An Irish officer struck out a mode of gambling, for recruits. He

gave five guineas bounty, and one hundred to be raffled for by
young recruits,--the winner to be paid immediately, and to

purchase his discharge, if he pleased, for L20. The dice-box was
constantly going at his recruiting office in Dublin.

DOUBLING THE STAKES.
A dashing young man of large fortune, about the year 1820, lost

at a subscription house at the West End, L80,000. The winner was
a person of high rank. The young man, however, by doubling the

stakes, not only recovered his losses, but in his turn gained
considerably of his antagonist.

AN ANNUITY FOR A GAMBLING DEBT.
A fashionablenobleman had won from a young and noble relative

the sum of L40,000. The cash not being forthcoming, he accepted
an annuity of L4000.

SIR WILLIAM COLEPEPPER.
It is told of Sir William Colepepper that, after he had been

ruined himself at the gaming table, his whole delight was to sit
there and see others ruined. Hardened wretch--'Who though he

plays no more, overlooks the cards'--with this diabolical
disposition!

THE BITER BITTEN.
A certain duchess, of a ci-devant lord-lieutenant, who expected

to make a pigeon of Marshal Blucher, was fleeced of L200,000; to
pay which her lord was obliged to sell a great part of his

property, and reside on the continent.
HUNTED DOWN.

A stout-hearted and gallant military baronet lost an immense sum
at a celebrated gaming house; but was so fortunate as to recover

it, with L1200 more. This last sum HE PRESENTED TO THE WAITERS.
He was pursued by two of the 'play-wrights' to a northern

watering-place, where he was so plucked that all his possessions
were brought to the hammer. A competency was, however, saved

from the magnificent wreck.
COMING OF AGE.

When Sir C-- T--, a weak young man, with a large fortune, came of
age, the Greeks, thinking him an excellent quarry, went to York

Races, made him drunk and plundered him of a large sum. The next
morning one of the party waited upon him to acquaint him of his

loss--(L20,000 or L30,000), and brought bonds for his signature
to that amount!

HEAVY LIABILITIES TO BEGIN WITH.
In the year 1799, when the Marquis of Donegal succeeded to the

title on his father's death, his debts, principally to gamblers
and money-lenders, amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand

pounds sterling!
A GENTLEMAN TURNED BARBER.

In an old magazine I find the following curious statement:--
'There is now living in Barnaby Street, Carnaby Market, a man

who, although exercising the menial office of penny barber, was
in his younger days in possession of estates and personal

property to a large amount, and is the only lineal descendant
remaining of the very ancient family of the H--s of Bristol.

'His relations dying when he was young, he was placed under
proper guardians, and received a liberal education, first at

Westminster, and afterwards at Cambridge, suitable to his rank
and fortune. When of age he converted his estates into money,

and retired to Dublin, where he remained some time. He then made
the tour of Europe, and returned to Ireland, where he went

through all the scenes of dissipation to which young men are so
much addicted, till at last he was beset by those harpies the

gamblers, and stripped of his immense fortune in one single
night!

'He then subsisted for some little time on the bounty of his
undoers, who intended to make him one of them; but, not having

sufficient address for the profession, he was dismissed and "left
in the lurch;" and most of his friends discarding him, he

embarked with his last guinea for England. Here he has
encountered many difficulties, often been in gaol for debt, and

passed through various scenes of life, as valet, footman, thief-
taker, and at length, a penny-barber! He has a wife and large

family and lives in a very penurious manner, often lamenting his
early folly.'[11]

[11] 'The Western County Magazine, 1791. By a Society of
Gentlemen.' This well-conducted old magazine was printed and

published at Salisbury, and was decidedly a credit to the town
and county.

PENSIONED OFF BY A GAMING HOUSE.
A visitor at Frascati's gaming house in Paris tells us:--

'I saw the Chevalier de la C--(a descendant of the once
celebrated romance-writer) when he was nearly ninety. The mode

of life of this old man was singular. He had lost a princely
property at the play-table, and by a piece of good fortune of

rare occurrence to gamesters, and unparalleled generosity, the
proprietors of the salon allowed him a pension to support him in

his miserable senility, just sufficient to supply him with a
wretched lodging--bread, and a change of raiment once in every

three or four years! In addition to this he was allowed a
supper--which was, in fact, his dinner--at the gaming house,

whither he went every night at about eleven o'clock. Till
supper-time (two o'clock in the morning) he amused himself in

watching the games and calculating the various chances, although
incapable of playing a single coup. At four o'clock he returned

to his lodging, retired to bed, and lay till between nine and ten
o'clock on the following night. A cup of coffee was then brought

to him, and, having dressed himself, at the usual hour he again
proceeded to the salon. This had been his round of life for

several years; and he told me that during all that time
(excepting on a few mornings about Midsummer) he had never beheld

the sun!'
A Mr R--y, son of a baronet, left Wattier's club one night with

only L4 in his pocket, saying that he would look in at the hells.
He did so, and, returning after three o'clock in the morning,

offered to bet L500 that he had above L4000. The result proved
that he had L4300, all won at gaming tables, from the small

beginning of L4. He then sat down to play games of skill at
Wattier's, and went home at six o'clock without a single pound!

The same man subsequently won L30,000, and afterwards lost it
all, with L15,000 more, and then 'went to the Continent.'

A major of the Rifle Brigade, in consequence of gambling in
London, by which he lost vast sums of money, went out of his

senses and died a few years ago in an asylum. This occurred
within the last ten or twelve years.

Says Mr Seymour Harcourt, in his 'Gaming Calendar,' 'I have
myself seen hanging in chains a man whom, a short time before, I

saw at a Hazard table!'
Hogarth lent his tremendous power to the portrayal of the ruined

gamester, and shows it to the life in his print of the gaming
house in the 'Rake's Progress.'

Three stages of that species of madness which attends gaming are
there described. On the first shock all is inwarddismay. The

ruined gamester is represented leaning against a wall with his
arms across, lost in an agony of horror. Shortly after this

horrible gloom bursts into a storm and fury. He tears in pieces
whatever comes near him, and, kneeling down, invokes curses on

himself. His next attack is on others--on every one whom he
imagines to have been instrumental in his ruin. The eager joy of

the winning gamester, the attention of the usurer, and the
profound reverie of the highwayman, are all strongly marked in

this wonderful picture.
HOW MANY GAMESTERS LIVE BY PLAY?

It is an observation made by those who calculate on the gaming
world, that above nine-tenths of the persons who play LIVE by it.