Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-08

IN France. and alone among the creole fam
lilies of Louisiana entitled to the honor or
burial In the walls of the Cathedral OF ".
Louis. where marble slabs set forth their
many honors and dignfties.
One of the family rose to distinction, a
commander of the royalst army in the war
near there in 1859. preferred to remain In
New Orleans. where the family became, in
consequence Of the advance In the value OF
their property, immensely wealthy.
Bernard Marigny had travelled In France
just before the revolution, and somewhere
In that country-he forgot to tell where-he
picked up the game Of craps although 1t
was possibly not known by that name.
When he returned to America he brought
II with him and it at once became the fash
ionable game. When many Of the French
nobility sought refuge in America, among
friends and relatives. Bernard Marigny
kept open house for them at his splendid
place. Fontainebleau. across Lake Ponchar-
train from New Orleans and near Mande-
Vile. town he laid out and named, for
the family name In Vaudeville de Marigny.
Among those he entertained were Louis
Philippe, the future King of the French.
and that kings are not always ungrateful
or forgetful is proved by the fact that
when he was placed on the French throne
he sent for his friends son. Vaudeville de
Marigny, who spent several years in
France as the comrade and schoolmate Of
Louis Philippe's eldest son, whose untimely
death contributed so largely to the fall of
the Orleanist branch.
There is scarcely a trace of Fontaine-
bleau today, although the neighboring town
of Vaudeville is prospecting, but stories of
the splendor and extravaganza of the life
boring country.
Bernard Marigny was gambler born.
and his large fortune allowed him to in
dulge himself in the matter of playing.
New Orleans was then one of the most
prosperous cities in the country. and when
ever Marigny needed money he had only
to cut off a slice of his plantation and d.
vide 1t into town lots.
He was a man of considerable humor,
anything but hypocrite, and made no ef-
fort to conceal his gambling tendencies.
When he lost hundred thousand or so at
the game of bagatele. just then in favor,
he ran a street through the corner of his
plantation, sold the lots to pay his gam
bling debts and a memento of his mis-
fortune named the street Bagatelle.s
Craps made another large hole in his for
tune. and accordingly another slice of, the
plantation came off and a new street was
laid out named Craps: and so on, street
after street was honored with the name OF
some game a which Marigny had suffered
Ii IS, until the entire plantation had disap-
peared and had become part of the city
the Fauburg Marigny. 1t afterward bios
somod out as the Third municipality, and
is now the third district of New Orleans.
Craps street disappeared some years ago.
1t was a quiet. orderly street with many
churches on it, and it sounded rather odd
to hear of the Craps Street Methodist
Church.
With a creole's idea of an army of serv
ants and dependents, Bernard Marigny had
several scores of negroes at his Fontaine-
bleau place to wait on his guests 1t was
these servants who probably introduced
craps among the negroes.
The game spread to all parts of Louisiana
and the south, and, finally. of the country,
and became distinctively the gambling
game of the negroes, although the whites
have occasionally played 1t.
Bernards son. Vaudeville de Marigny.
who was educated in France. returned to
Louisiana to be colonel of a confederate
regiment and sheriff of New Orleans. The
family fortunes, shattered by Bernard Ma
rigny and his dice. were swept away in
the civil war The family is extinct in New
Orleans today.