NOTORIOUS SHARPERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21020, 8 May 1930, Page 11

NOTORIOUS SHARPERS.

WARNING TO WOMEN GAMBLERS. The Metropolitan Police have recently been waging a ruthless and successful' campaign against gambling dens in London. It is therefore interesting recall that such places were once officially encouraged, for Henry Ylll—who was an inveterate gambler himself, once throwing dice against Sir Miles Partridge for "the four largest _ bells in London’’—entrusted the regulation and superintendence of everything relating to cards and dice to the groom-porter, an officer of the household. THE GROOM-PORTER, At the Restoration this office was revived, Pepys records: "To ,see the formality of the groom-porter, who is the judge of all disputes in play and all quarrels that may arise therein, and how his under-officers are there to observe true play at each table, and to .give new dice, is a consideration I never could have thought had been in the world, had I not seen it.” Even a feminine ruler- did not withhold the royal blessing, for in 1706 Queen Anne appointed by Letters Patent one Thomas Archer to be “her groom-porter to supervise, regulate, and authorise (by and under the rules, conditions and restrictions by the law. prescribed) all manner of gaming within this kingdom.” The groom-porter presided over tha court gambling assemblies, during the next two reigns, but the office was abolished by George 111, who disapproved of cards dice and ressolved to abolish them at court. It was during the Restoration period that the gambling craze reached its zenith. Charles II himself had little enthusiasm for it, being a bad loser; but his.subjects, with a natural reaction against Puritanism, welcomed the new games of chance which the exiled Cavaliers had learned abroad and now introduced into England, " The ladies also played very deep ” (wrote Evelyn). Nell Gwyn lost no less than £SOOO ■in one night to the Duchess de Mazarin. who won even greater sums from the Duchesses of Cleveland and Portsmouth. Madam Mazarin, moreover, was not above cheating and "would play altogether upon the sharp at any game.” GAMBLING AMONG WOMEN. Social critics railed against the increase of gambling among women, and in William Ill’s 'reign, Steele deplored the effect of it upon the appearance of the female world who were designed to please the eye, and attract the regards of the other half of the species. "Now, there is nothing that wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table, and those cutting passions which naturally attend them. Hollow eyes, haggard looks, and _ pale complexions are the natural indications of a female gamester. Her morning sleeps are not able to repair her midnight watchings, I have known a woman carried off half dead, from Bassette, and have many a time grieved to see a person of' quality gliding by me in her chair at 2 o’clock in the morning and looking like a spectre amidst a flare.of flapibeaux. In short, I never knew a thorough-paced female gamester hold her beauty two winters together.” As Princess of Orange, Queen Mary II had horrified the Dutch by her persistence in gambling on Sundays. Even in prison gambling was rife. In Southwark Gaol, one card-sharper, by cards and dice, rifled most of the prisoners on the Master’s side of their money, which, coming tj the Marshal’s ears, he turned into the Commonside, but finding not such good bubbles in thosfe quarters, he soon died with grief.” Any excuse for gambling was seized upon; the last farthing was staked. One officer, having lost his cloak at play, appeared on parade next morning garbed in his landlady’s scarlet petticoat. Another gamble! threw dice against a horse, the dice being put between the horse’s lips for the animal to drop! A STREET BUILT BY SHARP PRACTICE. Naturally this crazy produced countless card-sharpers. Amongst the most notorious was Colonel Panton, who “ won ” large sums from the Duke of ‘Monmouth. On one occasion, when playing Bassett with Moll Davis, the Royal mistress. Panton placed her with her back to her mirroi so that ht could see her cards, with the result that " be won above £llOO in gold and silver and then laughed at her for her folly.’’ “ Above all, his chief game was at Hazard, at which he got the most money; for in one night he won as many thousand pounds as purchased him an estate of £ISOO per annum, insomuch that he built a whole street, near Leicester Fields, which, after his own name, he called Panton street. After this good fortune, he had such an aversion against all games that he would never handle cards nor dice again.” Panton street, still survives—to immortalise a notorious swindler! A good story concerns another sharper called Mad Ogle. Having fleeced some wealthy noblemen in a tavern, he ordered the servants to collect all the poor they could_ find and give them food and drink at his expense. On his way home he met the Duke of Monmouth, who inquired where he had been. “Been? freply’d Ogle), Why, an’t please your Grace, I have been fulfilling the Scripture. . That’s very well, said the Duke, I’m very glad thou’rt turn’d so godly; but what part of the Scripture hast thou been fulfilling? Indeed, reply’d Ogle, a very good part; I have been filling the hungry with good things, and the rich I have sent empty away.”