The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-06

every Saturday night during the London
season. Gronow declares that the tone
OF the club was excellent. and entirely free
from rudeness, familiarity, and ill-breed-
Ing, such as he found In some London
clubs Of later date. Not only there,
he says. the most agreeable conversation.
interesting anecdotes. and brilliant sallies
OF wit. but also grave political discussion
and acute logical reasoning every con-
celVable subject, among the soldiers,
scholars, statesmen, poets and men of
pleasure who, when 1.-THE house" was up.
and balls and parties at an end. delighted
TO finish their evening with little supper
and good deal of hazard at Old Crock
ey's." The little supper cost them moth
ing, for all who patronized the hazard
tables were provided with every luxury OF
the season. accompanied by the best wines
In the world, gratis and ad libitum; but the
hazard cost them usually the greater part
OF whatever they happened to risk.
SOME HEAVY LOSERS.
nobleman known as LIE Wellington
des Joueurs' one night lost s23,ooO at sit
ting. and he and three other noblemen are
said to have lost in all at Crockford's about
100000 apiece. Toward the end of his life.
Lord Seton became a constant attendant
at the table; and 1t was generally believed
that he left behind him there no less a sum
than 100000. Capt Gronow admits that
enormous stakes were played for by Lords
Lichfield and Chesterfield. Count D'Orsay
and others whom he names; but the magni-
tude of the losses impressed him less thar
the extraordinary equanimity with which
they were borne, "a gentlemanly bearing,
and calm and unmoved demeanor" being,
we are told, a characteristic of all the men
of that generation. They must certainly
have needed all the stoical philosophy they
could summon up. for their eulogist goes on
to say that "Crockford won the whole of
the ready money of the then existing gen.
Grafton
nv aureenent with his corouittea Crock
ford bound 10 put down a bank of
$4,000 nightly during the sitting of Parlia-
ment," and IL appears that large number
of our legislators, hereditary and elective,
made themselves much more conspicuous in
his rooms in st. James's street than they
did in st. Joseph's. One of the popular
skits of the day says:
Large money bills and loans they tried to
raise;
King Crockford took their means, and
praised their ways.
Crockford, says a contemporary writer who
knew him, was a walking domesday book,
in which were registered the day and hour
of birth of each rising expectant of fortune.
He could tell with the incest exactitude the
rent-rolls of property in perspective, to
what extent such rent-rolls had been anti
cfpated by apparent heirs, and what further
incumbrance they would reasonably bear.
His recommendation seldom failed to secure
the election of a candidate for membership
of the club, and all who came, counts and
commoners. peers and professionals. sena-
tors and stock jobbers, were plucked bare
as pigeons for a pasty TO swell the enor-
nous gains of this great Demon of Pande-
monium." 1t has never been suggested that
the play at Crockford's was not perfectly
fair. In fact, there was no need for cheat
ing. The odds at hazard are so largely in
favor of the keeper of the bank, that
most of such harpies as have had sufficient
capital to hold out have amassed consider
able fortunes.
PAID $4,000 FOR HIS DICE.
Of ~,
ford's may be gagged by the fact that the
dice used in playing, costing about guinea
a set, entailed on him an expenditure of
about e2.0O0 a year. While still compare
lively young man, and in partnership with
Gye. who afterward became his steward.
agent and general factotum at the club in
st. James street, Crockford is said to have
won at single sitting from Lords Thanet
and Granville. Ball Hughes and two other
gentlemen, whose names are unknown to
fame, the enormous sum of 100000. Gye
must have received a salary at least equal
to that of a Cabinet minister; for when, in
consequence of some difference with his
employer he was dismissed, ii turned out
that he had managed to save no less a sum
than 100000 With this capital In hand he
became first a betting man on the turf,
then a specializing builder, and lastly, in
imitation of his old master, the proprietor
of a gaming hell in st. James street. But
all MS UNDERTAKINGS proved unsuccessful
and he died a pauper in the workhouse of
his native place in Essex.
Crockford's career was less in accordance
with poetic justice. He started in life as a
small fishmonger in shop adjoining Tenn
pie Bar. Subsequently he became a prom
inent and successful man at Tattersalis.
Then he developed into the owner of a rae
ing stud, with a fine house and grounds al
Newmarket. And afterward, when hazard
became a popular game in London, in 1870,
he set up his first gaming house in the west
end of the town. After carrying on this
lucrative business for some years in part
nership with others an exceptionally profit
able season induced him to open the pala-
tial club in st. James street which was
known by his name. When he retired from
the management Of this club, in five years
time he was estimated to be worth about
G1, 200 900. Some of his later specula tons
turned out i'll. He invested largely in IN
profitable building speculations and sank
large sum of money in disastrous mining
venture in Flintshire But he had too
much in reserve to suffer the fate Of his
minion Gye. When he died, at the age of
sixty-nine, in his princely mansion in Carl
ton House terrace, his personal property
sworn at e200,0 O0 while his real es-
tate amounted to G150,000 more. After the
passing of the act Of 1916, which made
gambling debts recoverable in a court of
law, the gambling houses of London began
to decline. "Crockford' after becoming
a military, naval and county service club of
short duration, and afterward a cheap res
taurant, called 1.-THE Wellington" finally
settled down into the decorous Devonshire
Club as we know it at the present day.