Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-11-22
lMERIcANs MERE PIKERs.
slungers in This Country Are Small
Compared with highlands
Big Betters.

uGdFy pluuSeTS Oh the luTl, wien GULL
pared with the nerve displayed by the
speculatively inclined in my own coun1
try. The report that has been going
the round of the newspapers lately thata
certain young nobleman lost SIS, 600 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 Cob
Mellish, who fiourished and gambled
some generations ago, would have made
light of losing even $55 900 in a few
hours play. There is, we believe, still
preserved at Blythe, near Doncaster, the
card table at which Mellish is said IT,
| have lost 100000 at one sitting to the
prince regent; the earl of Barrymore
| ;quandered million and a half in four
mad years, chiefly at cards, and Sir Ricls
ard Gargrave dissipated one of ting
hnest 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 100000 at
| sitting, and to have staked and lost $780,
700 on single throw of the dice. He
mad, however, no mean rival in Mr..
George Payne, who started life on an
income of S15O,OOO year, and dissipated
1t all and two later fortunes on cards
and the turf. For more than half
century. he spent several hours a day
1T the card table, and one of many ira
| iitions 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
e15O, 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
DOT 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 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 Ill 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 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 Nv. of France was an inveterate
and unlucky card player. as the follow
ing extract from his letters to Sully in
dictate: L have lost at play % 900 pistoles
(22O,0O0 livres); 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, $1,000 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 enormous for
tune at hazard, losing $160 900 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 II months; while John
Mytton, after throwing $4,000, 900 away
, at the card table, died debtor in Kings
. Bench prison before he had reached his
fortieth year.
Lord Hastings. whose career was sc
| meteorlc and tragic. and who. it will
be remembered, dropped 100000 over
9 a single race. used to amuse himself in
the hours he could spare from the turf
by cutting cards for $1,000 a cut an6
throwing dice for $50 time In later
days man who made himself notorious
by getting through large fortune in ar
incredibly short time lost $50, 900 in q
, single nights play at Goodwood; and In
ten minutes he once paid over $50 ,OOt
at chemin-de-fer
But after all. the palm Of invet
crate gambling must be shared between
e Mazarin, who played on his death.
bed. when he was so weak that the card.
! had to be held for him. and the woman
D of whom Goldsmith tells us, who wa.
: also at her last gasp. and who. when She
had won all her opn0nenf,S ruopay nro