d lost a princely property at the play-table,
and by a piece of good fortune of rare occurrence to gamesters, and
unparalleled generosity, the proprietors of the salon allowed him a
pension to support him in his miserable senility, just sufficient to
supply him with a wretched lodging--bread, and a change of raiment
once in every three or four years! In addition to this he was allowed a
supper--which was, in fact, his dinner--at the gaming house, whither he
went every night at about eleven o'clock. Till supper-time (two o'clock
in the morning) he amused himself in watching the games and calculating
the various chances, although incapable of playing a single coup. At
four o'clock he returned to his lodging, retired to bed, and lay till
between nine and ten o'clock on the following night. A cup of coffee was
then brought to him, and, having dressed himself, at the usual hour
he again proceeded to the salon. This had been his round of life for
several years; and he told me that during all that time (excepting on a
few mornings about Midsummer) he had never beheld the sun!'

A Mr R--y, son of a baronet, left Wattier's club one night with only L4
in his pocket, saying that he would look in at the hells.

He did so, and, returning after three o'clock in the morning, offered to
bet L500 that he had above L4000. The result proved that he had L4300,
all won at gaming tables, from the small beginning of L4. He then sat
down to play games of skill at Wattier's, and went home at six o'clock
without a single pound! The same man subsequently won L30,000, and
afterwards lost it all, with L15,000 more, and then 'went to the
Continent.'

A major of the Rifle Brigade, in consequence of gambling in London, by
which he lost vast sums of money, went out of his senses and died a
few years ago in an asylum. This occurred within the last ten or twelve
years.

Says Mr Seymour Harcourt, in his 'Gaming Calendar,' 'I have myself seen
hanging in chains a man whom, a short time before, I saw at a Hazard
table!'

Hogarth lent his tremendous power to the portrayal of the ruined
gamester, and shows it to the life in his print of the gaming house in
the 'Rake's Progress.'

Three stages of that species of madness which attends gaming are there
described. On the first shock all is inward dismay. The ruined gamester
is represented leaning against a wall with his arms across, lost in an
agony of horror. Shortly after this horrible gloom bursts into a