Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-11-08

bills I owed"
There always have been women that
gambled ever since Eve took chance
on the apple, and perhaps most notori-
Gus among them was the Countess OF
Buckingham, who, after she had made
her peace with the church, played cards
with her undertaken with her funeral
expenses as the stake. but in the worst
of the good old days" young girls OF
16 and 1S were not allowed to have
their bridge and five hundred parties,
as they are today.
If the young women who play bridge
at IS were content to leave off at 20
the matter could be dealt with less
harshly, but the young woman who
learns to play cards and enjoys the
game is rarely content to stop.
AS for the money that passes from
one hand to another it is significant
that Joseph HI Choate, while asking a
fashionable audience at an exclusive
woman's club in New York for $4,000
for the support of various charitable
activities, said: IF every woman here
will devote all she wins at bridge in
the next thirty days it will help Won
derfully."
Not long ago the papers throughout
the country published the startling
news Of the raiding Of a fashionable
woman's club in middle western city
as a gambling house. The raid was
brought about by a wealthy grocer,
whose wife, in the course Of one year
had lost so much money at the club
that her husband was facing financial
ruin. In vain he pleaded with her to
stop her gambling, and as she would
not, he went to the chief Of police and
gave information that led to the raid.
Two years ago a similar thing hap
pened at q popular and exclusive sum-
mer resort in the east. The casino
where the gambling occurred was raid
ed, and half of those taken prisoners
were women. They were women Of
the best families in America, women
of culture and education. During the
trial Of the proprietor Of the place it
developed that his customers included
practically all the women Of the colony.
There are many people who will say
that these are unusual cases, that they
must not be taken as examples of a
prevalent condition. But they are not
unusual cases. Ten years ago woman
who played cards for money was look
ed upon as an undesirable person. This
was before the introduction of the
bridge craze. Today there are countless
women who belong to at least one
bridge club, and there are very few
bridge clubs that do not play for
money.
Unfortunately gambling among wo-
men does not stop at the card table.
There are bucketshops, the race tracks
and houses where the roulette wheel
and the wheel of fortune is always
ready to spin. The stock market is
one Of the greatest snares for the wo-
man who wishes to risk money and
when the books of the New York firm
of B. H. Sheftels, which was raided by
the government as a "bucketshop,"
were examined in court, it was found
that a large percentage Of the duped
ones were women.
These were not women Of the big
cities, but the farmers wives who form
the backbone Of the country, women
who had toiled and saved and who had
placed their money with an unsafe in
stitution because the gambling spirit
in them was too strong to resist. 1t is
this same spirit that sends women
rushing pellmell to a bargain counter
in hopes Of getting something for next
door to nothing, and who, when they
find they have been swindled, offer as
an excuse that one must take a
chance"
A short time ago a duchess who was
famous throughout all Europe for her
wealth and for her luxurious entertain
ments, was sold out by the order of her
creditors. At the same time she said
that her ruin was due to losses through
the card table Here in America a day
seldom passes without one woman 60
ing through the bankruptcy court, and
in many cases her financial reverses
are brought about through the same
course.
AS an example of how much money
is made in some of the famous gam
bling dens Of Europe and America. the
figures of the earning of the most fam
Gus gambling place in the world, Mon
te Carlo, will prove interesting. There
are at least a dozen kings and princes
in Europe who receive a revenue from
Monte Carlo.
The four descendants Of the original
concessionaire, Edward Blanc, receive
each $4,500,000 a year. Two Of them
are princesses. When Prince Roland
Bonaparte married Edward Blanc's
daughter he received $10.000,000, and
Prince George received the same sum
when he married the daughter of Ro-
land Bonaparte and Marie Blanc. The
Prince of Monaco's two divorced wives,
one Of whom was Miss Alice Heine of
New Orleans, receive large annual in
comes. The state of Monaco is entire
ly supported by the institution, its
10000 citizens being free from any tax.
1t also pays the Prince Of Monaco
20, 100000 francs a year, supports one
of the finest opera houses in the world,
standing army, so detectives whose
duty it is to persuade would-be sui
cides to carry out their plans outside
of the state, and 1t provides free funer-
ais and a cemetery for the unlucky
ones who do take their lives when they
have seen the wheel of fortune take
their last cent.
And who is it that supports this
place? Men and women in equal num-
ber from every corner of the world.
Two women from southern Ohio, one