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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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Gambling at the german bathing-places

CHAPTER VIII. page 2

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
_elite_ 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
rateaux, 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.'

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