Online Casino Players.com

Home / History / Lady gamestresses
Volume I Volume II

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV

Lady gamestresses

CHAPTER X. page 7

In France, women who wished to gamble were, at first, obliged to
keep the thing secret; for if it became known they lost
caste. In the reign of Louis XIV., and still more in that of
Louis XV., they became bolder, and the wives of the great engaged
in the deepest play in their mansions; but still a gamestress was
always denounced with horror. `Such women,' says La Bruyiere,
`make us chaste; they have nothing of the sex but its garments.'

By the end of the 18th century, gamestresses became so numerous
that they excited no surprise, especially among the higher
classes; and the majority of them were notorious for unfair play
or downright cheating. A stranger once betted on the game of a
lady at a gaming-table, who claimed a stake although on a losing
card. Out of consideration for the distinguished trickstress,
the banker wished to pay the stranger as well; but the latter
with a blush, exclaimed--`Possibly madame won, but as for myself,
I am quite sure that I lost.'

But if women cheated at play, they also frequently lost; and were
often reduced to beggary, or to what is far viler, to sacrifice,
not only their own honour, but that of their daughters.

Page   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25