The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-09
CHAPTER XXI.
The Diversions OF Young Multi. million.

The Diversions OF a Young Multi. Million.
aIre.
To be idle and lavish OF money, twenty
Ave years old. with the appetites keen
and the need for action always pressing,
then to have loved girl with quick,
strong, youthful ardOr, and to have had
the ideal snirched by gossip, then shat
tered before his amazed eyes.--this is a
situation in which the male animal is apt
to behave inequality In the language of
the estimable Herr Doctor Won Herzlich,
he will seek those avenues Of modification
In which the least struggle is required.
In the simpler phrasing OF Uncle Peter
Bines, he will "cut loose
During the winter that now followed
Percival Bines behaved according to either
| formula as the reader may prefer. He
early ascertained his limitations with re-
| spect to New York and its people.
Say, old man. he asked Herbert De-
lancey Livingston one night, across the
table at their college club, ARE all the
people in New York society impecunious 2"
Livingston had been with him at
Harvard and Ltvingston's family was so
| VIGOROUSLY not impecunious that
element. Livingston, moreover, had
dined just unwisely enough to be truthful
We'll, to be candid with you, Bines,'
the young man had replied, in a burst of
alcoholic confidence, about all that you
are likely to meet are broke-else you
wouldn't meet EN-, you know" he ex-
planned, cheerfully you know, old chap
a few Of you western people have got
into the right set here; there's the Mes
bits, for instance. On my word the good
| wife and mother hasn't the kinks out Of
her fingers yet, nor the callouses from her
hands by Jove! She worked so hard
cooking and washing woollen shirts for
mir IA 1T S%rfl< Ac
for him-well caviare, I'm afraid, will al
ways be caviare to Jimmy Nesbit. And
now the sons married girl that had
everything but money-my boy, Nellie
Wemple has fairly got that family of
Nesbits awestricken since she married
into it, just by the way she can spend
money-but what was saying. old chap?
Oh, yes. about getting in lit takes time,
you know; on my word, think they were
as much as eight years, and had to start
In abroad. at that At first, you know,
you can only expect to meet crowd that
can't afford to be exclusive any longer
From which friendly counsel, and from
certain confirming observations Of his
own, Percival had concluded that his lot
In New York was to spend money. This
he began to do with a large western care
lessness that speedily earned him fame
Of a sort. Along upper Broadway, his
advent was a golden joy. Tradesmen
learned to love him; florists, jewellers, and
tailors hailed his coming with honest fer
YOUR; walters told moving tales of his
tips; cabmen fought for the privilege of
transporting him; and the hangers on Of
rich young men picked pieces of lint as
siduously and solicitously from his coat 4
One of his favorite resorts was the
sumptuous gambling -house in Forty
fourth street. The man who slides back
the panel of the stout oaken door early
1~~ - IL ~tlk
barred by its grill Of wrought iron. The
attendant who took his coat and hat, the
waiter who took his order for food, and
the croupier who took his money, were
all gladdened by his coming; for his
sratuities were as large when he lost as
when he won. Even the reserved pro-
prietor. accustomed as he was to a
wealthy and careless clientele, treated
Percival with marked consideration after
a night when the young man persuaded
him to withdraw the limit at roulette,
and spent a large sum in testing a system
for breaking the wheel, given to him by q
friend lately from Monte Carlo.
II think really, the fellow who gave me
that system is an ass he said lighting a
cigarette when the play was done. Nov
I'm going down and demolish eight dol
lars worth Of food and drinl<---you won't
be all to the good on that, you know"
His host decided that a. young man
who was hungry. after losing a hum
dred thousand dollars in five hours
play, was a person to be not lightly con-
sidered.
And, tho he loved the~rhythmic whir and
the ensuing rattle of the little ivory ball
at the roulette wheel, he did not disdafn
the quieter faro, playing that dignifed
game exclusively with the chocolate-col-
ored chips, which cost thousand dollars
a stack Sometimes he won; but not often
enough to disturb his hosts belief that
there Is less of chance in his business
than In any other known to captains Of
industry. -
There were. too, sociable games Of polk
er, played with GARNER, Of the Lead
Trust. Burman, the intrepid young wheat
operator from Chicago, and half a dozen
other well-moneyed spirits; games in
which the limit to use the Chicagoan's
phrase. was ''tQne beautiful but lofty
north star" At these games he lost even
more regularly than at those where, with
| the exception of a trifing percentage, he
| was solely at the mercy of chance. But
he was a joyous loser, endearing himself
! to the other players; to GARNER whom
Burman habitually accused of being
"closer than a warm night as well as
to the open-handed son Of the chewing
gum naagnate, who had been raised
abroad and who protested nightly that
there was an element Of beastly American