The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-11-10

Horses; in the closed clubs fortunes
are lost and won; in the places
watched by the police, and in the
clubs open to the wide world, the
foaters play on everything in sight.
Past the age Of forty years. no one is
admitted as a member of a closed
club, because" to quote the words
of a clubman, ''by the time a man is
| forty years old he has made so many
enemies that some are certain to
blackball him, no matter which club
ne tries to enter" However, any one
Is welcome at the open clubs.
The clubs of "Hig Lift" as the Pa
risian terms High Life. include the
Jockey, Epatent. the Union. and 9th
ers. Cards are played for money at
the Jockey Club, but the object Of its
foundation was the improvement OF
the horse. 1t was organized by four
teen young men Of the world, and the
number of members Is not limited by
the statutes, but candidates must be
irreproachable, so far as their social
standing and fortunes are concerned.
An ordinary individual must be pro-
posed by three members, but those of
the diplomatic corps and foreign min
listers are admitted without taking a
vote. Members of the English Jockey
Club are admitted to the tribune on
field days without invitation, and to
the clubhouse by invitation of the
president of the French club. For
eigners of standing, who are in Paris
for a time, may become temporary
members on payment of 200 francs.
The rules of all closed clubs are
about the same. To gain admission a
man must be over twenty-five years
of age, proposed by three members
and voted upon by ballot. Clubmen
are responsible for the people they in
troduce into the club salons until
such time as their proteges are for
mally made members. The law per-
hitting clubs to open on a simple dec
laration gives the dishonesty inclined
such latitude that the police are kept
busy watching for evidence Of crook
edness.
Baccara, as played at the open
clubs, is the bankers easy method of
Kidding his guests. He deals the
cards two at a time, n to the right
and the other to the left. The high
est number is nine, and the person
whose card is nearest that number
wins the game. The gamblers bet on
the hands held by the partners"
Women are admitted to the open
clubs, and they play with the same
enthusiasm as they shop on bargain
day. When their money is gone they
strip the jewels from their persons
and sell them to "the jeweler," who,
being an attache Of the club, is al
ways at hand. That individual is as
necessary to the convenience of a club
frequented by women as the croupier
is to the green table. Between the
hours OF 2 p. m. and 2 a. m. the
gambling room is the scene of deplor-
able dramas. There they sit-men
and women - haggard, ~dishevelled,
glassy-eyed. staring at the stakes,
talking to themselves, and oblivious
to everything except the play. Some
of them even take their lunch to the
table to avert the necessity of leaving
the game. They gnaw their sand
wiches convulsively, swapping their
tense jaws and gazing in unseeing
noNnu OF tho uoronn &C he 01iA0c
around the table distributing orange
AIDES at so much a glass, and clear or
sugared water gratis.
Presumably the man most respon-
sible for the first steps in this pecu-
liar form Of devils work is the out
side tempter. the runner for the
house, the whipper-in. Most likely
he is a ruined spendthrift returned to
his old stamping ground after making
a failure at all else. Elegant idler,
finished, accomplished man-of-the-
world and adventurer, who has per-
sonal magnetism enough to enable
him to get his game to v without
trouble. He dimes and wines the
stranger at the open club, and, after
dinner, leads him, dim-eyed, to a quiet
corner and draws him out. Unless
the g%reenhorn is unlike most of his
kind, he displays his money, tells OF
his plans. and finally follows his host
to a place at the tables.
The w%hipper-in, like all gamblers,
is superstitious. He rules his play by
combinations dreamed by himself at
ter a night Of frenzy or suggested to
him by snatches Of talk or words
heard in the street. He and his fellows
believe in signs and hunt for the
lucky. They get tips as the men who
play the races get tips on horses. For
example, he who dreams of smoke
bets his money on "Firebrand." The
longer a nan CANDLES the more GER
tain he feels that his combination will
eventually bring him a fortune. 1t is
a fact that the men who know the in
side Of the game, the so-called wise
ones" gamble by the strong impulses
of their natures and that they die
broke" but it is not as well known
that the croupiersof gambling houses,
who watch the green" until 5 or 4
O'Clock in the morning, so from their
own tables not to bed, hut to the ia
bles of others to stake their pile away
from home. Their theory is that "a
change of place is a change Of luck"
but generally they lose.
In the QUARTER Montmarte there is
a cafe that never closes. There, four
hours out OF every twenty-four, the