Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-09-28
lMERIcANs / MERE PlkERs
slungers in This Country Are Small
Compared with England's
Big Betters.

sion OF the sizes of wagers made by the
heavy plungers on the turf, when COM
pared with the nerve. displayed by the
Speculatiyely inclined in my own counL
tryy The report that has been going
the round OF the newspapers lately that a
certain young nobleman lost $55, 900 I'M
single nights card play is but an in
stance that the days of high play in
England are not yet over.
But such plungers as Lord Barry
more, Sir Richard Gargrave, and Co,
Mellish, who f1ourished and gambled
some generations ago, would have made
light of losing even $4,000 in a few
hours play. There is, we believe, still
preserved at Blythe, near Doncaster, the,
card table at which MeHish is said tp
have lost 100000 at one sitting to the
prince regent; the earl of Barrymore
;quandered a million~an half in four
mad years, chiefly at cards, and Sir RiclSt
ard Gargrave dissipated one of ths
6nest estates in the north of England
N the same way.
Surely no one ever threw his money
away quite so recklessly as Col Mellish,
VIM 10 ooAO " nave lOSI SOUO,UOO dI q
sitting, and to have staked and lost $780,
200 on a single throw of the dice He
mad, however, no mean rival in Mr..
George Payne, who started life on an
| income of $150,000 year, and dissipated
1t all and two later fortunes on cards
and the turf. For more than half a
century he spent several hours a day
at the card table, and one of many ira
d1tlons 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
wife. Lord Albert rose from the table
R15O,0OO 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 journey 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 60 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 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 mil
lion dollars between sunset and dawn
George w, when prince of Wales, is
said to have lost 81 100000, principally
at cards, before he was 81; 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 sittins
| he paid over $50 900, which so disturbed
his mental balance that on the follow.
| ing morning, when a gentleman rode ir
| front of him on the background, he
slashed at him with his whip-'the only
blow a 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. Paul's.
with the great folkmote bell that sum-
moned the assemblies of the citizens.
with throw of the dice at hazard, to Sir
Miles Partridge, who pulled it down,
Henry w. of France was an inveterate
and unlucky card player, as the follow
ing extract from his, letters to Sully in
dictate: 4 have lost at play % 900 pistoles
(22O,O0O livres); L beg you to pay them
directly to Faidean, that he may dis
tribute them to the persons to whom
owe them And again: PAY NJ Ed
Guard, Portuguese, $1,000 livres on ac-
count of what l 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 enorm Gus for
tune at hazard, losing $160,OOO in few
hours at a London gaming house:
Charles James Fox ruined himself at AL
mack,s. club before he was, 80: for years
| Lord Thanet's losses at cards averaged
| 100000 every IL months; while John
Mytton, after throwing 81 500 900 away
at the card table, died debtor in Kings
Bench prison before he had reached his
I fortieth-year.-
! Lord Hastings whose career was so
meteorfc and tragic and who it will
be remembered, dropped 100000 over
a 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 dice for $50 time In later
days a man who made himself notorious
by getting through large fortune in an
fncredibfy short time lost $50 900 in a
single nights piay'at GoodWood; and in
ten minutes he once paid over $50, 600
at chemin-de-fer.> -
| But, after all, the palm OF ~invet-
crate gambling must be shared between
Mazarin. who 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