Sketcher.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 252, 20 September 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

Sketcher.

Card-stories.

On one occasion when Washington Irving, Bancroft, and Everett were chatting over diplomatic reminiscences, the last named told how aftprhe and the Neapolitan ambassador had been presented to her Majesty Queen Victoria, Lord Melbourne intimated that they would be expected to join m a game at whist /With! the Duchess of Kent. " I play but a very poor game myself," said Melbourne ; " m fact, I scarcely understand it ; but Ihe. duchess is very fond of it." " And I," said the Neapolitan to Everett, " am ja very, bad player; and should I chance to be your Excellency's, partner, I invoke your forbearance*'in advance;"" to which the American envoy replied that ho knew very little of the game himself. As he put it, three dignified personages, clad m gorgeous attire, were solemnly going to play a game they imperfeotly. understood, and for whioh none of them oared m the least. Upon reaching the duchess's apartments, the ambassadors Were formally presented, and then, at her. invitation, sat down to play. As soon as the cards were dealt, a lady-in-waiting placed herself at the back of the duchess, and the latter said : " Your Excellencies will excuse me if I. rely upon the advice of my friend here, for I must confess that I am really a very poor player.", This, was almost, too. much for Everett's gravity ; a gravity undisturbed for the rest of the evening, since he found playing whist under such conditions inexpressibly dull work. A ..-.. •.:-■■•■' Cavourdid-ncrt find playing an unfamiliar game dull work when he lost a large sum at double dummy whist to a member of a Paris Club. He paid the money with the best grace imaginable, merely remarking that he thought he saw the game, and it might not be such a bad investment after all. The, next night he met the same antagonist, 1 played high, played steadily, played long, and rose from the table a richer man by' thirty thousand pounds. ' i Bold as he could be when the game was; worth the candle. Lord Beaoansfield would: never have teen tempted to risk so much on the cards ; for knowing the weakness of hisj play, he carefully eschewed anything likej high stakes. One evening, ; at the time when Parliament was' agitating itself about; the empress-ship of India, Lord Beaconsfield; sat down to whist with the Prince of Wales, and.asked.the latter: "What points, sir?" "Oh, sovereign, if you, .[please," was" --the: ' answer. Seeing the premier's look of annoy- \ ' ance, Mr. Bernal Osborne observed : " I think, : sir, the premier' would rather have crown points ! " The prince, taking the joke and the hint, altered the stakes accordingly. Marlborough was not above playing for smaller stakes, though perhaps the great captain did not play high out of fear of his loving Sarah, who had a tongue; and knew how to use it ; like the lady, whose- liege lord contrived . that she should not more than suspect the secret of "his bad hours; until, coming home at six m the morning tired out .with "attending on a sick friend," he dozed at the breakfast table, and solemnly passing the bread, said : " Out.l "\ l \ .That's your sick friend,' is'it' ? " exclaimed the wife ; and what followed may be imagined.- „ . ! A card-hating wife can -upon occasion Bet her scruples aside. Soon after the close of the Secession. War, General' Forrest and his wife stopped at an hotel m Memphis, and upon examining their, purses, ifpund. the sum total' of their wealth amounted to seven dollars and thirty cents. The general being due: that evening at a house wh6re poker was sure to be played, proposed that he should tempt fortune to; the, full' extent of his means, and asked his 'wife to' pray for his supcess. She would not promise; but he felt, she was for him, and knew how it would bei Let him tell the rest himself. . . /- ' " They had tables-— one .was a quarterdollar table, one a half,, and one a dollar and a half . I wanted to make my seven dollars last as long as I could make it, so I sat down to, the quarter table. By dinner-time I had wqr^j enough to < do better ; land after we had

'eaten, sat down to the dollar-and-a-half ' table. Sometimes I won, and then again I'd { jtese, tintil nigh upon midnight, when I had j ■^fetter luck. I knew Mary was sitting up ] ?Snixious, and it made me cool. • I set my hat j on the floor, and every time I'd win I'd drop j the money m the hat. I sat there until day broke, and then I took my hat up m both j hands, smashed it on my head, and went home. _ When I got to my room, there sat Mary m" her gown. She seemed tired and anxious, and though she looked mighty hard ' at me, she didn't say a word. I walked' right up to" her, and emptied my hat right] -into the lap of her gown, and then we sat down and oounted it. Just fifteen hundred dollars even, and that gave me a start." _ N Mr. Clay's devotion to cards did not disturb his wife's equanimity, m the least. Asked by a Northern belle if it did not distress her that her husband should gamble, the candid old lady replied: "Not at all, my dear ; he most always wins." . ' The wife of Bishop Beadon loved whist so well, that when the prelate told one of his clergy if he was able to sit up half the night playing whist at the Bath Booms, he must be well enough to do duty at home, the invalided one silenced him with: "My lord, Mrs. Beadon would tell you that late whist acts as a tonic or restorative to dyspepdc people with weak nerves." The bishop's better half would have sympathised with Goldsmith's old. lady, who, lying sick unto death, played cards with the curate to pass the time away, and after winning all his money, had just proposed to play for her funeral charges when she expired. There have been stranger stakes still..' In 1735, when Henry and James Trotter sat down at the Salmon Inn, Chester- le-street, to play a game of cards against Robert Thomas and Thomas Ellison, the latter pair staked five shillings, and the former, a child, the son of a Mr. and Mrs. Leesh, who gave up their boy to the winner*. A traveller m New Zealand, spending a night m a squatter's hut, was invited to cut m for a rubber of whist. As he , took his seat, he inquired : " What points ? " His partner responded m a tone significant of surprise at such a question : "Why, the usual game, of course — sheep points, and a bullock on the rubber." Unless Espartero and his foe Marota are 'much belied, more momentous issues were ■ decided by the cards m a lone farm-house at ' Bergara, where they privately met to arrange a truce between their respective forces. No sooner did Espartero enter the room, than the Carlist chief challenged him to a game at ' tressilio, a challenge the Christino com- , mander accepted with alacrity. Espartero firsf won all Marota's money, then his own ( conditions for the truce, article byjarticle, and \ finally the entire submission of the Carlist j army. Within twenty-four hours, Marota ' had paid his debt, and the first Carlist war was at an end. A Mr. Purdy, as the end of his bachelorhood drew nigh, let hispid cronies know it was his intention to forswear card-playing after perpetrating matrimony. They thereupon put their heads together, and a day or two after the wedding, invited him to a little dinner at Delmonico's, at which he was tore* ceive a three-hundred-dollar silver service. Dinner done, and the presentation made, the party made themselves and their guest merry over some excellent wine, and .when they thought the time had come, proposed a game of poker; and after a little hesitation, Purdy gave m " just for this once." His hosts had. fixed things nicely, and calculated upon wining the prioe of their wedding gift, the dinner, and the wine. The game went on till long after daylight appeared, but by that time the intended victim had cleaned every one of them out, besides .retaining lawful possession of the silver service. Even the sharpest of sharpers may meet more than his match. Robert Houdin happening to saunter into a Continental casino where a Greek was reaping a rare harvest at ecarte" , looked on quietly until a seat became vacant, and then droppod into it. The Greek, dealing dexterously, turned a king from the bottom of the pack. When the deal came to Houdin, he observed : " When I turn kings from the bottom of the pack/I always do .it with one hand instead of two ; it is quite as easy, and much more elegant. See 1 here comes his majesty of diamonds;" and up came the card. The cheat stared at the conjuror for a moment, and then rushed from the place, without waiting to possess himself of his hat, coat, or stakes. Another of the fraternity, after winning ten games at c" carte m succession, tried his fortune against a new opponent ; and still his luck held. He had made four points, and dealing, turned up a king and won. "My luck is wonderful," said he. " Yes," said his adversary ; " and all the more wonderful since I have the four kings of the pack m my pooket!" and the professor of legerdemain laid them on the table. " I remember," said a gentleman who had travelled m Russia, " being at a ball given by the empress to the late emperor on Mb birthday. I was playing at e"oarte, when the emperor; who was wandering about, came behind me to watch the game. My adversary and I were both at four, and.it was my deal. ' Now,' said the emperor, ' let us see whether you can turn up the king?' I dealt, and then held up the turn-up card, observing : ' Your orders, sir, have been obeyed.' A dozen times afterwards the emperor asked me how I managed -it; and he never would believe that it was a mere, hazard, and that I had taken the chance of the card being a king." The Czar was as much astonished at the result of his remark as the young gentleman who," looking over a pretty girl's shoulder while she was playing cards, observed : " What a lovely hand 1 " " You may have it, if you want it," murmured she ; and all the rest of the evening he was wondering what her intentions were. — Chambers' Journal.