Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-25
GREAT LADIES WERE GAMBLERS
Mary Queen of Scots Would Wager
Her Personal Attire.

Mary Queen of Scots Would Wager
Her Personal Attire.
The card season is over, and as my
lady fine sits and counts her pleasures
and pains, her losses and gains, she
feels no remorse. not pang Of con-
science, not a regret Of game, unless
II 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 roy al princesses did
not hesitate to play for the highest
stakes and faro bank was part Of
the paraphernalia Of dame fashion.
While the American women Of to-
Gay nave HlOTt lclouEC lluii tiC
OF more primitive times and condi-
tions 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 England
in days when Lord Kenyon threatened
that women convicted of 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 II 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-ab-
sorbing game. Memory and luck are
the vital elements, and vein of So
ciability may run on unrestrained
which may be considered its chief
merit. But with bridge 1t Is different.
Cards are supposed to be very SINH
lar to chess. They are of Indian ORR
gin, and are some times 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 12tn 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 con-
tinuously from Saturday to Monday
and sacrifice her wardrobe, II neces-
sary. to do SO. Queen Anne of Aus
tria had persistent Ill luck, we are
told, but she played like queen,
without passion or greed" Anne Bo-
leyn was an inveterate gambler, as
were all the wives Of Henry VIII,
with one exception. Catherine Of Ara
gon 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, Mazarin, who
afterwards died insolvent, having lost
at cards an enormous fortune left to
her by her cardinal uncle.
Oliver Goldsmith relates a story Of
a woman who insisted on playing a
game of crihbage 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 valua-
| BILE 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
ager electress Of Saxony. who was
very fond of the card table, and who
was not above taking advantage of
her position when opportunity offered
One evening she committed some ir-
regularity" (as cheating is termed
when done by a person Of high rank
Suspicious of her honesty were excit-
ed by her play. A courtier who notic-
ed this said: Pardon, madame, my
suspicious could not fall on you. Sow
ereigns cheat only for crowns"
The descendants of Lady Catherine
Alexander, daughter Of Major Gen.
Lord Sterling and wife of Col William
Duer tell the following anecdote:
The dame was fond Of whist and II
Is probable that cards were not as
common nor as cheap as they are now,
so women carried their own packs
with them to card parties. One morn
ing while attending services at st.
Paurs church, New York, her lady
ship pulled her handkerchief out of
her capacious pocket, and with 1t
drew out a pack Of cards, which, to
the amusement OF the congregation
and her own CONSERVATION, scattered
about the pew"