The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
'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
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.
PENSIONED OFF BY A GAMING HOUSE.
A visitor at Frascati's gaming house in Paris tells us:--
'I saw the Chevalier de la C--(a descendant of the once celebrated
romance-writer) when he was nearly ninety. The mode of life of this old
man was singular. He had lost a princely property at the play-table,
and by a piece of good fortune of rare occurrence to gamesters, and
unparalleled generosity, the proprietors of the salon allowed him a
pension to support him in his miserable senility, just sufficient to
supply him with a wretched lodging--bread, and a change of raiment
once in every three or four years! In addition to this he was allowed a
supper--which was, in fact, his dinner--at the gaming house, whither he
went every night at about eleven o'clock. Till supper-time (two o'clock
in the morning) he amused himself in watching the games and calculating
the various chances, although incapable of playing a single coup. At
four o'clock he returned to his lodging, retired to bed, and lay till
between nine and ten o'clock on the following night. A cup of coffee was
then brought to him, and, having dressed himself, at the usual hour
he again proceeded to the salon. This had been his round of life for
several years; and he told me that during all that time (excepting on a
few mornings about Midsummer) he had never beheld the sun!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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