MIDSUMMER MADNESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7587, 22 December 1902, Page 2

MIDSUMMER MADNESS.

THE GAMBLING MANIA OP THE MILLIONAIRES, (By JULIAN RALPH, in the "Daily Express.") There has never been known in America such a fever for gambling or such an unblushing misuse of wealth as^as characterised the present season at Saratoga Springs,- in New York State. It is a direct and perhaps natural result of the sudden accumulation of vast fortunes, either by the formation of trusts, by speculations in the ■share market, or by inheritance. It is also the firsb public display of the assumed superiority to the ordinary conventions of those millionaires who are in the smart set of New York, and whose manners and morals, in at least a few notable instances, have led to the popular saying that "they behave as if they were a law unto themselves." A/fpofitician named John Morrissey, Who had been a pugilist, opened a pretentious gambling-house, called 1 the Saratoga Clubhouse^ — a noble mansion, in ample and beautiful grounds, and containing a restaurant of the very highest class. This -was a quarter of a century ago ; four gamblers have managed " the club " ; it has never been closed, and! it. is to-day conducted by Richard Cahfield, of New York City, a gambler of extraordinary traits, who is a man of polished manners, a connoisseur of paintings and ceramics, a noted collector, a man of excellent family, and, it is saidi a graduate of Harvard College. This summer, attracted 'by the 'high social standing of the managers of the racecourse, the devotees of fashion and many millionaires, who imore or less hopelessly aim at joining the fashionables, together with a crowd of Stock 'Exchange speculators, gamblers and spendthrift heirs to great fortunes, met at Saratoga at the end of August. i Then came scenes and practices wholly new to any large or respectable element of American life. Grains and losses of £1000 to £3000 were made almost daily upon single entries at the races or in short evening visits to the Saratoga, Club. In the first ten days one millionaire : had> lost £10,000 upon the racecourse. A noted speculator and railway " magnate " went day «fter day into the betting ring at the "track" and laid wagers of £200 each with every bookmaker who would take his bets. j^ The fashionable and wealthy coterie from New York City employed a commissioner to go the rounds of their boxes' on the grandi stand and register and place their wagers on the six daily races. Other agents performed similar services for the general public, and the contagion, of betting spread! until not only the wives and daughters of the millionaires, but their maids arid the governesses in their employ, fell to ibetting; and, farther yet, the matrons and misses in the public portion of the great stand, the heads of families, and the half-grown children, from, watching the fashionables, fell to imitating them. Betting so general, betting with such large sums, and betting 'by girls, boys and wives in respectable circles, had never been known in America before. • FIVE-POUND COUNTERS. There was present a small coterie of very wealthy men, iknown as "the wild) and woolly contingent " — the phrase " wild and woolly" being commonly applied here to persons from the newer Western States. These Westerners " played) Wall Street" (the share market) from breakfast-time un- : til two o'clock in, the afternoon, then played the ra«es, then ;dined, and played faro or roulette until midnight. Whoever did not know their faces could distinguish them in the gambling " club " by their invariable appearance behind 1 mounds or walls of gambling counters. At Canfield's the lowest-priced counter costs £5, and; at least one of these Western, millionaires usually began each gaming bout *by calling for three thousand pounds' wor#b> of counters. Playinc to win or lose thousands became almost the commonplace thing, and hun-dred-dollar- (£2O) bank notes were tossed upon the green tables all round the great saloon by rich men's sons, stockbrokers, bookmakers, "machine politicians," and so many other sorts of men that it came to be said that "the hundred-dollar note is the hall-mark of the season." It was as if every man at Brighton had vowed he would carry nothing smaller than a £20-note. and as if most of the men carried these in rolls of the thickness of a brooin-hand'le or a large banana. Air*l have said, the principal gaminghouse contains the fine restaurant -, of the place. It is run at a. considerable loss ; it employs three times th© necessary number of servants : its cook is a Frenchman of greater skill than any chef employed in any of the great houses of tbe rich fashionables. These features are provided in order to attract women and: men who <?io not gamble.