The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-12-06
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81 WILKIE COLLINS 8
Terribly asss''sss. 5
str ange Bed y . )
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,uORTLY after my education
o+ college was finished hap
nened to be staying at Paris
With an English friend. We
4 both young men then and lived
y afraid, rather a wild life IN the
arhtful city of our sojourn. One
I. ue were idling about the neigh
usod of the Palais Royal doubtful
Mt amusement we should next |
..o ourselves. My friend proposed
D,s;t TO Frascati's, but his sugges-
was not to my taste. l knew
.oo+is as the French saying is, by |
-. had lost and won plenty o. i've
M nieces there merely for amuse-
Us sake until it was amusement
,onoer and was thoroughly tired, in
of all the CHASTITY responsibilities
mob a social anomaly as respect
Gambling house. "For heavens
to1 said | to my friend, "let us go
mewhere where we can see a little
mime. backyard, poverty stricken
ming, with no false gingerbread gilt
thrown over it at all. Let us get
raw from fashionable Frascati's to
Ense where they don't mind letting In
man with q ragged coat or man
Nh no coat, ragged or otherwise"
Egy WE'LL" said my friend. 1--WE
Hdn't 20 out of the Palais Royal to
the sort of company you want.
n's the place just before us, as
kckguard place, by all report, as
could possibly wish to see." In
other minute we arrived at the door
bd entered the house.
When we got upstairs and had left
ar hats and sticks with the door
neper. we were admitted into the
blef gambling room. We did not find
bany people assembled there, but
ew as the men were who looked up at
on our entrance they were all types
amentably true types-of their re-
kective classes.
We had come to see blackguards,
ut these men were something worse.
here is comic side, more or less ap-
eciable, in all blackguardism. Here
here was nothing but tragedy-mute,
erd tragedy. The quiet in the room
ss horrible. The thin, haggard, long
aired young man, whose sunken eyes
ercelv watched the turning up Of the
rds never spoke; the fabby, fat
3D. pimply player who pricked his
iece of pasteboard perseyeringly TIC
gister how often black won and how
tten red never spoke; the dirty, wrin
led old man, with the vulture eyes ant
be darned greatcoat, who had lost hi
bst sou and still looked on desperatel.
fter he could play no longer neye
poke. Even the voice of the crouple
bundled as if it were strangely dulle'
nd thickened in the atmosphere of tn
bonn. | had entered the place to laugh
hut the spectacle before me was some
hing to weep over. l soon found
ecessary to take refuge in excitemen
rom the depression Of spirits whlc
Jas fast stealing on me. Unfortunate
| sought the nearest excitement b
Ing to the table and beginning t
h. Still more unfortunately, as tn
lent will show, l won-won PROD
EOusly, won incredibly, won at such
ate that the regular players at the t
BE crowded round me and, staring
by stakes with hungry, superstition
ives, whispered to one another that II
English stranger was going to bref
the bank
The game was rouge ct noir. l b;
played at it in every city in EuroI
Without, however, the care or the WI
to study the theory of chances, tn
Philosophers stone of all gamble
and gambler in the strict sense
the word 1 have never been. l W
heart whole from the corroding passi
for play. My gaming was mere IL
amusement. I never resorted to it
Necessity because l never knew WI
vas to want money. l never pr
uced it so necessarily as to lose m'
Than I could afford or to gain m
.Aan | could coolly pocket without
ing thrown off my balance by my e
luck. In short, l had hitherto freque
co gaming tables just as l frequen
Dallrooms and opera houses-beca
lhey amused me and because l
nothing better to do with my leis
hours.
But on this occasion 1t was very
,,erent; now, for the first time in
me, felt what the passion for 7
really was. My success first bewil'
eu and then, in the most literal me
lug OF the word, intoxicated me.
credible as it may appear, it is ne
.neless true, that l only lost when
'empted to estimate chances and pla
sccording to previous calculation.
'eit everything to luck and staked W
Out any care or consideration,
sure to win-to win in the face of
wy recognized probability in favo
Tue bank. At first some of the
present ventured their money sa
enough on my color, but l speedily
creased my stakes to sums which
Jared not risk. One after another
'elt OF playing and breathlessly loo
vi at my game.
Gull time after time, staked hi
anu higher and still won. The ex
M meht In the room rose to fever p
-ne silence was interrupted by