The San Francisco call., 1899-05-14
Stories of Hazard
And Speculation in
The Stock Exchange.


yet he is favored; why should alone be
punished? And i" he continued, "it seems
TO me rather strange that one OF your
cloth should enter so wicked place on
the Lords day
That shut him up.
Gambling Hells.
1t was French sharpers or spectators
who, encouraged by the first gentleman
in Europe, the Prince of Wales, intro
duced gambling hells into England at the
beginning of this century. They speedily
found English imitators, among them a
clergyman of the Church of England
He had from his youth up been fre-
quenter of French gaming houses, and
picked up a precarious living, until, by
introducing London banker TO famous
courtesan over whom he (the parson) had
great influence, he secured from the bank
er a sum Of $4,000 in acceptances and $4,000
in cash. With this capital, and the as
slstance of few more kindred spirits,
who had money and faith in the parsons
business capacity, he established a hell"
in Pail Mall, which was opened with
great eclat but its success was not equal
10 the antcipations of the SPECTATORS
They committed a mistake from overcau-
ton, for, as the visits of the police had.
~ poSSIpig, 10 De aVerted, admission to
the gambling room was rendered so diff
cult by the interpoSition of so many
doors before it could be reached that these
precautions kept away not only the nolice
Dut alas the dupeS who were to be placed
IN the sanctum sanctorum. The conse-
quence was a dissolution of partnership
Dut the parson stuck to the house and de-
iled ms late partners to dislodge him He
Knew they dared not g0 into court with
What was a gambling transaction and he
ba,aId [beIainea q possession. He then let the
mouse 10 company of foreigners. who
pald 50 guineas day, and 1S guineas
mere Tor mouse expenses, for which the
parson supplied the company with wine,
SSandwlches and other refreshments
Ihese sums they. paid. gambling houses
must have yielded. The play at the PaIi
NAH NAH house was from shilltngs to nom
hr1t aa11r
punter pleased and named TO the banker
Ionee mouse was shut up before the wear
INz4. ana the parson mysteriously disaD-
Crockford's Famous He'll.
ON on the northwest side of Temple Bar
had for centuries been a fishmonger,s
shop After 1914 it had become A hair
oresser's and finally a booksellers shop
,, aIlu was pulled down in 1865, when the
rev Law Courts were built. In this house
Jonn Crockford carried on the business Of
a hshmonger till the year 1927, when hav
lIlI;. lng made money by betting, he gave up
selling soles and salmon and went IN foTr
catching fish, but confined his operations
TO gudSeons and fat-fsh" This is the
SqlhoT humorous way Of stating that
M Mr. Crockford established a gaming
house, first in King street st. James.
a1terward in PicCadilly, and finally in ST
James street. where he erected a mag
inlhcent building, the fitting up of which
- ''etlu NN IIs NG CoSl nearly 4 100 900 II
was known as Crockford's Club. and was
d gambling hell. the profits of which.
after paying all expenses amounted
sometimes in one season to e150. 600
Hence we may infer that, as Mr. Rafkes
wrote in 1885. the gaming was unparallel-
ed. Defeated gamblers used to biackmaiI
Crockford by indicting him for keeping
sands year for compromising such ac-
ttons. A cleaned-cut gamester early one
morning rushed from Crockfords and
Rjont Rnoeked I'd a man; STOPPING on the pave
that for?' mildly inquired the man. Il
was only tying my shoe" "Confound
you!' exclaimed the ruined player you
are always tying your shoe here
Crockford died in 1874 and left a fortune
OF t'OO,O0O yet it is asserted that his
death was accelerated by anxiety about
his bets on the Derby
Bets and Betting.
The desire to acquire money, not by
slow industry but by short cuts to
wealth. is so strongly implanted in human
nature that we may say il displayed itself
as soon as there was any private prom
erty. and betting developed as soon as
there could be two opinions on any one
point The first two young men who ever
met on this earth-unless they were very
good young men, indeed, the sort who dfe
early-you may be sure held different
views on some pending event and backed
them by bets. Now. as long as they con-
hned themselves to a friendly contest
without any avaricious afterthought'
there was nothing particularly wrong in
H. II was harmless amusement But as
soon as the gambling element-the desire
10 acquire some one else'S propertv-en-
tered into it, the practice became vitiated
and evil. And at the present day it is
nothing else. What do the thousands who
attend or bet on race care or know
about the breed and its Improvement Of
horses, which is the excuse made for
racing? Not one farthing; their only oh
1ect is to win money eSpeciallv in o11E
day, when the most unobservant may see
how powerful money is not merely to
provide all the luXuries of life but to
open arlstocrat1c, aye, royal doors to
even such individuals may have mean
and often enough shady antecedents only.
As long as betting is confined to indif-
Ierent subjects, ii may be innocent in it's
character and harmless in its effects But
hfdeous aspect. About the middle of the
last century a form of betting came into
vogue which was known as pitting one
man against another-that is in plain
Engllsh, wagering which of the two will
die first.
Unpleasant Wagers.
In this manner people of the most on
poslte characters made up the subject of
a bet A player perhaps was pitted
against duke. or an alderman against
a bishop. There was scarce one remark
able person upon whose life there were
not many thousand pounds depending.
Inc various changes in the health of one
who was the subject of many bets were
anX1ously watched by those interested in
his life or death. As these bets were
matters of notoriety, il may easily be inn
agined what effect they must have had
on the persons who were the subjects of
them. No doubt many a mans life was
actually shortened by his knowing that
o o o o o o O
li~ - u VLF