WHAT ARE TRUMPS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3553, 19 June 1912, Page 7

WHAT ARE TRUMPS.

STRANGE TALES CONCERNING “THE DEVIL’S PASTE BOARDS.”

When Louis XIV., the “Sun King,” was playing cards with three of his courtiers, one of tire players was seized with a fit of apoplexy. “Monsieur de Chauvelin is ill!” exclaimed his partner, in accents of alarm.

“111?” said Louis coldly, turning round and looking at him. “He is dead; take him away ! Spades are trumps, gentlemen.”

Goldsmith tells the story of an okl lady who spent her last dying hour in playing cards with a curate, and when she had -won t/te last shilling he had on him she stakeu ner gains, in a final game, against the cost of her funeral.

The history of the card-table is full of stories equalling dramatic and sensational, illustrating a passion which laughs in the face of ruin, disgrace, and even death. THE DELCE OF DIAMONDS.

Jack Mvttoii, the on re-famous “Squire of Halstead,” lig-.t-hearteil’v squandered his entire fortune 'of half a million pounds at the card-table, and when lie had played his last game was carried off to the debtor’s ward of the King’s Bench Prison to die. Lord Wortliall, when gambling had reduced his vast patrimony to one small estate, staked his last acres against £ 10,600 on a single game of put. Fortunately he cut the deuce of diamonds, and to commemorate his escape from ruin he had the deuce of diamonds carved in marble and affixed to the parapet of r.is mansion. One cannot resist a feeling of admiration for the pluck and daring ol some of these spendthrifts of the past, among the prodigal of whom were Mr George and Colonel Mellish, both famous as “kings of the Turf.” At one sitting Colonel Mellish once lost £103,000 at the card-table, and won every penny of it back the following night. On another occasion he lost £40,000 in a . couple of hours to tlie Prince Regent.

George Payne won and lost scores of thousands of pounds with an equally light heart and smiling face. One memorable hour lie spent cutting cards at £I,OOO a time, and lost £SQ,000. On another occasion he spent the night of Derby Day at the cardtable, and when dawn came he counted his winnings up to £50,000. ON THE SPIN OF- A COIN.

It is said that George IV. lost £BOO,OOO at cards before he saw his twenty-first birthday; and one is not surprised when one reads tlie gambling chronicles of tlie time in which lie lived. At Almack’s, we are told, it was quite a common thing to stake £5,C00 on a single card at faro, and for £IOO,OOO to be won and lost in a night. ■ At the Cocoa Tree Mr- O'Birne, an Irish gamester, once won £IOO,OOO in a cast at hazard from a young midshipman, who had just succeeded to « small estate on his brother's death. As the loser was unable to pay such a large sum, O'Birne magnanimously offered to take £IO,OOO tlie spin of the coin going in favor of the midshipman.

vi the mad gambling at White’s Club many remarkable stories are told —such as how oi™ player lost his entire fortune of £l5O, 000 at a' sitting,

and when the last card fell against him, produced a pitsol, and, before a hand could be raised to prevent him, put a bullet into his brain.—Answers.