The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-08-03


lady fine sits and counts her pleas
ures and pains, her losses and gains,
she feels no remorse, not pang OF
conscience, not a regret of game,
unless it be on the venture she lost,
since Luck and Chance happeneth
to all men,
A century or so ago, says the st.
Louis Post Dispatch, there were hun
dreds Of great ladies in England who
made of their drawing rooms regular
gambling dens, and in these drawing
rooms of the world of fashion ladies
in the most exalted social positions
lost or won, as the case might be,
tens of thousands of pounds in a
single nights play. The royal prin-
cesses did not hesitate to play for
the highest stakes and faro bank
was a part of the paraphernalia OF
dame fashion.
While the American women Of to-
day have more leisure than the Wo-
men of more primitive times and con-
ditions in this country and, therefore,
turn more frequently for entertain
ment to games and cards, they do not
indulge their love of cards to the
same extent as did the sex in Eng
land in days when Lord Kenyon
threatened that women convicted or
. gambling SHOULD certainly exhibit
themselves in the pillory though they
should be first ladies in the land.
However, American women are fond
of cards and, deplore it if you will,
many of them play for money to an
enormous extent.
Fashion varies as to the game IN
vogue. The once popular progressive
euchre has been abolished and in its
place we find the more technical
game of bridge. Euchre is not an all
absorbing game. Memory and luck
are the vital elements, and vein
of sociability may run on unrestraln-
ed which may be considered it's CHIEF
merit. But with bridge it is differ
ent.
Cards are. supposed to be very SINH
lar to chess. They are Of Indian orl-
gin, and are sometimes called chess
on paper. Chess represents an army,
and this army is represented in sculp-
ture, while cards stand for the same
in painting. Playing cards were
known to the Arabians and Saracens
from the beginning of the 18th cen
tury. They were carried into Europe
from India and China.
The queen in the card game does
not hold the exalted position that she
stands for in chess, where she is
general. It would seem that the game
of chess might find popularity in the
ranks of the suffragists, and that the
card game would be abolished, since
the queen of cards is necessarily
meekly subordinate to her sovereign
lord and master.
Queen Elizabeth was fond of cards,
but inclined to be peevish and lose
her temper in the game. Mary, Queen
of Scots, carried her infatuation to
the extent of wagering her personal
attire on the game. She would play
continuously from Saturday to Mon
.day and sacrifice her wardrobe, If
necessary, to do so. Queen Anne OF
Austria had persistent i'll luck, we
are told, but she played like a queen,
without passion or greed. Anne Bo-
leyn was an inveterate gambler, as
we're 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 one night to the
niece of the notorious gambler, MAJ
arin. who afterwards died insolvent,
having lost at cards an enormous for
tune left to her by her cardinal
uncle.
Oliver Goldsmith relates story OF
a woman who insisted on playing
game of cribbage with the minister
who had come to soothe her dying
hours. The clergyman lost every pen
ny he had with him and he was just
dealing the cards for another game,
her spiritual advisers stake being her
own funeral expenses when she died,
leaving the game unwon.
At the French court the card rooms
from the time of Charles vi to that
of Louis XVI, were luxuriously fur
nished. The counters used were of
mother of pearl or some other valu-
able substance. The cards were en-
broidered with silver on white satin,
and some were the work of the most
famous miniature painters.
A story is told of the famous Dow
,1,o+roec of SaxOnv who was