The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-04

gamesters.
The convulsionsrof nature which de-
stroyed Pompeii surprised a party of
men at the hazard table, where they
were discovered 1000 years later with
the dice firmly cliltcffed in their fin
gers. If one may credit Horace thev
could cog die in the Augustian age
as Well as in the English Georgian.
Sophocles says Of Palanedes that he
invented dice to serve instead of din
ner, which office sthey fulfill to this
DAY Tor many man whom they have
robped.of the means of paying for his
dinner"
An EARLY "HoyIe."
The Emperor Claudius, who was 80
exceedingly prodigal in his play that
he adventured 100000 sesrerces on the
cast OF die" wrote a 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
heI is condemned to play with a bot
tomless dice box without any eessa-
tlon; IN this way his hopes were to be
fed continually, but never satisfied.
Perhaps there might have been good
cause Tor this supposed punishment of
ruler who so fostered gambling, for
cheating and chance are twin sisters.
There may be- honor among thieves,
but among professional gamblers there
is little of it. The man who "welch-
es"-turns on his partners or tricks
them-1s greatly decried by his asso-
GATES; but together they will fleece
the unwary by every art known to the
profession.
1T is told of the Italian gamester.
P1mental, who f1ourished at the end of
the sixteenth century and the begin
ming of the seventeenth, that in 1903.
nearing that humor of play reigned
at the French court he caused a great
number of false dice to be made and
secretly conveyed to Paris, he only
knowing the secret. He then; by means
of emissaries, bought up all the dice
IN the market. and supplied his own in
their stead. This done, he obtained
an introduction at court and gambled
to such good purpose that he cleaned
out great part of the nobility's pock-
cts. Lord De Ros, one of the most
respectable of the gambling element in
England under the Georges, was ac-
cused of practicing a certain trick at
whist. When in 1887 the matter came
up for trial it was proved that he
cheated habitually, and that some of
his noble associates, knowing this, pru-
IDENTIFY played with him rather than
against him. The noble lord did not
long survive his disgrace. After his
death Theodore Hook proposed as his
epitaph, Here lies Englands premier
baron, patiently awaiting the last
trump"
Palace a Gambling Den.
But to return toathe older records to
show what hold gambling has had
upon men, from the highest to the low
est, in all ages, it may be mentioned
that Caius Caligula once converted his
magnificent palace into a gambling
house, where, the. chroniclers tell US,
he feeced the young nobility of the
times, and it is well known that Nero
was the most infatuated gambler Of
his days. Plutarch records that the
Romans matched quails for wagers,
and describes Antony lamenting before
the battle of Actium, as though his
genius covered before that of his ad-
versary, that the quail of Augustus
were superior to his.
If dice have gained an evil repute
because Of their associations, cards
surpass them in the minds Of many.
And yet the modern playing cards were
invented by the monks of the four
teenth century, and were used, as they
may be now, in the playing of very in
nocent games. But they had not long
been introduced before gambling with
them became the rage. AT the begin
ming of the fifteenth century we read
that this passion was so prevalent in
France that persons who were addict
ed to it endeavored to restrain and
guard themselves by voluntary bonds,
resembling modern temperance pledg-
eS, with the exception, however, that
there was a penalty for breaking the
pledge. Illustrated manuscripts of that
period show not only that women play
ed, but that the players stood instead
of sitting around the table.
Henry Cheney, created by Queen Eliza
1nf1 TH,,l
once with Henry H. of France, and won
from lis diamond of great price at one
cast; When the king asked him what he
would have done had he lost, he replied
with true British brag: 81 have Sleeps
tails enough in Kent with their wool to
buy letter diamond than this"
Mania Seemed Universal.
But it was not the French court alone
rage In England as early as the reign
ot John Iackland, the changes of the dice
constituted the chief amusement of the
great Matthew Paris reproached the
barons who wrested Magma Charter from
King John for spending their time in lux
Try and gambling with dice when their
the young Englishnen Of fashion were in
the habit of losing e $4,000, 10000, e15,-
OO0 an evening at Almack's. Lord STAY
ordale not then Of age, lost Ell, 900 in
throw of the dice. He thereupon swore a
great. OATH: Now, if had been playing
deep might have won nillions!" And one
evening the marquis of Hartford said to
the loupier at Whites, PAY 31,5O0 to
Lori ----," the loss on one rubber at
whist.
Toward the close of the eighteenth CEN
fury the gambling houses of London
known to the general public as clubs, and
to the gamesters as hells-were fitted up
in most extra ordinary style. Fishmonger's
hall cost $4,000 to furnish. The ex-
pensc, however, does not seem so great
when it is known that the proPrietors
prohibited the opening of such houses, but
the proprietor of Fishmonger's boasted
that he was in no danger, as he counted
among the patrons most of the men who
made the law.