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Volume I Volume II

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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THE UNIVERSAL PASSION OF GAMING OR, GAMING ALL THE WORLD OVER

CHAPTER I. page 7

There can be little doubt that the Spaniards pursued gaming in
the vulgar fashion, just as other people. At any rate the
following anecdote gives us no very favourable idea of Spanish
generosity to strangers in the matter of gambling in modern
times; and the worst of it is the suitableness of its application
to more capitals than one among the kingdoms of Europe. `After
the bull-feast I was invited to pass the evening at the hotel of
a lady, who had a public card-assembly. . . . This vile
method of subsisting on the folly of mankind is confined in Spain
to the nobility. None but women of quality are permitted to hold
banks, and there are many whose faro-banks bring them in a clear
income of a thousand guineas a year. The lady to whom I was
introduced is an old countess, who has lived nearly thirty years
on the profits of the card-tables in her house. They are
frequented every day, and though both natives and foreigners are
duped of large sums by her, and her cabinet-junto, yet it is the
greatest house of resort in all Madrid. She goes to court,
visits people of the first fashion, and is received with as much
respect and veneration as if she exercised the most sacred
functions of a divine profession. Many widows of great men keep
gaming-houses and live splendidly on the vices of mankind. If
you be not disposed to play, be either a sharper or a dupe, you
cannot be admitted a second time to their assemblies. I was no
sooner presented to the lady than she offered me cards; and on my
excusing myself, because I really could not play, she made a very
wry face, turned from me, and said to another lady in my hearing,
that she wondered how any foreigner could have the
impertinence to come to her house for no other purpose than to
make an apology for not playing. My Spanish conductor,
unfortunately for himself, had not the same apology. He played
and lost his money--two circumstances which constantly follow in
these houses. While my friend was thus playing _THE FOOL_, I
attentively watched the countenance and motions of the lady of
the house. Her anxiety, address, and assiduity were equal to
that of some skilful shopkeeper, who has a certain attraction to
engage all to buy, and diligence to take care that none shall
escape the net. I found out all her privy-counsellors, by her
arrangement of her parties at the different tables; and whenever
she showed an extraordinary eagerness to fix one particular
person with a stranger, the game was always decided the same way,
and her good friend was sure to win the money.

`In short, it is hardly possible to see good company at Madrid
unless you resolve to leave a purse of gold at the card-
assemblies of their nobility.'[10]

[10] `Observations in a Tour through Spain.'

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