AN INVETERATE GAMBLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9160, 15 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN INVETERATE GAMBLER.

One o! the best known figures at the bac- I carat-table of a famous Paris club has just . passed away in the person of Baron de ; Bastart. Hβ was sixty year, old, and bad , spent the greater part of hia life in gambling, dveryafternoonatfouro'clock theßaron went nunctuaUy to his club, and played steadily , unt'l six o'clock on the following, morning, j i with but brief intervals for dinner and j ' supper One would think that a man who i eambled so steadily and persistently should 1 sometimes rake in some considerable sums ! bur strange to relate, the Baron was never j known to win. He was very wealthy j owing to lucky mining speculations, and i • did not know the extent of his means. His , I passion for play and his extraordinary id- ; ! luck made the fortune of his club, as well . las of the de'cav& who frequented it, and whose favourite expression when going: to take a hand with the opulent but unlucky gambler was that they were " about to milk the cow. -. Sometimes the Baron, after having been beaten over and over njyain and tleeced out of small fortunes, would insist on continuing the game when his victorious opponent; were tired out, and wanted to spend some of their winnings on a nocturnal noce. In this frame of mind M. de Bastart would run after his friends and implore them to stay just for another hand. His pressing invitations were seldom refused, and those who divested themselves of their overcoats and returned with him to the " green -tables" were never sorry for having remained with the venerable gambler until the morning broke. Theßaron was Sub-Perfect of Morlaix in Brittany when a young man. That was in the days of the Empire, and when the Italian Campaign was in progress. M. de Bastart -,va- in his club in Tans comfortably ensconced before the baccarat-table when the conclusion of peace at Villafranca was announced. His duty was to return to Morlaix at once, in order to give directions for the promulga tion of the news by official posters through the Department.; but M. do Bastart calmly went on with his baccarat, and did not return to Morlaix for a month. On arriving at his office in the town he found a heap of the official placards on his table unopened, and by their side was a- letter from the Minister of the Interior dismissing him from his post. The Baron simply buttoned up his coat, and returned to Paris and his club by the first train. Since that time lie was never heard of in official life, and when conversing on the peremptory character of his dismissal with friends, he used to say that the peasants around Morlaix knew as much about Villafranca as they did of Timbuctoo, and that all the official posters in the world would never have gob into their heads what was meant by a " treaty of j P eace -" I