A BRIDGE STORY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11791, 14 January 1904, Page 2

A BRIDGE STORY.

A "bridge" story whicli reCects more upon smart Society than ail "Rita's" at-

tacks ha.9 recently been going the round of ti>e papers. It originally appeared in a parish magazine, and wa3 used by a Vicar lo point a moral against gambling. A girl who was just out went to stay at a. fashionable house, and in the evening ivaa compelled, oat of courtly to her hostess to play "bridge," a game about which she knew next to nothing. When the evening's play was over, she was astounded and horrified by the announcement that she owed £40 u> her hostess! The story does not say if ehe knew that pointr "were being played, for, but even if she did, could anything be more reprehensible than the conduct of the hostess in allowing a young girl in her charge to be fleeced in this way? Site was quite unable to pay the amount, and had to write to her father, who came at once, and paid the money, and took oway his daughter. What he said to her hostess is not related, but it is to be hoped he was frank in his expressions. Bridge has for four or five years now been the tyrant of Society. To some fashionable people it is a source of income, to others v- source of misery and loss. But when its tyranny lends people into such detestable actione as that of this nameless hostess, it is surely time it was dethroned, and forced to assume its proper place as an amusement. One never hears of whistplayers behaving badly. Why should bridge-players?