The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1904-07-07

VINO is said to have lost 100000 at
sitting, and to have staked and lost $780,
OoO on single throw of the dice He
hao, however, no mean rival in Mr..
George Payne, who started life on an
income of $l50,00O a year, and dissipated
it all and two later fortunes on cards
and the turf. For more than half
century he spent several hours day
at the card table, and one of many ira
eltlons OF his gambling is that he and
LORD Albert Denison sat up the whole
OF one night at Limmer's hotel and did
not separate until the morning, when
Lord Albert was due at st. Georges
church, Hanover square, to wed his first
VIE. Lord Albert rose from the table
el5O,oOO poorer than when he sat down.
"On another occasion, when Payne
was travelling in post chaise from Lon
don to the New Forest, he spent every
moment of the long tourney in playing
ecarte, with $500 staked on each game.
Probably Lord Granville, who was
one of our ambassadors at Paris, and
who died close on GO years ago, could
not have told how many scores of thou
sands of dollars he had lost at the card
table. When he was in Paris he would
make frequent excursions to London,
spend a few days and nights gambling
at Crockford's or Whites, and return to
his duties with light heart and light
pocket. He was one of the four peers
the others were Lords Chesterfield,
Seton and Foley-who lost half a mil
lion dollars between sunset and dawn.
George w., when prince of Wales, is
said to have lost $4,000, 900, principally
at cards, before he was 21; and he was
compelled to marry the unhappy Caro-
line as condition of having his gam
bling debts paid. William III. was
terrible gambler, and lost enormous
sums at the basset table. At one sitting
he paid over $4,000, which so disturbed
his mental balance that on the follow
ing morning, when gentleman rode in
front of him on the background, he
slashed at him with his whip-'the only
blow satirist said, that he had
struck for supremacy in his Kingdom
Henry VIII. was such an infatuated
gamester that he 'gambled away the ia
nous Jesus Campanile bell at st. Paups,
with the great folkmote bell that sum-
moaed the assemblies of the citizens,
with throw of the dice at hazard, to Sir
Miles Partridge, who pulled it down.
Henry Nv. of France was an inveterate
and unlucky card player. as the follow
ing extract from his letters to Sully in
he OF OF NIL Se<0 NJ
(22O,O00 livres); beg you to pay them
directly to Faidean, that he may dis
tribute them to the persons to whom l
owe them And again: Pay NJ Ed
Guard, Portuguese, $1,000 livres on ac-
count of what owe him at play
volumes might be written of royal
gamblers, their winnings and losings,
but these, after all, are eclipsed by those
of much less important personages Mr..
John Bland squandered an enormous for
.unc at hazard. losing 100000 in few
hours at London gaming house;
Charles James Fox ruined himself at AL
mack's club before he was 30; for years
Lord Thanet's losses at cards averaged
100000 every IL months; while John
Mytton. after throwing $2,500,00O away
at the card table, died debtor in Kings
Bench prison before he had reached his
fortieth year.
Lord Hastings, whose career was so
meteoric and tragic, and who, it will
be remembered, dropped $500, 1000 over
single race, used to amuse himself in
the hours he could spare from the turf
by cutting cards for $1,000 a cut and
throwing G'ce for $50 time. In later
days man who made himself notorious
by getting through large fortune in an
incredibly short time lost $4,000 in a
single nights play at Goodwood; and in
ten minutes he; once paid over $4,000
at chemin-de-fer.
But, after all, the palm of invet-
crate gambling must be shared between
Mazarin, wig played on. his DEATH
bed, when he was so weak that the cards
had to be held for him, and the woman
of whom Goldsmith tells us, who was
also at her last gasp, and who, when she
had won all her opponents money, pro.
posed to play for her funeral expenses"
Country Of Linguists.
Almost every native of Iceland, even
he peasants and fishermen, can speak
1T least one f0eign language besides
his local Danish dialect. Some years