ANOTHER GAMBLING SCANDAL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1626, 29 April 1903, Page 13

ANOTHER GAMBLING SCANDAL

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON. March 4. The London “Daily Chronicle” gave tongue Die other clay to a taie Which X heard some time ago but feared at the time to xiass on to you. 1 cannot, I think, do better chan quote the story m ex ten'so as it appears in the columns o'f your responsible contemporary, adding thereto a lew words which, may serve as a guide to the principals therein. The "Chromicle” preracas its taie with the remark that it was almost inevitable that the high p 1 ay at Bridge, which rules in certain circles, should lead to some such unpleasant scandal as is connected with the name of Tranby Croft and baccarat, and. after mentioning the case of a young debutante who played high and lost to an embarrassing extent, continues thus:—> "Tlie latest scandal of which town is talking touches a peer and his wife who were staying at a country house, and though there is no prospect of legal proceedings tiic particulars are freely discussed. The story goes that bridge was being played, and while the gentleman in. question was winning heavily, his wife, who was standing at the opposite side of the table, was taking no apparent interest in the game. But it presently occurred to an onlooker that she wa<s continually adjusting the combs in her hair or fastening or unfastening her brooches. The suspicion was communicated to the host, and as the result of further watching tlie couple were taxed with conspiracy to defraud, and left suddenly on the following morning. It is even said that the ladv openly confessed her part in , the swindle and excused herself by the statement that it was nuite a usual course, of m-oceeding. Evidently! this gambling mania must be checked—or cards must l 'e nla ved. as in Bret- Harte’s days, at the revolver’s nni7 7 b ” N ow, your readers will readily remember that not many moons ago a certain very exalted person had a social engagement to fulfil at the country seat of an. eminent person, but that on the eve of his visit to the aforesaid seat of the eminent person the very exalted person was stricken with a most convenient ailment called, in lower circles, a bad cold, but which, in what Jeames Yellow-plush of to-day might possibly call the "hupper suckles,” is described as ‘build influenza.” You will easily remember also that the very exalted person was, on the morning of the day fixed for his journey to the country seat of the eminent person, quite well so far as his retin.ue could sees and waxed merry during the process of afforesting a onrtain road not a hundred miles from a castle celebrated in English history, but that in the afternoon, within a few hours of the time when he should have commenced his journey to the count try home of the eminent person, he was found by liis physicians' to have contracted "mild influenza” and was forbidden by them to imperil big health by fulfilling his social engagement. Also you will readily call to mind that the’ great British public wa-s much disturbed at the news of the very exalted person’s indisposition and required to be told from hour to hour of his condition, how some talked wildly of cancer, and others, with an “eye to the main chance,” <Ld take out insurances on the Y.E.P.’s life, and how the common people'were assured by frequent bulletins of the very exalted patient’s progression towards health, which wa.s swift and sure. It is now alleged by evil gossips chat the very exaitea person’s sudden indisposition was not the outcome of crude Boreas’s blasts on tlie occasion of the afforesting of the road aforementioned, but was caused by a nore irom the eminent person detailing the untoward occurrences which had led up to the sudden departure from the country seat aforesaid of two personages of lesser eminence of whose sin you may judge from the narrative of the "Daily Chronicle.” The very exalted personage, having no mind to be embroiled in any scandal of a Tranby Croft nature, decided, on dit, to take advantage of a mere cold to forfeit the pleasures of life at the eminent person’s house. To discover the title of the persons of lesser eminence there is no need to go beyond the musicians;* alphabet which, as you know, is confined to A.R.C.D.E.F. and G. In society the alleged sinners are spoken of as the Earl and Countess of , and the Countess was not born in England.