The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-27
Gambling NnimdL
Queer Things Games of Chance

A party of humOrists, in trying to hit
upon a distinctive title for man I'm con-
tradistinction to the other forms of ami
NAL life decided that he might be called
a Gambling Animal" A cooking anil
mali had been proposed, but then some
one suggested that the monkey was roast
ing chestnuts when he had occasion to
use the cats paw. 1t would not do to
call him a Laughing animal" because the
hyena would come in for his share of the
honor. In considering Franklin's title, a
"tOol-using animal one of the wits
pointed out that the Baltimore oriole
and the Indian taior-bird sew with their
bills, which ara their most appropriate
needles. But a Gaming AnimaT'-yes,
man certainly Is that! The folly of ven
turing his own property on the chance
of winning that cf another, is peculiar
to Plato's fe2therless biped.
The most sheepish of sheep will not
Draw lots for choice of pasturage, nor will
the slliest cur be tempted to risk his
Ginner at "Odd and even" Even the
learned pig, that suburban miracle which
tells people their fortunes by the cards,
has never learned the value of a trump.
Man is the unique animal content to
stake his money and happiness on the
treacherOus turn of die or the chance
Zeal of a pack of cards.
Now, gambling Is fashion by no means
new. Caius Caligula once converted his
magnificent palace into gambling house,
where, the chroniclers tell us, he feeced
the young nobility of his times. If one
may credit Horace, they could cog a die
in the Augustan age as eXcellently as in
the English Georgian. The Emperor
tT1andi1Ic w p $50 exceeding nTO0I-
gal in his play that he ventured 100000
seSterces on the cast of a die, wrote
treatise upon gaming in those hours
which he spared from the pursuit itself;
for which fact, Seneca, in his sarcastic
relation of the emperor's apotheosis,
fetches him, after many adventures, to
hell, where he is condemned to play with
d bottomless dice-boX without any cessa-
ton; IN this way his hopes were to be
fed continually but never satisfied.
1t is well known that Nero was the most
infatuated gambler of his days. Plu-
tarch records that the Romans matched
quails for wagers, and describes Antony
lamenting before the battle Of Actium,
ss though his genius covered before that
of his adversary, that the quail of Au-
gustus were superior to his. Sophoces
says of Palamedes that he invented dice
to serve instead of dinner, which Office
they fulfill to this day for many man
whom they have robbed of the means OF
paying for his dinner" The CONFUSION
of nature which destroyed POmpeii sur
prised q. party of men at the hazard ia
BILE, where they were discovered two
thousand years later with the dice firmly
cinched in their fists.
Cards, which were brought into Europe
about the middle part of the fourteenth
century, had been introduced long before
gambling with them became the rage.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century
we read that this passion was so preva-
lent in France that persons who We're
addicted to it endeaVored to restrain and
guard themselves by voluntary bonds, re
sembling modern temperance pledges,
with the exception, however, that there
was a penalty for breaking the pledge.
illustrated manuscript of that period
show. not only that women played, but
that the players stood and did not sit
around the tables.
The Chinese. who are reckless gamblers,
have several kinds of cards. The general
name for them, however, is che-pae, or
paper tickets, and the kind most COM
monty used are called tseen-wan- che-pae
Ia thousand times ten thousand cards -
This pack has thirty cards; three suits
of nine each and three independent cards
which are superior to the rest. The
cards are two inches and half In length
and about a half inch in width. The
suits are named respectively mine myr-
lads Of strings of beads" nine units
of cakes and mine units of chains"