Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-05-26
GAMBLING ANIMAL.
A Designation For Man Which Seems
toFit.
Some Queer Things Done BY Man In Games
Chance.

A party of gentlemen in trying t
hit upon distinctive title for man ar
contradistinction to the other forms OF
animal life) decided that he might b'
called Gambling Animal" A cook
ing animal had been proposed, bu
then some one suggestsa that the
monkey was roasting chestnuts WheI
he had occasion to use the cats paw
1t would not do to call him a laugh
ing animal because the hyena wouiu
come in for his share of the honor III
considering Franklin's title. a tool
using animal" one of the wits poihteu
out that the Baltimore oriole and the
Indian tailor-bird sew with their bills'
which are their most appropria''
needles. Eut a Gambling Amman
yes. man certainly is that! Ire ioiiS
of venturing his own property on the
chance Of winning that OF announcer Is
peculiar to Plato's featherless Diped'
The most sheepish of sheep VIII not
draw lots for choice of pasturage, nor
will the silliest cur be mpted to rlSA
his dinner at "odd and eve:.. IN 4
the learned pig, that suDul an mirtri-
which tells people their fortune ny tn
cards. has never learned the value OF
a trump. Man is the unique animal
content to stake his money ana hapnl p
ness on the treacherous turn of di".
or the chance deal of pack of cat"~.
Now. gambling is a fashion by ho
means new. CaiuT C4i.9ula once con-
terted his mag niiico0r palace into a
gambling house. ~ mere. he chroniclers
tell us he fleeced the young nobility Of
his times If one may credit Hora g.
they could cog a die in tn. Auguslaa
age as excellentlv as in d" FIR. ;i
Georgian. The Emperor r'Hu lius
who was so exceedingly rrndi-, in
his play that he adventure i""h0
sesterCes on the cast of Dr., sic
treatise upon gaming in tho-. t.t5
which he spared from the pur-. IL
self: for which fact Seneca. J.. his
sarcastic relation of the Emperors
apotheosis, fetches him, after many
adventures, to hell, where he is con-
demned to play with bottomless dice
box without any cessation; i'll 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.
Plutarch records that the Romans
matched quails for wagers, and de
scribes Anthony lamenting before the
battle of Actium. as though his genius
covered before that of his adversary.
that the quail of Augustus were
superior to his. Sophocles says of
Palamedes that he invented dice to
serve instead of dinner. (which office
they fulfill to this day for many a man
whom they have robbed of the means
of paying for his dinner" The convul-
sion of nature which destroyed
Pompeii surprised party Of men at
the hazard able. where they We're dis
covered two thousand years later with
the dice firmly cli1ched in their fists.
Cards. which W &e brought into Eu-
rope about the middle part of the
fourteenth century. had not been in
PRODUCED long before gambling with
them became the rage. AT the begin
ming of the fifteenth century we read
that this passion was 50 prevalent in
France that persons who were ad-
dicted to it endeavored to restrain and
guard themselves by voluntary bonds.
resembling modern temperance
pledges. with the exception, however.
that there was 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 commonly used are called
tseen- wan-che-p ae-"a thousand time;
ten thousand cards" This pack has
and three independent cards, which
are superior to the rest The cards are
two inches and half in length and
about half-inch in width. The suits
are named respectively mine myriads
of strings Of beads" mine units Of
cakes" and mine units of chains" The
Chinese have several queer names for
their other varieties Of gambling
cards: one is called "the hundred bows
cards" another "chariots. horses and
guns" and third, curiously devised
on the principle of some of our histori-
cal cards. is called "a thousand times
ten thousand mems names cards.
In an old life of the Duke of Esper-
non. it is related that in 1903 a famous
Italian gamester. Pimertal. hearing
what humor of play raigr"d A. IN
French court" caused irrcaj numb "
of false dice to be made and secretly
conveyed to Paris. he only KNOW .nc:
the secret. He. therefore, by means Of
emissaries. bought up all the dice in
the market. and supplied his own r.
their stead. This done, he obtained al.
Introduction at court, End gambIed "a
so good purpose that ne cleaned out
q great part of ne nou.Iity's pockets.
Playing with the LUX NM Espernon. h.
got all his ready money and many Of
his jewels. and after this won of him a
piece of ambergris valued at 2U.OOl
crowns. the greatest that Yer was
seen in Europe" This piece va after
ard sold to the Republic ul Venice
But it was not the Fren. II curt
.,lonc that was possesseL ur ine
gambling rage" In Eng az
early as the reign of John Lacl,Ilnd
the chances of the dice constituted the
chief amusement of the great. Mat
thew Paris rcproached the barons who
rested Magma Charta from King
John with spending their time in
luxury and gambling with dice wher
their presence was required in thu
held Later, the Merry Monarch gam
pied VIGOROUSLY with his courtiers