil
lion pounds, and ended her days in
beSgary. Nell GyWnne lost $40 600 to
! her rival, the Duchess of Cleveland,
and this At one sitting. The latter, in
her turn, squandered. an immense
! fortune at the basset table.
So fast was the evil spreading that
in 1895 Chief Justice Kenyon threatened
to send any lady to the pillory, how
ever high in rank she might be, who
should be convicted before him of play
ing faro. This provoked from Gilray,
the we'll known caricaturist, an mag
mary picture of the first ladies in the
lard standing in the pillory. Beneath
was the inscription: daughters Of
Pharaoh"
During the following year many
ladies were heavily punished for re-
fusing to comply with the law. Lady
Buckingham, for instance, together
with Lady Luttrell and Mrs Sturt,
were fined 5000 for playing faro. Ladies
at the present time do not openly
gamble for stakes which amount to
thousands of pounds. It rests only with
their conscience to say how much they
lose at Monte Carlo, and in private
deals during the course of the year.