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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 8

We are assured that this state of things is by no means
`obsolete' in Spain, even at the present time. At the time
in question, however, the beginning of the present century, there
was no European nation among which gaming did not constitute one
of its polite and fashionable amusements--with the exception of
the _Turks_, who, to the shame of Christians, strictly obeyed the
precepts of Mahomet, and scrupulously avoided the `gambling itch'
of our nature.

In England gambling prevailed during the reign of Henry VIII.;
indeed, it seems that the king was himself a gamester of the most
unscrupulous sort; and there is ample evidence that the practice
flourished during the reign of Elizabeth, James I., and
subsequently, especially in the times of Charles II. Writing on
the day when James II. was proclaimed king, Evelyn says, `I can
never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming and
all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it
being Sunday evening) which this day se'nnight I was witness of,
the king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth,
Cleaveland, and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love-songs,
in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great
courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a
large table; a bank of at least L2000 in gold before them,
upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with
astonishment. Six days after all was in the dust!'

The following curious observations on the gaming in vogue during
the year 1668 are from the Harleian Miscellany:

`One propounded this question, "Whether men in ships at sea were
to be accounted amongst the living or the dead--because there
were but few inches betwixt them and drowning?" The same query
may be made of gamesters, though their estates be never so
considerable--whether they are to be esteemed rich or poor, since
there are but a few casts at dice betwixt a person of fortune (in
that circumstance) and a beggar.

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