ROMANCES OF THE CARD TABLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 264, 31 October 1908, Page 3

ROMANCES OF THE CARD TABLE

If the full story of the card-taKe could be written it would surely be tin; most startling revelation of' human cupidity ever published; and almost every page of it would be marked by some incident which would outstrip fiction. When Louis XV. was at the card-table the fascination of the game made him absolutely dead to all externals, and even to decency nnd humanity. On one occasion, when he was playing for heavy stakes, one of his opponents, overcome by excitement, collapsed in hi s chair in a fit of apoplexy. His Majesty affected to ignore the incident until someone exclaimed, "M. de Chauvelin is ill!" "111!" retorted the King, easting a careless glance at the stricken man; ''he is dead. Take him away; spades are trumps, gentlemen!"

PLAYING FOR A FUXERAL FEE. Equally weird is a story Goldsmith tells. When the clergyman arrived to prepare a lady parishioner, who had a passion for gambling, for her approajaing death, the lady, after listening for a short time to hi s exhortation, exclaimed, "That's enough! Now, let us have a game of cards." To humour her the parson consented to play. The dying woman won all his money, and had just suggested playing for a funeral fee when she fell back and expired. In the early day s of last century a whist club, composed largely of clergymen, used to meet in the buck room of a barber's shop in a Somersetshire town. On one occasion, so the story runs, when four of the club members, were acting as pall-bearers at the funeral of a reverend brother, some delay occurred, and the coffin was set down in the chancel. One of them produced a pack of cards and suggested a rubber. The coffin served the purpose of a table, and the players were deeply immersed in the game when the sexton arrived to announce that everything was at la;t ready. MAZARIX AS A GAMBLER. Mazarin's passion for gambling was so strong even in death that he playnl cards to the very end, when he was so weak that they had to be held for him; and the '• Merry Monarch" spent his last Sunday on earth playing at basset round a large table with his great courtiers and other dissipate persons, an.] with a bunk of at least 1)2,000 before him. £IO,OOO GAME OF WHIST. The curious fascination cards possess for their devotees is illustrated by tlis following story of Uird Granville, at flic lime British Ambassador to l'ian;e. One afternoon when he was about to return to Paris he repaired to Graham 1 .! to have a farewell game of whist, ordering his carriage to be at the door at four. When it arrived he was mush too deep in the game to be disturbed. At ten o'clock he sent out to say he was not ready, and that the horses had better be changed. Six horn's later the same message was sent out, and twice, more the waiting horses were changed before he consetiled to leave the table after losing £IO,OOO. An equally remarkable story if told of Mr. George Payne, the great Turf plunger of seventy year s ago. On one occasion he sat down, at Limmer's Hotel, to play cards with Lord Albert Denison, later "the first Lord Londesboroug.'i. Hour after hour passed; the game proceeded all through the night and long after day dawned, anil il was not un.il an urgent message came to tell Lord Albert that his bride was waiting for him at the altar of St. George's, lla-i over Square, that the cards were at last flung down. It was Lord Albert's wedding-day, and he met his bride £30,000 poorer than when he left hn on the previous day.

A KING IN DISGUISE. One of the most romantic of gambling storieg is told by Mr. ThiseltonDyer, of a plainly-dressed stranger who once took his scat itt a faro-table, and after an extraordinary run of luck succeeded in breaking the bank. "Heavens!" exclaimed an old, infirm Austrian officer who sat next to the stranger, " the twentieth part of your gains would make me the happiest man in the world!" "You shall have it, then, answered the stranger, as he left the' room. A servant speedily returned and presented the officer with the twentieth' part of the bank, adding, " My master, sir, requires no answer." The successful stranger was soon discovered to be no other than the King of Prussia in disguise.

A THROW FOR NINETY THOUSAND. That all gamblers are not ungenerous i s proved by the following story told liy Horace Walpole in one of his letters. Mr. O'ilirue, an Irish gamester, had won £IOO,OIIO of a, young Air. Harvey, of Chigwell, just, started from a midshipman into an estate by his eldest brother's death. O'Binic s aid:, "'You < can never puv me," "I can," said the ■ youth. "My" estate will sell for the debt." "No."" said O'Birne, "I will win ten thousand, and you shall throw for the odd ninety thousand." They did— I and Harvey won.

IuAMK WOUTK A MILLION* AND A[ I QCAUTI'K STI'KIJKU. i Tin- must costly game of cards on; record was probably tliat in which .the Into Mr. Ceorjre McCiilloch, chairman o' I the ISroken Hill Proprietary Company mice took part. A syndicate of seven I had lieen formed to finance the 'famous ISroken Hill Silver Mine, and Mr. McCulloch was oni! of the seven. One day, while sitting in a shanty at the loot of the hill, McCiilloch oll'cred a fourteenth share in the mine: to u young) man named Cox for £200; . Cox could only offer .'"l'2«, and, after] much haggling, 'it was decided to sett'c the dispute by a game of euchre. If Cox proved the winner he was to have the share fo,- rtldO; if he lost he was r to pav ,tUBu for it. He won, and for , the absurd sum ol .CV2O became owner 1 of the share which, a few years late, 1 was valued at a million and a quarter ~ I pounds.