Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-06-23
AMERICANS MERE PlXERs.
Plungers in This Country Are Small
Compared with England's
Big Betters.

06 0SssSNS
American gamblers are mere pikers,"
remarked a visiting Englishman, relates
the Chicago Tribune, during a discus
sion of the sizes of wagers made by the
heavy plungers on the turf, when COM
pared with the nerve displayed by the
speculatively inclined in my W coun-
try. The report that has been going
the round of the newspapers lately that
certain young nobleman lost $55, 900 in
a 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 Col.
Mellish, who fiourished and gambled
some generations ago, would have made
light of losing even s55 900 in a few
hours play. There is, we believe, still
preserved at Blythe, near Doncaster, the
card table at which Mellish is said tn
have lost 5000, 900 at one sitting to the
prince regent; the earl of Barrymore
s~quandered a million and a half in four
mad years, chiefly at cards, and Sir Rich
ard Gargrave dissipated one of the
finest estates in the north of England
in the same way.
Surely no one ever threw his money
away quite SO recklessly as Col. Mellish,
who is said to have lost $780, 900 at a
sitting, and to have staked and lost $780,
900 on a single throw of the dice. He
had, however, NJ mean rival in Mr..
George Payne, who started life on an
income of $50, 900 a year, and d~issipated
it 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
ditions OF his gambling is that he and
Lord Albert Denison sat up the whole
of n 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
$3.50, 900 poorer than when he sat down.
"On another occasion, when Payne
was travelling in a 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 a few days and nights gambling
at Crockford's or Whites, and return to
his duties with light heart and a light
pocket He was n of the four peers
the others were Lords Chesterfield.
Seton and F%oley-who lost half a mil
lion dollars between sunset and dawn.
George ~, when prince of Wales, is
said to have lost 81, 900, 900, principally
at cards, before he was 81; and he was
compelled to marry the unhappy Caro-
line as a condition of having his gam
bling debts paid. William III. was a
terrible gambler, and lost enormous
I'LL at JlO Dd5DCJ ldDlt. Az one SIlllIS
he paid over 500, 900, which so disturbed
his mental balance that on the follow
ing morning, when a gentleman rode in
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 a 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: I have lost at play % coo pistoles
100000 ~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 M. Ed
Guard, Portuguese, 81, 1000 livres on &C.
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 for
tune at hazard, losing $1,000 0 in a 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 a 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 $500 900 over
a single race, used to amuse himself in
the hours he could spare from the turf
by cutting cards for 81 1000 a cut and
throwing dice for $50 a time. In later
days a man who made himself notorious
by getting through a large fortune In an
incredibly short time lost $3.50, 900 in a
single nights play at Goodwood; and in
ten minutes he once paid over $50, 900
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
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.