The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21
DO you GAMB1Ea
History Crowded with Instances of
Women Who Do.

History is found to contain many in
stances of women, queens ana slaves
alike over whom the passion of gambling
has gained a complete mastery Ihese
women seem to lose all restraint over
themselves, they become Transformed,
| and in the end, when all their inner In
stincts have deserted them, they SINK INTO
| the uttermost degradation.
1t is notorious that English ladies are
fond of betting With the majority, or
course this is merely harmless aInuse-
ment. Others have been known to lose
everything that. they possess, and hnaily
/, to have gambled their souls to the nigh
est Bidder, and then to have crept away
and put an end to their wretched lives
Goldsmiths story of the old woman, VINO,
knowing that she had not long to live.
played cards with her undertaken for
funeral expenses, is well known Parallels
are to be found in everyday life, says
Pearson's Weekly.
The women of France perhaps on ac-
count 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 daughtres for game
known as "hoca," 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 lie la Montespan.
At basset she would play for as much as
$4,000, and would grumble heartily, and
the King also, if no one dared cover her
stakes. One Christmas evening she lost
an immense fortune, but recovered with
| three cards e60000. Three months later
| she lost a161 900, but won ii back again al
| most Immediately In 1882 the crash came.
At ''hoca" alone she had played away as
much as 9200,00
| In Louis XV's time matters were in
much the same state. On June %, 1862
| for instance the Due de Richelieu under
| took to teach Nine. Du Barry lansquenet
in her boudoir. Within a few minutes,
| however. he had lost no less than 825.-
| 0O0 This immensely amused the King,
who was looking on, and who was de-
| lighted with his favorite's luck.
| Nine de Pompadour, it will be remem-
| bered gambled for enormous stakes.
| In Carries Is time women played free
| " That they had few scruples about so
| doing is shown from the fact that the
| Kings wife Henrietta Maria, Bassom-
| pierre a well-known sport" and Buck
/ ingham, in 1926, played for stakes in a
| window overlooking Cheapside while they
| waited for a procession to pass.
| In Charles IFS 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 in
| stance. q niece of the famous cardinal.
lost more than Ct 900. 600 and ended her
| days in beggary. Nell Gwynne lost 60
| coo 10 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
1896 Chief Justice Kenyon threatened to
send any lady to the pillory, however
high in rank she might be, who should
be convicted before him for playing faro.
This provoked from Gilray, the we'll
known caricaturist, an imaginary picture
of the first ladies of the land standing in
the pillory. Beneath was the inscription,
Daughters of Pharaoh"
During the following year many ladies
were heavily punished for refusing 10
comply with the law. Lady Bucking-
hamshire, for instance, together with
Lady LuttreH and Mrs. Stuart. were fined
ESQ for playing faro.
Ladies at the present day do not openly
| gamble for stakes which amount 10 thou
sands of pounds. 1t rests only with their
conscience to say how much they lose al
Monte Carlo and in private deals during
the course of the year.