Evening star., 1898-12-17
CLUB GA M Bill N G
More About Manners and Morals in
Havana.
1UBANS and SPANIARDS ALL PLAY
The Games of Monte and Baccar-
rat Generally Used.
SUPPRESSION NECESS AIRY
tCopyright, 1898, by Charles NJ. Pepper.l

L
tCopyright, 1898. by Charles NJ. Pepper.l
From Stat Correspondent.
HAVANA, December 49, 1898.
While the cards are being shuff1ed l am
going to moralize little more on this mat
ter of gambling. In a previous letter refer
ence was made to the hope of intelligent
Cubans that American military control
would enable this vice of an entire people
to be cured. They give us-by us is
meant Americans as a class-more credit
than We deserve. A month or six weeks
hence their good opinions may be changed.
Yet at bottom they perceive a fundamental
dlfference. They recognize that however
much and in whatever forms individual
Americans may gamble, the Americans as
a people do not depend on gaming as a
means, or a partial means, Of livelihood
In their perception Of this fact they expect
to see the virtues which we as people,
possess carried out in practice by "us' as
individuals.
This expectation cannot be ignored entire
ly The military authority will have to do
something toward suppressing gambling,
not because OF its right to enforce certain
prlhctpies OF morality, but because a public
nuisance must be abated. Somebody has
sot 10 use nice judgment in drawing the
Hhe: Let these people reform their own
naoits' ' groWled one of the American Off
GERS. It's not our business to interfere
ana De hypocrites. Do they think I'll uut
Playing poker because they're took weak
10 stop being swindled out of their money!
personally l don't expect ANYTHING of tho
sort More poker will be plaved after tbe
hhhtafy occnpa ton is complete than ia now
Piayed 1t would be just as fair to expect q
J'4fhe.ins y fts congressional committee exiled in
d foreign land to call for the Bible instead
OF Tor a deck Of cards as to expect tba nil
lary garrisons to forget the cards a, a
means 1ie Of relieving the monotony of army
nreto,,s me- NOBODY Is looking for the excess or
pielehse or virtue which the officer who
pays poker fears. The Havana cIuhnnan
Mn4 was so anxious to have the military
not thollty OIL: smut up the gambling clubs did
not @ contemplate interference of that kind
g hnoWing his confirmed habits. I asked him
w iIdt are you going to do If the clubs are
eIosed Oh he replied. Il have MANY
A'ieiias among the American officers
A Condition to He Met.
"hat the military commanders will have
~ meet Is condition. In Havana it is q
oao condition. Some Of the principles
Vi pohucaI economy, as we'll as of moral
n.y. must De applied. Time has been when
IA ~" pfoaisai production Of wealth so
nuch mas been accumulated in Cubs that
the need of anybody producing u,as for
sotten. Purses of gold could be tossed 10
ara tro across the table with the knon,I
eoge tlat more could be drawn from the
pockets. -Four years of war have cbanayed
TINS happy circumstance with tba isiend
Hortsased and half its inhabitants starv-
ing, NOBODY can gamble, either for pleasure
Hf Ia.i ior iVelhood, out of the past accumu-
iatlon or riches. The large class which
ilNed by this means must be forced hack
into the ranks of the producers. That Is
where the political economy of the situa tion
comes IN. Cuba has become so poor that
IL cannot support class of idlers There
Is no money IN the beehive for the drones
Ialk may be heard every day in the cafes
ana ana at the hotels about the bank" and
1he banker L know the officers of most
of the financial Institutions of Havana hnt
would not be understood if I spoke of them
as bankers: They are merely officials" or
oHlclais OF banking house lei Ban
quero the leading banker of Havana is
gambler. He IS well dressed unobtrusive
and reserved, wearing more jewelry than
MS fellows III the United States wear He
seems 10 nave the respect of the commu-
nty. HIS bank is located across from
the Central Park. 1t elbows the clubs,
which compete with it for business Many
or the habitues of the clubs also patronize
the benk." They complain that card
sharpers gain admission to the clubs. while
the bank has the reputation of being
square One of the advantages of play
ing at the bank" In preference to the
clubs, always explained to the stranger
is that he is in no danger of being the VIC
tim or the professional gentlemen who
have the entree to the social organizations
The Game of Monte.
one of the favorite games is monte"
1t Is not the three cards with which farm
ers who take a railroad trip sometimes get
acquainted through the kindness of new
found friends. That sort of swindIe is
known but the monte which the Span-
iards and Cubans play so much is legiti-
mate. They bet on one card bearing
certain relation to three others. What the
percentage OF chance is in favor of the
player l do not know. The combinations
are many and the play Is intricate It
differs from Mexican monte in some re-
spects. L have accepted the warning of
kindly Spanish officer that monte" is not
game for inexperienced Americans to fol-
low, and can only offer some general obser-
vations. The fondness for 1t seems due to
the combinations by which, through a
happy run of the cards. a fortune can be
made faster than one is lost. The draw
back seems to be that the loss though
slower, happens oftener.
In times past monte was much played
fate was conquered through it. Every
stranger who asks about monte hears the
history of Marquis Luna Para. At least
L think he was marquis, a person Of
some distinction, for he was able to get
into debt to the amount of several hundred
thousand dollars. He played regularly and
always for high stakes. At one period his
creditors pressed him so hard that he
additional thousand dollar bill from the
most importunate of them, got together
three dollars in silver of his own and went
to the leading bank" There he made
known his purpose He exhibited a beauti-
full revolver, which he never pawned The
three silver dollars were to pay the coach
man who was to drive him to a secluded
place in the outskirts of the city il the
$1,000 bill exhausted itself. The place was
not Monte Carlo, but ruined gamblers
in Havana did sometimes kill themselves
and Luna y PARA was known to be man
of his word So his play was watched with
some concern. Half Of the thousand dollar
bill had gone to the bad before Luna v
PARA won Then the combinations possi
BILE under monte began to tell. He soon
had s24. 600 in his pockets. He played until
the bank quit. The next day everybody
in Havana knew the story. His creditors
all called In to say good afternoon to Luna
Y PARA. He divided with them honorably.
Everybody who was in debt began PLAYING
monte" Luna y PARA did not kill him
self till several years afterward. The his
tory of his bold stroke is preserved among
the traditions of Havana. As to the cir
cumstances in which he finally committed