The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims Volume 1 Part 1

The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims.

by Andrew Steinmetz.

Volume I.

PREFACE.

To the readers of the present generation much of this book will, doubtless, seem incredible. Still it is a book of facts--a section of our social history, which is, I think, worth writing, and deserving of meditation.

Forty or fifty years ago--that is, within the memory of many a living man--gambling was 'the rage' in England, especially in the metropolis.

Streets now meaningless and dull--such as Osendon Street, and streets and squares now inhabited by the most respectable in the land--for instance, St James's Square, THEN opened doors to countless votaries of the fickle and capricious G.o.ddess of Fortune; in the rooms of which many a n.o.bleman, many a gentleman, many an officer of the Army and Navy, clergymen, tradesmen, clerks, and apprentices, were 'cleaned out'--ruined, and driven to self-murder, or to crimes that led to the gallows. 'I have myself,' says a writer of the time, 'seen hanging in chains a man whom a short time before I saw at a Hazard table!'

History, as it is commonly written, does not sufficiently take cognizance of the social pursuits and practices that sap the vitality of a nation; and yet these are the leading influences in its destiny--making it what it is and will be, at least through many generations, by example and the inexorable laws that preside over what is called 'hereditary transmission.'

Have not the gambling propensities of our forefathers influenced the present generation?....

No doubt gambling, in the sense treated of in this book, has ceased in England. If there be here and there a Roulette or Rouge et Noir table in operation, its existence is now known only to a few 'sworn-brethren;'

if gambling at cards 'prevails' in certain quarters, it is 'kept quiet.'

The vice is not barefaced. It slinks and skulks away into corners and holes, like a poisoned rat. Therefore, public morality has triumphed, or, to use the card-phrase, 'trumped' over this dreadful abuse; and the law has done its duty, or has reason to expect congratulation for its success, in 'putting down' gaming houses.

But we gamble still. The gambling on the Turf (now the most uncertain of all 'games of chance') was, lately, something that rang through and startled the entire nation. We gamble in the funds. We gamble in endless companies (limited)--all resulting from the same pa.s.sion of our nature, which led to the gambling of former times with cards, with dice, at Piquet, Ba.s.set, Faro, Hazard, E O, _Roulette_, and _Rouge et Noir_. At a recent memorable trial, the Lord Chief Justice of England exclaimed--'There can be no doubt--any one who looks around him cannot fail to perceive--that a spirit of speculation and gambling has taken hold of the minds of large cla.s.ses of the population. Men who were wont to be satisfied with moderate gain and safe investments seem now to be animated by a spirit of greed after gain, which makes them ready to embark their fortunes, however hardly gained, in the vain hope of realizing immense returns by premiums upon shares, and of making more than safe and reasonable gains. We see that continually.' In fact, we may not be a jot better morally than our forefathers. But that is no reason why we should not frown over the story of their horrid sins, and, 'having a good conscience,' think what sad dogs they were in their generation--knowing, as we do, that none of us at the present day lose _FIFTY OR A HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS_ at play, at a sitting, in one single night--as was certainly no very uncommon 'event' in those palmy days of gaming; and that we could not--as was done in 1820--produce a list of _FIVE HUNDRED_ names (in London alone) of n.o.blemen, gentlemen, officers of the Army and Navy, and clergymen, who were veteran or indefatigable gamesters, besides 'clerks, grocers, horse-dealers, linen-drapers, silk-mercers, masons, builders, timber-merchants, booksellers, &c., &c., and men of the very lowest walks of life,' who frequented the numerous gaming houses throughout the metropolis--to their ruin and that of their families more or less (as deploringly lamented by Captain Gronow), and not a few of them, no doubt, finding themselves in that position in which they could exclaim, at _OUR_ remonstrance, as feelingly as did King Richard--

'Slave! I have set my life upon a _CAST_, And I will stand the _HAZARD OF THE DIE!_'

Nor is gaming as yet extinct among us. Every now and then a batch of youngsters is brought before the magistrates charged with vulgar 'tossing' in the streets; and every now and then we hear of some victim of genteel gambling, as recently--in the month of February, 1868--when 'a young member of the aristocracy lost L10,000 at Whist.'

Nay, at the commencement of the present year there appeared in a daily paper the following startling announcement to the editor:--

'Sir,--Allow me, through the columns of your paper, to call the attention of the parents and friends of the young officers in the Channel-fleet to the great extent gambling is carried on at Lisbon.

Since the fleet has been there another gambling house has been opened, and is filled every evening with young officers, many of whom are under 18 years of age. On the 1st of January it is computed that upwards of L800 was lost by officers of the fleet in the gambling houses, and if the fleet is to stay there three months there will soon be a great number of the officers involved in debt. I will relate one incident that came under my personal notice. A young midshipman, who had lately joined the Channel fleet from the Bristol, drew a half-year's pay in December, besides his quarterly allowance, and I met him on sh.o.r.e the next evening without money enough to pay a boat to go off to his ship, having lost all at a gambling house.

Hoping that this may be of some use in stopping the gambling among the younger officers, I remain, yours respectfully, AN OFFICER.'(1)

(1) Standard, Jan. 12, 1870.

In conclusion, I have contemplated the pa.s.sion of gaming in all its bearings, as will be evident from the range of subjects indicated by the table of contents and index. I have ransacked (and sacked) hundreds of volumes for entertaining, amusing, curious, or instructive matter.

Without deprecating criticism on my labours, perhaps I may state that these researches have probably terminated my career as an author.

Immediately after the completion of this work I was afflicted with a degree of blindness rendering it impossible for me to read any print whatever, and compelling me to write only by dictation.

ANDREW STEINMETZ.

THE GAMING TABLE.

CHAPTER I. THE UNIVERSAL Pa.s.sION OF GAMING; OR, GAMING ALL THE WORLD OVER.

A very apt allegory has been imagined as the origin of Gaming. It is said that the G.o.ddess of Fortune, once sporting near the shady pool of Olympus, was met by the gay and captivating G.o.d of War, who soon allured her to his arms. They were united; but the matrimony was not holy, and the result of the union was a misfeatured child named Gaming. From the moment of her birth this wayward thing could only be pleased by cards, dice, or counters.

She was not without fascinations, and many were her admirers. As she grew up she was courted by all the gay and extravagant of both s.e.xes, for she was of neither s.e.x, and yet combining the attractions of each.

At length, however, being mostly beset by men of the sword, she formed an unnatural union with one of them, and gave birth to twins--one called DUELLING, and the other a grim and hideous monster named SUICIDE. These became their mother's darlings, nursed by her with constant care and tenderness, and her perpetual companions.

The G.o.ddess Fortune ever had an eye on her promising daughter--Gaming; and endowed her with splendid residences, in the most conspicuous streets, near the palaces of kings. They were magnificently designed and elegantly furnished. Lamps, always burning at the portals, were a sign and a perpetual invitation unto all to enter; and, like the gates of the Inferno, they were ever open to daily and nightly visitants; but, unlike the latter, they permitted _EXIT_ to all who entered--some exulting with golden spoil,--others with their hands in empty pockets,--some led by her half-witted son Duelling,--others escorted by her malignant monster Suicide, and his mate, the demon Despair.

'Religion, morals, virtue, all give way, And conscience dies, the prost.i.tute of play. Eternity ne'er steals one thought between, Till suicide completes the fatal scene.'

Such is the _ALLEGORY_;(2) and it may serve well enough to represent the thing in accordance with the usages of civilized or modern life; but Gaming is a _UNIVERSAL_ thing--the characteristic of the human biped all the world over.

(2) It appeared originally, I think, in the Harleian Miscellany. I have taken the liberty to re-touch it here and there, with the view to improvement.

The determination of events by 'lot' was a practice frequently resorted to by the Israelites; as, by lot it was determined which of the goats should be offered by Aaron; by lot the land of Canaan was divided; by lot Saul was marked out for the Hebrew kingdom; by lot Jonah was discovered to be the cause of the storm. It was considered an appeal to Heaven to determine the points, and was thought not to depend on blind chance, or that imaginary being called Fortune, who,

'----With malicious joy, Promotes, degrades, delights in strife, And makes a _LOTTERY_ of life.'

The Hindoo Code--a promulgation of very high antiquity--denounces gambling, which proves that there were desperate gamesters among the Hindoos in the earliest times. Men gamed, too, it would appear, after the example set them by the G.o.ds, who had gamesters among them. The priests of Egypt a.s.sured Herodotus that one of their kings visited alive the lower regions called infernal, and that he there joined a gaming party, at which he both lost and won.(3) Plutarch tells a pretty Egyptian story to the effect, that Mercury having fallen in love with Rhea, or the Earth, and wishing to do her a favour, gambled with the Moon, and won from her every seventieth part of the time she illumined the horizon--all which parts he united together, making up _FIVE DAYS_, and added them to the Earth's year, which had previously consisted of only 360 days.(4)

(3) Herod. 1. ii.

(4) Plutarch, _De Isid. et Osirid._

But not only did the G.o.ds play among themselves on Olympus, but they gambled with mortals. According to Plutarch, the priest of the temple of Hercules amused himself with playing at dice with the G.o.d, the stake or conditions being that if he won he should obtain some signal favour, but if he lost he would procure a beautiful courtesan for Hercules.(5)

(5) _In Vita Romuli_.

By the numerous nations of the East dice, and that pugnacious little bird the c.o.c.k, have been and are the chief instruments employed to produce a sensation--to agitate their minds and to ruin their fortunes.

The Chinese have in all times, we suppose, had cards--hence the absurdity of the notion that they were 'invented' for the amus.e.m.e.nt of Charles VI. of France, in his 'lucid intervals,' as is constantly a.s.serted in every collection of historic facts. The Chinese invented cards, as they invented almost everything else that administers to our social and domestic comfort.(6)

(6) Observations on Cards, by Mr Gough, in Archaeologia, vol. viii.

1787.