Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-10-16
DANES Who GAMBLED
MANY FAMOUS WOMEN IN HISTORY
WHO WON AND LOST AT CARDS.
Punishment of Fine Ladies-Lady
buckingham and Lady Luttren
Fined $500 for Playing Faro
Evil Became Great.

frem the Philadelphia Telegram.
History is found to contain many in
stances OF women, queens and slaves alike,
in whom the passion of gambling has
gained complete mastery. These women
seem to lose all restraint over themselves
they become transformed and in the end,
when all their finer instincts have desert
ed them, they sink into the uttermost de-
graduation.
1t is notorious that English women are
fond of betting. With the majority of
course this is merely a harmless amUse-
ment. Others have been known to lose
everything that they possessed and finally
TO nave Gambled their souls to the high
est bidder and then 10 have crept away
ana put an end to their wretched lives.
Goidsmith's story of the old woman who,
knowing that she had not long to live.
played cards with her undertaken tor her
funeral expenses is well known. Paral-
lels are to be found in everyday life.
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 daughters for a 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. Monte
span has become proverbial in France a:
lie Jeu de la Montespan." AT Basset she
would play for as much as S2O0090 and
would grumble heartily. and the king ais1
II no one dared TO cover her stakes. One
Christmas evening she lost an immense
fortune, but recovered with three cards
700 eco. Three months later she lost S6iO-
coo. but won it back almost Immediately.
In lGS2 the crash came. AT ''hoca' alone
she had played away as much as $4,000.
In Louis NV.'s time matters were in
much the same state. On June %. 1865,
for instance. the Due de Richelieu under
TOOK TO teach Nine. de Barry lansquenet
in her boudoir. In a few minutes, how
ever. he had lost no less than 100000. This
Immensely amused the king. who was
looking on. and who was delighted
with his favorites good luck. Nine. de
Pompadour, 1t will be remembered, gam
bled for enormous stakes.
In Charles is. time women played freely.
That they had few scruples about so do
ing is shown from the fact that the kings
well known sport and buckingham. in
1926. played for stakes in a window over
looking Cheapside. while they waited for a
procession to pass.
Nell Gwynne's Losses.
In Charles lis time. however. women
gambled to an extent hitherto unknown in
English history. In those dissolute days
the pleasure of the English court were not
far different from those of the French.
The Duchess de Mazarin. for instance. a
niece of the famous cardinal, lost more
than a million pounds and ended her
days in beggary.. Nell Gwynne lost So
900 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
1886 Chief Justice KENYON threatened tc
send any lady to the pilory, however high
in rank she might be, who should be con-
victed before him of playing faro. This
provoked from Gilray, the well known car
icaturist. an imaginary ricture of the first
ladies in the land standing in the pilory
Beneath was the inscription: Daughters
of Pharaoh"
During the following year many ladies
were heavily punished for refusing to com
ply with the law. Lady Buckinsham, fol
instance. together with Lady Luttrell and
Mrs. Sturt, was fined 500 for playing faro
Ladies at the present dav do not openly
gamble for stakes which amount t.
| thousands of pounds. 1t rests only witt
their consciences to say how much the!
lcse at Monte Carlo and in private deal:
during the course of the year.