8.
CHAPTER VIII.
GAMBLING AT THE GERMAN BATHING-PLACES.
BADEN AND ITS CONVERSATION HOUSE.
BADEN-BADEN in the season is full of the most exciting
contrasts — gay restaurants and brilliant saloons, gaming-tables,
promenades, and theatres crammed with beauty and rank, in the midst of
lovely natural scenery, and under the shade of the pine-clad heights of
the Hercynian or Black Forest — the scene of so many weird tales of old
Germany — as for instance of the charming Undine of De la
Mothe Fouqué.
But among the seducing attractions of Baden-Baden, and of all
German bathing-places, the Rouge-et-noir and Roulette-table hold a
melancholy pre-eminence, — being at once a shameful source of revenue
to the prince, — a rallying point for the gay,
the beautiful, the professional blackleg, the incognito duke or king, —
and a vortex in which the student, the merchant, and the subaltern officer
are, in the course of the season, often hopelessly and irrevocably
ingulfed. Remembering the gaming excitement of the primitive
Germans, we can scarcely be surprised to find that the descendants of
these northern races poison the pure stream of pleasure by the
introduction of this hateful occupation. It is, however, rather remarkable
that all foreign visitors, whether Dutch, Flemish, Swede, Italian, or even
English, of whatever age or disposition or sex, `catch the frenzy' during
the (falsely so-called)
Kurzeit, that is,
Cure-season, at Baden, Ems, and Aix.
Princes and their subjects, fathers and sons, and even, horrible to
say, mothers and daughters, are hanging, side by side, for half the night
over the green table; and, with trembling hands and anxious eyes,
watching their chance-cards, or thrusting francs and Napoleons with their
rakes to the red or the black cloth.
No spot in the whole world draws together a more distinguished
society than may be met at Baden; its attractions are felt and
acknowledged by
every country in Europe. Many of the
élite of each
nation may yearly be found there during the months of summer, and, as
a natural consequence, many of the worst and vilest follow them, in the
hope of pillage.
Says Mrs Trollope: — `I doubt if anything less than the evidence of
the senses can enable any one fully to credit and comprehend the
spectacle that a gaming-table offers. I saw women distinguished by
rank, elegant in person, modest, and even reserved in manner, sitting at
the Rouge-et-noir table with their râteaux, or rakes, and marking-cards in their hands; — the former to push forth their bets, and draw in
their winnings, the latter to prick down the events of the game. I saw
such at different hours through the whole of Sunday. To name these is
impossible; but I grieve to say that two English women were among
them.'
The Conversationshaus, where the gambling takes place, is let out
by the Government of Baden to a company of speculators, who pay, for
the exclusive privilege of keeping the tables, £11,000 annually,
and agree to spend in addition 250,000 florins (£25,000) on the
walks and buildings, making altogether about £36,000. Some
idea may
be formed from this of the vast sums of money which must be yearly
lost by the dupes who frequent it. The whole is under the direction of
M. Benazet, who formerly farmed the gambling houses of Paris.
`On trouve ici le jeu, les livres, la musique,
Les cigarres, l'amour, les orangers,
Le monde tantôt gai, tantôt mélancholique,
Les glaces, la danse, et les cochers;
De la biére, de bons dîners,
A coté d'arbre une boutique,
Et la vue de hauts rochers.
Ma foi!'
`We find here gambling, books, and music,
Cigars, love-making, orange-trees;
People or gay or melancholic,
Ices, dancing, and coachmen, if you please;
Beer, and good dinners; besides these,
Shops where they sell not on tic;
And towering rocks one ever sees.'
`How shall I describe,' says Mr Whitelocke, `to my readers in
language sufficiently graphic, one of the resorts the most celebrated in
Europe; a place, if not competing with Crockford's in gorgeous
magnificence and display, at least surpassing it in renown, and known
over a wider sphere? The metropolitan pump-room of Europe,
conducted on the principle of gratuitous admittance to all bearing
the semblance of gentility and conducting themselves with propriety,
opens its Janus doors to all the world with the most laudable hospitality
and with a perfect indifference to exclusiveness, requiring only the hat to
be taken off upon entering, and rejecting only short jackets, cigar, pipe,
and meerschaum. A room of this description, a temple dedicated to
fashion, fortune, and flirtation, requires a pen more current, a voice
more eloquent, than mine to trace, condense, vivify, and
depict.
* * * Taking everything, therefore, for granted,
let us suppose a vast saloon of regular proportions, rather longer than
broad, at either end garnished by a balcony; beneath, doors to the right
and left, and opposite to the main entrance, conduct to other apartments,
dedicated to different purposes. On entering the eye is at once dazzled
by the blaze of lights from chandeliers of magnificent dimensions, of
lamps, lustres, and sconces. The ceiling and borders set off into
compartments, showered over with arabesques, the gilded pillars, the
moving mass of promenaders, the endless labyrinth of human beings
assembled from every region in Europe, the costly dresses, repeated by a
host of mirrors, all this combined, which the eye conveys
to the brain at a single glance, utterly fails in description. As with the
eye, so it is with the ear; at every step a new language falls upon it, and
every tongue with different intonation, for the high and the low, the
prince, peer, vassal, and tradesman, the proud beauty, the decrepit
crone, some fresh budding into the world, some standing near the grave,
the gentle and the stern, the sombre and the gay, in short, every possible
antithesis that the eye, ear, heart can perceive, hear, or respond to, or
that the mind itself can imagine, is here to be met with in two minutes.
And yet all this is no Babel; for all, though concentrated, is admirably
void of confusion; and evil or strong passions, if they do exist, are
religiously suppressed — a necessary consequence, indeed, where there
can be no sympathy, and where contempt and ridicule would be the sole
reciprocity. In case, however, any such display should take place, a
gendarme keeps constant watch at the door, appointed by government, it
is true, but resembling our Bow-street officers in more respects than one.
`Now that we have taken a survey of the brilliant and moving
throng, let us approach the stationary crowd to the left hand, and see
what it
is that so fascinates and rivets their attention. They are looking upon a
long table covered with green cloth, in the centre of which is a large
polished wooden basin with a moveable rim, and around it are small
compartments, numbered to a certain extent, namely 38, alternately red
and black in irregular order, numbered from one to 36, a nought or zero
in a red, and a double zero upon the black, making up the 38, and each
capable of holding a marble. The moveable rim is set in motion by the
hand, and as it revolves horizontally from east to west round its axis, the
marble is caused by a jerk of the finger and thumb to fly off in a
contrary movement. The public therefore conclude that no calculation
can foretell where the marble will fall, and I believe they are right, in-asmuch as the bank plays a certain and sure game, however deep, runs
no risk of loss, and consequently has no necessity for superfluously
cheating or deluding the public. It also plays double, that is, on both
sides of the wheel of fortune at once.
`When the whirling of both rim and marble cease, the latter falls,
either simultaneously or after some coy uncertainty, into one of the com-partments, and the number and colour, &c., are
immediately proclaimed, the stakes deposited are dexterously raked up
by the croupier, or increased by payment from the bank, according as
the colour wins or loses. Now, the two sides or tables are merely
duplicates of one another, and each of them is divided something like a
chess-board into three columns of squares, which amount to 36; the
numbers advance arithmetically from right to left, and consequently there
are 12 lines down, so as to complete the rectangle; as one, therefore,
stands at the head, four stands immediately under it, and so on. At the
bottom lie three squares, with the French marks 12 p — 12 m — 12 d,
that is, first, middle, third dozen. The three large meadows on either
side are for red and black, pair and odd, miss and pass — which last
signify the division of the numbers into the first and second half, from 1
to 18, and from 19 to 36, inclusive. If a number be staked upon and
wins, the stake is increased to six times its amount, and so on, always
less as the stake is placed in different positions, which may be effected
in the following ways — by placing the piece of gold or silver on the line
(
à cheval, as it is called), partly on one and partly on
its neighbour, two numbers are represented, and should one win,
the piece is augmented to eighteen times the sum; three numbers are
signified upon the stroke at the end or beginning of the numbers that go
across; six, by placing the coin on the border of a perpendicular and a
horizontal line between two strokes; four, where the lines cross within;
twelve numbers are signified in a two-fold manner, either upon the
column where the figures follow in the order of one, four, seven, and so
on, or on the side-fields mentioned above; these receive the stake
trebled; and those who stake solely upon the colour, the two halves, or
equal and odd, have their stake doubled when they win. Now, the two
zeros, that is, the simple and compound, stand apart and may be
separately staked upon; should either turn up, the stake is increased in a
far larger proportion.
`To render the game equal, without counting in the zeros and other
trifles, the winner ought to receive the square of 36, instead of 36.
`It is a melancholy amusement to any rational being not infatuated
by the blind rage of gold, to witness the incredible excitement so
repeatedly made to take the bank by storm, sometimes by surprise, anon
by stealth, and not rarely by digging a mine, laying intrenchments and
opening a fire of
field-pieces, heavy ordnance, and flying artillery; but the fortress, proud
and conscious of its superior strength, built on a rock of adamant, laughs
at the fiery attacks of its foes, nay, itself invites the storm.
`For those classes of mankind who possess a little more prudence,
the game called Trente-et-un, and Quarante, or
Rouge et Noir are substituted.
`The lord of the temple or establishment pays, I believe, to
government a yearly sum of 35,000 florins (about £3000) for
permission to keep up the establishment. He has gone to immense ex-pense in decorating the building; he pays a crowd of croupiers at
different salaries, and officers of his own, who superintend and direct
matters; he lights up the building, and he presides over the festivities of
the town — in short, he is the patron of it all. With all this liberality he
himself derives an enormous revenue, an income as sure and determined
as that of my Lord Mayor himself.'[73]
The Baden season begins in May; the official opening takes place
towards the close of the spring quarter, and then the fashionable world
begins to arrive at the rendezvous.
It cannot be denied that everything is right well regulated, and
apart from the terrible dangers of gambling, the place does very great
credit to the authorities who thrive on the nefarious traffic. Perfect
order and decency of deportment, with all the necessary civilities of life,
are rigorously insisted on, and summary expulsion is the consequence of
any intolerable conduct. If it so happens that any person becomes
obnoxious in any way, whatever may be his or her rank, the first
intimation will be — `Sir, you are not in your place here;' or, `Madame,
the air of Baden does not suit you.' If these words are disregarded,
there follows a summary order — `You must leave Baden this very day,
and cross the frontiers of the Grand Duchy within twenty-four hours.'
Mr Sala, in his novel `Make your Game,'[74] has given a spirited
description of the gambling scenes at Baden.
Whilst I write there is exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, London,
Doré's magnificent picture of the Tapis Vert, or Life
in Baden-Baden, of which the following is an accurate description: —
`The Tapis Vert is a moral, and at the same
time an exceedingly clever, satire. It is illustrative of the life, manners,
and predilections and pursuits of a class of society left hereafter to enjoy
the manifold attractions of fashionable watering-places, without the
scourge that for so many years held its immoral and degrading sway in
their sumptuous halls.
`In one of these splendid salons the fashionable crowd is eagerly
pressing round an oblong table covered with green cloth (le tapis
vert), upon which piles of gold and bank-notes tell the tale of
“noir perd et la couleur gagne,&” and vice
versa. The principal group, upon which Doré has thrown one of
his powerful effects of light, is lifelike, and several of the actors are at
once recognized. Both croupiers are well-known characters. There is
much life and movement in the silent scene, in which thousands of
pounds change hands in a few seconds. To the left of the croupier
(dealer), who turns up the winning card, sits a finely-dressed woman,
who cares for little else but gold. There is a remarkable expression of
eagerness and curiosity upon the countenance of the lady who comes
next, and who endeavours, with the assistance of her eye-glass, to find
out the state of affairs. The gentleman next
to her is an inveterate
blasé. The countenance of the
old man reckoning up needs no description. Near by stands a lady with
a red feather in her hat, and whose lace shawl alone is worth several
hundred pounds — for Doré made it. The two female figures to
the left are splendidly painted. The one who causes the other croupier to
turn round seems somewhat extravagantly dressed; but these costumes
have been frequently worn within the last two years both at Baden and
Hombourg. The old lady at the end of the table, to the left, is a well-known habituée at both places. The bustling and shuffling
eagerness of the figures in the background is exceedingly well rendered.
`As a whole, the Tapis Vert is a very fine illustration
of real life, as met with in most of the leading German watering-places.'[75]
`At the present moment,' says another authority, writing more than
a year ago, `there are three very bold female gamblers at Baden. One is
the Russian Princess — — , who plays several hours every day at
Rouge et Noir, and sometimes makes what in our money
would be many hundreds, and at others goes empty away. She wins
calmly
enough, but when luck is against her looks anxious. The second is the
wife of an Italian ex-minister, who is well known both as an authoress
and politician. She patronizes
Roulette, and at every turn of
the wheel her money passes on the board. She is a good gambler —
smirking when she wins, and smirking when she loses. She dresses as
splendidly as any of the dames of Paris. The other night she excited a
flutter among the ladies assembled in the salons of the
“Conversation&” by appearing in a robe flaming red with
an exaggerated train which dragged its slow length along the floor. But
the greatest of the feminine players is the Leonie Leblanc. When she is
at the
Rouge et Noir table a larger crowd than usual is
collected to witness her operation. The stake she generally risks is 6000
francs (£240), which is the maximum allowed. Her chance is
changing: a few days back she won £4000 in one sitting; some
days later she lost about £2000, and was then reduced to the, for
her, indignity of playing for paltry sums — £20 or thereabouts.'
Among the more recent chronicles, the Figaro gives
the following account of the close of the campaign of a gaming hero, M.
Edgar de la Charme,
who, for a number of days together, never left the gaming-room without
carrying off the sum of 24,000 francs.
`The day before yesterday, M. de la Charme, reflecting that there
must be an end even to the greatest run of luck, locked his portmanteau,
paid his bill, and took the road to the railway station, accompanied by
some of his friends. On reaching the wicket he found it closed; there
were still three-quarters of an hour to pass before the departure of the
train. “I will go and play my parting game,&” he
exclaimed, and, turning to the coachman, bade him drive to the Kursaal.
His friends surrounded him, and held him back; he should not go, he
would lose all his winnings. But he was resolute, and soon reached the
Casino, where his travelling dress caused a stir of satisfaction among the
croupiers. He sat down at the Trente-et-quarante, broke the
bank in 20 minutes, got into his cab again, and seeing the inspector of
the tables walking to and fro under the arcades, he said to him, in a tone
of exquisite politeness, “I could not think of going away without
leaving, you my P.P.C.&” '
SPA.
`The gambling houses of Spa are in the Redoute, where
Rouge et Noir and Roulette are carried on nearly
from morning to night. The profits of these establishments exceed
£40,000 a year. In former times they belonged to the Bishop of
Liege, who was a partner in the concern, and derived a considerable
revenue from his share of the ill-gotten gains of the manager of the
establishment, and no gambling tables could be set up without his
permission.'[76]
`The gambling in Spa is in a lower style than elsewhere. The
croupiers seem to be always on the look-out for cheating. You never see
here a pile of gold or bank notes on the table, as at Hombourg or
Wiesbaden, with the player saying, “Cinquante louis aux
billet,&” “Cent-vingt louis à la masse,&” and
the winnings scrupulously paid, or the losings raked carefully away from
the heap. They do not allow that at Spa; there is an order against it on
the wall. They could not trust the people that play, I suppose, and it is
doubtful if the people could trust the croupiers. The ball spins more
slowly at
Roulette — the cards are dealt more gingerly at
Trente-et-quarante here than elsewhere. Nothing must be
done quickly, lest somebody on one side or other should try to do
somebody else. Altogether Spa is not a pleasant place to play in, and as,
moreover, the odds are as great against you as at Ems, it is better to
stick to the promenade
de sept heures and the ball-room, and
leave the two tables alone. Outside it is cheery and full of life. The
Queen of the Belgians is here, the Duke of Aumale, and other nice
people. The breeze from the hills is always delicious; the Promenade
Meyerbeer as refreshing on a hot day as a draught of iced water. But
the denizens, male and female, of the
salons de jeu are often
obnoxious, and one wishes that the old Baden law could be enforced
against some of the gentler sex.
`By way of warning to any of your readers who propose to visit
the tables this summer, will you let me tell a little anecdote, from
personal experience, of one of these places — which one I had perhaps
better not say. I took a place at the Roulette table, and had not staked
more than once or twice, when two handsomely dressed ladies placed
themselves one on either side of me, and commenced
playing with the smallest coins allowed, wedging me in rather
unpleasantly close between them. At my third or fourth stake I won on
both the colour and a number, and my neighbour on the right quietly
swept up my coins from the colour the instant they were paid. I
remonstrated, and she very politely argued the point, ending by restoring
my money. But during our discussion my far larger stake, paid in the
mean while, on the winning number, had disappeared into the pocket of
my neighbour on the left, who was not so polite, and was very indignant
at my suggestion that the stake was mine. An appeal to the croupier
only produced a shrug of the shoulders and regret that he had not seen
who staked the money, an offer to stop the play, and a suggestion that I
should find it very difficult to prove it was my stake. The
“plant&” between the two women was evident. The whole
thing was a systematically-planned robbery, and very possibly the
croupier was a confederate. I detected the two women in communica-tion, and I told them that I should change my place to the other side of
the table where I would trouble them not to come. They took the hint
very mildly, and could afford to do so, for they had got
my money. The affair was very neatly managed, and would succeed in
nearly every case, especially if the croupier is, as is most probable,
always on the side of the ladies.'
HOMBOURG.
`In 1842 Hombourg was an obscure village, consisting of the castle
of the Landgraf, and of a few hundred houses which in the course of
ages had clustered around it. Few would have known of its existence
except from the fact of its being the capital of the smallest of European
countries. Its inhabitants lived poor and contented — the world
forgetting, by the world forgot. It boasted only of one inn — the
“Aigle&” — which in summer was frequented by a few
German families, who came to live cheaply and to drink the waters of a
neighbouring mineral spring. That same year two French brothers of the
name of Blanc arrived at Frankfort. They were men of a speculative
turn, and a recent and somewhat daring speculation in France, connected
with the old semaphore telegraph, had rendered it necessary for them to
withdraw for a time from their native land. Their stock-in-trade
consisted in a Roulette wheel,
a few thousand francs, and an old and skilful croupier of Frascati, who
knew a great deal about the properties of cards. The authorities of the
town of Frankfort, being dull traders, declined to allow them to initiate
their townsmen into the mysteries of cards and Roulette, so hearing that
there were some strangers living at Hombourg, they put themselves into
an old diligence, and the same evening disembarked at the
“Aigle.&” The next day the elder brother called upon the
prime minister, an ancient gentleman, who, with a couple of clerks, for
some £60 a year governed the Landgrafate of Hombourg to his
own and the general satisfaction. After a private interview with this
statesman the elder Blanc returned poorer in money, but with a
permission in his pocket to put up his Roulette wheel in one of the rooms
of the inn. In a few months the money of the innocent water-drinkers
passed from their pockets into those of the brothers Blanc. The ancient
man of Frascati turned the wheel, and no matter on what number the
water-drinkers risked their money, that number did not turn up. At the
close of the summer season a second visit was made to the prime
minister, and the Blancs returned to
Frankfort with an exclusive concession to establish games of hazard
within the wide spreading dominions of the Landgraf. For this they had
agreed to build a kursaal, to lay out a public garden, and to pay into the
national exchequer 40,000 florins (a florin is worth one shilling and
eight-pence) per annum. Having obtained this concession, the next step
was to found a company. Frankfort abounds in Hebrew speculators,
who are not particular how they make money, and as the speculation
appeared a good one, the money was soon forthcoming. It was decided
that the nominal capital was to be 400,000 florins, divided into shares of
100 florins each. Half the shares were subscribed for by the Hebrew
financialists, and the other half was credited to the Blancs as the price of
their concession. During the winter a small kursaal was built and a
small garden planted; the mineral well was deepened, and flaming
advertisements appeared in all the German newspapers announcing to the
world that the famous waters of Hombourg were able to cure every
disease to which flesh is heir, and that to enable visitors to while away
their evenings agreeably a salon had been opened, in which they would
have an opportunity to win
fabulous sums by risking their money either at the game of
Trente
et Quarante or at
Roulette. From these small
beginnings arose the “company&” whose career has been so
notorious. It has enjoyed uninterrupted good fortune. During the
twenty-six years that have elapsed since its foundation, a vast palace
dedicated to gambling has been built, the village has become a town,
well paved, and lighted with gas; the neighbouring hills are covered with
villas; about eighty acres have been laid out in pleasure-grounds; roads
have been made in all directions through the surrounding woods; the
visitors are numbered by tens of thousands; there are above twenty hotels
and many hundred excellent lodging-houses.'[77]
`Let those who are disposed to risk their money inquire what is the
character of the managers, and be on their guard. The expenses of such
an enormous and splendid establishment amount to £10,000, and
the shares have for some years paid a handsome dividend — the whole of
which must be paid out of the pockets of travellers and visitors.'[78]
Mr Sala in his interesting work, already quoted, furnishes the
completest account of Hom
bourg, its Kursaal, and gambling, which I have condensed as follows: —
`In Hombourg the Kursaal is everything, and the town nothing.
The extortionate hotel-keepers, the “snub-nosed rogues of counter
and till,&” who overcharge you in the shops, make their egregious
profits from the Kursaal. The major part of the Landgrave's revenue is
derived from the Kursaal; he draws £5000 a year from it. He
and his house are sold to the Kursaal; and the Board of Directors of the
Kursaal are the real sovereigns and land-graves of Hesse Hombourg.
They have metamorphosed a miserable mid-German townlet into a city
of palaces. Their stuccoed and frescoed palace is five hundred times
handsomer than the mouldy old Schloss, built by William with the silver
leg. They have planted the gardens; they have imported the orange-trees; they have laid out the park, and enclosed the hunting-grounds;
they board, lodge, wash, and tax the inhabitants; and I may say, without
the slightest attempt at punning, that the citizens are all
Kursed.
`In the Kursaal is the ball or concert-room, at either end of which
is a gallery, supported by pillars of composition marble. The floors are
inlaid, and immense mirrors in sumptuous frames hang on the walls.
Vice can see her own image all over the establishment. The ceiling is
superbly decorated with bas-reliefs in
carton-pierré,
like those in Mr Barry's new Covent Garden Theatre; and fresco
paintings, executed by Viotti, of Milan, and Conti, of Munich; whilst the
whole is lighted up by enormous and gorgeous chandeliers. The apart-ment to the right is called the
Salle Japanese, and is used as a
dining-room for a monster
table d'hôte, held twice a
day, and served by the famous Chevet of Paris.
`There is a huge Café Olympique, for smoking and
imbibing purposes, private cabinets for parties, the monster saloon, and
two smaller ones, where *from eleven in the forenoon to eleven at
night, Sundays not excepted, all the year round, and year after
year — (the “administration&” have yet a
“jouissance&” of eighty-five years to run out,
guaranteed by the incoming dynasty of Hesse Darmstadt), knaves and
fools, from almost every corner of the world, gamble at the ingenious
and amusing games of Roulette, and Rouge et
Noir, otherwise Trente et Quarante.
`There is one table covered with green baize,
tightly stretched as on a billiard-field. In the midst of the table there is a
circular pit, coved inwards, but not bottomless, and containing the
Roulette wheel, a revolving disc, turning with an accurate momentum on
a brass pillar, and divided at its outer edge into thirty-seven narrow and
shallow pigeon-hole compartments, coloured alternately red and black,
and numbered — not consecutively — up to thirty-six. The last is a
blank, and stands for
Zero, number
Nothing.
Round the upper edge, too, run a series of little brass hoops, or bridges,
to cause the ball to hop and skip, and not at once into the nearest
compartment. This is the regimen of Roulette. The banker sits before
the wheel, — a croupier, or payer-out of winnings to and raker in of
losses from the players, on either side. Crying in a voice calmly
sonorous, “
Faites le Jeu, Messieurs,&” —
“Make your game, gentlemen!&” the banker gives the
wheel a dexterous twirl, and ere it has made one revolution, casts into its
Maelstrom of black and red an ivory ball. The interval between this and
the ball finding a home is one of breathless anxiety. Stakes are eagerly
laid; but at a certain period of the revolution the banker calls out —
“
Le Jeu est fait. Rien ne va plus,&” —
and after that intimation it is useless to lay down money. Then the
banker, in the same calm and impassable voice, declares the result. It
may run thus: — “
Vingt-neuf, Noir, Impair, et
Passe,&” “Twenty-nine, Black, Odd, and Pass the
Rubicon&” (No. 18); or, “
Huit, Rouge, Pair, et
Manque,&” “Eight, Red, Even, and
*not
Pass the Rubicon.&”
`Now, on either side of the wheel, and extending to the extremity
of the table, run, in duplicate, the schedule of *mises or
stakes. The green baize first offers just thirty-six square compartments,
marked out by yellow threads woven in the fabric itself, and bearing
thirty-six consecutive numbers. If you place a florin (one and eight-pence) — and no lower stake is permitted — or ten florins, or a
Napoleon, or an English five-pound note, or any sum of money not
exceeding the maximum, whose multiple is the highest stake which the
bank, if it loses, can be made to pay, in the midst of compartment 29,
and if the banker, in that calm voice of his, has declared that 29 has
become the resting place of the ball, the croupier will push towards you
with his rake exactly thirty-three times the amount of your stake,
whatever it might have been. You must bear in mind, however, that the
bank's loss
on a single stake is limited to eight thousand francs. Moreover, if you
have placed another sum of money in the compartment inscribed, in
legible yellow colours, “
Impair,&” or Odd, you
will receive the equivalent to your stake — twenty-nine being an odd
number. If you have placed a coin on
Passe, you will also
receive this additional equivalent to your stake, twenty-nine being
“Past the Rubicon,&” or middle of the table of numbers —
18. Again, if you have ventured your money in a compartment bearing
for device a lozenge in outline, which represents black, and twenty-nine
being a black number, you will again pocket a double stake, that is, one
in addition to your original venture. More, and more still, — if you have
risked money on the columns — that is, betted on the number turning up
corresponding with some number in one of the columns of the tabular
schedule, and have selected the right column — you have your own stake
and two others; — if you have betted on either of these three
eventualities,
douze premier, douze milieu, or
douze
dernier, otherwise “first dozen,&” “middle
dozen,&” or “last dozen,&” as one to twelve, thirteen
to twenty-four, twenty-five to thirty-six, all inclusive, and have chanced
to
select
douze dernier, the division in which No. 29 occurs,
you also obtain a treble stake, namely, your own and two more which
the bank pays you, your florin or your five-pound note — benign fact! —
metamorphosed into three. But, woe to the wight who should have
ventured on the number “eight,&” on the red colour
(compartment with a crimson lozenge), on “even,&” and on
“not past the Rubicon;&” for twenty-nine does not comply
with any one of these conditions. He loses, and his money is coolly
swept away from him by the croupier's rake. With reference to the last
chances I enumerated in the last paragraph, I should mention that the
number
*eight would lie in the second column — there being
three columns, — and in the first dozen numbers.
`There are more chances, or rather subdivisions of chances, to
entice the player to back the “numbers;&” for these the
stations of the ball are as capricious as womankind; and it is, of course,
extremely rare that a player will fix upon the particular number that
happens to turn up. But he may place a piece of money à
cheval, or astride, on the line which divides two numbers, in
which case (either of the numbers turning up) he receives
sixteen times his stake. He may place it on the cross lines that divide
four numbers, and, if either of the four wins, he will receive eight times
the amount of his stake. A word as to
Zero. Zero is
designated by the compartment close to the wheel's diameter, and zero,
or blank, will turn up, on an average, about once in seventy times. If
you have placed money in zero, and the ball seeks that haven, you will
receive thirty-three times your stake.'
The twin or elder brother of Roulette, played at
Hombourg, Rouge et Noir, or Trente et
Quarante, is thus described by Mr Sala: —
`There is the ordinary green-cloth covered table, with its brilliant
down-coming lights. In the centre sits the banker, gold and silver in
piles and rouleaux, and bank-notes before him. On either
hand, the croupier, as before, now wielding the rakes and plying them to
bring in the money, now balancing them, now shouldering them, as
soldiers do their muskets, half-pay officers their canes, and dandies their
silk umbrellas. The banker's cards are, as throughout all the Rhenish
gaming-places, of French design; the same that were invented, or, at
least, first used in Europe, for crazy Charles
the Simple. These cards are placed on an inclined plane of marble,
called a
talon.
`The dealer first takes six packs of cards, shuffles them, and
distributes them in various parcels to the various punters or players
round the table, to shuffle and mix. He then finally shuffles them, and
takes and places the end cards into various parts of the three hundred and
twelve cards, until he meets with a court card, which he
must place upright at the end. This done, he presents the pack to one of
the players to cut, who places the pictured card where the
dealer separates the pack, and that part of the pack beyond
the pictured card he places at the end nearest him, leaving the pictured
card at the bottom of the pack.
`The dealer then takes a certain number of cards, about as many as
would form a pack, and, looking at the first card, to know its colour,
puts it on the table with its face downwards. He then takes two cards,
one red and the other black, and sets them back to back. These cards
are turned, and displayed conspicuously, as often as the colour varies,
for the information of the company.
`The gamblers having staked their money on either of the colours,
the dealer asks, “Votre jeu
est-il fait?&” “Is your game made?&” or,
“Votre jeu est-il piêt?&” “Is your
game ready?&” or, “Le jeu est prêt,
Messieurs,&” “The game is ready, gentle-men.&” He then deals the first card with its face upwards, saying
“Noir;' and continues dealing until the cards turned
exceed thirty points or pips in number, which number he must mention,
as “Trente-et-un,&” or “Trente-six,&” as the case may be.
`As the aces reckon but for one, no card after thirty can make up
forty; the dealer, therefore, does not declare the tens after
thirty-one, or upwards, but merely the units, as one, two,
three; if the number of points dealt for Noir are thirty-five he
says “Cinq.&”
`Another parcel is then dealt for rouge, or
red, and with equal deliberation and solemnity; and if the
players stake beyond the colour that comes to thirty-one or
nearest to it, he wins, which happy eventuality is announced by the
dealer crying — “Rouge gagne,&” “Red
wins,&” or “Rouge perd,&” “Red
loses.&” These two parcels, one for each colour, make a
coup. The same number of parcels being dealt for each
colour, the dealer says, “Après,&”
“After.&” This is a “doublet,&” called in the
amiable French tongue, “un refait,&” by which
neither
party wins, unless both colours come to
thirty-one, which the
dealer announces by saying, “
Un refait Trente-et-un,
and he wins half the stakes posted on both colours. He, however, does
not take the money, but removes it to the middle line, and the players
may change the
venue of their stakes if they please. This is
called the first “prison,&” or
la première
prison, and, if they win their next event, they draw the entire
stake. In case of another “
refait,&” the money
is removed into the third line, which is called the second prison. So you
see that there are wheels within wheels, and Lord Chancellor King's
dictum, that walls can be built higher, but there should be no prison
within a prison, is sometimes reversed. When this happens the dealer
wins all.
`The cards are sometimes cut for which colour shall be dealt first;
but, in general, the first parcel is for black, and the second
for red. The odds against a
“refait&” turning up are usually reckoned as 63
to 1. The bankers, however, acknowledge that they expect it twice in
three deals, and there are generally from twenty-nine to thirty-two coups
in each deal. The odds in favour of winning several times are about the
same as
in the game of Pharaon, and are as delusive. `He who goes to
Hombourg and expects to see any melodramatic manifestation of rage,
disappointment, and despair in the losing players, reckons without his
host. Winners or losers seldom speak above a whisper; and the only
sound that is heard above the suppressed buzz of conversation, the
muffled jingle of the money on the green cloth, the
“sweep&” of the croupiers' rakes, and the ticking of the
very ornate French clocks on the mantel-pieces, is the impassibly me-tallic voice of the banker, as he proclaims his “
Rouge
perd,&” or “
Couleur gagne.&”
People are too genteel at Hombourg-von-der-Höhe to scream, to
yell, to fall into fainting fits, or go into convulsions, because they have
lost four or five thousand francs or so in a single coup.
`I have heard of one gentleman, indeed, who, after a ruinous loss,
put a pistol to his head, and discharging it, spattered his brains over the
Roulette wheel. It was said that the banker, looking up calmly, called
out — `Triple Zero,' `Treble Nothing,' — a case as yet
unheard of in the tactics of Roulette, but signifying annihilation, — and
that, a cloth being thrown over the ensanguined wheel, the
bank of that particular table was declared to be closed for the day. Very
probably the whole story is but a newspaper
canard, devised
by the proprietors of some rival gaming establishment, who would have
been delighted to see the fashionable Hombourg under a cloud.
`When people want to commit suicide at Hombourg, they do it
genteelly; early in the morning, or late at night, in the solitude of their
own apartments at the hotels. It would be reckoned a gross breach of
good manners to scandalize the refined and liberal administration of the
Kursaal by undisguised felo-de-se. The devil on two
croupes at Hombourg is the very genteelest of demons
imaginable. He ties his tail up with cherry-coloured ribbon, and
conceals his cloven foot in a patent-leather boot. All this gentility and
varnish, and elegant veneering of the sulphurous pit, takes away from
him, if it does not wholly extinguish, the honour and loathing for a
common gaming-house, with which the mind of a well-nurtured English
youth has been sedulously imbued by his parents and guardians. He has
very probably witnessed the performance of the
“Gamester&” at the theatre, and been a spectator of the
remorseful
agonies of Mr Beverly, the virtuous sorrows of Mrs B., and the dark
villanies of Messieurs Dawson and Bates.
`The first visit of the British youth to the Kursaal is usually paid
with fear and trembling. He is with difficulty persuaded to enter the
accursed place. When introduced to the saloons — delusively called
de conversation, he begins by staring fixedly at the
chandeliers, the ormolu clocks, and the rich draperies, and resolutely
averts his eyes from the serried ranks of punters or players, and the
Pactolus, whose sands are circulating on the green cloth on the table.
Then he thinks there is no very great harm in looking on, and so peeps
over the shoulder of a moustached gamester, who perhaps whispers to
him in the interval between two coups, that if a man will only play
carefully, and be content with moderate gains, he may win sufficient —
taking the good days and the evil days in a lump — to keep him in a
decent kind of affluence all the year round. Indeed, I once knew a
croupier — we used to call him Napoleon, from the way he took snuff
from his waistcoat pocket, who was in the way of expressing a grave
conviction that it was possible to make a capital
living at Roulette, so long as you stuck to the colours, and avoided the
Scylla of the numbers and the Charybdis of the Zero. By degrees, then,
the shyness of the neophyte wears off. Perhaps in the course of his
descent of Avernus, a revulsion of feeling takes place, and, horror-struck
and ashamed, he rushes out of the Kursaal, determined to enter its
portals no more. Then he temporizes; remembers that there is a capital
reading-room, provided with all the newspapers and periodicals of
civilized Europe, attached to the Kursaalian premises. There can be no
harm, he thinks, in glancing over “Galignani&” or the
“Charivari,&” although under the same roof as the abhorred
Trente et Quarante; but, alas! he finds
Galignani
engaged by an acrid old lady of morose countenance, who has lost all
her money by lunch-time, and is determined to “take it out in
reading,&” and the
Charivari slightly clenched in one
hand by the deaf old gentleman with the dingy ribbon of the Legion of
Honour, and the curly brown wig pushed up over one ear, who always
goes to sleep on the soft and luxurious velvet couches of the Kursaal
reading-room, from eleven till three, every day, Sundays not excepted.
The disappointed student of home or foreign news wanders
back to one of the apartments where play is going,
on.
* * * * In fact, he does not know what to do with
himself until table-d'hôte time. You know what the moral bard,
Dr Watts says: —
“Satan finds some mischief still,
For idle hands to do.&”
The unfledged gamester watches the play more narrowly. A stout lady
in a maroon velvet mantle, and a man with a bald head, a black patch on
his occiput, and gold spectacles, obligingly makes way for him. He
finds himself pressed against the very edge of the table. Perhaps a
chair — one of those delightfully comfortable Kursaal chairs — is vacant.
He is tired with doing nothing, and sinks into the emolliently-cushioned
fauteuil. He fancies that he has caught the eye of the banker,
or one of the gentlemen of the croupe, and that they are
meekly inviting him to try his luck. “Well, there can't be much
harm in risking a florin,&” he murmurs. He stakes his silver-piece
on a number or a colour. He wins, we will say, twice or thrice.
Perhaps he quadruples his stake, nay, perchance, hits on the lucky
number. It turns up, and he receives thirty-five times the amount of his
mise. Thenceforth it
is all over with that ingenuous British youth. The Demon of Play has
him for his own, and he may go on playing and playing until he has lost
every florin of his own, or as many of those belonging to other people as
he can beg or borrow. Far more fortunate for him would it be in the
long run, if he met in the outset with a good swinging loss. The burnt
child
*does dread the fire as a rule; but there is this caprici-ous, almost preternatural, feature of the physiology of gaming, that the
young and inexperienced generally win in the first instance. They are
drawn on and on, and in and in. They begin to lose, and continue to
lose, and by the time they have cut their wise teeth they have neither sou
nor silver to make their dearly-bought wisdom available.
`At least one-half of the company may be assumed to be arrant
rascals — rascals male and rascals female — chevaliers
d'industrie, the offscourings of all the shut-up gambling-houses in
Europe, demireps and lorettes, single and married women
innumerable.'
In the course of the three visits he has paid to Hombourg, Mr Sala
has observed that `nine-tenths of the English visitors to the Kursaal,
play;' and he does not hesitate to say that the moths who
flutter round the garish lamps at the Kursaal Van der Höhe, and
its kindred Hades, almost invariably singe their wings; and that the
chaseer at
Roulette and
Rouge, generally turn out
edged tools, with which those incautious enough to play with them are
apt to cut their fingers, sometimes very dangerously.
The season of 1869 in Hombourg is thus depicted in a high class
newspaper.
`Never within the memory of the oldest inhabitant (who in this
instance must undoubtedly be that veteran player Countess Kisselef) has
the town witnessed such an influx of tourists of every class and
description. Hotels and lodging-houses are filled to overflowing. Every
day imprudent travellers who have neglected the precaution of securing
rooms before their arrival return disconsolately to Frankfort to await the
vacation of some apartment which a condescending landlord has
promised them after much negotiation for the week after next. The
morning promenade is a wonderful sight; such a host of bilious faces,
such an endless variety of eccentric costumes, such a Babel of tongues,
among which the shrill twang of our fair American cousins is peculiarly
prominent,
could be found in no other place in the civilized world. A moralist
would assuredly find here abundant food for reflection on the wonderful
powers of self-deception possessed by mankind. We all get up at most
inconvenient hours, swallow a certain quantity of a most nauseous fluid,
and then, having sacrificed so much to appearances, soothe our
consciences with the unfounded belief that a love of early rising and salt
water was our real reason for coming here, and that the gambling tables
had nothing whatever to do with it. Perhaps, in some few instances, this
view may be the correct one; some few invalids, say one in a hundred,
may have sought Hombourg solely in the interest of an impaired
digestion, but I fear that such cases are few and far between; and, as a
friend afflicted with a mania for misquotation remarked to me the other
day, even “those who come to drink remain to play.&”
`Certainly the demon of Rouge et Noir has never held more
undisputed sway in Hombourg than in the present season; never have the
tables groaned under such a load of notes and rouleaux. It would seem
as if the gamblers, having only two or more years left in which to
complete their ruin, were
hurrying on with redoubled speed to that desirable consummation, and
where a stake of 12,000 francs is allowed on a single coup the pace can
be made very rapid indeed. High play is so common that unless you are
lucky enough to win or rich enough to lose a hundred thousand francs at
least, you need not hope to excite either envy or commiseration. One
persevering Muscovite, who has been punting steadily for six weeks, has
actually succeeded in getting rid of a million of florins. As yet there
have been no suicides to record, owing probably to the precautionary
measures adopted by a paternal Administration. As soon as a gambler is
known to be utterly cleared out he at once receives a visit from one of
M. Blanc's officials, who offers him a small sum on condition he will
leave the town forthwith; which viaticum, however, for fear of accidents,
is only handed to him when fairly seated in the train that bears him
away, to blow out his brains, should he feel so inclined, elsewhere. One
of the most unpleasant facts connected with the gambling is the ardour
displayed by many ladies in this very unfeminine pursuit: last night out
of twenty-five persons seated at the Roulette table I counted no fewer
than fifteen ladies, in
cluding an American lady with her two daughters!
`The King of Prussia has arrived, and, with due deference to the
official editors who have described in glowing paragraphs the popular
demonstrations in his honour, I am bound to assert that he was received
with very modified tokens of delight. There was not even a repetition of
the triumphal arch of last year; those funereal black and white flags,
whose sole aspect is enough to repress any exuberance of rejoicing, were
certainly flapping against the hotel windows and the official flagstaffs,
but little else testified to the joy of the Hombourgers at beholding their
Sovereign. They manage these things better in France. Any French
préfet would give the German authorities a few useful
hints concerning the cheap and speedy manufacture of loyal enthusiasm.
The foreigners, however, seem determined to atone amply for any lack
of proper feeling on the part of the townspeople. They crowd round his
Majesty as soon as he appears in the rooms or gardens, and mob the
poor old gentleman with a vigour which taxes all the energies of his
aides-de-camp to save their Royal master from death by suffocation.
Need I
add that our old friend the irrepressible “'Arry&” is ever
foremost in these gentlemanlike demonstrations?
`Of course the town swarms with well-known English faces;
indeed, the Peers and M.P.s here at present would form a very
respectable party in the two Houses. We are especially well off for
dukes; the Fremdenliste notifies the presence of no fewer
than five of those exalted personages. A far less respectable class of
London society is also, I am sorry to say, strongly represented: I allude
to those gentlemen of the light-fingered persuasion whom the outer world
rudely designate as pickpockets. This morning two gorgeously arrayed
members of the fraternity were marched down to the station by the
police, each being decorated with a pair of bright steel handcuffs;
seventeen of them were arrested last week in Frankfort at one fell
swoop, and at the tables the row of lookers-on who always surround the
players consists in about equal proportions of these gentry and their
natural enemies — the detectives. Their booty since the beginning of the
season must be reckoned by thousands. Mustapha Fazyl Pasha had his
pocket picked of a purse containing £600, and a Russian
lady was lately robbed of a splendid diamond brooch valued at 75,000
francs.[79]
But the days of the Kursaal are numbered, and the glories or
infamies of Hombourg are doomed.
`The fiat has gone forth. In five years[80] from this time the
“game will be made&” no longer — the great gambling
establishment of Hombourg will be a thing of the past. The town will be
obliged to contend on equal terms with other watering-places for its
share of the wool on the backs of summer excursionists.
`As most of the townspeople are shareholders in this thriving
concern, and as all of them gain either directly or indirectly by the play,
it was amusing to watch the anxiety of these worthies during the war
between Austria and Prussia. Patriotism they had none; they cared
neither for Austrian nor Prussian, for a great Germany nor for a small
Germany. The “company&” was their god and their
country. All that concerned them was to know whether the play was
likely to be suppressed. When they were annexed to Prussia, at first
they could not believe that Count Bismarck, whatever he might do with
kings, would venture
to interfere with the “bank.&” It was to them a divine
institution — something far superior to dynasties and kingdoms. . . .
`For a year the Hombourgers were allowed to suppose that their
“peculiar institution&” was indeed superior to fate, to
public opinion, and to Prussia; but at the commencement of the present
year they were rudely awakened from their dreams of security. The
sword that had been hanging over them fell. The directors of the
company were ordered to appear before the governor of the town, and
they were told that they and all belonging to them were to cease to exist
in 1872, and that the following arrangement was to be made respecting
the plunder gained until that date. The shareholders were to receive 10
per cent. on their money; 5000 shares were to be paid off at par each
year, and if this did not absorb all the profits, the surplus was to go
towards a fund for keeping up the gardens after the play had ceased. By
this means, as there are now 36,000 shares, 25,000 will be paid off at
par, and the remaining 11,000 will be represented by the buildings and
the land belonging to the company, which it will be at liberty to sell to
the highest bidder. Since this decree has been
promulgated the Hombourgers are in despair. The croupiers and the
clerks, the Jews who lend money at high interest, the Christians who let
lodgings, all the rogues and swindlers who one way or another make a
living out of the play, fill the air with their complaints.
`Although no doubt individuals will suffer by the suppression of
public play here, it is by no means certain that the town itself will not be
a gainer by it. Holiday seekers must go somewhere. The air of
Hombourg is excellent; the waters are invigorating; the town is well
situated and easy of access by rail; living is comparatively cheap — a
room may be had for about 18s. a week, an excellent dinner
for 2s.; breakfast costs less than a shilling. Hombourg is
now a fixed fact, and if the townspeople take heart and grapple with the
new state of things — if they buy up the Kursaal, and throw open its
salons to visitors; if they keep up the opera, the cricket club, and the
shooting; if they have good music, and balls and concerts for those who
like them, there is no reason why they should not attract as many visitors
to their town as they do now.'[81]
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.
The gaming at Aix-la-Chapelle is equally desperate and
destructive. `A Russian officer of my acquaintance,' says a writer in the
Annual Register for 1818, `was subject, like many of his countrymen
whom I have known, to the infatuation of play to a most ridiculous
excess. His distrust of himself under the assailments which he
anticipated at a place like Aix-la-Chapelle, had induced him to take the
prudent precaution of paying in advance at his hotel for his board and
lodging, and at the bathing-house for his baths, for the time he intended
to stay. The remaining contents of his purse he thought fairly his own;
and he went of course to the table all the gayer for the license he had
taken of his conscience. On fortune showing him a few favours, he
came to me in high spirits, with a purse full of Napoleons, and a resolute
determination to keep them by venturing no more; but a gamester can no
more be stationary than the tide of a river, and on the evening he was
put out of suspense by having not a Napoleon left, and nothing to
console but congratulation on his
foresight, and the excellent supper which was the fruit of it.'
Towards the end of the last century Aix-la-Chapelle was a great
rendezvous of gamblers. The chief banker there paid a thousand louis
per annum for his license. A little Italian adventurer once went to the
place with only a few louis in his pocket, and played crown stakes at
Hazard. Fortune smiled on him; he increased his stakes progressively;
in twenty-four hours won about £4000. On the following day he
stripped the bank entirely, pocketing nearly £10,000. He
continued to play for some days, till he was at last reduced to a single
louis! He now obtained from a friend the loan of £30, and once
more resumed his station at the gaming table, which he once more
quitted with £10,000 in his pocket, and resolved to leave it for
ever. The arguments of one of the bankers, however, who followed him
to his inn, soon prevailed over his resolution, and on his return to the
gaming table he was stripped of his last farthing. He went to his
lodgings, sold his clothes, and by that means again appeared at his old
haunt, for the half-crown stakes, by which he honourably repaid his loan
of £30. His end was unknown to the
relater of the anecdote, but `ten to one,' it was ruin.
At the same place, in the year 1793, the heir-apparent of an Irish
Marquis lost at various times nearly £20,000 at a billiard table,
partly owing to his antagonist being an excellent calculator, as well as a
superior player.
A French emigrant at Aix-la-Chapelle, who carried a basket of
tarts, liqueurs, &c., for regaling the gamesters, put down twenty-five
louis at Rouge et Noir. He lost. He then put down fifteen,
and lost again; at the third turn he staked ten; but while the cards were
being shuffled, seeming to recollect himself, he felt all his pockets, and
at length found two large French crowns, and a small one, which he also
ventured. The deal was determined at the ninth card; and the poor
wretch, who had lost his all, dashed down his basket, started from his
seat, overturning two chairs as he forced the circle, tore off his hair, and
with horrid blasphemies, burst the folding doors, and rushing out like a
madman, was seen no more.
Another emigrant arrived here penniless, but meeting a friend,
obtained the loan of a few crowns, nearly his all. With these he went to
the rooms,
put down his stake, and won. He then successively doubled his stakes
till he closed the evening with a hundred louis in his pocket. He went to
his friend, and with mutual congratulations they resolved to venture no
more, and calculated how long their gains would support them from
absolute want, and thus seemed to strengthen their wise resolution.
The next night, however, the lucky gambler returned to the room --but only to be a spectator, as he firmly said. Alas! his resolution failed
him, and he quitted the tables indebted to a charitable bystander for a
livre or two, to pay for his petty refreshments.
It is said that the annual profit to the bankers was 120,000 florins,
or £14,000.
`The very name of Aix-la-Chapelle,' says a traveller, `makes one
think (at least, makes me think) of cards and dice, — sharks and pigeons.
It has a “professional odour&” upon it, which is certainly
not that of sanctity. I entered the Redoute with my head full of sham
barons, German Catalinas, and the thousand-and-one popular tales of
renowned knights of the green cloth, — their seducing confederates, and
infatuated dupes.
`The rooms are well distributed; the saloons
handsome. A sparkling of ladies, apparently (and really, as I
understood) of the best water, the
élite, in short, of
Aix-la-Chapelle, were lounging on sofas placed round the principal
saloon, or fluttering about amidst a crowd of men, who filled up the
centre of the room, or thronged round the tables that were ranged on one
side of it.
`The players continued their occupation in death-like silence,
undisturbed by the buzz or the gaze of the lookers-on; not a sound was
heard but the rattle of the heaped-up money, as it was passed from one
side of the table to the other; nor was the smallest anxiety or emotion
visible on any countenance.
`The scene was unpleasing, though to me curious from its novelty.
Ladies are admitted to play, but there were none occupied this morning.
I was glad of it; indeed, though English travellers are accused of
carrying about with them a portable code of morality, which dissolves or
stiffens like a soap-cake as circumstances may affect its consistency, yet
I sincerely believe that there are few amongst us who would not feel
shocked at seeing one of the gentler sex in so unwomanly a
position.'[82]
WIESBADEN.
The gambling here in 1868 has been described in a very vivid manner.
`Since the enforcement of the Prussian Sunday observance
regulations, Monday has become the great day of the week for the banks
of the German gambling establishments. Anxious to make up for lost
time, the regular contributors to the company's dividends flock early on
Monday forenoon to the play-rooms in order to secure good places at the
tables, which, by the appointed hour for commencing operations (eleven
o'clock), are closely hedged round by persons of both sexes, eagerly
waiting for the first deal of the cards or the initial twist of the brass
wheel, that they may try another fall with Fortune. Before each seated
player are arranged precious little piles of gold and silver, a card printed
in black and red, and a long pin, wherewith to prick out a system of
infallible gain. The croupiers take their seats and unpack the strong box;
rouleaux — long metal sausages composed of double and single florins, —
wooden bowls brimming over with gold Frederics and Napoleons,
bank notes of all sizes and colours, are arranged upon the black leather
compartment, ruled over by the company's officers; half-a-dozen packs
of new cards are stripped of their paper cases, and swiftly shuffled
together; and when all these preliminaries, watched with breathless
anxiety by the surrounding speculators, have been gravely and carefully
executed, the chief croupier looks round him — a signal for the prompt
investment of capital on all parts of the table — chucks out a handful of
cards from the mass packed together convenient to his hand — ejaculates
the formula, “Faites le jeu!&” and, after half a minute's
pause, during which he delicately moistens the ball of his dealing thumb,
exclaims “Le jeu est fait, rien ne va plus,&” and proceeds
to interpret the decrees of fate according to the approved fashion of
Trente et Quarante. A similar scene is taking place at the Roulette
table — a goodly crop of florins, with here and there a speck of gold
shining amongst the silver harvest, is being sown over the field of the
cloth of green, soon to be reaped by the croupier's sickle, and the pith
ball is being dropped into the revolving basin that is partitioned off into
so many tiny black and red niches. For the next twelve hours the
processes
in question are carried on swiftly and steadily, without variation or loss
of time; relays of croupiers are laid on, who unobtrusively slip into the
places of their fellows when the hours arrive for relieving guard; the
game is never stopped for more than a couple of minutes at a time, viz.,
when the cards run out and have to be re-shuffled. This brief
interruption is commonly considered to portend a break in the particular
vein which the game may have happened to assume during the deal —
say a run upon black or red, an alternation of coups (in threes or fours)
upon either colour, two reds and a black, or
vice
versâ, all equally frequent eccentricities of the cards; and
the heavier players often change their seats, or leave the table altogether
for an hour or so at such a conjuncture. Curiously enough, excepting at
the very commencement of the day's play, the
habitués of the Trente et Quarante tables appear to
entertain a strong antipathy to the first deal or two after the cards have
been “re-made.&” I have been told by one or two masters
of the craft that they have a fancy to see how matters are likely to go
before they strike in, as if it were possible to deduce the future of the
game from its past! That it is possible appears to
be an article of faith with the old stagers, and, indeed, every now and
then odd coincidences occur which tend to confirm them in their creed.
I witnessed an occurrence which was either attributable (as I believe) to
sheer chance, or (as its hero earnestly assured me) to instinct. A fair
and frail Magyar was punting on numbers with immense pluck and
uniform ill fortune. Behind her stood a Viennese gentleman of my
acquaintance, who enjoys a certain renown amongst his friends for the
faculty of prophecy, which, however, he seldom exercises for his own
benefit. Observing that she hesitated about staking her double florin, he
advised her to set it on the number 3. Round went the wheel, and in
twenty seconds the ball tumbled into compartment 3 sure enough. At the
next turn she asked his advice, and was told to try number 24. No
sooner said than done, and 24 came up in due course, whereby Mdlle L.
C. won 140 odd gulden in two coups, the amount risked by her being
exactly four florins. Like a wise girl, she walked off with her booty,
and played no more that day at Roulette. A few minutes later I saw an
Englishman go through the performance of losing four thousand francs
by experimentalizing on single
numbers. Twenty times running did he set ten louis-d'ors on a number
(varying the number at each stake), and not one of his selection proved
successful. At the “Thirty and Forty&” I saw an eminent
diplomatist win sixty thousand francs with scarcely an intermission of
failure; he played all over the table, pushing his rouleaux backwards and
forwards, from black to red, without any appearance of system that I
could detect, and the cards seemed to follow his inspiration. It was a
great battle; as usual, three or four smaller fish followed in his wake, till
they lost courage and set against him, much to their discomfiture and the
advantage of the bank; but from first to last — that is, till the cards ran
out, and he left the table — he was steadily victorious. In the evening he
went in again for another heavy bout, at which I chanced to be present;
but fortune had forsaken him; and he not only lost his morning's
winnings, but eight thousand francs to boot. I do not remember to have
ever seen the tables so crowded — outside it was thundering, lightening,
and raining as if the world were coming to an end, and the whole
floating population of Wiesbaden was driven into the Kursaal by the
weather. A roaring time of it
had the bank; when play was over, about which time the rain ceased,
hundreds of hot and thirsty gamblers streamed out of the reeking rooms
to the glazed-in terrace, and the next hour, always the pleasantest of the
twenty-four here and in Hombourg — at Ems people go straight from the
tables to bed, — was devoted to animated chat and unlimited sherry—
cobbler; all the “events&” of the day were passed in
review, experiences exchanged, and confessions made. Nobody had
won; I could not hear of a single great success — the bank had had it all
its own way, and most of the “lions,&” worsted in the fray,
had evidently made up their minds to “drown it in the
bowl.&” The Russian detachment — a very strong one this year —
was especially hard hit; Spain and Italy were both unusually low-spirited;
and there was an extra solemnity about the British Isles that told its own
sad tale. Englishmen, when they have lost more than they can afford,
generally take it out of themselves in surly, brooding self-reproach.
Frenchmen give vent to their disgust and annoyance by abusing the game
and its myrmidons. You may hear them, loud and savage, on the
terrace, “Ah! le salle jeu! comment peut-on se laisser
éplucher par des brigands de la sorte!
Tripôt, infâme, va! je te donne ma
malédiction!&” Italians, again, endeavour to conceal their
discomfiture under a flow of feverish gaiety. Germans utter one or two
“Gotts donnerwetterhimmelsapperment!&” light up their
cigars, drink a dozen or so “hocks,&” and subside into their
usual state of ponderous cheerfulness. Russians betray no emotion
whatever over their calamities, save, perhaps, that they smoke those
famous little `Laferme' cigarettes a trifle faster and more nervously than
at other times; but they are excellent winners and magnificent losers,
only to be surpassed in either respect by their old enemy the Turk, who
is
facile princeps in the art of hiding his feelings from the
outer world.
`The great mass of visitors at Wiesbaden this season, as at
Hombourg, belong to the middle and lower middle classes, leavened by a
very few celebrities and persons of genuine distinction. There are a
dozen or two eminent men here, not to be seen in the play-rooms, who
are taking the waters — Lord Clarendon, Baron Rothschild, Prince Sou-varof, and a few more — but the general run of guests is by no means
remarkable for birth, wealth, or respectability; and we are shockingly off
for
ladies. As a set-off against this deficiency, it would seem that all the
aged, broken-down courtesans of Paris, Vienna, and Berlin have agreed
to make Wiesbaden their autumn rendezvous. Arrayed in all the colours
of the rainbow, painted up to the roots of their dyed hair, shamelessly
décolletées, prodigal of “free&”
talk and unseemly gesture, these ghastly creatures, hideous caricatures of
youth and beauty, flaunt about the play-rooms and gardens, levying
black-mail upon those who are imprudent enough to engage them in
“chaff&” or badinage, and desperately endeavouring to
hook themselves on to the wealthier and younger members of the male
community. They poison the air round them with sickly perfumes; they
assume titles, and speak of one another as “cette chère
comtesse;&” their walk is something between a prance and a
wriggle; they prowl about the terrace whilst the music is playing, seeking
whom they may devour, or rather whom they may inveigle into paying
for their devouring: and,
bon Dieu! how they do gorge
themselves with food and drink when some silly lad or aged roué
allows himself to be bullied or wheedled into paying their scot! Their
name is legion; and they constitute the very worst feature of a place
which, naturally a Paradise, is turned into a seventh hell by the
uncontrolled rioting of human passions. They have no friends — no
“protectors;&” they are dependent upon accident for a meal
or a piece of gold to throw away at the tables; they are plague-spots
upon the face of society; they are, as a rule, crassly ignorant and
horribly cynical; and yet there are many men here who are proud of
their acquaintance, always ready to entertain them in the most expensive
manner, and who speak of them as if they were the only desirable
companions in the world!
`Amongst our notabilities of the eccentric sort, not the least
singular in her behaviour is the Countess C — — o. an aged patrician of
immense fortune, who is as constant to Wiesbaden as old Madame de
K — — f is to Hombourg on the Heights. Like the last-named lady, she
is daily wheeled to her place in the Black and Red temple, and plays
away for eight or nine hours with wonderful spirit and perseverance.
She has with her a suite of eight domestics; and when she
wins (which is not often), on returning to her hotel at night, she presents
each member of her retinue with — twopence! “not,&” as
she naïvely avows, “from a feeling of
generosity, but to propitiate Fortune.&” When she loses, none of
them, save the man who wheels her home, get anything but hard words
from her; and he, happy fellow, receives a donation of six kreutzers.
She does not curse the croupiers loudly for her bad luck, like her
contemporary, the once lovely Russian Ambassadress; but, being very
far advanced in years, and of a tender disposition, sheds tears over her
misfortunes, resting her chin on the edge of the table. An edifying sight
is this venerable dame, bearing an exalted title, as she mopes and mouths
over her varying luck, missing her stake twice out of three times, when
she fain would push it with her rake into some particular section of the
table! She is very intimate with one or two antediluvian diplomatists and
warriors, who are here striving to bolster themselves up for another year
with the waters, and may be heard crowing out lamentations over her
fatal passion for play, interspersed with bits of moss-grown scandal,
disinterred from the social ruins of an age long past: Radetzky,
Wratislaw (le beau sabreur), the two Schwarzenbergs (he of Leipsic, and
the former Prime Minister), Paul Eszterhazy, Wrangel, and
Blücher were friends of her youth; judging from
her appearance, one would not be surprised to hear that she had received
a “poulet&” from Baron Trenck, or played whist with
Maria Theresa. She has outlived all human friendships or affections,
and exists only for the chink of the gold as it jingles on the gaming
table. I cannot help fancying that her last words will be “Rien ne
va plus!&” She is a great and convincing moral, if one but
interpret her rightly.'[83]
The doom of the German gaming houses seems to be settled.
They will all be closed in 1872, as appears by the following
announcement: —
`The Prussian government, not having been able to obtain from the
lessees of the gaming tables at Wiesbaden, Ems, and Hombourg their
consent to their cancelling of their contracts, has resolved to terminate
their privileges by a legislative measure. It has presented a bill to the
Chamber of Deputies at Berlin, fixing the year 1872 as the limit to the
existence of these establishments, and even authorizing the government
to suppress them at an earlier period by a royal ordinance. No
indemnity is to be allowed to the persons holding concessions.' —
Feb. 23, 1868.
A London newspaper defends this measure in a very successful
manner.
`Prussia has declared her purpose to eradicate from the territories
subject to her increased sway, and from others recognizing her influence,
the disgrace of the Rouge et Noir and the Roulette table as
public institutions. Her reasoning is to the effect that they bring scandal
upon Germany; that they associate with the names of its favourite
watering-places the appellation of “hells;&” that they attract
swindlers and adventurers of every degree; and that they have for many
a year past been held up to the opprobrium of Europe. For why should
this practice be a lawful practice of Germany and of no other country in
Europe? Why not in France, in Spain, in Italy, in the Northern States,
in Great Britain itself? Let us not give to this last proposition more
importance than it is worth. The German watering-places are places of
leisure, of trifling, of ennui. That is why, originally, they
were selected as encampments by the tribes which fatten upon hazards.
But there was another reason: they brought in welcome revenues to
needy princes. Even now, in view of the contemplated expurgation,
Monaco is named,
with Geneva, as successor to the perishing glories of Hombourg,
Wiesbaden, and the great Baden itself. That is to say, the gamblers, or,
rather, the professionals who live upon the gambling propensities of
others, having received from Prussia and her friends notice to quit, are
in search of new lodgings.
`The question is, they being determined, and the accommodation
being not less certainly ready for them than the sea is for the tribute of a
river, will the reform designed be a really progressive step in the
civilization of Europe? Prussia says — decidedly so; because it will
demolish an infamous privilege. She affirms that an institution which
might have been excusable under a landgrave, with a few thousand acres
of territory, is inconsistent with the dignity and, to quote continental
phraseology, the mission of a first-class state. Here again the reasoning
is incontrovertible. Of one other thing, moreover, we may feel perfectly
sure, that Prussia having determined to suppress these centres and
sources of corruption, they will gradually disappear from Europe.
Concede to them a temporary breathing-time at Monaco; the time left for
even a nominally independent exist
ence to Monaco is short: imagine that they find a fresh outlet at Geneva;
Prussia will have represented the public opinion of the age, against
which not even the Republicanism of Switzerland can long make a
successful stand. Upon the whole, history can never blame Prussia for
such a use either of her conquests or her influence. Say what you will,
gambling is an indulgence blushed over in England; abroad, practised as
a little luxury in dissipation, it may be pardoned as venial; habitually,
however, it is a leprosy. And as it is by habitual gamblers that these
haunts are made to flourish, this alone should reconcile the world of
tourists to a deprivation which for them must be slight; while to the class
they imitate, without equalling, it will be the prohibition of an abomin-able habit.'[84]