RECKLESS GAMBLERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 30 March 1926, Page 4

RECKLESS GAMBLERS.

FORTUNES LOST A-T CARDS. The story of the American millionaire, Air James S. Keating,’ who sat flown to a game of poker at 9 o’clock on a Wednesday evening, and left tilie table Oil Fr.day morning, • at 8 o’clock, a winner of 700,009 dollurs (£140,000), after 35 hour’s continuous play, recalls many sensational and almost-forgotten stories of gambling luck. Mr George Payne, a wealthy Yorlcshireman, squandered three enormous fortunes on iiis passion for cards. On one occasion he and Lord Albert Denison, later ttie nrst Lord Lonctesborougli, sat up all night playing at Litnmer’s Hotel, and when Lord Albert was at last obliged to leave tho table, to meet his bride at tho altar of St. George’s, Hanover Square, Payne had won £30,600 of the bridegroom’s money. After Savcrnake, which h 6 had backed to win him £60,000, had failed by the shortest of short heads to win the Derby from Lord Lyon, Payne found solace for his misfortune in a game of cards, which lasted from 10 o’clock on tho night of Derby day to 4 o’clock on the follow ing afternoon, at the end of which he rose a winner of over £50,000 The gambling of Colonel Alellish, who, like Air Payne, squandered a. magnificent patrimony, and etldcd a dazzling and prodigal career, in semipor.vcrty at the early age of 37, was heroic m its recklessness.

During one night at the card-table ho won £IOO,OOO and lost every penny of it on the following night. At one sitting lie lost £40,000 to the Prince Regent; and tho climax of his gambling madness wa-s reached when he staked £40,000 on a single throw of tho dice, and lost. , In addition to losing enormous sums on the turf, the last Marquis of Hastings,. whose meteoric career closed in tragic eclipse before be had reached his 27th birthday, hastened his downfall considerably by indulging iu other forms of gambling. In a single afternoon be lost £15,000 in dice-tbrowihg at £IOO a time. In one evening at a West End club lie won £IO,OOO at hazard, and at the next lie lost £79,(X)0. He would spend hours cutting the cards for £2OO a cut, and tossing for £SO notes. But whether he won or lost, it was always with tho samo smile of almost contemptuous indifference with which he faced the crushing blow that wrecked his life and fortune when Hermit won the Derby of 1867. John Afytton, the “Squire of Halstead,’’ squandered over £500,000 on cards before he died, in his 38th year, a broken and ruined man, in the debtors’ ward of the King’s Bench Prison. In vain did his friends try to check his mad career. “If you will only be content to live for a- few years on £6OOO a year, tilings will come all right,” pleaded his agent. “Aly dear follow.” was the squire’s answer, “T wouldn't give a straw for life if it had to bo spent on £6OOO a year.” Of the high play of tho London gaming houses during tho 18th century •some very remarkable stories aro told. Thus Horace Walpole writes in 1780: “Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa Tree, tlie difference of which amounted to £IBO,OOO. Air (4'l3inie, an Irish gamstcr, had won £IOO,OOO off a young iili- Harvey, of Chigwell, just started from a. midshipman into an estate hv his elder brother’s death.

“O’Biruo said, ‘You can never pay me.” “ ‘I can,’ said the youth; 'my estate will sell for the debt.’ “ ‘No,’ said O’Birno, ‘1 will win £IO,OOO, and you shall throw for the odd £90,000.’ “They did; and Harvey won.”

At Croekford’s infamous club bouse, out of which the proprietor made £700,000, it was no unusual thing for sums of thousands of pounds to.change hands in an hour. Among its frequenters were Lords Granville, Chesterfield, Foley ami Set’ton; and it was these four noblemen, who left Croekford’s early one morning £IOO,OOO poorer than when they entered it the previous evening.

One of Croekford’s patrons was “Beau” Brummell, who, more fortunate than his follows, is said to have won over £OOO,OOO in various forms of gambling; It was at Crockford's that Sir John Bland once lost £32,000 at hazard in a. few hours; Lord Thnnet dissipated most of bis income of £50.(t00 a year; and Bull Hughes, one of the greatest gamblers of lii.s time, squandered bis .splendid patrimony of £40,000 a year.

'lt will be remembered bow. in much, more roront' years, Jlr Ernest Benson. r'”vn lo contemporary fume as the

“Jubilee Plunger,” got through a fortune of £250,000, largely through his addiction to card-playing, in the short space of two years. There appears to have been no limit to Benson’s recklessness; for, it is said he lost £3o,ooo—almost an eighth of his entire possession—in a single night's play at Goodwood. At Samlown he dropped £15,000 over one day’s racing, and increased his losses to £25,000 by a few hours’ unlucky card-playing the same evening. One one occasion lie lost £IO,OOO at ehemin-de-fer in ten minutes.

Probably the most costly game of cards on record was that in which tho late Mr George McCulloch, chairman of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, was the loser. The famous Broken Hill silver mine, which has since yielded millions of pounds, * had recently been discovered by an Australian boundary rider, and a syndicate of seven, of whom Mr AlcCulloch was one, had been formed to finance the working of it. Ono day, while sitting in a tiny shanty at the foot of Broken Hill, AL’Culloch offered a fourteenth share in the mine to a young miner named Cox for £2OO. Cox would only offer £120; and after much haggling it was decided to settle the dispute by a game of euchre, the terms being that if Cox won lie was to get the sbare for £l2O, if AlcCulloch was the victor he was to be paid £IBO for it. AlcCulloch lost; and for the ridiculous sum- of £l2O Cox became owner of tho share, which only six years later was valued at £1,250,000.