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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz, Volume II

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Anecdotes Of The Passions And Vicissitudes Of Gamesters

PENSIONED OFF BY A GAMING HOUSE.

A visitor at Frascati's gaming house in Paris tells us:--

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

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