CREDIT AND CARDS.

Northland Age, Volume VI, Issue 3, 6 September 1909, Page 2

CREDIT AND CARDS.

SOME SOCIETY ii’AYS. There is an excellent Order of Roman Catholic ladies called “The Little Sisters of the Poor,” who beg alms and brokien meat from door to door. A graceless but amusing youth, a younger son of a great family, used to call himself and his . congeners “The Little Brothers of | the Rich," and declared that their ' Pitiful an d destitute condition ap- ! pealedi irreslib-ly to the kind hearts of Belgravia and Mayfair. "Why, dash it all ! my eldest brother h a s | got fifty thousand a year, and I have five hundred. That by itself lis enough to draw tears from a , stone. No wonder they stand me a ; bit of grub and n dr op’of fizz. ; They'd be u stony-hearted crowd if they didn’t. My brother’s shooting l is so ghostly Dad that he may keep | it to himself ; and I’ve got some doI centish pals in Scotland. So I'm jail right from August lo Christmas Tradesmen? Why, 1 always tell ’em they get every mag I possess, so its sheer unreasonableness to ask for more—like a blooming kid crying for the moon, you know." Almost n li moral i erf trie tions have* been relaxed by smart society, but i cheating af cards still remains an i unpardonable offere e, a nd society is even renuu k a l>ly vindictive in punishing the offender. According to a tradition which I received from the whist-players of my youth, there arc three hundred English gentlemen wandering in destitution about the continent of Europe because they wouldn’t lead trumps when, they had five ; and to this band of blameless exiles must be added some bearers of aristocratic names who, ju my own time have been detected in cheating a t cards and have paid the penalty. The absolute cheat, has. as a rule, a short life, though perhaps a rnerry one. Suspicion is aroused ; precautions are taken ; exposure, ruin, and flight complete the tale. The Baccarat case of 189 1 is not yet forgotten. nud I well remember „„ earlier tragedy where a man's habitual companions and lifo-long friends

formed themselves into a committee to watch his play. Day and nigh! for weeks they maintained their scrutiny and look notes of what, i hoy s«w’ The notes were not compared, but were handed separately to a triminal lawyer, and his opinion was a sentence of social death. Much greater villains than that card sharper have incurred much lighter penalties.

Put outside the very narrow band of actual and detectable cheats there is a fringe or zone of acute practitioners whom Harry looker de scribes with perfect exactness "I hoy’ll beat you, my boy. even if they play on the square, which l don’t say they don't.— n or which I | don’t say they do, mind But I j wouldn’t play with 'em. You're no match for 'em. You ain’t up to , their weight " A gentleman of this ; type married his daughter to a very hith man. Papa used to stay a great deal with the young couple—union was very nice lor everyone—- | ‘Bid, for fear his daughter should |be dull in the long, quiet evenings, he thoughtfully iaught her Ecart.e. vMu-n she had learned the game, pupa said—-" Now, niy darling. y«ju «ie quite good enough lo play f«-r money," and during his visit he won from her a sum which n<*< essitaterl recourse to his son-m law. Ihe son-in law betrayed unreason able irritation ; hut papa lived respected and died lamented. A worthy couple known as '* The Stay-makers" used to arrange with one of their sons to meet them in hospitable country houses. When the whist-tables were made up. fathermother, and son used lo sit. down and entire some unwary youth to be the fourth. 'lhe points were moder-

ate —shillings and half-crowns—but whichever way the luck went, a greater or loss sum was bound to find its way into the coders ot the family. A hard bitten old man of the world used to take a grim delight in pocketing the sovereigns of younger sons and clerks in public ! offices, saying as lie did so, with a savage grin, "There’s no pleasure in I' winning money from a man who doesn’t feel it." I recollect a very ancient dame, who loved cards better than life itself, and was undone when, staying in a Scotch,house on I Sunday, she found herself debarred | on Sabbatical grounds from her quo- ! tidian rubber. In high dudgeon she [retired to her room and played Pa--1 lienee on the feed, till a Presbyterian J housemaid, who found her engager!

in her unhallowed rites, ran down, tiorroi-struck, Lo the servants' hall and reported that the old lady Horn London was playing cards with the devil. i once knew a very smart and handsome young couple who married, as the phrase goes, "on nothing "It was obvious that they could not afford to live in London ; and after some prolonged visitations lo their friends' country houses they settled down at Woolwich "Why Woolwich ?" everyone asked. The answer was forthcoming when wo learned that they used to give nice little evening parties at which the Wool wich cadets were encouraged to play round games for money. The ideu of setting up housekeeping on the pocket-money of napes and sucklings would pr obably not nave occurred to anyone who had not been through the social mill —From An Onlooker Mote hook."