Lucrative
Gambling

M. G--me was a most estimable man, combining in himself the best qualities of both heart and head. He was good-humoured, witty, and benevolent. With these qualifications, and one other which seldom operates to a man's disadvantage--a clear income of three thousand a year--the best society in Paris was open to him. He had been a visitor in that capital about a month, when he received an invitation to one of the splendid dinners given weekly at the gambling salon. As he never played, he hesitated about the propriety of accepting it, but on the assurance that it would not be expected of him to indulge in gambling; and, moreover, as he might not again have so good an opportunity of visiting an establishment of the kind, he resolved to go--merely for the satisfaction of his curiosity. He had a few stray napoleons in his purse, to throw them--'just for the good of the house,' as he considered it-- could hardly be called play, so he threw them. Poor fellow! He left off a winner of fourteen hundred napoleons, or about as many pounds sterling--and so easily won! He went again, again, and again; but he was not always a winner; and within fifteen months of the moment when his hand first grasped the dice-box he was lying dead in a jail!

Lord Worthall's Desperate Wager

At a gambling party Lord Worthall had lost all his money gambling, and in a fit of excitement staked his whole estate against L1000, at cutting low with cards, and in cutting exclaimed,--

'Up now Deuce, or else a Trey, Or Worthall's gone for ever and aye.'

He had the luck to cut the deuce of diamonds; and to commemorate the serious event, he got the deuce of diamonds cut in marble and had it fixed on the parapet of his mansion.

The Celebrated Thaddeus Stevens

He was an inveterate gambling gamester on a small scale, and almost invariably, after a day's duty in the House, would drop in at a favourite casino, and win or lose fifty dollars--that being the average limit of his betting.

A Provident Gambler

A Monsieur B--, well known in Parisian life, having recently lost every shilling at a certain sporting and gambling club where play is carried on in Paris, went to the country, where his sister lent him L150.

He won all back again, and got a considerable sum of money in hand. He then went to his hotel, to his bootmaker, and tailor, paid them, and made arrangements to be fed, clothed, and shod for ten years.

A Magnificent Fortune Wasted

Lord Foley, who died in 1793, entered upon the turf with an estate of L18,000 per annum, and L100,000 ready money. He left with a ruined constitution, an encumbered estate, and not a shilling of ready money!

An Enterprising Clerk

Lord Kenyon, in 1795, tried a clerk 'for misapplying his master's confidence,' and the facts were as follows. He went with a bank note of L1000 to a gambling house in Osendon Street, where he won a little. He also won two hundred guineas at another in Suffolk Street. He next accompanied some keepers of a third house to their tables, where he lost above nine hundred pounds. He played there almost every night; and finally lost about L2500!

Gambling For Recruits For The Army

An Irish officer struck out a mode of gambling, for recruits. He gave five guineas bounty, and one hundred to be raffled for by young recruits,--the winner to be paid immediately, and to purchase his discharge, if he pleased, for L20. The dice-box was constantly going at his recruiting office in Dublin.

Doubling The Stakes

A dashing young man of large fortune, about the year 1820, lost at a subscription house at the West End, L80,000. The winner was a person of high rank. The young man, however, by doubling the stakes gambling, not only recovered his losses, but in his turn gained considerably of his antagonist.

An Annuity For A Gambling Debt

A fashionable nobleman had won from a young and noble relative the sum of L40,000. The cash not being forthcoming, he accepted an annuity of L4000.

Sir William Colepepper

It is told of Sir William Colepepper that, after he had been ruined himself at the gambling table, his whole delight was to sit there and see others ruined. Hardened wretch--'Who though he plays no more, overlooks the cards'--with this diabolical disposition!

The Biter Bitten

A certain duchess, of a ci-devant lord-lieutenant, who expected to make a pigeon of Marshal Blucher, was fleeced of L200,000; to pay which her lord was obliged to sell a great part of his property, and reside on the continent.

Hunted Down

A stout-hearted and gallant military baronet lost an immense sum at a celebrated gambling house; but was so fortunate as to recover it, with L1200 more. This last sum he presented to the waiters. He was pursued by two of the 'play-wrights' to a northern watering-place, where he was so plucked that all his possessions were brought to the hammer. A competency was, however, saved from the magnificent wreck.

Coming Of Age

When Sir C-- T--, a weak young man, with a large fortune, came of age, the Greeks, thinking him an excellent quarry, went to York Races, made him drunk and plundered him of a large sum. The next morning one of the party waited upon him to acquaint him of his loss--(L20,000 or L30,000), and brought bonds for his signature to that amount!

Heavy Liabilities To Begin With

In the year 1799, when the Marquis of Donegal succeeded to the title on his father's death, his debts, principally to gamblers and money-lenders, amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling!

A Gentleman Turned Barber

In an old magazine I find the following curious statement:--

'There is now living in Barnaby Street, Carnaby Market, a man who, although exercising the menial office of penny barber, was in his younger days in possession of estates and personal property to a large amount, and is the only lineal descendant remaining of the very ancient family of the H--s of Bristol.

'His relations dying when he was young, he was placed under proper guardians, and received a liberal education, first at Westminster, and afterwards at Cambridge, suitable to his rank and fortune. When of age he converted his estates into money, and retired to Dublin, where he remained some time. He then made the tour of Europe, and returned to Ireland, where he went through all the scenes of dissipation to which young men are so much addicted, till at last he was beset by those harpies the gamblers, and stripped of his immense fortune in one single gambling night!

'He then subsisted for some little time on the bounty of his undoers, who intended to make him one of them; but, not having sufficient address for the profession, he was dismissed and "left in the lurch;" and most of his friends discarding him, he embarked with his last guinea for England. Here he has encountered many difficulties, often been in gaol for debt, and passed through various scenes of life, as valet, footman, thief- taker, and at length, a penny-barber! He has a wife and large family and lives in a very penurious manner, often lamenting his early folly.'[11]

[11] 'The Western County Magazine, 1791. By a Society of Gentlemen.' This well-conducted old magazine was printed and published at Salisbury, and was decidedly a credit to the town and county.

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