Flirting with Fortune

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 11 (Supplement)

Flirting with Fortune

Gamblers Who Made and Lost Large Su Monet,

By H. T. DOWN-HEWITT (Copyright)

THE fatal lure of gambling has ruined thousands. Many otherwise successful and brilliant men have been almost penniless ■when they died because they flirted wi,th fortune and lost their all. Some were very lovable characters who Jost with a smile on faces, and while gambling is anything but a virtue, they had many saving graces. Melville Gideon, one of the Cocptiiirists, a London Revue Compain, was an inveterate gambler. His small, sweet, appealing voice and charming manner endeared him to a large public. !As one of the/stars of the British st a iand one of the earlist "personalities of radio, lie earned large sums of money—oftsn from £3OO to £4OO a .week,. Altogether he earned upwards of £loo,ooo but "he lost it all at the gaming tables and died a poor man in the London Temperance Hospital. In 1934 handsome Charlie Chapman, the man with the ideal "poker-face, died. From his earliest days he had a geniii3 for gambling. He started life as a butcher's boy and used to augment his wages by taking sixpenny and shilling bets on the races from his workfellows. / / Horse Racing He invariably won. Ultimately, he hundreds of thousands of pounds on horse racing. He had his own stables, and a beautiful house in the country He once won £12,000 in the course of a poker game, and lost £BO,OOO on a single racing bet At the time of his death, be was acting secretary of a i\\est End club, after serving a term in prison for conspiracy. During the nineteenth century, vast >unis were won and lost at the tables. Gambling then was the favourite pasttime of the aristocracy. One lady of high rank went mad with the fever of gambling. She lost sums exceeding £IOO,OOO in quite a short time. Beau Erununel once won £'20,000 from a frell-known banker at a single'sitting. George Payno was the squire of kulby 'Abbey. He lost £30,000 on the +i •n^ Cgcr of 1824 > but IIG Wils so rilled by the race that lie said it was * pleasure to lose it. He subsequently •°st £(50,000 and £-10,000 on two single uj > '"jt he always maintained that Ji° thrill was worth the money. On another occasion, he won £32.000. On whole, however, his losses were much largef than his gain. But lie was rich man, and could afford to indulge jr Passion. The rents of his estate , •ought in £17,000 a year,

Leaving the realm of lingo bets for a moment, it is interesting to recall the case of the Hungarian worker who "ran his luck" while it lasted and then stopped gambling. He was a poor factory hand, but he bought a ticket in a lottery, and won £2OOO. He bought another ticket a little later, and won £SOOO Soon afterwards a further £2OOO prize catne his way. Ho then "retired," invested the money, and now leads a life of modest leisure. Financial Crisis The late Edgar Wallace was a wellknown gambler. He was once _ faced with a financial crisis. A distress warrant was issued on his house and furniture for £93, and he had only a few shillings to his name. '1 he warrant was served by a broker's man who allowed himself to be drawn into a game of cards. They played from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. The famous author had several anxious moments, but in the end he ran out a comfortable winner. \\ hen dawn broke he had won enough to pay the debt and keep £t)o for himself. Some .are not content with the thrill of "orthodox" gambling. Men have risked their lives on foolish wagers.. An eccentric nobleman, a iormer Marquess of Waterford, bet hundred guineas that he would jump his hunter over a five-barred gate into the dining Jxiwesby y Hall,

He managed the jump all right, but the horse could not stop, and crashed into the fireplace on the other side of the room, damaging his muzzle. The Marquess went over its head and was knocked out against the wall, but he won his bet. A still more ridiculous act was that of William Shields, who backed himself to ride his motor-cycle down the 74 steps of the Capitol at Washington, D.C., United States. He came down at a terrific pace clearing the last 16 steps at a single bound. The machine crashed in a heap at the foot of the steps and broke into flames. Shields was hardly hurt. He was thrown clear and received only a few bruises. Selling Sovereicns Many have heard the story of the man who wagered that he woidd sell fifty genuine sovereigns on London Bridge at a penny each, but in spite of the proverb that a "sucker" is born every minute, or perhaps because of it, he could not get the pu'ilic to buy. it is not so well known that a prominent London business man made a bet of £''soo before the war that he would sell his gold repeater watch on Waterloo Bridge for the sum of five shillings. He not only failed to find a buyer, but he was arrested for attempting to obtain money on false pretences. He thus lost his three hundred pounds and temporarily-his-freedom aa well.