The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-08-03
LADIES WE'RE GAMBLERs.
Mary Queen of SCOTS Would Wager
Her Personal Attire on n Game
of Cards

my lady fine sits and counts her
pleasures and pains, her losses and
gains, she feels no remorse, not
pang OF conscience, not a regret of a
game, unless it be on the venture
sne lost, since Luck and Chance
happeneth to all men"
century or SO ago. says the St
Louis Post Dispatch, there were
hundreds of great ladies in Eng
land who made of their drawing
rooms regular gambling dens, and in
these drawing rooms of the world
OF FASHION ladies in the most eXalt-
ed social positions lost or won, as
the case might be, ten of thou
sands of pounds in single nights
play. The royal Prlncesses did not
hesitate to play for the highest
stakes and faro bank was a part
OF the paraphenalia of dame fash
ion.
While the American women of to-
day have more leisure than the
women OF more primitive times and
conditions, in this country and,
therefore, turn more frequently for
entertainment to games and cards,
tney do not indulge their love of
cards to the same extent as did the
sex in England in days when Lord
Kenyon threatened that women con-
victed of gambling should certain
ly exhibit themselves in the pillory |
though they should be first ladies |
In the land" However, American
women are fond of cards and. de-
piore 1T If you will, many of them |
play Tor money in an enormous ex-
tent.
Fashion varies as to the game of |
vogue. The once popular progress
i've suchre has been abolished and |
It's place we find the more technical |
game of bridge. Euchre is not an |
all absorbing game. Memory and |
luck are the vital elements. and a |
vain and sociability may run on nm
restrained which may be considered |
Its chief merit. But with bridge it
IS is1IITitffsssSt.a 1IITitffsssnt ~
Is CARDS artsS'ar are supposed to be -
similar to chessS S no!n are Oh I
dian origin, and arSSSess represont t
ed chess on paper. C1fS(I, ~ ,.aY }
an army and this ar1Ssia eopprrI
sented in sculpture, whifsFahh bYs
stand for the same in pSar ng.
Playing cards were known to- the
Araolans and Seracens from the
beginning of the 18th century. They
were carried into Europe from In
dia and Crina.
The queen in the card game does
not hold the exhaulted position that
she stands for in chess, where she
general. 1t would seem that
the game of chess might find pop-
niarlty in the ranks of the suffra-
gists, and that the card game would
De abolished, since the queen of
carus Is necessarily meekly subord-
mate to her severn lord and master
Queen Elizabeth was fond Of
cards, but inclined to be peeyish
and lose her temper in the game.
mary Queen of Scots carried her in
iatuation to the extent of wagering
ner personal attire on the game.
She would play continuously from
saturday night to Monday and sac
--ritlce her wardrobe, if necessary, to
a. 4 queen Anne of Austria had
G i-e ~ luck, we are told,
out passion or greed" Anne Bo-
leyn was an inventerate gambler,
as was all the wives of Henry VIII.
with one exception. Catherine of
Aragon did not gamble. She had no
love for the card table. Nell Gwyn
lost 400 guineas in one night to the
neice OF the notorious gambler, Ma
zarln, who afterward died insoivent,
having lost at cards an enormous
fortune left to her by her Cardinal
uncle.
Oliver Goldsmith relates a story
OF woman who insisted on play
ing game of cribbage with the
minister who had come to soothe
her dying hours The clergyman
lost every penny he had with him
and he was just dealing the cards
Tor another game, her spiritual ad-
Vlser's stake being her own funer-
al expenses when she died, leaving
the game unwon.
hA
rooms from the time Charles VI to |
the time of Louis XVI. were luxuri- |
ously FURNISHED. The counters used |
were of mother of pearl of some |
other valuable substance. The cards |
were embroidered with silver on |
white stina, and some were the !
work of the most famous miniature |
painters.
story if told of the famous
Dowager Electress of Saxony, who |
and who was not above taking ad-
sehtase OF her position when oppor-
Luntty offered. One evening she
committed some irregularity" (as
cheating is termed when done by |
some person OF high rank.) Sus-
plclons of her honesty were excited
ny her play. A counties who noticed
this said: Pardon, madame, my
Suspicions could not fall on you
9oYerelgns cheat only for crowns -
The descendants of lady Gather
Inc Alexander, daughter of Major
len: Lord Sterling and wife of Col. |!
William Duer tell the following
aDecdote: THE dame was fond of
whist and it is probable that cards
were not common nor as cheap as
tEey are now, so women carried
their own packs with them to card
parties. One morning while attend
Ing services at st. PauTs church,
New York, her ladyship pulled her